Hi everyone! I’ve been honored to have received the Full-Ride Stamps Scholarship to GA Tech as well as acceptance to Brown and Berkeley as a prospective Economics major/concentration for all. I’m wondering if the prestige of the latter 2, especially in the Economics department, trumps the financial and networking opportunities of Stamps at GA Tech.
For clarity, the GT Stamps scholarship/program is a full-ride (tuition + housing) in addition to $12K in enrichment funding, mentoring, cohort retreats, access to special speakers, priority housing, access to the national Stamps network, etc.
Financially, I’m super grateful to not have significant burdens for both Brown and Berkeley at full price. Still, a full ride is definitely more appealing for both my parents and myself. And in terms of career goals, I hope to eventually begin a career in market research and entrepreneurship down the line.
Ultimately, is either Brown or Berkeley worth the $80K+ price tag over a free ride to Tech? My gut feeling is GT but just wanted some clarity and insight from you all. Thank you!!
$80K+ a year - actually a lot more for Brown and even UCB is at $83K.
No school offers an assurance. All are excellent but for econ, spending that much at a public, to me, is crazy. But that’s me - I’m not your family although it sounds like you might be similar.
But back to no school offers an assurance. There will be kids from Boise State that outperform kids from Brown in life. Or kids from Chico State that outperform UCB.
There are no guarantees. Ga Tech has an Econ School - and if you decided you wanted business, they are strong there as well.
To me, it’s a slam dunk - even if it were - UGA as an example. You’re talking well over $300K + the enrichment - btw when I say well over - Brown shows over $88K for tuition, housing and food so you are over $90K with miscellaneous.
For me, no brainer - but you aren’t me and that’s what you and your family has to decide. It sounds like you sort of have - but you need validation.
Maybe you would (or wouldn’t) have a better chance of achieving your goals at one of the others - no one can say for sure - they can only speak in generalities. But having $360K in the bank would be a great way to cover grad school or even to help fund a business idea.
And honestly - for market research - if that ends up being your path - where you go - even if it were Kennesaw - not relevant - you would be fine.
So I personally concur with your gut - take the money and run!!
It is not going to be possible to justify that scale of additional cost in terms of ROI. If you do well, you can always go for a fancy grad or professional degree of some kind (if it is actually material to your career, which it might not be). For college, Georgia Tech is just too good for those other colleges to overcome the massive cost advantage.
Stamps scholarships are very prestigious at every school where they are offered and
Come with lots of perks in addition to the ones you listed. The special connection with faculty will also be a plus. Stamps are fabulous. I know someone who turned down Harvard for a stamps at another school. Congratulations.
UCB’s and Brown’s economics departments apoear to be especially strong, placing 3rd and 12th, respectively, in this analysis based on faculty publishing: Economics rankings: US Economics Departments | IDEAS/RePEc. For comparison, Georgia Tech’s economics department places 113th.
While they are certainly among the top departments in terms of professor publications, I would suggest that has very limited relevance to the quality of the undergrad education, particularly for someone who is studying Econ for non-academic career purposes.
Agree that the considerations of various aspects of the economics department and major differ for a pre-PhD student versus a student like the OP aiming at non-academic/research careers after graduation.
I would go for the full ride at Georgia Tech. I definitely see the appeal of Brown (Ivy prestige, private school perks, plus smaller classes, etc), but definitely not worth it with your full ride to Georgia Tech. 100% NO for that much tuition at Berkeley.
My kid is facing a very similar decision: Econ at Berkeley vs. Stamps full ride at another school (though in-state for Berkeley so cost differential is not quite as high). Is it ok if they PM you? Thanks!
The suitability of the schools’ economics majors does depend on the student’s goals. A pre-PhD student has different needs from one planning to go work (and it depends on the type of goal job).
