Well in Georgia students who graduate with a 3.0 get about 85% off instate tuition and those with a 3.7get free tuition. Last I looked getting into UGA and GT are that much harder and are definitely not like high school. It has worked very well in Georgia for many years.
There should be some free, public option for all students who qualify. But that’s a hope more than a need.
Most importantly, there needs to be a debt-free, public option offered to all residents of a given state. Private university or out of state universities wouldn’t be part of this, it’s not a matter of satisfying a student’s whims but ensuring all are as educated as they deserve and as their state needs. So, an option that doesn’t require taking on the federal loans available for all state residents who got into a public university in that state.
Just 20 years ago, debt-free public university was the NORM. Students could “work their way through” college and taking on debt to attend your public flagship was met with eyerolls. (Even further back: when Pell grants were rolled out, they covered tuition+room&board at an average public university). There has to be a way to get back to a system where students who can get into their instate public university can afford it.
Then, merit aid to incentivize the best students to your university or away from their state school to your OOS school, sure. But the first focus should be affordable/debt free public university for state residents. Georgia, Florida, California all have had their formulas. NYS is trying its own version.
OP lives in PA, where countless students can’t afford their own flagships (“state related” Penn State, Pitt, or Temple). Costs are very high, the universities hardly give any financial aid or merit aid, and the state itself offers very little help either. There aren’t enough universities to commute easily, so sleep away college is required yet unaffordable.
Illinois is another case like this.
Many, many classmates of OP’s won’t be able to attend their “Dream school” but many won’t be able to to attend their flagships either.
I agree that the barebones French universities are uncomfortable and if you have a choice, don’t go there. But there are equally free, selective BTS, IUT and prepa programs with excellent facilities and funding that academically dedicated French students use to bypass the underfunded universities (I’m kind of surprised American students haven’t caught on to these selective free colleges, especially BTS for B students and IUT for A students. In small towns, you could manage with $6,000 all inclusive COA, so even if you had to add a one-year US Master’s degree after the 3-year degree to get career contacts, students would still be well off. Only downside, you really need to speak French well which may add one full year of French language study to the 3-year degree). Of course, there aren’t sport teams, sport facilities, cafes, quads, clubs, social spaces, etc. Students have to organize it all in town on their own.
Making college as affordable as possible/debt free/free is especially important for the same reason we made High School free over 100 years ago, ahead of most other countries: back then, a high school education was important for citizenship and economic reasons. Making high school the norm helped with immigrant integration, citizenship development, providing graduates with needed knowledge and skills, making them career-ready - and ultimately this helped propel the US economy; so did the GI Bill after WW2. Nowadays, most tasks have complexified, we can’t expect to hold the same jobs for our whole career so must be very adaptive with lots of critical thinking skills that comes from college, in short, some form of post-high school education is necessary both for individuals but also for the US’s economic wellbeing. Already we’re having trouble finding qualified employees in many fields - and the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough uneducated people…
That’s why Tennessee made CC free - they realized that for the State’s economy to recover then improve, they needed college-educated residents (vocational certificates, associates, bachelors). Can you imagine how happy most people in PA would be if the first 2 years at the many “branch campuses” became free to all residents?
However our hopes won’t help Op’s daughter who’s feeling betrayed and upset.
She needs to mourn and come to terms with what are, objectively, outstanding choices.
She can keep in mind that there’ll be the NACAC list of colleges that miscalculated yield in early May, to make her get used to the idea of Pitt (or UMD). I doubt she can find better than these two though 
But once she looks at these choices and realizes Pitt is better, she’ll feel better too
@mom517 : have you provided her with the two threads I’d linked to earlier this week? (Misery loves company, and these stories have a good ending.)
That package was worth a chuckle. So, $67,000 in Parent Loans counted as “financial aid”. :o
Frankly it’s almost an admit/deny (don’t tell your daughter). Basically they “admit” her but really deny her because they know there’s no way she can afford it.
I checked this last night. I remember applying to two schools back in 1990. I remember the costs for both of those schools. I ran the inflation calculator for those two from 1990 and compared to now. One school is more than double the rate of inflation and the other is right at double the inflation rate.
I would be fine that the cost of college outpace inflation to a small degree but to outpace by more than double is just crazy.
The overall system is broken. It costs too much to go to college and too hard to get into some schools.
Some selective schools have kept their enrollment the same from 20-40 years ago but there are tons more HS school students in the population now. Simple math makes the selective schools more selective now. Which is why someone paid $1.2M to try to get into Yale this year as a soccer player.
Don’t beat yourself up. I was a bachelor’s student & I taught at a state university in the past 7-10 years & I had NO IDEA! It was at a graduation party about 5 years ago that I was clued into the situation. I am so thankful.
I then made it my ‘mission’ to spread the word / ruin everyone’s day about the current situation. Some listened & some did not. Now that our kids are seniors it’s been interesting to watch.
Having a tuition free option for college, even if it’s just for the first few years would help a lot of people. It still would not be “free”. There would be the loss of income for the students as well as commuting and supply costs. For those who are living in marginal situations, that is challenge enough to scrape up.
Not only would more kids from low income families be able to afford to go to college, so would kids whose parents refuse to pay for school, refuse to even fill out the forms, parents who are just one hot mess so they just can’t can’t do one thing more, would have things a bit easier. They would have that option to continue their education in an environment where that is encouraged. I can think of way too many worse places to spend one ‘s time.
It also makes it a lot easier for adults who skipped the whole college thing to reconsider and give it s whirl. It can be s financial crunch or impossibility to do so for many who could better employment options if they do this.
