You have 100k from parents … so first two years are done …
You can borrow , 5.5 k per year and in 4 years you can borrow 27 k, You can work and make at least 23 k for next four year ? which is like another 50k ,
You will need another 50k ,
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Assuming you are able to borrow the money and what will the ROI on GT CS degree? If you end up a job in Amazon or MSFT you pay will start at 200K Plus and you can pay off the debt in 2 years …
That’s your two cents - but more likely two students - because according to Ga Tech’s own data (which is labeled 2021-22 so not current - in the “computing” category with 57% reporting salaries (which often means others had lower and didn’t report), the average was $85K and median was $80K. Even a Masters shows in the $110K range
So I think when I hear people say - go to such and such school, take on big debt - you’ll work at Goldman or at BCG or whatever and pay it off, it’s an awfully big promise to make.
And the same here.
Are you going to help the student pay the loan when they’re not making $200K out of school - because the likelihood is they won’t even be in that hemisphere. So I personally find that dangerous guidance to a 17 year old.
Companies typically pay by location - not by school.
I’ll edit - my nephew works for a well known company in NYC. He makes - I think $160K base and with stock bonus is supposed to be $200K. He’s 31.
In the year he’s been there, he’s survived two layoffs, including 3/4 of his team and the person who hired him. Tech has been hit hard by layoffs - and no one knows who it will play out for this year’s grads and in future years (for any field) but I don’t think the compensation is near as high as people like to think. Certainly the data doesn’t show that it is.
There is a lot of testing to get those great paying jobs. They really don’t trust the brand name of the school - they actually look for the top candidates from a wide variety of schools.
Use the time you would be stressing about the debt and working part time to take more math classes than your degree requires so you can be the one that aces the interview. Use your time to join competitive engineering teams, participate in undergraduate research, build a portfolio of projects, etc. In other words, start envisioning your resume now and make a plan to do those things.
My son was recruited by an elite engineering team based on his previous experience. They didn’t just hand him the job though. He went through three interviews, the last of which was 10 hours, and they went looking for him.
I know extremely bright and talented student with CS major/Math minor from UMD (very strong CS program) who had difficulty to land a job in DC area. Only through very strong family connections some ok job (6 month in the future) was secured.
It is not easy now to land CS jobs after college.
Isn’t utk less for you tho? If you got into tech OOS, you probably have good stats, so I am guessing you got atleast 9K in merit and also the hope, which is atleast 5k more. These are both standard things for 4.0 and act above 33. Utk should be less than 15k for an in-state candidate that has high stats. So tech is probably more like 35k more?
I went to college scorecard and looked into the median earnings for UTK and GA Tech for CS. There is a >25k delta (even with a big GA Tech sample) between the two which is the point we’ve been making. That extra money could have significant ROI particularly when you consider that benefits and other compensation (stock, bonuses etc) will be much better at those higher paying jobs.
I think a median aggregate is likely more representative of potential outcomes rather than the anecdata of individual people like your accomplished son.
You have to take that with a grain of salt for several reasons.
First, GT is much more likely to accept students from CA and the upper east coast that are going back to those locations to work.
The Cal Poly average on College Scorecard as an example is $182k. It’s a good program, but that number is influenced by the fact that most of their CS grads stay in CA.
Second, and probably more important, the student achieved enough to get into GT. That probably puts them well above the median for potential at TN. So, I don’t think the comparison between medians is useful.
I don’t really have a compelling pushback to this but all of the data I am able to see indicates disproprortionately better outcomes that justifies the 25k. Of course, it doesn’t mean that a student going to UTK cannot achieve GA Tech outcomes but OP and their family will need to decide if the dispassionate data makes GA Tech worth it for them (or) if the exceptions based analyis of data in the context of the cost outlay makes UTK better.
This is true and more common and I totally agree. I have a recent grad that just went through hiring from CS (spouse and I have CS backgrounds, my spouse regularly hires). Did get a highly competitive 6 figure offer. Had to get through a 4 hour assessment that most get dropped after. They really don’t care where you went. They hire elite grads and other grads. He went to a public flagship.
So no, not worth the debt IMO. Hustle for internships, make connections, have personal projects, leetcode on the regular, interpersonal skills are important. I would always take new grad incomes with a grain of salt. GT is more likely to launch students back out to the coasts they came from. They should require those to go through COL calculators.
