… and another HS student discredit his posts all by himself 
The matter here is whether you CAN afford MIT. By this, I mean: do your parents agree? Does it mean loans above the federal limit? Or does it mean no vacations away for 4 years, cutting down on take out, and no changing cars?
I don’t often say that students should pay full freight for a school if they don’t have a unique situation…
But you should go to MIT. Biotech is HUGE in this area. You will be paid a LOT of money, and an MIT degree will get you in the door.
OP, Virginia Tech is an excellent engineering university with a great reputation. [This[/url] site puts it in the top 15 in terms of return on investment for engineering, and [url=<a href=“http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-engineering-schools-2014-4#16-virgina-tech-35%5DBusiness”>http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-engineering-schools-2014-4#16-virgina-tech-35]Business Insider](25 Best Value Engineering Schools 2021 | Best Value Schools) puts it in the top 20 engineering programs in the country. Clearly, the university has a good reputation and you’ll do great if you go there!
@juillet thank you for those links! I was dismayed to find out that Virginia Tech is going to go up over a thousand dollars for out-of-staters next year, and they really aren’t offering me any scholarship money. It feels awful seeing all of my classmates getting full rides to places like UNC-CH, Duke, and Vanderbilt while I haven’t been able to get much in scholarships. UF hasn’t offered me any merit scholarships at all which is upsetting (many people in my school got Presidential Scholarships and I’m valedictorian). I mean I really hate UF to be honest so I’d rather not go there. I know MIT degrees have great potential but I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy my time there and the debt is just too huge to fathom for me. It’s basically off the table. Now I just have to decide whether to pay a lot for an out-of-state VT degree or pay still not nothing to go to a plantation-huge state school (UF or Alabama) which I really saw as last resorts when I entered the college process and now have to see as viable options after many scholarship rejections. This process has really sucked the life out of me, to be honest.
ChoosingASchool, sometimes state schools will offer more aid to students after they have proven themselves in the classroom. We are instate, and also were disappointed when VT offered very little in terms of aid for academic merit when they were admitted. But, both of our kids were able to be awarded scholarship money after their first year. Some of the scholarships can be found through the individual colleges at VT you are majoring in, but you must be at least a sophomore in standing to apply. If your stats got you into MIT, you surely are an Honors College admit at Tech. There are numerous scholarships, fellowships, etc. that the HC office notifies its students of. Some of the scholarships/fellowships (both departmental and through the HC) are more time consuming to apply for, but some are not. Every little bit helps and although it takes a little bit of elbow grease, you may be able to secure some funding that way. Hope this helps a bit.
Since you really don’t want to attend UF and they didn’t offer scholarships, your choices are VTech or UAlabama Honors (MIT being off the table due to debt - did you fill out FAFSA right? Is it a case of your parents not being able to pay for EFC? Note that at most “famous” colleges, financial aid is tied to how much money parents make, ie., need-based aid. Your classmates may not have gotten “merit” aid, but need-based aid, because they had a low EFC. That’s why being valedictorian may not have mattered - also, I know it’s a big deal in HS, but not to colleges.)
Go the the Vtch forum and the Alabama forum. Present your doubts, ask about fellow students there.
OP will get a full ride at UF with the Florida Incentive Scholarship by being a NMFS. Cost $0.
@MYOS1634 Yes I understand about the valedictorian thing…it’s just really upsetting overall because of how much work I’ve been putting into college and scholarship applications and ending up right where I started. @yellowgranite56 I’ll have to look into it further. Thank you @KandKsmom, I am in Honors at VT and I am probably going there; I am counting on continuing opportunities.
@yellowgranite56 I think that Florida Incentive Scholarship is only for INSTATE students. If the OP is OOS, he doesn’t get that award.
The OP is in-state for UF.
Have your parents offered to pay for MIT out of pocket? (I just re-read the thread and OP and it sounds like that’s what they did - that they make enough money to pay for MIT out of pocket, without debt.)
If so, thank them for their generosity, accept graciously, make sure their investment is not squandered, and pledge to pay them back by giving them 10% of your salary for as long as they wish or until you’ve paid them back (as they prefer) or giving them free shares from the start up company you’ll create in biotech. For biotech, MIT has few peers… well, for most subjects in engineering, MIT has few peers in the country, and probably in the world.
Their long hours, hard work, education, plus probably luck and savvy, all combined to give you the best possible gift: the possibility of choosing your college without concerns for financial issues. If they set money aside for your college, respect that - they want to invest in you and your future. But make sure you honor that gift.
@Gator88NE is right: I am in-state for UF. Yes @MYOS1634 they did offer to pay, but they would need to financially restructure everything for that–the mortgage, the accounts, etc…and I have four younger siblings. I don’t know what to do because everything seems to be failing right now (recently turned down for several merit-based scholarships).
Let’s try to be precise:
your parents CAN or CANNOT afford MIT out of pocket?
That is:
Do you have a college fund/a 529? Do your parents have sufficient income + savings?
Can they pay full costs - your work earnings and - the federal loans, without jeopardizing your siblings’ college funds/savings? Or would it mean constraining your siblings’ costs - and what are the odds they too will need full pay money at a HYPM vs. their wanting to attend UF or another college?
(For instance, there’s the case of a family who decided to stretch for the first child, a family anomaly who got into HYPMS, because the second child is a “B student on his good days”, uninterested in going much further than the directional, and the third child is still in preschool which they can still afford even if child A goes to HYPSM. although they wouldn’t spend the same amount on both, they all would get what they want/need.)
When you say “restructure the mortgage and the accounts”, what does that entail?
