Harvard vs. USC Trustee (full tuition)

jzducol
Sat, 07 Apr 2018 18:41:24 +0000

Without a doubt go with Harvard! and I am speaking as someone whose child also has both offers at hand. If you are not getting any money from Harvard your family income must be north of $275k and thus can clearly afford it. Graduate schools–and the good ones worth going— usually are free anyway and you can think about it four years later. Its a long time before you will have to make that decision and four years of college can expand your horizon and change your perspectives.
Among about dozen Harvard admits I know of, who also applied to USC all of them got full tuition scholarship in one form or another, but among those having the $55k/yr scholarship at USC almost none had a Harvard offer because all of them would have chosen Harvard. Of course, this is my own observation from 20 or so cases that I know of. But if you think about it it makes sense; I know of cases where it cost millions of donation to get a kid with typical USC stats admitted to Harvard. A $200k difference is a rather small amount compared to millions, and with your demonstrated talent it is perfectly reasonable to assume that you are going to have a future earning far exceeding $200k. You can always make the money back but once the opportunity is lost it is gone forever.