college help

[myusername]

i am a sophomore in high school...i want to do something in computers (not sure what though) and i am not sure what college would be better for what i want to do...i have the choice of going to the University of Alabama (which i will have to pay for)... and my great uncle (who is LOADED but i don't know him very well but he loves my dad) gave me this sweet deal that if i went to Georgia tech he would pay for about 30 thousand dollars of it...the only thing i need to know is what is better for what i want? any experiences? ups or downs to ether school?

i want to take my uncles deal but i don't really want to leave all my friends..but i guess ill just have to

[tamoneya]

I am going to predict you will have better luck with Georgia Tech. It isnt just a state university. I have visited Georgia tech but not University of Alabama so I can say for certain though. You are going to make plenty of friends though anyways in college so I wouldn't worry about it that much.

Also you are still a sophomore. You have plenty of time to decide where to go. You should be keeping your mind open to different schools as you will probably apply to several and make your decision based upon where you got accepted.

[warbread]

Go with the thirty grand!!!

Here's the deal: school is expensive. I know because I'm working to pay for it. I work 8 hours a night on a grave shift, and while I'm pretty well off, and it gives me time to do my homework, I am exhausted at the end of my 16 hour "days", and that's if I'm lucky. For my last finals, I had to stay up for 40 hours straight. Have you ever tried to think or drive having been up for 40 hours, let alone speak French, Russian and take 4 large tests? Two words. F*** that (A's and B's, by the way). Go with school that's paid for. Get a part time job. Get AWAY from where you grew up. Stretch. Grow. Meet new people. See new places.

Your friends? Let me tell you, the friends that you have who are not going to college, or who will drop out, will start resenting you and what you do. They will distract you. They will hold you back. Your life now might be great fun, but in order to really grow up, it has to end. Make the change. Plan on Georgia tech.

[maniacmusician]

+1 to tamoneya's post. High school friends are great, but realistically, there will only be a handful, maybe even 2 or 3 that you'll be close enough with to keep in touch years down the line. And you will definitely make tons more friends at college. I found that I was very close to the people that I lived with, and I found a lot of interesting people through my classes, and I go to a really small school. A big place like Georgia Tech shouldn't give you any trouble at all, socially speaking.

And yes, Georgia Tech is a way better choice for computer-related things than Alabama State. I have a couple of friends who go there actually, and really like it. They're always bragging about their huge DC++ network though :)

[Atomic Dog]

Run the numbers.

GT cost per school year ($34,737) x 4 (allow for 5% cost increase each year) - 30k = your student loan that you will have to pay.

U of A resident cost per year ($13,700) x 4 years (add the 5% per year) = your loan.

These prices include food and housing.

Lets look at what you will be paying when you get out with a degree:

GT:
Loan Balance: $114,000.00
Loan Interest Rate: 6.80%
Loan Term: 10 years
Monthly Loan Payment: $1,311.92
Number of Payments: 120
Cumulative Payments: $157,429.67
Total Interest Paid: $43,429.67
It is estimated that you will need an annual salary of at least $157,430.40 to be able to afford to repay this loan. This estimate assumes that 10% of your gross monthly income will be devoted to repaying your student loans.

U of A:
Loan Balance: $57,000.00
Loan Interest Rate: 6.80%
Loan Term: 10 years
Monthly Loan Payment: $655.96
Number of Payments: 120
Cumulative Payments: $78,714.84
Total Interest Paid: $21,714.84
It is estimated that you will need an annual salary of at least $78,715.20 to be able to afford to repay this loan. This estimate assumes that 10% of your gross monthly income will be devoted to repaying your student loans.

Well from the looks of things I'd take the resident rates at U of A personally. You get a CS degree and you'll make well enough to make those loan payments.

[Jive Turkey]

I would take the 30k offer unless you can get a full ride scholarship at a better school. Strive for that and the worst you can do is GTech. I don't want to insult anybody but Alabama is kind of considered the rectum of the United States.

[myusername]

thanks guys for your posts...


Alabama is kind of considered the rectum of the United States.
i am not offended, but how did you come to that conclusion? Alabama is a great school, it has been dominating other schools academically from what i have read

yeah i am shooting for a scholorship...i am taking every extra class i can take, playing every sport that i can play, i am my churches youth president (my mom said it would look good on a resume) and trying for senior president when i get there. lol i could graduate next year if i wanted to

[Atomic Dog]

Listen kid, I have worked with some extremely successful business professionals with a state university education. There is nothing wrong with a state university education. You get out of it what you put into it.

