<p>I got in both UIUC and Binghamton University (a state school of New York) for the engineering school. </p>
<p>UIUC (48k) gave me about 12k in grant, 3k wrk study, and 5.5k in student loans, leaving me with 25k uncovered.</p>
<p>On the other hand Binghamton (23k) gave me about 10k in grant, 1.5k wrk study, and 5.5k in student loans, leaving me with around 5k uncovered. Granted, if I go to Binghamton, I would also eventually end up with less money because I have a cousin who is probably sticking around in the area so she can help me find a place to live after the first year. </p>
<p>But I really want to go to Illinois because it’s a better school, has a better engineering program, and it’s easy to change majors. </p>
<p>But is it worth the money?</p>
<p>Please help, thank you so much!</p>
<p>It is not possible to answer the question without knowing more. The specifics of your situation would impact on which school made more sense. If your family can afford UIUC but you are not sure the two schools differ much, that is different then a situation where your family can’t afford it and you may have 100K in loans when you are done. In terms of the schools, they are not comparable. UIUC is a state of the art world class university with topo notch resources, great departments and is the flagship university for the state. The facilities are insane, the campus is gorgeous. The undergraduate engineering program is ranked 5th in the country compared to 109th at Binghamton. is it worth it? I’d say so if you can afford it or make it work somehow. If the question is whether the two schools are really that different, I can assure you that they are. Whether that difference is something you can pay for is another story.</p>