<p>Chai, the school you attend doesn’t have much to do with whether you go on to a good grad program. It is up to “what you do with what you have.” If you now have free tuition that saves you a bundle, you can use what USC has to offer: but you have to do the work. Schools don’t send you to grad school. Only you can can do that. :)</p>
<p>[Financial</a> Facts - Sample Cost](<a href=“http://housing.usc.edu/FinancialFacts/SampleCost.aspx]Financial”>http://housing.usc.edu/FinancialFacts/SampleCost.aspx)</p>
<p>The direct costs for room and board at USC are about $11,000/year–THAT’s “negligible”?</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, of the schools on that list, few to none have the prestige of either USC OR St. John’s”</p>
<p>^ I respectfully disagree. </p>
<p>A whole pile of the schools on the tuition exchange scholarship list are also ones that are on the Reed PhD productivity list (along with St. Johns, and often ahead of it): Beloit, Texas Lutheran, Wabash, Wesleyan, Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Marlboro, Goddard…</p>
<p>Do you mean as in reputation to employers? or academics? or partygoers in California? your family? or graduate school commitees in a particular area? </p>
<p>I am not sure what my D will do when she has to choose between a great school with free tuition, or another one that would cost us 100-200k. But I DO know that if she had a choice between 200 free and highly-regarded schools or me spending 100-200k because she doesn’t like one of those 200, the answer would be a no-brainer. You are lucky I’m not your mom :)</p>
<p>(Re: ‘free’: shorthand for free tuition, assuming comparable living/books/other expenses costs across the school options being compared). .</p>
<p>I get that you’ve fallen in love with St. John’s, but it really doesn’t seem worth it. St. John’s is a great program, but also a very narrow one–perhaps great for some types of philosophy, but what if you want to do music again? What if you fall in love with biology? It’s a pretty drastic decision, especially given the money issue and the number of schools you might be able to go to through the tuition exchange program linked above. Things change fast in college: a small student body might seem wonderfully intimate as a freshman but claustrophobic as an upperclassman; a rigid curriculum might seem challenging at first but stifling later.</p>
<p>Imagine all the other options you would have with that money. Imagine all the options you won’t have after undergrad with student loans bearing down on you. Looking into transferring isn’t a terrible idea, but why not take a closer look at the tuition exchange list? Not every school on there is great, but some certainly are.</p>
<p>The tuition exchange program says that it is not a benefit, but a competitive scholarship. Applicant needs to apply while a senior in hs. Does OP even meet the criteria?</p>
<p>Thanks for info re NM vs. MD.</p>