OOS with EFC of zero?

KamelAkbar
Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:37:30 +0000

This depends on your ambitions, really. If you plan to go to graduate school, I think doing well at UCF would be a better choice because grad school admissions don’t seem to care as much about undergrad prestige, especially professional schools. If you’re majoring in engineering, prestige is also not as big of a factor to employers. If you’re majoring in computer science, it’s actually a particularly minor factor.

The very best students at Tech will have more opportunities with top companies that target Tech than their counterparts at UCF, but the rest of the students at Tech will probably not have enough of an advantage over those at UCF (in terms of employment opportunities) to make up for $100k in loans and and a decade or more of interest.

Do well at either school and you’ll get a great job. Be the best of the best at Tech and you’ll be better off at Tech than you would have been at UCF.

If this was a decision between University of Pheonix and Georgia Tech I’d say take the loans, but UCF is a solid school. Georgia Tech only has the potential to pay off for you, it’s in no way guaranteed.

Heck, there’s even a potential that you’d be more successful in life at UCF than Tech. Maybe you’d meet a great contact, meet the love of your life (not as likely at Tech, haha!), or something else? It’s also possible that, in the end, you’d graduate from Tech and be back in Florida working with UCF grads.

Oh yeah, there’s always ROTC if you don’t mind serving in the military for a few years after graduation. ROTC, as I understand it, pays 100% of your tuition.