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Harvard has needs blind admission. Financial ability doesn't even matter if you are accepted. It does depend on parent income once accepted re payment to attend. Harvard will pay up to 100% of the finances required for a student to attend the university. About 20% of those parents of students attending Harvard pay zero. And no student loans are required.
Acceptance at Harvard is truly one of the best deals going today.
I got into duke, but didn't qualify for any aid. I was stupid and thought 60k/ year was too much (parents were willing to pay). Little did i know the real value of the name...I suspect the same would have happened if I got into harvard. Granted duke is way below Harvard.
I got into duke, but didn't qualify for any aid. I was stupid and thought 60k/ year was too much (parents were willing to pay). Little did i know the real value of the name...I suspect the same would have happened if I got into harvard. Granted duke is way below Harvard.
I went to GT for CS and my starting salary when I graduated was lower than yours.
That was 8 years ago.
I now make above the range you gave for your friends.
There is nothing wrong with UGA, it is very well respected, especially in GA. 70k is plenty in Atlanta when you are just starting out. If you are ambitious and stick with it, you will move up. But with the defeatist attitude that you are displaying here, you are going to sabotage your own success and generate a self fulfilling prophecy of failure.
I mean yeah, that's probably true. But let's do a more realistic example. Let's say you live in Utah and you can go to UU for super cheap, but you also get into UCLA where the recruiting is awesome (including all the bay area unicorns). You'll be lucky to get any financial aid and western LA is not cheap to live in. Is UCLA worth $30k/year in tuition plus high COL over < $10k/year tuition? You can debate it, but I don't think I'd take the risk unless my parents were well off and willing to pay it.
If you can get into UCLA from out of state you can also get into some pretty good private schools. Possibly with a good merit based aid package, or at least a much more generous need based aid package than what UCLA would give.
Paying $140K more for UCLA vs. UU may not be a good idea, but a more realistic example might be paying $60k more for UCLA (or a equivalent school) vs. UU once parental help and other aid is factored in.
I'm not sure what the exact numbers are, but it is very possible that some UCLA degrees may be worth $100k + more than the same degree from UU when you look at it over a lifetime earnings perspective. Something to think about.
I got into duke, but didn't qualify for any aid. I was stupid and thought 60k/ year was too much (parents were willing to pay). Little did i know the real value of the name...I suspect the same would have happened if I got into harvard. Granted duke is way below Harvard.
Personal example (from grad school, not undergrad): When I applied to grad school I got accepted by 12 of the top 15 programs in my field. The best financial aid offers I got, by far, were from the two top programs I was admitted to. Like the Harvard undergrad example they had huge endowments and were willing to spend them on need-based aid even though I was one of the academically weaker admits.
I was also competitive for a fellowship at another of the top 5 schools that would have meant free tuition, but decided not to pursue it once I got the offers from the top two schools.
For the remaining schools in the top 12, I was a strong enough candidate to admit, but not strong enough for them to chase with large amounts of merit-based scholarships.
I likely could have gotten substantial merit-based scholarships from schools ranked in the 20-35 range in my field.
If you can get into UCLA from out of state you can also get into some pretty good private schools. Possibly with a good merit based aid package, or at least a much more generous need based aid package than what UCLA would give.
Paying $140K more for UCLA vs. UU may not be a good idea, but a more realistic example might be paying $60k more for UCLA (or a equivalent school) vs. UU once parental help and other aid is factored in.
I'm not sure what the exact numbers are, but it is very possible that some UCLA degrees may be worth $100k + more than the same degree from UU when you look at it over a lifetime earnings perspective. Something to think about.
It's probably a difference of about 90k + differences in COL. Which may be 10-20k/year, depending on your living situation. UCLA may give some aid if you're good, but the UCs are known to be pretty cheap and broke, which is why they've been admitting more out-of-state applicants in recent years.
