Duke [Full Scholarship] vs MIT [$77k/year]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke.

FWIW, my nephew graduated from MIT a year ago and has a very good, 120k job. which is what he'd have gotten out of duke.

can't know that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d pick Duke under these circumstances…and I’m a Tarheel! Full ride at a top school is hard to pass up, even if the other option is technically better by some metrics. Huge savings for your family. Congrats, whatever the decision!

+1

Unless the $77K/year (that's nearly $320K total) is a "drop in the bucket" for your family, I simply don't see MIT as "that much better". A kid who can get into both and get a full scholarship with everything paid for at Duke is very smart. he will do exceedingly well wherever he attends college. So save the $$$ and let him graduate debt free and you not stress about your retirement or future kids college, etc.

for CS, MIT is THAT much better.

[Anonymous]

MIT. Duke does not have the same caliber in CS. He will make it up within a few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:salaries out of the two, even in CS, are within 10% of each other.

Depends on the job and a lot of Duke CS majors do not end up working as software developers or in tech roles.

[Anonymous]

Has he visited the schools yet? (CPW at MIT is this weekend, is he going?)

MIT really is that good for CS especially in terms of research opportunities and having a really exciting cohort of peers to build crazy stuff with but as someone who went to MIT, I think the biggest question is, is he someone who is going to fit in and be socially integrated lots of places, or, you know, an awkward weird nerd like me? Because at MIT, I dated, went to parties, and grew into a much more social, somewhat less awkward nerd, and I don't know that would have happened somewhere else. All that non academic stuff is hard to capture in statistics, but it was arguably the most consequential.

[Anonymous]

You can’t beat free

[Anonymous]

Fun fact: current President of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, was Provost at Duke for almost 10 years.

[Anonymous]

How sure are they about CS? Where do they want to go more?

[Anonymous]

No brainer - Duke. That is a huge difference. Duke CS is very good - agreed that not as many grads go into hard core programming type roles, but they all get great jobs. I know someone who is C-suite at a fortune 100 financial services firm in the DMV who is a Duke CS alum. Tim Cook went to Fuqua but loves Duke in general. Luis von Ahn is a Duke math major who did very well in CS. And Noam Shazeer.

The cultures of the school are very different so that matters. A Duke CS alum will be a much happier, more well-rounded person. Which matters a lot to me, but doesn't matter to others.

There is also the chance that he goes to college and hates CS. So I wouldn't obsess over major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid won a merit scholarship at Duke which would give him a full tuition, room, and board scholarship. He was also admitted to MIT, but received little aid and we would have to pay $77k/year. MIT was one of his dream schools, but I am wondering if we should go with Duke and maybe just give him the college money we saved as a graduation gift? I love the thought of him at MIT, but it seems nonsensical to turn down a full ride at a T10 just to pay out the nose for a T5. What would you do in this situation?

I can't imagine the parent of a kid that gets into Duke and MIT is looking for guidance on an anonymous forum.

[Anonymous]

I'm an MIT grad (not CS) and I would definitely say go to Duke. Kid is likely going to grad school anyway and can go to MIT then.

MIT has a new rule that students can spend no more than five years enrolled, so if he goes undergrad he cannot go for a later degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid won a merit scholarship at Duke which would give him a full tuition, room, and board scholarship. He was also admitted to MIT, but received little aid and we would have to pay $77k/year. MIT was one of his dream schools, but I am wondering if we should go with Duke and maybe just give him the college money we saved as a graduation gift? I love the thought of him at MIT, but it seems nonsensical to turn down a full ride at a T10 just to pay out the nose for a T5. What would you do in this situation?

Do Duke for undergrad, save the $$$$$$$$ and apply to MIT for graduate school in the future

No, MIT is not worth $320K more

If they go to MIT for undergrad, they don't need a graduate degree. They are majoring in CS not prelaw or premed.

That is very wrong. Lots of people -- esp kids at the top of the class, like OP's kid, go for PhD or MBA degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
MIT has a new rule that students can spend no more than five years enrolled, so if he goes undergrad he cannot go for a later degree.

Citation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No comparison.

For CS your go to MIT even if it cost 10x more than Duke.

Not for undergrad -- for undergrad it doesn't make that much of a difference from one elite school to another

[Anonymous]

My nephew would have killed to have a full ride at Duke.
Think of all the money you will have for visiting, traveling with him when he has a break, for him to have savings/spending money, for him to pay for conveniences. And if he works a little in either case, it won’t be *necessary.*
77k per year goes a long way to things outside of tuition.