@natty1988 Exactly.
While she’s still waiting to hear from UCLA, UCSD and USC, she has already been accepted at Cal Poly SLO in Engineering. Would she like to go to USC? Yes, but she also doesn’t want to bankrupt us or bury herself in lifetime debt.
SLO: $26,000/year = $130,000 BS Degree (assuming 5-Years of study)
USC = $69,711/year = $278,844 BS Degree (assuming 4-Years of study)
Is a USC undergraduate Engineering Degree really worth more than TWICE an SLO Engineering Degree?
Answer: It doesn’t look like it:
http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2015/10/29-earnings-data-college-scorecard-rothwell
The Brookings data measures “Value-added” to median student earnings 10 years after enrollment of 2001-2002. It ranks them on a 0 to 100 scale. Based on that scale, here are the top 10 four-Year colleges in California:
100 California Maritime Academy
99 Alliant Int’l University
98 University of the Pacific
96 Cal Tech
96 Stanford
95 Harvey Mudd
95 Cal State University Bakersfield
94 Cal Poly SLO
94 Cal State University East Bay
93 Golden Gate University
Here are some other “notable” California colleges further down the list:
90 USC
89 University of Phoenix (SF)
85 Pepperdine
83 Cal Poly Pomona
83 UC Davis
77 UC Berkeley
76 UCLA
72 UCSD
66 UCSB
61 UCI
37 Scripps College (Claremont)
I wonder how many USC parents know their student’s earning potential is outranked not only by Cal Poly SLO but by Cal State BAKERSFIELD as well!