My data had nothing to do with my son - the $80K median / $85K avg was directly from the Ga Tech scorecard as I noted in my post. I put it below Turns out you can change the college, etc. but the data doesn’t change - so their website stinks. That’s likely salary for the entire school I put the link I used below. As you change jobs or colleges, etc. the data doesn’t change. It must be the entire school.
I simply noted that aggregates are just that - and you’ll have individuals from many schools outperform kids from schools with higher salaries. No one knows this student’s future - but he got into Ga Tech so I’ll assume he’s got the drive and persistence to make it happen.
So it’s hard to find info specific to CS. This article from 2021 says $101K
I don’t understand why these schools do such a poor job data wise.
Again, I have no doubt Ga Tech will outperform in aggregate vs UTK - but giving promise to a student that they’ll be able to pay off their debt when it’s not assured in any way - that’s what causes me pause.
Thanks
Last link is the UTK career report. On this basis alone, that they have a complete one, I give them the nod For UTK, CS is $91K average and $87K median. You never know when comparing schools - some include bonuses like sign on or performance and some don’t so when comparing, you have to ensure the #s you are using are apples to apples.
PS - I just found this on their facts and ranking - they say $101K median in 2019/20. You’d think they’d populate. My guess is CE will be less but can’t say for sure of course but it typically is.
You’d think all these schools would have all this data ready and available - it’s terrible that they don’t.
Data is just that…data. It always has nuance. Using College Scorecard data, San Jose State University CS grads earn more than GT CS grads. Should the OP pay even more for SJSU? UW-Bothel grads earn even more than that. Pay even more for a UDub offshoot? Where grads work accounts for the lion’s share of the salary discrepancies.
This is tough and it’s easy for strangers to tell you how to spend or save your money based on our own values (and some charts).
A question I’d ask you - knowing that you don’t know all the answers yet! - is how committed you are to staying in the South in general, and close to home in TN or similar in particular. It’s not just that the GA Tech program looks phenomenal - it’s that the name is synonymous with a quality of education that does carry weight on a national level in a way that UTK does not - both in general and specifically in CS/CE. UTK is a highly-respected regional university, with regional reach to SE companies. (See the chart in the career outcomes report - 51% of their employed engineering grads stay in TN.) Georgia Tech is nationally respected and will unquestionably open doors UTK just doesn’t for a long time. If you think you’re going to stay close to home? It may be worth saving the money.
Every individual is different - your success is your own, it’s not just what others do - and similarly your ability to pay off any extra money you borrow is going to be about the work you do and the cost of living where you are. I do agree with @ucscuuw that in the median case, the ROI from spending the money at GT will pay off for you, probably by a multiple, over time - but it’s impossible to know for certain.
UTK is a national university and a state flagship. Its research expenditures usually put it in the top 10% of universities in the US according to the National Science foundation.
Is it the same as Georgia Tech? No. Are there still plenty of opportunities at a state flagship and particularly this one? Yes.
This is a sidebar, but I want to clarify for other readers.
GaTech offers little merit/aid to OOS applicants. What they do offer is highly competitive full rides, full tuition, OOS tuition waivers… but very few and the OP would be aware by now.
Hope/Zell only applies to GA residents. As an OOS applicant the OP will not receive these merit scholarships, no matter how high their stats.
I just looked it up and see Tennessee also has a “Hope” scholarship for its residents. I’m sorry if I caused confusion. I did not realize TN and GA used the same “Hope” moniker.
On the Georgia Tech site, you could break it down by degree and school.
Median salary for a UTK engineering degree is 73,500. At Georgia Tech, median is 81,000. What makes this a little tricky, is that UTK combines all the engineering programs and the computer science programs. Georgia Tech separates these two things out. So for a computer science degree at Georgia Tech the median salary is $115,000. So I suspect, that UTK’s median fpr engineering may be lower if you eliminated the CS salaries. I wish I knew by how much. Maybe play around with these files to see if this helps you, however.
For UTK, CS is $91K average and $87K median. You never know when comparing schools - some include bonuses like sign on or performance and some don’t so when comparing, you have to ensure the 