Regular Decision and Restrictive Early Action : Stanford University describes Stanford’s REA rules.
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I can safely give a NO to that question. Engineering is a very employable field of study, and there’s no additional value paying 90k a year for something you can pay 30k to accomplish.
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Our family is also a full-pay family, and we were faced with a $90K school vs. another option at around the price of an in-state public. We could have swung $90K, but are not so wealthy that we wanted to.
The $90K school did have a higher ranking…but the education at the less expensive school was just as rigorous. The $90K school did have a more famous brand name…but my kid isn’t going into a field that is very prestige-sensitive. So higher rankings and more famous names were not “needs” for our kid and were not worth $65k/yr more to us as a family.
I do think that there are certain situations where a much more expensive school might be worth it. Some kids really are in situations where “fit” matters strongly, and where there are not a lot of schools that can provide this fit. An example might be a kid so talented in math that they need to have access to the nation’s top professors. Or a talented STEM kid who has the personality to take advantage of the very most fertile start-up cultures. Or maybe an undecided kid so talented in multiple areas (theoretical physics? history? philosophy? linguistics?) that a school with excellence across the board is worth the extra cost. Or maybe just a situation where you want your kid to be rubbing elbows with rich and connected peers, because you aim for them to have a life among the rich and connected. But none of these were true for our kid.
I think sometimes it is hard for parents to say no to a kid when it comes to an expensive school because there is this sense that they “earned” the admission. But I think it is still fine to say no, if your kid isn’t some sort of special fit case like I described above.
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However, it is better to lay out the cost constraints before the student makes the application list rather than have the cost constraints be the big let-down after the student’s admission results are in. I.e. parents say before the student makes the application list something like “you can apply anywhere, but you should treat a resulting net price > $____ as a rejection, and we will run net price calculators for each college of interest before you apply.”
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To be honest, Northeastern is not even a top tier ENG school. There is no way it worth $90K COA in my opinion. S24 is currently attending UCD for Aerospace ENG paying $40K COA. He did not apply to Northeastern. Even if he did and got accepted there, there are more schools he would rather go to then NEU for $90K. uDub ($60K), Ohio State ($45K), TAMU ($60K), UCR ($40K), SDSU ($30K), CPP ($30K), Oregon State ($45K) … Good Luck
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Excellent material, thank you! Hard to beat all that UCs CSUs have to offer for in-state tuition.
I am not like many other CC posters. I believe that the college you attend is important and that sometimes paying more if possible may be worth it. I believe college is more than getting a job and that college is an opportunity for a child to grow, mature, become more independent, but also to enjoy life, have fun, make friends and experience life. I also believe fit is important. If the school was Stanford or MIT, I would have to have my student think twice. But for NEU. I don’t think twice. I would not choose it, especially since the UCs are top engineering schools and are much better than NEU in my opinion. The experience at the UC schools are just as good, the education is better, the price is cheaper, and the job opportunities and ROI will be better probably.
My daughter had to face a similar situation. UVA or USC or NEUin vs Berkeley for business. Each of the OOS schools would cost $70-100K a year. Cal is $40K. Cal is a better business program. She chose Cal. So far so good!
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Actually with the right stats, there are cheaper schools OOS than the CA schools in state but yes they provide good value.
When people start talking about having to sacrifice financially vs not having to, for me at least, it makes the decision easy.
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Read on Reddit that NEU was the “IVY” DeVry. Easy to get into, campuses everywhere. Ouch!
Very mixed reviews. Btw, the Oakland campus (formerly Mills College) is beautiful.
5% acceptance rate for Boston is easy to get into?
Those are graduate campuses.
It seems that you are leaning away from your student attending Northeastern due to the cost. That is perfectly understandable. There is no need to search for other reasons to disparage the school in support of your decision
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Don’t believe everything you read.
Northeastern is very hard to get into. Even the alternate campuses.
People should disconnect ease or difficulty of entry and experience for engineering majors.
You can go to Lamar, Mississippi State, or any other ABET school and you’re likely going to face a rigorous and difficult level of schoolwork. It’s why 50% of engineering students don’t finish.
I wouldn’t choose NU in this case but I would also not disparage it.
In your case it’s not affordable without sacrifice. So there were other urban and cheaper options like Pitt and UMN that would have worked, with UMN likely $40k-ish after merit. That’s why I wouldn’t choose it in your case - financial strain on you. If urban is what you sought, you didn’t build the list properly. You can still apply and get into Arizona or Arizona State - not Boston urban, but easy access to urban elements. And I’m sure there’s more.