A better educated populace to me is a winning situation.
The poor generally face much more restrictive cost constraints on their choice of college than the forum demographic of high income “upper middle class that does not get financial aid anywhere”. For some reason, the resentment from the forum demographic against others mostly tends to flow downward against those with lower incomes.
@CupCakeMuffins I recently helped a HS senior with her college search. She and her siblings live with divorced mom, who is very low income and no assets. Yes, she works full time; it just doesn’t pay very well. The dad makes a good income but is unwilling to pay his share. For this reason CSS schools were off the table. Student has a 3.8-3.9 UW GPA with honors but not AP courses. Middling test scores and not in the top 10% of class. She would not be competitive for those generous meets-need schools, and if she were, the dad’s income reported on CSS would result in a figure that the mom cannot pay.
For a kid like this (and there are many), there is very little aid. Pell, Federal student loan, work study and summer income yield a budget of maybe 13-14K. That pretty much adds up to tuition, books, and transportation costs for the commute for a 4 year public college or 2 years at community college and then transfer. Regardless of path, there will be loans to be repaid starting at graduation.
It is a very rare, exceptional, low-income kid who has the social capital and/or teacher and family support to navigate the college admissions system to a successful admissions and financial outcome at an elite college. By way of comparison, there is an active thread started by a DACA student who has the requisite stats and has followed the right steps, yet does not have an affordable acceptance. We are all rooting for him.
For the OP, I hope that your child is able to gain some perspective over time and to appreciate the gift of a residential college experience at a well-ranked school, even if it is not her first choice. I predict that if she ends up at Pitt, by the end of her first semester, she will not be imagining herself anywhere else.
I haven’t read all 14 pages of this thread so maybe this frank assessment was already offered… Financial reality is one of the first discussions to have with your child - maybe you were banking on more merit $ like a half/full ride somewhere, but that is too great a gamble to put all your eggs in that basket - especially when applying to selective private schools. Less expensive schools or slightly less selective universities that would LOVE to pay her to attend their school should have been on her list! My state school is about $25 all in (in-state tuition of course) so even Penn State (I think I read you were from PA) as one of the most expensive state schools for in-state students is only $35k all-in - with your $25K, it’d only have been an extra $10K (assuming no merit $) for your daughter to bear - $40K is a lot easier to deal with than nearly $200k.
@mom517 Re comparison of housing costs at Pitt v UMD, be careful about checking the off campus housing cost for UMD. The campus area is up and coming with a lot of new development, the Purple Line coming, and rentals are quite expensive in safe areas of Silver Spring. Food, gas, I would think everything would be higher in MoCo than Pittsburgh.
I wanted to come back and provide an update and thank everyone for the continued replies. We are still in limbo. Considering some other options but have taken a step back and a much needed breather. So much great information provided here and support via PM’s. I also hope that others will benefit from our experience. When we get this figured out I wlll post the outcome. Thanks!
@mom517 I feel your Nova pain from a few pages back. Our financing option is $54,932! Sub and unsub are $5500 and a villanova grant of $9900. S19, also engineering, has access to a tuition benefits as hubby works at a college. Trouble is I didn’t inquire if they are offering any this year before he applied. And they are not as they have sophomores waiting from last year. It’s not a best fit for him, but I sure wish I knew that none would be considered.
What if this country started taking 10% of everybody’s pay and then offered free public university for four years?
Admission at public universities would become more competitive.
High income earners would still contribute more than lower income earners.
Some people would still opt to send their child to expensive private schools.
Update: We committed to UMD yesterday : ) It was a long journey with a happy ending. My D felt at home at UMD and I could tell that she had found her people. I hope the situation that unfolded over the many pages of this thread will help someone/some families out there. Whether it is before something like this happens or after. It was crushing and it was hard for my D to decline those acceptances. I sat with her. But then we jumped into her new home and housing and dining and SWAG lol. Thanks to everyone on this thread and all of you that messaged me so many times and spent so much time providing me with advice and ideas and emails and stats. Now I am going to need to figure our the 529/student loan stuff : ) Go TERPS!
Congratulations!
Good news!
Yay - congrats! My high stat kid is doing similar this week! On Wisconsin and hooray to an affordable debt free high quality education.
I guess I’m still missing how UMD is affordable based on the information you provided. But OK. Congrats.
Is this the school you chose? She can’t borrow $112,000, and if you borrow it for her the likelihood that you’ll be approved to borrow anything for your other children is slim.
I don’t think the OP is planning to borrow $112k as a parent plus loan, but she COULD and then she could borrow for other children. The PLUS loan qualifications only are that the parent has no defaulted on other government loans, that the parent has not filed for bankruptcy and is current on major debts.
Many people have done in, including the governors of Maryland (O’Malley) and Indiana (current VP Pence).
UMD is $38,680 for OPs DD. With $80k in the 529, $20k will bring down cost to $18680. Direct loans to $13130. How OP and DD intend to cover that amount, I don’t know.
If the $18680 gap left after scholarship and savings was applied is split in half, that would mean $9340 for Mom to pay with loans and out of current income. The D would have the same $9340 , but with $5500 direct loan, she could come up with rest through summer employment , graduation money gifts and working during the school year $3840 is doable for a freshman who has all summer to make s dent in that amount.
Mom and the other kids will take hit $3840 for the year and for payback of the $5500 loan if she decides to match her daughter in loans and current earnings.
We can see how a college bill split between student and parent can be met with past, present and future incomes. Parent saved via 529. Hoping student has something to throw in there from savings too. Then current work paychecks starting now and through the summer and school year for the present. Borrow the rest.