Advice needed

What is your specific concern? Is it the cost? Can he get the in-state after this year and if so wouldn’t that mitigate the cost differential? Or, as others have said, make him take the direct student loan and tell him he will owe you the difference between the two schools once he graduates. Or, if you are worried about him not working hard, make some other agreement with him about doing well vs loans or staying in school there.

I would really try to sit down and talk to him in person if possible. Why did he make this decision? It actually doesn’t seem like a bad decision, except for the cost. Boulder is a much bigger school and seems like it would have a lot more options as far as majors etc.

That amount of student loan would require a cosigner. However, he could take a federal direct loan without cosigner ($6,500) and then work to earn the rest ($3,500).

OP – This move would make a lot more sense if your kid was actually going to be going into the engineering school.

While CU can be a big party school, the engineering school is very strong. Also, many of the engineers live in the engineering dorms located in the engineering quad. So the engineers primarily live and study in a pretty serious academic environment, but which is also attached to a bigger and very attractive school. It is a nice mix.

FYI, CU upcharges on the tuition its undergrad engineering schools. So your $10k delta is more like $13-14k once your kid gets into the engineering program.

Simple: you don’t have money to throw out of the window on your son’s whims, so he defers cu for a semester, works in the fall to earn part of the difference, re applies to Engineering as well as other Universities with good engineering for the spring, and applies to the scholarship he could have applied to.
That level of disregard for my finances/financial planning (acting as if 42k is due to him) would make me angry frankly.

Every school has the opportunity to be a party person. I worked with a graduate of a conservative Christian college where alcohol is against the rules and he drank 7 nights a week. Of the three kids I know who went to Boulder OOS from my area, two graduated and are living very successful adult lives. One of them was ROTC and an engineering major, the other was active within the fitness community there and is a reasonably fast triathlete, also engineering. The third partied and is taking classes back home at the local CC. It’s really up to the kid to be ready to commit to academics.

Our first two have both worked and stayed busy while in college and it has helped with their organization. S1 did not work his freshman year and it was not good. “Idle hands” is no lie. I would let him go provided he is willing to work to help fund the $10k difference.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees.

This is a kid who missed a deadline for Freshman housing? where did he live?

I think you guys are all overdue for a family meeting. Parental expectations on college- filling out forms correctly and on time; staying on top of scholarship, financial aid, loan information; going to classes and getting help from a TA or tutor when you start to fall behind. AND a family discussion for anything which materially impacts the family- moving home after graduating? That’s a discussion. A certain major costs more? That’s a discussion. Transferring? FOR SURE that’s a discussion.

I don’t think parents get to tell a kid what to major in or whether to sign up for the 3 pm review session or the 8 pm review session. I don’t think parents get to tell a kid whether to come home the second exams end or hang out for a day (assuming the dorms are still open and it doesn’t cost more). But transferring? Not getting Freshman housing? Seems like kind of a big deal to me.