My son was accepted to Northeastern University Early Action. Financial Aid awarded only $4k in loans. Final sticker price will be $90k/yr at Northeastern compared to $30k/yr at a Public University in California, where we reside. Mechanical Engineering major. Is a Northeastern University degree worth nearly $400k?
Thatās personal opinion.
We all value things differently.
Iād say heck no, especially give the MechE major - because short of a few schools - the MIT types, Iām not sure any school is worth significantly more than another.
But thatās my value system - I donāt know what yours is.
Best of luck.
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Would the difference of about $240k require parent loans or parent cosigned loans, or would it affect parentsā retirement savings and investments or the amount that parents can fund younger siblingsā college costs?
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At some level this might depend upon your personal finances and what the alternative is. However, my personal opinion is: No.
I think that Northeastern is a very good university. I like its emphasis on coop programs. I think that the only way that it would be worth being full pay at Northeastern would be if the parents are very, very wealthy.
Is the public university in California where your son was accepted ABET accredited for mechanical engineering?
Engineering is a field where there are a lot of good universities, and a lot of jobs, and no one really cares where you got your degree (assuming that it is ABET accredited).
Something like 11 or 12 years ago a daughter was accepted at Northeastern, but it would have been full pay. We said no and would not let her take out loans to cover the difference in cost. She went to a public university that fit the budget. She graduated and got a ādream jobā that paid badly, and that she could only take because she had no debt. She loved the job, did very well, it led to a good second job, which led to a very good graduate program. She has since thanked me (at least twice) for not letting her take on debt for her bachelorās degree. She is solidly on track to graduate in May from an excellent and highly ranked graduate program.
NEU is a very good university, but so is your in-state public university in California.
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Our son has no siblings to think about. Both gainfully employed, house mortgage, investments, etc. We can afford to pay $90k/yr (hence the non-existent financial aid); it would require a significant reduction in spending (no vacations overseas, less contributions to investments and savings). Whereas, we could maintain our lifestyle comfortably with in-state tuitions. The upside to Northeastern for my son is that it is in the East Coast, urban setting (he got into Boston), Engineering is strong, Co-op program.
No younger siblings to think about. No need for 401K early withdrawals, expensive loans. Weād pay $90k/yr out of pocket, but not going to lie, there will be significant lifestyle changes, including a reduction in spending and savings. No doubt, Northeastern is a solid school, but cost/yr is 3x that of our public universities.
Yeah, we are NOT āvery, very wealthyā. $90k/yr is NOT a drop in the bucket for us.
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We got the ED rejection (expected) from Stanford. Still waiting for the UCs/CSUs decisions to come out in March. Many thanks for your reply and sharing your daughterās story. Life will take you in many directions, no sense getting into debt! Itās a great path sheās on 
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It is not.
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Sorry, Iām confused.
I think you meant REA since Stanford doesnāt have ED. How did your son apply REA to Stanford and EA to Northeastern?
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If your student filed FAFSA, he will be able to take out $5.5k in federal student loans.
I would wait until your S has that choice. If heās top 9% of his class he would get Merced at a minimum, but you have to wait to see where he may be accepted. Merced vs Northeastern is a different decision than UCLA vs Northeastern for many.
As others have said, these decisions where money comes into play are unique to each family and their situation. If itās possible you wouldnāt let your son choose northeastern over a UC, you should be talking with him about that now if you havenāt already.
Lastly, because one canāt apply REA to Stanford and EA to Northeastern as dadofjerseygirl said, I would not tell anyone that your S did that. He should not tell his friends or his counselor, the parents should not tell their friends. To be clear, mumās the word on the Northeastern acceptance.
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For many reasons you stated, NU is not the right school. One should never, imho, have to stretch themselves financially.
Thereās very few schools for MechE, very few, that the where you go matters. My son, for example, turned down a top ten engineering for a run of the mill SEC school yet was hired in a cohort with Michigan and Purdue but also W Michigan and Akron and every school of rank in between. ABET certification is what truly matters. Thatās what companies seek - it levels the playing field.
I canāt think of a single UC, where if you truly went by rank, that Iād choose NU over, even if costs were the same.
