I am in the extremely privileged position of being able to afford any college, which I’m very grateful for, but I’m still questioning if it’s worth it. My parents encourage me not to worry about money and just to attend where I want to go, but I’m not the “just don’t worry about it” type lol. Here are my main options:
Cal poly SLO (if I get in), I'm in state so pretty affordable
Pitt, OOS with 25k/year scholarship so it'll cost about as much as SLO
ASU, would get full tuition for NHRP
WPI, 31k/year scholarship and 5k study abroad scholarship, would cost about 10k/year more than SLO/Pitt
I also applied to Harvey Mudd, Hofstra, San Jose state, USD, MIT (deferred), and Northeastern (accepted, 20k merit, could be increased due to NHRP).
WPI is my first choice and even though I could go, SLO and Pitt are perfectly good schools and it’d be nice to save that 10k/year. Of course the full tuition at ASU is tempting, although I really don’t want to live in the desert. I’d like to go somewhere with “real weather” because I think it’ll be easier to adjust to it in college than later in life, but SLO’s perfect weather is definitely nice.
I plan on majoring in Industrial Engineering or something else math-related, so I should be eligible to apply for the SMART scholarship (you work for the DoD for a year and get a year of tuition covered + a generous stipend). If I went to WPI and got the SMART scholarship then that would bring WPI’s total cost in line with SLO/Pitt but of course that’s a big “If”. I think I’d have a solid chance but obviously I can’t bank on that.
WPI is ideal for me for a lot of objective/academic reasons but the main reason I really want to attend is the people. I think WPI is a great culture fit for me and I worry that I won’t be able to make friends at college. WPI has a higher average ROI than SLO or Pitt, but the average starting salary for IEs is about the same at either. WPI’s flexible program would let me pick up some more marketable skills though, I could probably easily double minor.
Any advice? I know this is a problem that I’m lucky to have but I’m still struggling to decide.
It really, truly is OK to pay more for the place you want if you have the money to do so. Once you have all of the acceptances, and all of the aid packages, go visit the places that are top of your list again, and see what you think. If you still like WPI the best, and the money for four years there is in a nice safe place where it won’t be affected by any drastic turn-arounds in your family’s finances, then go there.
It also is really, truly OK to decide on a more affordable place. That 10k a year difference would buy you a pretty terrific car when you graduate, and still leave some change for moving and settling in at a new job. It also would cover a good chunk of the cost of a 5th year (lots of engineers find themselves on the 5 or even 6 year plan), or for a dynamite study abroad.
You don’t need to decide Yes/No on WPI just yet. Wait until all of the numbers are in. Then see what you think.
For the scholarships, check what college GPA you need to renew them in future years, and if the scholarship can be put on hold if you take a semester or quarter off to do a co-op or similar job.
@happymomof1 I visited WPI already, and I’m very glad I did/was able to because that’s when it moved up from just one more school I liked to my top choice (ok, tied with MIT). Don’t think I’d be able to visit again because getting from California to Worcester is an all-day trip haha. I can most likely see SLO again if I get in (I should, IE is easy to get into at SLO) or Harvey Mudd. And if I somehow got into MIT then I would be able to attend CPW.
@ucbalumnus Good point, I believe WPI doesn’t have a GPA minimum but that’s definitely something I need to confirm before making any final decisions. The scholarship letter only says that you need to complete 11/12 classes a year. I’m not sure about taking time off to do a co-op, I’ll look into that.
I know I have some time left to decide, but I’m so indecisive that I don’t want to wait until April 1 to start figuring out what I should/want to do. Those 4 schools are basically my “real” options unless something unexpected happens (like getting into MIT).
You are already thinking like an industrial engineer, which is good. You’re not being indecisive. You’re weighing your options and getting information to make an informed decision, when you need to make it. I would say if you truly think WPI is a better fit, and you think it has a similar or better ROI, then don’t feel guilty for making that choice. As a California native, when I was in high school I too I felt that I needed to get out and experience the “real world” and “real weather” and looked to the east coast. In hindsight, I think I should have been more secure in my identity as a Californian. So I would downplay the need to experience terrible weather. But there is another important geographic consideration: If you go east for school, it is more likely that you will find a job after college in the east, and more likely that you will have friends and maybe a future spouse from the east or from another part of the country. This can be good and bad. If you go to Cal Poly, most of the students will be from California. If you meet a future spouse there, he/she will most likely be a Californian. There’s a good chance you will find a job in California. So you have to consider how you identify, how close you are to your parents, etc. It’s hard to think of these things when you’re 18, but they can end up being important facets of your life many years later.
WPI is affordable and a great fit, so, go with it (and you won’t have to worry about overcrowding etc).
If you get into Mudd or MIT, I’m guessing the decision makes itself.
We have learned to live with cold weather and snow. If you have learned how to snowshoe, skate and ice fish it can be fun and we do heat the buildings. My younger sister immigrated to CA, lost the family heirloom furniture in an earthquake while her husband and sons were sitting in a shaking sports stadium. Just a short time ago one of those big fires came within 12 miles of her home!
WPI is a small school, but there are a relatively large number of WPI graduates working in CA. Curt Carlson (WPI ’67) headed SRI (the original Silicon Valley seed) from 1998 to 2014. They have about 150 CA undergraduates and two undergraduate research project centers in CA. Perhaps that CA student would rather do their project research in the colder environment of Zurich while they can still enjoy the disappearing snow (see https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program/project-centers/buchs-switzerland-project-center). There are over 40 such centers scattered all over this varied planet.
Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota before he moved to CA. He did write “Blowin’ in the Wind,” but must have spent too much time listening to the Beach Boys.
Give NE a break! We still have great schools up here and NE girls are good kids too!
@rocket88 Thanks! As far as WPI vs cal poly goes the average ROI is higher for WPI, but the average starting salary for industrial engineering is about the same but since WPI costs more that means the expected ROI is lower for IE.
With the weather it’s mostly that I think it’ll get harder for me to learn to deal with the weather the older I get, so I’d have a lot more job opportunities if I felt comfortable taking jobs out of state. I don’t know if I’d want to stay in the northeast, I think living in WA state would be cool but of course I’m too young to really know. Also if I absolutely couldn’t stand the weather then I could just transfer, probably easier to transfer after a year than to find a new job. I think I’ll like the snow though
WPI’s great study abroad is one reason I love it! Worst part is it’s so hard to decide where I’d want to go
@MYOS1634 I probably would go to MIT if I got in, although I’m not sure about Mudd over WPI. If I got in there’s probably some sort of admitted students thing I could go to (I’m not that far from there). So I guess Mudd (if I get in) vs WPI is another decision I need to make
@TooOld4School I’d like to but not sure that I’ll be able to since it’s quite a trip to the east coast. For SLO and Mudd and ASU I could, and since CPW is 4 days I’d go to that if I got into MIT. WPI would basically be one day to get there, one day there, and then one day to get back though, plus the cost of plane tickets and such (although I guess that’s small compared to the cost of attendance)
WPI is a very engineering heavy school (about 70% engineering), which probably boosts its overall ROI in Payscale and similar listings. While people think of CPSLO as an engineering school, it actually has many students in other majors like agriculture, business, humanities, social studies, and science (about 28% engineering).
The comparison by major is more relevant, and you are likely to find that, for most majors and most colleges, major is a bigger factor than college in terms of post graduation pay. The exceptions are colleges targeted for recruiting by elitist employers that pay well, like management consulting.
@ucbalumnus that was my interpretation as well for the very high ROI. Would be nice if rankings were provided that controlled by major. WPI did see a big jump in starting salaries last year (IIRC), something like 7%, but I wouldn’t expect jumps like that to continue.
My son has the same dilemma as you do. He has a similar scholarship at WPI, and cheaper/more expensive options as well. In my opinion, WPI is the only engineering school that has figured out study abroad for engineering students. Through their IQPs and MQPs, they have a clever way of incorporating travel abroad. If you ask any other school, you quickly realize that it is not common, and they usually don’t have a seamless way to do this. Travel abroad is important for my son, and it is definitively weighing in his decision.
I agree with other posters, if your parents are saying that they can afford it, and they are not trying to steer you away from any of your options, I would definitely go to the place you think you could best thrive at.
Probably not worth it in ROI terms, but if your family has the money, i.e., doesn’t have to borrow it, then it might be worthwhile to spend the extra to go to the college that you like best.
A college will cost a minimum of around $100K, or close to $300K for an out of state or private college. Would you spend that much money sight unseen? It’s well worth the trip, even if to confirm that you made the right choice.
@TooOld4School good point, I’ll talk to my parents about it. I visited SLO, Mudd, MIT, WPI, Northeastern, and Hofstra and I’m talking to my parents about visiting ASU. They’re willing to pay but tend to be pretty paranoid about me going places alone so it’s really about if my dad can get off work and if they’d let me go all the way to Worcester by myself. Could probably work out one last college trip with my dad over spring break to the northeast.
Be aware of the curricular differences between the schools.
Harvey Mudd has an intense core curriculum; engineering is a single major, but students specialize to a particular type though in-major elective choices.
WPI has 7-week terms (four per academic year) with three courses each, compared to traditional 15-week semesters (two per academic year) or less common 10-week quarters (three per academic year; CPSLO uses quarters, but is being pushed by the CSU system to switch eventually to semesters).
Northeastern curricula are built around co-ops, although co-ops or equivalent can be done optionally at many other schools.
So glad to hear a poster recommend spending the extra money at WPI. So many within the CC community have this hardened default of “save the money, go to state U, their’s no difference, who cares if you have to deal with 50k students, etc.” What they don’t seem to get is if someone can afford the extra 10k…or 50k for that matter, they’ve already “saved the money”. They have the resources to pay it. Using those resources for the best possible situation is a personal decision. I can’t think of a better way to spend it. Isn’t that why you saved up in the first place?
@ucbalumnus I like the shorter terms better, so WPI and SLO “win” there. One downside to SLO for me is that their IE program seems to be more manufacturing while WPI’s is more operations research, and I’m more interested in the latter.
Another downside to SLO is the lack of flexibility in majors. I’m pretty confident that I won’t make any extreme changes (like IE to psychology) but I could see myself ending up in math or something. I know literally zero CS but since I like math I think it will appeal to me, and I don’t know that I could get into CS at SLO as a major change. I think SLO would let me change from IE to math because it seems like the main issue with major changes is graduating on time, and I have AP credits so I should be able graduate on time if I switched early enough.