Accepted to Ivies & chose an Ivy over non Ivy with generous merit aid?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've read plenty of arguments as to why kids/parents went with lower ranked or non Ivy schools because merit aid was so generous. </p>

<p>I'd love to hear reasoning from the other side if the coin. Let's say with an Ivy you're on the hook still for $20-30k or more per year. What's the positive in paying that to attend an Ivy?</p>

2

<p>Everyone’s case is different. Why draw the line at 20-30k when many choose to pay full price for attending a college they want to attend when something cheaper might be available to them?</p>

3

<p>An extra $20k to $30k may be pocket change to some wealthy and generous parents, but could make a school unaffordable if the family cannot afford to pay that extra amount.</p>

4

<p>Yes, it depends on the specific family. One set of parents may highly value prestige in a school and will pay a lot for their child to go to an Ivy League institution.</p>

<p>Then again, Ivies have great need-based aid, so for most middle-class families, they are affordable. For very rich families, they usually can pay most of the sticker price. However, even then a very wealthy family may not care a bean about prestige and urge their child to take a full-tuition/full-ride. </p>

<p>Nobody is really “wrong”, it’s just personal circumstances and net price calculators that dictate whether or not a prestigious school is worth the extra couple hundred thousand $.</p>

5

<p>There are some parents who happily pay a lot more to send their kid to a school with a big name…like an ivy. If they can do it without big loans then super!</p>

<p>There can be all kinds of reasons that people choose one way or another. </p>

<p>Even though ivies and similar may have excellent aid for middle class families, I see a lot of children of divorced homes choosing large merit schools because most of the top schools require NCP info and many NCP parents either won’t provide the info or refuse to contribute…so the custodial parent can’t afford to pay both households’ contributions. </p>

<p>Last year I helped a student who had been accepted to MIT. But, his NPC refused to help pay and that household’s income added at least another $13k to the “family contribution” and mom couldn’t pay the contribution calculated for both households. The mom’s household’s “family contribution” was likely around $10k, which she could barely pay, so there was no way she could also pay the NCP’s share. </p>

<p>So, the student opted to accept the large merit at another school which had a remaining cost of about $13k…so a student loan covers 5500 and the mom is paying the remaining $7500.</p>

6

<p>Depends on the major. I might pay more at an Ivy if there was a significant career benefit. I wouldn’t pay more for an Ivy for engineering. Only Stanford and maybe MIT would I pay more for that major.</p>

7

<p>a ranking is all but worthless. look at student retention(should be at least in the mid 80’s 90+ is much better), visit the campus…is it a place you could see spending four years at? is it close to a hospital and within a 1/2 hour drive to an airport(two things I think about)do most students live on campus? does it have a campus?(like in the movies) that really helps build a sense of community. is the school safe? the area around it too? does the school have a small greek presence or IMO no frats even better! heavy greek presence throws off social dynamics and not in a good way. those schools also tend to attract a certain type of student.
ivies have lots of insecure students seeking validation, where as some schools , have really smart students who are there to learn and grow. (yes it is a generalization)<br>
save money go to a non ivy and go with an open mind(not ooooh I passed up an ivy over money) if you attend the non ivy and go in with a positive attitude you will quickly find yourself emerged in a great experience and can be very happy and both grow and learn a lot too!</p>

8

<p>

</p>

<p>Cornell and Princeton are top 10 engineering schools. Penn and Columbia have consistently highly ranked schools. </p>

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;