T-14 vs. $$$ Forum

[zjs4]

I'm interested in the balance of prestige and scholarships between schools in the t-14 and schools just outside of it. What if an applicant received scholarship money, in the neighborhood of 20-35 thousand a year, for instance, at a Texas/Vandy/UCLA/GTown level school, but were also accepted at an Michigan/Virginia/Penn/Duke/Northwestern level school for significantly less money, perhaps at sticker. I understand that region and focus needs to be taken into affect in order to answer with the utmost precision, but i'm interested in understanding the balance between a school's reputation and prestige and how much further a name can get you and the money that schools offer. Is it worth it to pay sticker for a MVP level school over a borderline T-14 school that pays?

[MrPapagiorgio]

I would say that we need particular schools here. I would take most of the T14 you described at sticker over 30K/yr UCLA, but not necessarily Vandy or UT.

P.S. Regardless of what you or others want to think, GULC is T14.

[dakatz]

Big scholarships in the neighborhood of 90K to 100K at any of the schools you mentioned in the 15-20 range would be very smart choices compared to sticker at an MVP level school. Don't be fooled by arbitrary rankings cutoffs of what is "T14" and what isn't. Obviously geography plays into this a bit. For example, if you want to end up in the south or southeast and either Texas or Vandy gives you close to 100K, you would be a fool to chose the sticker price school unless its something so head and shoulders above.

[thickfreakness]

Highly, highly dependent upon the kind of work you want to do and the place you want to do it.