Grad school: prestigious university in faraway expensive city vs. state univerity and live at home?

Question

I am thinking about applying to grad school, and I am debating between aiming for a prestigious school in NYC or just applying to the local state school and paying in-state tuition and living at home for free with my parents. I figure there's at least a $100,000 price difference, with the former being much costlier. People say that going to a "better" school will pay off in the end, but still, it's $100,000... what should I do?

Answer 1

Depends on which graduate program. It's good to have a name brand doctorate? But for something like Masters in education? State schoool will be more than sufficient.

Why is this true? Because with a doctoral degree, it's likely you will be going into academia or some higher eschelon, career-wise. Jobs are tight and competitive. you need to credentials to get a position.

But for many masters degrees, the simple virtue of having one is sufficient. okay, so a State U MBA might not be enough to make you a high VP at Morgan Stanley, but it'll get you a good management gig at many other smaller firms.

For my MPH (public health grad degree), I was choosing between 2 expensive private universities. Comparable tuition. Comparable reputation. One was three time zones away from my family. The other was about 110 miles from my family. Rents were more $$$ at the farther school. So ultimately I chose the closer school.

Answer 2

In another post, you asked about speech pathology -- no difference between the two programs, pay wise later. You work for a school system at a negotiated rate (the certification is plenty) between you and them, a hospital at a standard pay, a nursing or rehab center at a standard pay, or on your own, from what I recall. In no case has anyone made a determination of your worth based on the prestige of the program.. Further, there is not exactly a glut of speech pathologists out there, so unless you were planning on entering the research arena in a research university (in which case NYU would be the one), you should succeed well at the local school. Do yourself a favor, though, don't live at home. Part of the act of graduate school is the scholarly interaction between you and your peers, and living at home kind of inhibits you from interacting in non-academic ways, which are still valuable in creating those future colleague relationships.

Answer 3

I'm living on campus this year, and actually my mom is making me. She wants me to get the full college experience, especially since i'm so shy. She knows if i were to stay home i would literally never do anything or see anyone. So as convenient as it would be, staying home would be bad for me socially. I like the idea of it though. I kind of get to call my own shots in a relatively controlled setting (baby steps). I'm responsible for myself but i still have my mom near by. I feel like if i lived at home it would be like it always has been, which has been nice but it wouldn't help me much. I think it all depends on who you are. I have several friends that are commuting and it works for them because they are outgoing friendly people. Being at home doesn't hold them back, ya know?