$250k for Harvey Mudd College or $60k for UC Riverside with Honors?
This application season I got into both Harvey Mudd College (HMC) and UC Riverside (UCR) with honors for their engineering programs. HMC only does general engineering and I got into UCR for mechanical engineering. However, HMC didn’t give me much aid and it would be about $63k per year to attend while UCR is about $15k/yr. Apparently it’s so different because of a bunch of financial jargon about illiquid assets. I have been thinking about this for nearly three months and still can’t decide whether or not engineering at harvey mudd is worth the extra $190k.
I really like the community and energy of HMC and value its prestige but i’m really not sure it’s worth so much more money. I also read online that UCR’s honors programs is pretty good and gives a version of HMC’s smaller student body as well as priority registration. Obviously, if they both were equal in cost I would choose HMC, but given the price difference the choice is not at all obvious to me anymore.
I was thinking about whether or not I’d do a master’s program afterwards which matters because employers care more about your grad school name than your undergrad name. That would make HMC seem less attractive of an investment.
If I go to UCR, I will likely try to transfer to a different UC/CSU but I fully understand that I might just stay there for my entire undergrad. I also will probably change my major to electrical or biomedical engineering.
I’m not really thinking about community college at all, but would value any input to help me decide on my college path. 🙏