I donāt know which UC but co op is not exclusive to Northeastern. You can at so so so many schools but itās part of the routine at NU whereas at most others kids intern and choose not to co op.
The only reason Iāve read that the $90k would be worth it (personal choice) is for your son to be in Boston but donāt forget annual tuition increases and off campus costs there. Frankly, if it was about urban, there are other schools too at much lower cost but it may be too late for them. But Iād choose them over NU too.
Totally a family choice but I hate to hear financial strain - and of course he could intern, co op, or live after in an urban environment post college. Heās got many years ahead.
Good luck.
A few UC examples of co op is truly important. I put cal poly too.
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This really is your family choice. Some families do pay full price for their kids to arenāt college. Some donāt.
I will say, if you parents plan to fund this $400,000 bill with parent loans, you might want to rethink that.
For mechanical engineering, your son needs an ABET accredited program. That is what is important.
Your son will be able to apply for internship in engineering during the summers.
At this point, wait and see which accredited programs your son gets accepted to. The UCs havenāt sent admission decisions yet.
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Some CSUs have already started to give results. Also, some CSUs are not impacted and do not have ME as an impacted major, so applicants meeting the CSU minimum standards will be admitted.
$30k seems to be closer to CSU costs than UC costs (UC in state tuition and fees are about $6k to $8k higher than CSU; living expenses can vary considerably across campuses in both systems).
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Nobody can tell you if itās āworth itā for your family.
Having said that, our families are what sounds a like a very similar financial position: upper middle class and full pay but not so wealthy that $90/year wouldnāt have really stung for us, esp since we have two kids.
Our very high-stats S23 is now a sophmore ME major at another state flagship (but gets in state tuition so only about $30K/year) and loves it, is thriving, and just got a great summer internship. (Read through my posts on other threads if youāre interested in more details.) We will now be able to help he and his sister with grad school if needed, buy homes, pay for weddings, etc etc without sacrificing our lifestyle, retirement goals, or savings.
Another factor to consider in your case is that even though our sonās school is highly ranked nationally and has students from all over the country, the companies recruiting at his internship/hiring fair still skewed local/regional. So if your son thinks he wants to stay in CA, he will likely find it easier to find internships (and eventually jobs) if he goes to school there. Not that it would be impossible from NE, but how many CA companies fly out to their recruiting fairs? Thatās a question that Iād have for admissions if I were you.
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Iāll agree with this but disagree on this sense - the net has leveled the playing field - and one can get internships and job offers anywhere. My kid did - everywhere but in the same region as the school.
You are correct but I know so many interning and working far away that this wouldnāt be a consideration for me if I were a student. My non engineering daughter - same thing. Her job offer is Denver, from Charleston.
The world has changed, especially since covid which hastened the more remote lifestyle - that includes HR.
If I were to guess one area, more internship than job but I donāt see where they go to school impacting where they begin their after college career.
For us personally, it doesnāt make a difference what school you put at the front of this sentence, I donāt think anyone is worth $90k/year. My older son (S22) had to choose between his top choice, which we applied to hoping heād get merit aid but he didnāt and it cost $75k and all his other strong choices where aid brought it down to no more than $54k. We told him, and he agreed, that it just wasnāt worth even $75k when equally good schools could save so much money over 4 years. Heās an engineering student (CivE/MechE double major) and the money weāre saving has meant that he can take internships in any location, even if they donāt pay for housing, because we can help with summer housing (and let him keep his earnings to pay for his responsibilities). And it means thereās some $$ left for if he wants/needs to go to grad school or, if he doesnāt, to buy a car. Could we have found the extra $$ each year? Yes, we could have, but we didnāt think any school was worth that as long as youāre going to an ABET accredited engineering school.
(FWIW, I practice what I preach - a million years ago I turned down three Ivyās that didnāt offer any aid to go to my in-state awesome public school. It was a hard call, but the $$ I saved I was able to instead put towards law school and graduate debt free, which was unheard of among my friend group.)
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This is more true for nationally well known employers than it is for smaller employers that may only be known locally or regionally. In the latter case, students may not know of distant smaller employers to apply to.
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Yikes, we did not know this was not allowed!
My son had two offers from companies I never heard of.
If you want to live in Tampa or Portland, youāll set up your indeed searches for just that.