[acelin]

Work your butt off, score a really high math ACT, and you can get it paid for. Shoot for a 32 plus in math.

[acelin]

I would take the 30k offer unless you can get a full ride scholarship at a better school. Strive for that and the worst you can do is GTech. I don't want to insult anybody but Alabama is kind of considered the rectum of the United States.

This man is ignorant. I believe that is actually Washington D.C.
:lolflag:

[SoulinEther]

I am a Senior in HS and I just had to make the most difficult decision of my life, today no less:

Go to UCLA, be near my family, dorm, and (with the grace of a Regent's Scholarship) pay next to nothing.. or.. go all the way across the country to Trinity College in Connecticut - a small, secular liberal arts college that I feel nobody has ever heard of - and pay only some because of their excellent financial aid. Both offer a pretty good education from what I can gather, and each has their strengths and weaknesses.

Let me tell you this: worry less about college and just do well in high school. You still have 2 years to go, and 2 years to improve in any way that you can, or to continue doing well. When it comes down to college choice, it can really pay off. I can't speak for the college experience, though... yet. Just.. make those 2 years count!

And don't worry about your decision yet. It's needless stress, and fodder for procrastination. Circumstances can completely change in 2 years. I thought I wanted to go to Northwestern, or NYU, last year. I didn't, really, in the end: I didn't even apply there. Just make sure you get all your apps out on time for every college/university you think you want to go to or for the top ones you can afford applying to (don't forget to factor in stuff like application fees and SAT/ACT score-sending fees), and start worrying once you actually hear back from the colleges, lol, otherwise you might start thinking "I would quite fancy myself attending school xxx" like I did with Stanford or Yale, and (of course) they rejected me. Hell, they reject almost everybody, and I shouldn't have been so pretentious, even in my own head.

Consider class size, and how that affects your learning process. Consider if you want to move on to grad school: consider name recognition and what kind of research each school does. (I'm just trying to pass on some questions I had to answer in order to make my decision on to you...). And remember, ultimately, it should be your decision, and unless its really a huge issue, because it's the difference between being $200,000 in debt or $50,000, money shouldn't be _THE_ deciding factor. It can be a factor, but as long as you get a good job, it shouldn't be too difficult to pay off.

Watch, I say all this stuff and 20 years from now I'm still working to pay off college loans.. haha.

[myusername]

thanks guys its two a.m here and i am behind im homework...did i mention i am homeschooled? lol well its not exactly its considered more of a private school (we have sports and stuff) and we have this thing going where you take classes from other teachers its really laid back kinda like taking college courses

[drato]

Run the numbers.

GT cost per school year ($34,737) x 4 (allow for 5% cost increase each year) - 30k = your student loan that you will have to pay.


I'm a GT student (and CS major) and one thing to note for financial reasons is that you may not graduate in 4 years. A single failed class or not sticking to your prescribed schedule can mean an extra semester or two; a fair number of people (most likely myself included) take 5+ years to graduate.

As to friendships, I've found much better friends since coming to college than I ever knew in high school; while those high school friendships may seem lasting now, you'd be surprised how quickly you can fall out of touch with people after graduation. I only keep in touch with a couple of people from HS, and that's only because they're either at Gatech or other local schools. You'll make plenty of new friends in college; don't worry about that.

While I can't speak for UA, GT's computer science program is really great. In the past couple of years the College of Computing has introduced what they call the "threads" program, 8 different focus areas of which you choose at least two to build your degree. The result of this that you get a great deal of flexibility in your degree and can choose to focus on those parts of CS that really interest you (e.g. operating, theory & networking to name a few). Here's the College of Computing website (http://www.cc.gatech.edu/education/undergrad/bscs) for more information.

Either way, you've still got 2 years of high school ahead of you; there's no rush to pick a school right away. Besides, 2 years down the line you may decide you want to go into another field, there's no sense in getting dead-set on a single track this far ahead. Other than that, my advice to you is to take some time to visit these schools and any others you might want to go to; different schools have very different atmospheres, and you may find you prefer one to the other after having seen them.

P.S. My Apologies for any bad grammar/spelling; 4 AM and English do not tend to mix well.

[warbread]

Run the numbers.

GT cost per school year ($34,737) x 4 (allow for 5% cost increase each year) - 30k = your student loan that you will have to pay.



How long would he have to live there to become a resident? I thought you just had to live in the area for a year to get resident rates.