^ @xiggi - agree 100% with all of this. Especially about the decisions being personal and not guidelines for others. Each student must ascertain, to the best of his or her ability, what undergraduate experience will best meet all their needs: cost, experiences, opportunities, campus vibe, location, peer group, etc.
^^agree. @Hoggirl. It could also be possible that OP’s daughter qualifies for full financial aid (full ride) from Stanford which is equivalent to more than 250,000 for the next 4 years with inflation 
This is not as clear-cut a decision as some posters would like to make it into. The Morehead-Cain is nationally and internationally known. Nominating schools include many secondary schools in Great Britain and Canada, and some in Europe, Asia, and Africa as well. The scholarship pays for all four years of UNC (tuition, fees, housing, books, meals, laptop, miscellaneous costs), as well as four fully-funded summer enrichment programs that take Morehead-Cain scholars all over the world. A “Morehead” (as they are known at UNC) interested in working in Silicon Valley could certainly arrange a fully-funded internship there if he/she desired.
In the past ten years, thirteen Morehead-Cain scholars have been awarded Rhodes Scholarships, and there were a number of Morehead/Rhodes scholars in the preceding years. The Morehead-Cain network is very active and strong, and a Morehead can probably write his/her own ticket anywhere he/she wants to go. See http://www.moreheadcain.org/alumni/ for some things that former Morehead-Cain scholars are doing.
Some schools (I can think of UVA and Duke right off hand) have modeled their top scholarship programs after the Morehead-Cain, but UNC’s is probably the best known.
Through the years, I’ve met several students who were also admitted to Harvard, Yale, and (yes) Stanford but chose the Morehead-Cain over those other schools.
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The Morehead-Cain is nationally and internationally known.
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I’m not sure that is true… I highly doubt that any of my West Coast relatives have heard about it
Your relatives might not be interested in the most selective scholarships in the US! People who are and meet the requirements for long term full rides offers form a distinct group. For such people, the Morehead is close to the pinnacle and hard to ignore.
Still, the Morehead isn’t exactly the Rhodes. I’d say it’s not as well-known as the Fulbright either.
So some folks know if it, but it won’t have the wide-spread prestige of HSM.
In any case, yes, it depends on the person. Definitely also goals.
Assuming that money isn’t a factor:
For med school or a PhD, the Morehead may offer better opportunities. (For law school, it’d be a push). For Wall Street or consulting recruiting or working in Silicon Valley, I’d still pick Stanford.
Yes, you certainly may easily find a job/internship in Silicon Valley with the Morehead at UNC, but in terms of plugging in to the VC and startup network in SV, nobody can match Stanford, and few other groups (schools, scholarship fellows, whatever) are close.
Op has not indicated whether he’d be full pay at Stanford though.
OP, what have the NPCs indicated wrt to costs of Stanford?
Hi. By hanks for all of the responses. We would have to pay full tuition at Stanford. And of course we would love to save the $250,000.00 but we can afford to send my daughter to Stanford (that’s what I meant when I said money is not the issue). I am wondering if we take money out of this decision, which would you choose, Morehead or Stanford? My daughter spent entire summer at Stanford’s Summer Session and loved it. We are all set to commit to Stanford (she was accepted EA), but college counselors at her school are acting as though she’s missing a better opportunity at UNC as a Morehead. I know basically what Morehead offers, but not everything. I think my daughter would be crazy to pass up four years at Stanford as a CS major. I still can’t believe she got accepted. I’m just wondering if anyone out there can fill me in (through experience) just how great the Morehead is. If she were going to major in anything else other than CS, I might think UNC would be a great choice.
Apples and oranges! How many fully funded external scholarships do you know to be available to high school students? The fact that is not well known in particular circles does not make it obscure.
You might want to search this (or other) forums to find recent experiences. As I wrote, the CC poster EaDad share details but his son was Class of 2008.
I am afraid you will not find a definitive answer, but the beauty of SCEA at Stanford is that you do not have to commit until later. Not to suggest omen, but you might consider that the decision might not end being yours. The Morehead people might help you out.
How familiar are her counselors with the strength of the Stanford network in the Valley and the startup scene there?
Were any of her counselors CS majors or involved in startups?
Like I said, I would take the Morehead given my current circumstances (I probably could pay for Stanford, but $250K is not nothing to me), and save the money for grad school. However, for a CS major, if money didn’t weigh in the decision at all, it would not be a hard decision: Stanford unequivocally.
BTW, your viewpoint may vary, but unless I had enough money where full-pay for undergrad as well as full-pay for grad school just wasn’t a big deal to me (that is, 7-figure income or 8-figure wealth), I’d likely take the Morehead and save the money for grad school.
If money isn’t an issue, for CS, definitely Stanford. In other circumstances, the Morehead at UNC would be the better choice, but since you made clear you can afford Stanford and that your child wants to go into CS, I’d absolutely choose Stanford.
Morehead = more personalized attention, great opportunities for research - at Stanford she’ll be one of many.
But, despite the Research Triangle for UNC, CS at Stanford is in a class of its own, with access to a professional network that’s hard to rival due to prestige and location.
Would the general consensus be that UNC-CH (and RTP nearby) is very good, while Stanford (and SV nearby) is even better, but whether that is worth the extra $250,000 is something you have to decide for yourself?
As far as “grad school” is concerned, PhD in CS should be funded. But MD, JD, or MBA programs will be expensive.
@ucbalumnus: Add in other Master’s programs as well. Some would be funded, but those are generally harder to get in to.
Full-ride to UNC + Master’s at Stanford (would require the student to keep up their GPA at UNC) would still be less expensive than 4 years of Stanford at full-pay.
Ignorance is bliss. Until this thread started, I had not heard of Morehead-Cain.
I always thought Robertson was the most prestigious scholarship offered at UNC/Duke.