So at ~$80K/year, it will come out to $320K/year for a 4 year degree. Do people (not counting financial need scholarships here) really pay that kind of money by the end of 4 years? Or is that the maximum you might pay because most kids will make up some of that money through scholarships/internships after you are in college (not sure how many kids get any merit scholarships as incoming freshmen).
We are no where close to being admitted but hypothetically wondering if it’s worth taking a chance to join the kid hoping he/she will get some money later. Big risk I agree but if in general the idea is “Nah…don’t worry about the sticker price presented on website. Almost everyone gets some kind of scholarship/internship after they join in the next 4 years and people actually end up paying only say 3/4 or 2/3 of what’s mentioned out there” or something of that sort, I’d be more comfortable. Thanks.
Agreed that there are lots of full pay students at NU.
Run the NPC. If you are getting a full pay figure, that’s what you need to budget/plan for.
If you have a kid who is planning on engineering, you may be able to plan on internship $ but I wouldn’t budget more than 2 summers worth in your calculations.
There are plenty of full pay students at every expensive school. Either their parents have high income or inherited wealth or just decent earners with frugal lifestyle, who consider elite education best inheritance/gift for their children and are willing to make financial sacrifices to give children an advantage in life. Usually dual income families with only one or two kids.
About 46%–less than half–of the undergraduate students receive financial aid packages averaging about $52,000 per year.
Annual total COA (cost of attendance) is about $76,500 which includes tuition, fees, room & board, and estimated cost of books and supplies. Add in travel to and from school and $78,000 seems to be a more reasonable figure for students from the continental US.
Don’t send your kid to a school you can’t afford because you hope they will get money later. Whatever the NPC says you will likely have to pay is what you should plan on paying. Many people pay it. Many choose other options due to financial reasons.
It’s a poor value for a bachelors degree, even with financial aid. Why parents pay it defies all rational logic. Accredited degrees that are just as good or better can be found for a fraction of the cost elsewhere.
Lookup the term “donut hole” with regards to financial aid. It all comes down to EFC and the NPC for colleges. Don’t expect merit at top schools unless your child has stellar stats and even then it’s no guarantee. Also, don’t expect FA above a certain income.
We have 2 children. We’ve saved but nowhere near $600k+ to send both to private schools full-pay. Income is good to but again, not $75k/year good times two for at least 3 years when both kids will be in college.
Once you get outside the top 30-40 schools then merit scholarships become much more realistic and in larger amounts. At least to the point where they come close to our in-state flagship cost. That’s just the reality today.
It’s best to have these discussions with your kids before the process begins. Set a budget. Just because you have a high EFC doesn’t mean you should spend that amount for college. Just like a pre-mortgage. We were approved for much more house than we were comfortable spending.
In the next few weeks you’ll see threads from parents like “my kid got into XYZ and loves it but we can’t afford $75k/year, what do we do?” Not a situation you want to be in with your kids.
OP Ken Jennings asks how do people afford to pay for expensive private colleges and universities. The easy answer might be to dip into one’s Jeopardy winnings.
Otherwise, it seems affordable to just over half of the families presumably due to healthy incomes from 2 wage earners.
Comes down to savings, income, and what you want for your kids (not a judgement on anything or anyone, just what you think would be good for your kids).
We are full pay at an expensive private school and will be adding another kid to the college equation next yr. I make a good living (not amazing but good) and we have been saving exactly for this purpose for a long time. Now we could easily have told our oldest to go to state flagship or other quality less expensive school but we wanted to provide what we consider the best opportunity for him (and now his sister). Plain and simple.
Others will argue that it’s not necessary, waste of money, could get the same results at a lower price tag, blah blah blah. We’ll never know and I don’t really concern myself with what others think. You do what you feel is best for your kids without putting yourself at financial risk. Whatever works for you.
I find it amazing that many will just say you can get the same results at a lower price tag. “We will never know” is the key phrase. Our S is in his senior year at an expensive private school. We are full-pay, but money was not an issue in his attendance. Let me repeat that: money was not an issue. Could he have had the same academic and social experiences at a lower cost? I have no way of knowing the answer to that, and guess what? No one else can answer that question either. All I can say is that I’m over-the-top satisfied with money we invested. Would I do it again? Yes! Actually, we’ll be doing that again with our D soon…
“Do people really pay that kind of money by the end of 4 years?”
To attend a school at the level of NW? You betcha they do!
Even at the uber-richest schools top tier schools (i.e. HYPS), the full pay percentage is still 35-40%.
The full pay percentage goes up from there as you move into the still wealthy (but not uber-wealthy) top 5-25 schools (think NW, Vandy, ND, Duke, Gtown). Probably 50-55% full pay at that level. The NY Times database says 53% of NW students come from top 10% families. Those are your full payors right there.
As you move into the 25-50 band (think Tulane), then the full pay percentage starts to decline. Primarily because schools have to start to shell out merit aid (aka discounts) in order to enroll strong stat students. By the time you get to #75 (say Fordham), 75% of the students are getting merit aid (i.e. discounts).
Why do the top tier schools get so many people to pay the very high sticker price? Because they can. And why do those full pay families pay that high price? Because they can.
Look at the Lori Loughlin scandal. There’s people out there ready/willing/able to pay way way more than $80k a year to have their kids attend certain desire-able schools.
There’s tons of great college options for your family/kid at prices far below $80k. But (depending on individual circumstances) that school is more likely to be Fordham than NW. Whether the $80k is “worth it” is probably the #1 topic discussed here on CC.
Some people are rich enough that $320,000 is no problem at all. Some people are poor enough that they get great need based financial aid.
There are a lot of us that are stuck in the middle. A lot of us just cannot afford this and do not qualify for need based financial aid. Some of us have the problem that we are so close to retirement that we cannot pay off parent+ loans after the kids graduate because we will not be employed. I know people who own farms or small businesses that could not possibly afford this because of the way that the financial aid formula considers the value of the farm or small business. We attend public universities. A few of us go abroad.
I have noticed, and at least two personnel people have agreed, that increasingly the top graduates that we are seeing to hire are coming from public universities. The cost of attendance is a big reason for this. I don’t think that this is a problem for either companies that hire top graduates from public schools or for the graduates themselves.
We can’t have this debate about worth or value here as this forum’s demographics aren’t really balanced, most of us here are trying to find aid, merit or other affordable solutions. Not many top earners or old money folks are lurking here trying to figure out the best value. They already know it’s worth and are using their money and seasoned college consultants to get their children into these schools.
The best discount is saving in a 529. You can actually get a 50% discount if you save from birth. $150k of earnings socked away in a 529 can turn into $300k over 18 years. Tax free on the growth.
Play with NU’s Quick College Cost Estimator (linked above). I put in a very generous $200,000 annual income, then sort of median values for home and savings and guess what? NU will still give $30,000/yr in financial need grants! And zero loans!
And OP, you will know your exact grant at the time of acceptance.
All of NU’s merit scholarships have a need or special status (kid of alumni, faculty etc). Only National Merit Scholarship doesn’t have any special requirement but it’s barely a pinch of salt at $500 per year.
It seems Duke, Rice and Vanderbilt are the only T20 where high EFC/full pay applicants can be eligible for some good merit scholarships if they get selected.