Reply to Yale vs Penn State - Your Honest Opinion Please

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Reply to "Yale vs Penn State - Your Honest Opinion Please"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]First of all, I just want to acknowledge how lucky my DS is to have these two choices, but, as a family we are very much torn between the two.

We are in a very fortunate position to be able to afford both schools BUT Yale would be an additional ~35k/year. Now, my husband is in favor of Penn State purely from a financial perspective - his thinking is that, if the education is exactly the same, why pay 35k more? His thinking is that if he goes to Penn State, that 35k could be then put towards either graduate school (if DS decides to go or for a house down payment). DS loves Yale, and wants to go there.

I am in the middle, I can see the financial argument but I am concerned that my son might miss out on a unique opportunity....so we are stuck.

I am posting here because I'd very much appreciate your perspective - if the education he will receive is pretty much the same at Yale and Penn State, then what other non-academic factors should we be weighing and thinking about?

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It depends on what MAJOR.  If he’s admitted to liberal arts or social science majors, definitely YALE hands down.  Cost does not matter.  A Yale degree is worth the cost no matter what.

But if he will study engineering, that’s a completely different story.  Look at US News engineering rankings and rankings by engineering departments and specialties.  I can’t speak for all engineering, but in EE, Yale is less than impressive.  Believe me, tech companies know that.  A degree in EE from many state schools are regarded more highly than a Yale EE degree.

I saw an NYT article.  See readers’ comments in the link below (if you have NYT subscription or maybe you can read it for free.)  A teacher of 28 years at LAUSD and lecturer at UCLA School of Education said well:  It’s about the major, not the school.  From an income perspective, a degree in gender studies from Harvard is unlikely to result higher income than a CS degree from Univ. of Mississippi.  I have a friend who graduated from H Kennedy School of Govt in the late 80’s.  His first job was with BofA.  He said at least back then banks were willing to train Ivy graduates regardless of major.  He told me that it’s no longer true, unless that Ivy grad with a liberal arts/social science degree is also strong in math.  He said nowadays they would rather hire a math or physics graduate from a state school.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/opinion/letters/college-choices.html
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