Full Ride versus ivy

hyeonjlee
Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:05:10 +0000

My son also got a full ride Banneker scholarship. He is an Econ major, and U MD is very well regarded in this field (top 10, I believe), Even so, he is going to U Chicago full pay. He is a wall street hopeful, and based on all the research we have done, unfortunately, Wall Street is very elitist, and indeed state U’s simply don’t provide an easy path…

If he were to go to a Ph.D. program post graduation, that would have been a good reason to take the Banneker scholarship. I know very well that the Ph.D. route can be very successfully managed by a big State U undergrad who are motivated to take advantage of the honor program offers. If my son wanted to become a Ph.D. economist in academia rather than an “unrepentant capitalist” (law-abiding, I hope), U MD as a full ride scholar would have been an excellent choice.

My take is, if you are not going into the investment banking route, the return on investment analysis will favor U MD.

For us, there is another very important factor. U Chicago will provide much more “intellectually rigorous” education - that, in our mind, is a very personal preference, NOT part of the the “return on investment” calculation. I made a few more posts explaining this aspects previously.

My son will thrive in U Chicago, my husband and I will be much poorer, but all of us are happy with our decision. This is really a personal decision on where we spend the money. It’s like some people choose to spend money on X, while others pick Y. I feel that all those years of diligent saving and conscientious financial management is worth it since we are spending it precisely for the things we value most. But different families have different assessment and ALL carefully thought family decisions are right decisions - there are no right or wrong priorities when it comes to something like this.

Good luck. You must be an excellent young person, and I am sure you will do well no matter what.