| I went to a state school, going to an Ivy was never in the realm of possibility for me. But I do have friends from said state school that went on to grad school programs at MIT. From my perspective they seemed to have gotten the best of both worlds. A cheap but solid education and network at a very good state school where they could be top of the class among small fish rather than middle of the pack among big fish, and then a world class 4-6 year grad school research program that launched them into the upper echelons of the tech industry. They essentially beat the game. A lot of good advice ITT already, so I'll just deposit my 2c: 1. If you're good enough to get accepted, you're probably going to be successful regardless of the path you choose. 2. If you go grad school route, that $180k is going to hang over you for the next 10 years, have a plan to service the interest. 3. You can probably enter the industry making $200k/yr minimum. 4. FOMO and regret are powerful but not fatal, status games entails their own burdens too. 5. It's really really hard to plan years in advance, especially when you're young. The thing you want today, you might not want tomorrow. The world will change and you will change, thus altering the calculus of desire. The advice I was given that served me well was make plans that maximize opportunity, rather than only focusing on creating linear paths to singular opportunities themselves. For ex. if MIT opens 10x more doors than Z, I'd opt for MIT, but if it's only say 2x I may lean towards Z. 6. Follow your heart, and good luck :) |