For some more evidence of this, grad students who are TAs get a stipend and have their tuition waived. At the UCs, the stipend is only about $2k, which is comparable to the stipend at schools in low COL areas. Schools like USC and Stanford offer almost twice as much. In addition, although all of the tuition gets waived for all PhD students, not so for Master's. If you get a TA job as a Master's student and live in-state, everything is covered. But if you're out-of-state, only about half of the tuition is covered. So you'd have less than half of your paycheck left after paying the tuition bill. We all know how hard it is to convert to in-state at a California school after the first year too. It's also next to impossible to get a TA job as a Master's student at most UC schools, but that's a different discussion.
Not all private schools are like Harvard either. I went to a private school (highly ranked, but not comparable to an ivy) and got a very small scholarship. Still way more expensive than a public. Then there are schools like USC and Penn that are out to bleed you dry.
It depends on what you want to do. In some areas where you got your UG degree matters very little. Sometimes it only matters for your first job or two. Are you going on to graduate school? If so what type?
I went to a mediocre college for UG but a top ten law school. My UG degree does not matter a bit, however decades later, people still introduce me as a Michigan Law graduate. For getting into law school my UG school did not seem to matter. Only the test score really mattered. My grades at a third tier undergraduate university were not good enough to get into UM law (3.67), but my LSAT score (99th percentile) got me in to virtually every school I applied (I did not apply to Havard and Stanford waitlisted me - but all the others accepted me).
When I review applications whether I look at UG schools depends on the position. Usually I am more interested in experience and references. There are some positions where the UG school will matter, especially if it is a really bad school. A really good UG school with decent grades will increase the likelihood of getting an interview, but once you set foot in the door what school you went to is irrelevant, who your are is all that matters. You will be on equal footing with all other interviewees regardless of where
In other fields it may matter more or less both for grad school and for getting a job. Usually once you get some experience and a reputation in your field, you UG school is irrelevant.
Seems like these days, one has to have a plan and make college work for him or her. Some factors.....
1. Seeking college like a consumer (Great Mark Cuban suggestion!)
2. Cost v. how much aid
3. Public or private
4. Top tier v. bottom, and how to make either choice work
5. Networks
6. Top tier with a name (may be great when employers looking at school's rank!)
7. Not top tier, but has a name (Alabama might not be US News Academic Top 10, but that name on CBS every Saturday at 3:30pm does carry weight. Trust me on that one.....!)
I got into duke, but didn't qualify for any aid. I was stupid and thought 60k/ year was too much (parents were willing to pay). Little did i know the real value of the name...I suspect the same would have happened if I got into harvard. Granted duke is way below Harvard.
I fell for the lie that college name doesn't matter and that your college major matters more. Total lie. The students in my high school class who made it to big named, elite colleges (Northwestern, UChicago, Havard, etc) all majored in random, easy liberal arts subjects (art history, music, and sociology). All are now working as software developers making 80-150k/year at different companies. This is starting salary by the way.
I went to an mediocre but cheap local state college (UGA) and majored in computer science. I found a job as a software developer making only 70k/year. My friends who majored in easy liberal arts subjects at UGA? Working minimum wage jobs.
in short, go to the ivy.
Not sure about Northwestern or UChicago, but some of the most rigorous courses at Harvard are in the liberal arts.
Not sure where you are working but 70K/year in Georgia is a heckofalot better salary than 70K in Silicon Valley, for example.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnff
I call BS on the whole thing. UGA may not be Ivy, but it is far from a worthless college. Even assuming the statement about others from your school going to Harvard, etc, they had to have the grades and ability to get in to start with. If they had gone t UGA, they would still be doing alright because that's the way the approach things. Stop blaming your college name.
Yup. For anyone who was otherwise "qualified" to attend an Ivy, let alone a Top 20, would most likely succeed where ever they go both in college and in life as it has more to do with their personality, drive, and so on.
Then again, connections also play a huge role, too. I went to a small (~3K), "no name" LAC that many residents of this same State have not even heard of it seemed. This school, instead of expanding its campus, student body, programs, and so on, put its focus on expanding connections with local and State-wide businesses making it one of the better schools in-State for job placements. To add, all majors (yes, literally all majors) had to either complete a Senior capstone project or an internship; both culminating in paper, poster, and public presentations. No capstone, no internship, no degree.
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