<p>Um, that’s an interesting formula. You’re willing to pay $5K extra for a school that allows you to “show off”…</p>
<p>@ace550: some people might find your system wrong because you are willing to pay more for prestige, but I think that you have devised a system that every person who is applying to college should adapt, adjust for certain situations of course.</p>
<p>And the system I am talking about is set agreed on amount of money made between the parents and the student/their child about college finances. If these colleges don’t offer COA - what we can pay, then you cannot attend. It is straight forwardness like that, that will stop this “debt” situation.</p>
<p>The current system most people use is cast a wide net and somehow make it work for the #1 school you get into. I don’t even have to tell everyone how awful that idea is.</p>
<p>I am not a proponent for sending kids to prestigious schools. My twin boys are in our state flagship school and enjoyed very much there. But, each kid is different.</p>
<p>I think many parents would be willing to pay a Prestige Premium. The amount depends upon the major and the EFC. </p>
<p>$5K is not a big amount if he can get into a top school. People buys BMW’s and the price of showing off is probably higher than $5K. </p>
<p>Yes, each family is different. wmurphy126 is exactly right. This is a way I would like to discuss with DS3 so that he can quantity the value of each school he applies. He has been disappointed by not winning the FED challenges that he put so much into it (with no help from the school teacher). I am afraid that it would be all over again in April next year. If no matches can be made, we can get it over quickly. </p>
<p>The only drawback is that he may be so coolheaded that he would refuse to get the $20 K loan himself even if he can get admission to one of the schools.</p>
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<p>Things could get interesting if/when a child changes majors. Premeds turn into history majors; students gung-ho on IR discover they love comp sci. </p>
<p>$5k for showing off over four years works out to $1,250 per year. I can’t decide if that’s a bargain or tremendously overpriced. Maybe it really amortizes out over a lifetime of bragging about your kid? But by the time my kids are done with college, I’d want to be bragging about other things–jobs, accomplishments, hypothetical spouses and even more hypothetical grandchildren who will surely be the cutest things ever seen. Yeah, that’s only four years of bragging off of college. Meanwhile, if I were to get a BMW, I could use that for bragging purposes for the 20 year life of the car. That sounds much more practical. 
:D</p>
<p>I wouldn’t pay a “prestige premium,” but I would pay a “quality premium” for an amazing program that happened to be at a prestigious school. Admittedly, there aren’t many examples.</p>
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<p>Gee…I thought that was PER YEAR.</p>
<p>Thumper, $5k a year would be $13.70 of bragging per day for the four years, no time off. In order to make this worthwhile, I would have to talk constantly about my child’s college to my coworkers, quickly making me persona non grata. Next round of layoffs comes, and I’d be toast. Can’t chance that. :)</p>
<p>"ld you walk into car dealership, and pick out a car that you want (or worse your kid picks out that car ), without knowing what the price will be? I feel that is what many colleges are doing to us. The more ambiguous the process, the more applications, that they get from us that are hoping for ( aid)</p>
<p>How we approached oldest school search.
Applied to three instate schools, one Oos where she qualified for aid. ( she didn’t apply to more schools because we couldn’t afford it. Didn’t qualify for waivers) Accepted to all, received Governors award if she went instate, also received honors award from one instate school.
Took a year off. Next year applied to same schools, plus a reach private that met 100% need. Accepted and chose to attend the private school.</p>
<p>It wasn’t difficult and didn’t involve game playing or second guessing.
We looked at schools we could afford without aid besides Stafford loans.
If we couldn’t have afforded instate tuition, we would have continued to look at community colleges. ( she had applied to a community college program, but it was very competitive)</p>
<p>emerald: Do you think she would have gotten the 100% of need from the private reach school a year earlier (if she applied) or do you think waiting a year was what did it?</p>
<p>Don’t get worked up too much about the $5k. DS3’s HS has a few students out of 800 going to top schools every year. The $5k may be worthwhile if your kid is one of the few who prop up school’s stats and who inspiring younger students and their parents can look up to. If you think it is worth nothing, just assign a zero to it as long as your student agrees to it. </p>
<p>The risk adjustment is the variable you can use to assess if your student can be successful (find a good job) or not. If you have doubt, the risk ratio could be 50% and your risk of wasting the prestige premium is reduced. The important point is that you and your student need to make an honest assessment so that the decision process could be less emotional.</p>
<p>I have only shared the rough idea about the risk premium with DS3. However, he has become more interested in the full-ride scholarship in our state school. At this point, we agree that he will apply broadly and seriously. We will go through the process if opportunities arise.</p>
<p>" emerald: Do you think she would have gotten the 100% of need from the private reach school a year earlier (if she applied) or do you think waiting a year was what did it?"</p>
<p>I havent really thought about it frankly, she only applied because our neighbor had gone there and told us they had good financial aid. ( although apparently they didn’t give such a good aid package to another young man in his class —[Prodigal</a> Son](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/december2011/articles/features/jobs/jobs.html]Prodigal”>Prodigal Son | Reed Magazine) )
She didn’t apply there as a senior, because she had always planned to attend our state lac.
However what seems like a great school in the fall of jr year, is perhaps a little provincial, spring of senior year.
She had planned to take a year off from spring of senior year ( before acceptances), and in the fall decided to apply to the private school just to see ( & because she liked the idea of a cat dorm).
I think she would have been happy going to the public lac, but she may have changed her major.
The private school meets 100% of need to everyone they accept. ( she wouldn’t have applied to a private school that didn’t)
They do however use PROFILE, so some families may have an EFC much higher than Fafsa.
However, that also may mean that they accept a lot of students who only need $4,000. I am not really sure. I know that lots of her friends had tuition paid by trust funds or parents who were profs at Princeton. The school isn’t need blind.</p>
<p>Her hook may have been that she had taken a year off, or it could have been that she was first gen college. I think she would have been accepted if she had applied senior year, but her year off allowed her to mature more and get more out of it once she got there.</p>