Does that mean that your family will use some of its usual savings, or rather that they will deplete retirement? Or remortgage the house? Use HELOC?
Were the federal loans packaged, can you take them, does it change something?
Does it mean your parents won’t be able to take vacations…? that they’ll sell the boat…? that they won’t be able to eat out 3 times a week? or that they’ll be in a pickle if the car doesn’t start?
VT and UF are similar in terms of engineering, so since UF is free, it makes much more sense than VT. Full pay at MIT with four younger siblings just does not make any sense unless the money for all five is already saved up.
Things change in life. One of your parents could get sick, be relocated, lose a job or something much worse. One of our neighbors lost his high paying job when his division was shuttered, and at 50+ it is much harder to find a similar position for similar pay. What was once secure, suddenly is not. If you were the youngest, it would be a different matter, but you shouldn’t jeopardize the future of your siblings for MIT. Sometimes being the oldest is an advantage, sometimes it is not, and this is one of the cases it is not.
Based on your description up thread, your family cannot afford MIT. That is putting your family’s financial security in jeopardy. If NMF makes UF free, you have an amazing opportunity.
Our ds was in a similar position last yr with a different list of schools. He is attending one of his full-ride options, UA. The CBH program and multiple scholarships definitely pulled him there. And he loves it. His professors love him. He is participating in interesting research. He does not feel he “lowered” himself at all. He can’t imagine being anywhere else.
If you go to UF, shine and grab hold of every opportunity. Your education will become what you make it.
@ChoosingASchool Are you sure that MIT won’t budge on the financial aid, especially given the number of siblings you have? They tend to be generous. If not, it sounds like you cannot afford MIT.
If you can go to MIT, go to MIT. My daughter was rejected there and will be going to her “safety” school of UF. She is also a NMF and will get a full ride at UF with the FIS. It’s hard to argue with free. This was the deciding factor over GT. My brother went to VT and it is a fine school.
If I had the choice, I would have sent her to MIT though. Schools such as MIT and Stanford have huge endowments which usually means you will only ever pay the “expected family contribution”. Stanford recently made tuition free for all families making <$125,000. This makes it “affordable” no matter where you are on the wealth spectrum.
These elite schools all have ~70% of all students they make offers to accept them. I think you might regret not going to MIT given the chance.
Why is it worth it? Prestige. It’s not because MIT will give her a significantly better undergrad education than UF, but because OTHERS BELIEVE IT DOES. MIT carries a lot of weight. If you want to get into a good grad school, this will matter. You will get better job opportunities. In the real world perception matters.
You can be happy at either place. You can become a great engineer at either place. You will be surrounded by smarter people at MIT and expectations will be higher.
My feeling was that if she could get into a super-elite school it would be worth it on the intangibles. Otherwise the value of UF is clearly a better choice over GT and VT.
YMMV.
@WVU1985 Based on the description, it sounds like the parents are going to have to take a second mortgage to pay for MIT. They do not have the money saved to pay for it. It is going to be a huge financial sacrifice. There are still 4 additional children to put through college. What is described is not a good financial decision for a dream school education. There are not that many advantages to MIT over UF for free to justify jeopardizing the family’s financial security.
It sounds like the OP needs assurance that UF is a solid educational option and it most definitely is.
The OP could get student loans. The question is how long would it take to pay these off vs UF? According to info on the web (so it must be true, ha ha) MIT graduates are highly paid.
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology_(MIT)/Salary
My guess is he would come out ahead even versus a free UF education, but it would take a long time. The OP could agree to pay his parents back, etc. If MIT is forcing full fare to a struggling family, that would be very surprising, but I don’t know the details.
Getting out of college debt free should not be dismissed though, and I wouldn’t argue with taking that route. I just think every time he hears MIT for the rest of his life (and the media drops this name frequently) he/she will wonder what could have been. UF is a better value, MIT provides a better chance at being at the top of your field.
It’s a decision the OP needs to make based on their own situation and once made, never look back.
No, the student could not take out loans on his own. His parents would have to cosign. Either payments would come due immediately or interest would accrue immediately.
Fwiw, the median salary reported by MIT for their bachelor’s degrees http://web.mit.edu/facts/alum.html is not significantly different than for a lot of engineering grads. For example, compare UF ME salaries compared to MIT.
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_Florida_(UF)/Salary ($70,083) vs MIT ($72,867)
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology_(MIT)/Salary
The schools’ typical early career salaries in the big box ($48,800 vs $70,300) are apples to oranges. UF has 33,000 UGs to MITs 4500. The type of students and majors are far more diverse at UF. What matters is what the OP is capable of achieiving individually.
OP, have you investigated what employers recruit from UF? Can you follow that water research path with only a bachelor’s? Is grad school likely? If so, does UF offer undergrad research opportunities that suit your interests? (I know nothing about that field.). Are there top employers for that field recruiting? What about grad school acceptances? (Our ds is attending UA in full scholarship bc his scenario is similar to yours. He is #4 of 8. We cannot come close to meeting our EFC bc we live on most of our income. He knows that recent grads from his dept UA have gone to top grad programs. He is actively engaged in research as a freshman. He is training to take over a graduating sr’s lab role. He was invited to join a second project. He entered with lots of credit hours, so he has plenty of time to spend on research which is his love.). Those are the questions you should be considering. Fwiw, our oldest is a chemE who graduated from Podunk U and his starting salary was exactly the same as the top university grads that hired in with him. The company does not give certain school grads higher pay. They start at the same level and from there on out it is all based on individual job performance.
Good luck with your decision.