Is it worth paying an extra 20K?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I have narrowed my college choices down to 3 schools: Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, and Penn State. I have gotten the same financial aid package (only $5,500 in unsubsidized loans) and the cost of each (including room and board) are:
CMU - $52,000/year
Case - $50,000/year
PSU - $25,000/year</p>

<p>I plan on going into the engineering field, however, not certain which type.</p>

<p>My question is, is it worth paying an extra $20k to go to one of the private schools instead of PSU, considering job placement, starting salaries, and having to pay off possibly $80k in loans after done with school if going the private route?</p>

<p>Responses would be appreciated, thank you!</p>

2

<p>Nah man… save the money for grad school. Case especially is a horrible choice.</p>

3

<p>As you are not planning on doing CS, I’d recommend going to the Penn State. It’s a very good school. CMU is supposed to be amazing in computer science, but it wouldn’t make a difference in any other field. Even if it did, 80k in loans is too much!</p>

4

<p>Penn State has a great engineering program. I don’t know why this is a question.</p>

5

<p>Go to Penn State!</p>

6

<p>27k x 4 years = 114k </p>

<p>Penn State.</p>

<p>This is absolutely a no-brainer.</p>

7

<p>agree, no brainer. Penn St. (as do most flagships) has a very solid engineering school</p>

8

<p>Depends on how much 20k is worth to your family. Some people throw tuition money around like chump change.</p>

9

<p>Go with Penn State, but if 110k is nothing to your family, choose CMU. Don’t even consider Case.</p>

10

<p>Even with a good-paying engineering job, your post-graduation life would be awful trying to pay off 80,000k in debt. </p>

<p>The payments would be about $900 a month. You may think that’s nothing, but ask the engineers that you know if they could easily pay an additional 3 car payments for 10 LONG years in addition to their own bills and their own REAL car payments.</p>

<p>I <3 Joe Pa</p>