And I can’t speak to the alternate campus but you’d likely be missing some academics.
But NU is a fine school and for those who attend, have a wonderful experience, and great outcome, I say bravo.
Btw I work for a global company and one of our high level execs has an engineering degree from Devry. And an MBA from another lesser name. And Harvard and other top school grads work for him. So let’s not assume anything about any school, and there’s no reason to disparage NU, which top students are flocking to in droves.
Your son got in. It’s a great get. If you choose to send him, great. And if not as you won’t go every school he gets into except the one he attends, there’s no reason to tarnish them. I’m sure they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
Good luck.
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I don’t mean to sound like I’m ignoring the very real constraints that money imposes, but I think asking if a college is “worth the price” isn’t the right question. Things are worth what you’re willing to pay for them. Is a safari in Kenya worth $15K per person? It might be. Is a home worth $5M? It is if you love the home and the location. College is more than just landing a job afterwards, it’s the full experience—the people you meet, the opportunities, the life lessons, the maturity, the academics, the city/location, the job preparation, and yes, the price tag. If you can afford it and believe the experience (as measured broadly) is aligned with the student’s needs, then certainly NE is a great school and is “worth it”. Others may come to a different conclusion. Still others can’t afford it so it’s a moot point. Some people want that blowout African Safari or the beautiful home they’ve always dreamed of—and they are willing to pay a premium. There is no right or wrong.
I’ve said before that I went to BU way back when and took out significant loans to do so (my family could not come close to the tuition and I received merit, loans and Pell Grant). It was transformative for me in a way that my state University would not have been. I’ve never regretted it and am so grateful that I didn’t just look at the question as one of “can I get the same job from BU as from StateU.”
I’m not trying to say that everyone should go into debt or that families should pay for any college at any price, I’m just saying that “worth it” is highly relative and situation-specific. We do lots of things in life (get married, have kids, take job A over job B) for reasons that are complex and that go way beyond a financial-only calculation. College will be an experience looked back upon for the rest of your life, so I advocate considerations beyond “outcome” as measured strictly by job/salary post-grad.
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DeVry has (and has had) ABET accredited engineering technology programs, not ABET accredited engineering programs, according to the accreditation search at abet.org .
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Apologies, admins please remove post if it against rules. Was simply stating, some of the the mixed reviews we’ve read. I believe NEU is a solid school, hence why applied in the first place.
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According to the bio, mid 80s he got a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
The major point here though is not fo debate a resume but to not disparage NU and DeVry as @Meghan5 did. I see she since corrected.
Many of us don’t like certain elements of many schools - often aesthetics or environment but that doesn’t mean the schools themselves aren’t good.
Some random thoughts and an anecdote…
Every family’s financial situation is different, but if you can swing $90k/year without debt simply by bootstrapping, at least you have options. Like others here, I would not take on mountains of debt to go to any school.
Does your son have any idea where he wants to land after his BS - geographically, and by industry? I think it is less of an issue today than in the past, but attending a school where he wants to work after graduation certainly helps with networking, interviewing, landing summer internships, etc.
Does he plan to attend grad school? If so, maybe he saves money in-state for his BS, then look at other schools for his masters, which brings me to an anecdote…
I worked with an EE in Chicago who was very senior in his MEP firm, but he didn’t own it. My guess is that he was doing well financially, but he wasn’t rolling in the dough. His son excelled in HS and was accepted by several top engineering schools (I want to say CalTech, and/or MIT), with UIUC as his safety. His dad told him he would not pay for MIT when he could go to UIUC for less than half the cost. If he continued to excel in undergrad, he could go to MIT for grad school on his own dime.
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No !
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Piling on: no – certainly not for MechE. There would have to be an incredibly compelling reason to pay ~$240k more for NEU than for a CSU or UC.
If my kid got into HYP or Wharton and just had to go into IB/Finance, I might pay a lot more for the Ivy because the Wall Street connections are excellent. But that’s far from the case here.
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Yes both my kids had solid stats and great offers at privates (less than UC schools). But I still don’t think you can beat the price and education of the UC schools! In state tuition is pretty low at around $16,000/year. It’s the room and board that seems to get us at $24K!
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Given mine works with UC and CPSLO kids and paid $3k tuition based on automerit, I’ll disagree. But yes the UCs are a great value prop for sure !!
They are some of many.
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