Stanford or UMBC?
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Anonymous
Wow - the restraint! You didn't list UMD, UMD booster. Take Hopkins and the military off your list and I'd agree. |
Anonymous
Chose UMBC, then did Hopkins med/PhD, and now is s nationally recognized leader I'm his field. ? |
Anonymous
So what? The benefits of going to Stanford go way, way beyond that. And no one has heard of UMBC. |
Anonymous
Then why do they have the same job? |
Anonymous
| I'd put Berkeley before some of those schools. |
Anonymous
+1. (Except, who knows? There are crazy people everywhere) |
Anonymous
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I think your daughter is probably scared to go to Stanford. A lot more pressure to succeed. Competing with a more elite group of students. 3000 miles away from home and away from everything she's ever known. The added pressure of the financial cost - extra pressure to succeed or else it will seem to be a huge waste of money. Trying to integrate with an entirely new student body who, for the most part, will probably very different from her and her background.
She knows she will do great at UMBC. No pressure. Free ride. It's familiar, close by, and a known entity. I actually gave up a free ride at UMBC for a much lesser school than Stanford. I can completely understand your daughter's preference, but I think that it is driven by her fears. I think she might later in life, regret not going to Stanford. I would address her fears and let her talk about them. |
Anonymous
Well if you think that the ultimate indicator of a good college is what job you have, then yeah, Stanford probably isn't for you. |
Anonymous
What is it then? Diploma on the wall? |
Anonymous
Berkeley has the most graduate academic programs ranked in the top 10 in the country with Harvard 2nd so Berkeley will definitely come before some of the universities listed. |
Anonymous
Well somebody has. |
Anonymous
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I have a PhD in Engineering from Hopkins and my sister went to UMBC, Meyerhoff, and then got an Engineering PhD from Michigan. I would say that first while UMBC is a solid school its the Meyerhoff program that is the real stand out and likely what a Stanford acceptee is considering. Of course more people have heard of Stanford for good reason.
I would say it depends not only on the cost difference but the individual student. Just getting info Stanford does not mean you will get the full benefits, .i.e. Silicon Valley internships, research opportunities with Stanford faculty and good recommendations. Those are competitive and you are competing with the top 10-20% at Stanford. In the Meyerhoff program they are going to get 90% of their students connected with summer internships at top research universities. These require not just good grades but recommendations and connections. To be clear, not every UMBC student gets this attention only Meyerhoff and they are top 1% of the school. Stanford and similar schools do not take a personal interest in pushing their average students into summer internships even though their average students are equivalent or better then typical UMBC students. Of course, everyone at Stanford gets the name recognition, peer competition and great campus/weather but only for undergrad. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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UMBC's bio science programs are actually quite good. Its reputation is much different than it used to be. I know someone who got a full ride to UMBC and is now getting an MD/PhD at an Ivy (with a full ride). She's done a lot of great research along the way, which I'm sure helped her, but that started at UMBC.
Being a standout at UMBC will take her further than mediocre at Stanford. And with less debt, so she can really focus on what she wants to do vs picking a medical specialty because it will pay more. In terms of being more impressed with a doctor from Stanford - I'm admittedly a bit of a snob about these things. So I try to look at this before I go to a new doctor. You will find that most doctors don't even include their undergrad institutions on their websites, hospital websites, etc. Perhaps the Ivy or similar ones do. But in my experience that number must be fairly small, because most doctors don't reference undergrad and only include med school and relevant trainings. |
Anonymous
| Assuming they are roughly economically equivalent propositions, the student should go to UMBC, if and only if he/she can resist ever stating for the rest of their lives, "yes, but I also got into Stanford". They need to own the decision confidently. |