4 ms·

If you land in the Ivy league, then yes the price tag might be worth it. Who wouldn't hire an MIT engineer, or an Harvard Lawyer if they can afford it? But if y

If you land in the Ivy league, then yes the price tag might be worth it. Who wouldn't hire an MIT engineer, or an Harvard Lawyer if they can afford it? But if you are not at the top schools why rack up the same type of student debt while you can get the same level anywhere else in the world? If your field is cultural then yes studying in the country in which it is more pertinent makes sense (Why study Japanese literature in Italy just to illustrate). But if your field is technical, or removed enough from local culture then looking around makes all the sense in the world. But frankly there is plenty of schools that I regard as highly as MIT, CMU and such that are Europe (Polytech Paris, Poly Lausanne, Normal School of Pisa, Poly Milan, ... I am forgetting a lot) or Asia (Tokyo Tech) and while you might need to get a loan for some costs it will never get to US levels (I studied in Unis in Italy, France and Japan to get my BS and MS and all my loans were exactly EUR15000 by the time I found a job ... I had part-times and Scholarships but those were not hard to get, and I had declared bankruptcy I could have gotten rid of those since I took those loans in Europe).

seanmcdirmid 11y ago
Schools like EPFL are good, but I wouldn't say they were as selective as MIT. I guess its a subjective measure. I got my undergraduate degree at UW, needed no loans at all (that was a different time though).
- peterfirefly 11y ago
  Isn't EPFL one of the top places in the world for micromechanics and possibly also microelectronics due to the clock making heritage?
  - saryant 11y ago
    It's also the birthplace of Scala.
    - Chronic31 11y ago
      Scala is a dying language.
  - seanmcdirmid 11y ago
    All good universities have unique accomplishments.
maehwasu 11y ago
Of course if you can land in the Ivy League, or at least in the top half of it, you won't have any tradeoffs to make: the financial aid for families making less than $100K has gotten really good at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford (I think MIT as well, not sure on the other Ivies). I made a slight profit in my final year at Harvard, combining financial aid with 5-10 hours a week of part-time work. Obviously it was nice for me, but it's sort of gross, in that the kids who need aid least (based on future earning potential) get copious amounts of it, while others are (in my opinion) scammed into onerous, non-dischargeable loans, with lower earning potential to boot.
santaclaus 11y ago
MIT and CMU are not in the Ivy League!

seanmcdirmid 11y ago

Schools like EPFL are good, but I wouldn't say they were as selective as MIT. I guess its a subjective measure. I got my undergraduate degree at UW, needed no loans at all (that was a different time though).

peterfirefly 11y ago
Isn't EPFL one of the top places in the world for micromechanics and possibly also microelectronics due to the clock making heritage?
- saryant 11y ago
  It's also the birthplace of Scala.
  - Chronic31 11y ago
    Scala is a dying language.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  All good universities have unique accomplishments.

maehwasu 11y ago

Of course if you can land in the Ivy League, or at least in the top half of it, you won't have any tradeoffs to make: the financial aid for families making less than $100K has gotten really good at Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Stanford (I think MIT as well, not sure on the other Ivies). I made a slight profit in my final year at Harvard, combining financial aid with 5-10 hours a week of part-time work. Obviously it was nice for me, but it's sort of gross, in that the kids who need aid least (based on future earning potential) get copious amounts of it, while others are (in my opinion) scammed into onerous, non-dischargeable loans, with lower earning potential to boot.

santaclaus 11y ago

MIT and CMU are not in the Ivy League!