Budget and college choice - please share your thoughts

College Search & Selection
1

We set a budget for our sons’ college expenses. We have more, but we need to be saving for retirement, so we chose what seems reasonable for us, and gives sufficient options. We would love our kids to choose schools that are in-budget, so they can graduate with no debt. Our son, though, is preferring a school that is 9K more than budget per year. What would you do? Allow him to take on the $5,500 debt and plan to work as much as possible to contribute the other $3,500 to the cost (versus work that would be gravy)? Of course we can just say, no, go to a college that is in-budget. Thankfully he has options. (We have all along suggested the option to do community college if he wants to attend a more expensive college, but he is ready to go away now.) I welcome any thoughts you’d like to share on the financial piece, but also on the schools…anything that will help us/him decide.

[About son, in case it would factor in: Late bloomer in terms of rigor, but has arrived. Good student. Very smart, engaged learner, but likes balance - sports, recreation, social. Good at math, likes science. Undecided major - probably STEM or business math-ish areas. In my opinion, does better when surrounded by intelligent peers - is really getting a lot from honors classes this year - but also thrives when in the top of class.]

Now, let me tell you the schools in case that would affect your thoughts:

San Jose State - in budget
Colorado State University - Fort Collins - over budget

Other possiblilities:

NAU - under budget
UNevadaReno - a little over budget
SFSU - in budget
U of Montana - in budget
U of Arizona - way over budget, but another that Son really likes, of course

Then there are others that we are probably not considering:

Carrol College - in budget - too small
Cal Poly Pomona - in budget - too close to home
Still waiting on reach UCSB and match UCR
University of the Pacific - over budget
Florida Institute of Technology - over budget
Still waiting on, but are at this point unlikely: Westminster College, Salt Lake; U of Tampa

Please, please, please help, and thank you!!!

2

I really don’t think a degree from Colorado State is worth an additional $40,000+ (allowing for inevitable tuition/fee hikes.) Don’t forget, there will be other expenses, including getting to/from Fort Collins at least a couple of times a year. Have you looked into Montana State? More generous with FA (or at least it used to be) for OOS students, and actually better in STEM than University of Montana

3

What attracts him to Colorado State over San Jose State?

$9,000 student contribution is basically around the outer limit – maximum federal loans plus some required work earnings, which may not be too comfortable for him. Has he had a job, and how is he with saving/spending money?

However, this conversation about how much he could realistically go over the parental contribution (i.e. his own student loans and work earnings) should have been had before application time and before he has had a chance to fall in love any any schools that are more expensive. Was there any previous understanding or agreement on this matter?

4

Cal Poly is a great school. A quick read of; Where you go is not who you’ll be, by Frank Bruni.

Did he get all of his Financial Aid? Because for me I didn’t get any aid besides the $5,500 unsubsidized, but what I did get was various Scholarship money. I think 9 of the 10 had a consistent engineer scholarship.

Good luck! I could be facing similar decision anytime now or a particular school might have already made my decision for me.

5

Colorado State is not worth the extra thousands. Engineering is solid at SJSU so if he opts for that he’s nullified any academic advantage that CSU may have had. A career in business is also on the table with an eng degree.

6

Thank you everyone who has chimed in thus far! To answer some questions…

@katliamom, he was supposed to apply to Montana State too, but never got around to it. I’ll see if he’s interested. Thanks for the recommendation.

@ucbalumnus , thanks. Firstly, what attracts him…we haven’t even visited yet, but one of his friends has and says he’d like it. I think he sees it as a “typical” college experience, and one more kids like him choose over something like SJSU. Sometimes he says he wants that, and other times he says he won’t pick a school for the fun; he wants a good school. (Sadly, he couldn’t get in to any of the schools he considers “good schools.” He did fall in love with Stanford. :slight_smile: ) Oh, and we did visit SJSU once, but it was a couple years ago, and he wasn’t moved one way or another really.

Yeah, and about work, no! The kid has no work experience, and no desire to work. :confused: He may say he’d be willing to work if he could go there, but I’m afraid that he could be setting us all up for stress if he doesn’t come through. (I know it seems like that should decide it right there. :confused: ) To be clear, again, we have not visited, and will not until/unless we figure out that it really could work. So, I wouldn’t say he’s in love with it exactly, just preferring it. But we did have conversations about budget. It was four years at a school that we could afford, or two years CC then transfer to a more expensive school. At the time that was kind of about schools that more like 50-60K a year; we didn’t cover the ones that were somewhere in between budget and those. :confused: We never talked about loans really.

@nitro11, I want to get that book. I believe it without even having read it. But it is hard when you also want your kid to really enjoy his college years. Of course it’s primarily about becoming an educated person, growing as a person, and gaining marketable skills, but probably most parents want them to be happy doing all of that. Going into this I swore I would not pay for a college that is like summer camp (I even posted a thread about it LOL), but I do want to give some weight to his preferences. He got some merit aid from all the private and out of state schools. There could be other scholarships down the road, but nothing we could count on. Oh, and about CPP, yes, I know it’s a good school. It’s close to home, but too far to commute. I just don’t see it giving him what he needs except educationally, and while that a huge part of the equation, it’s not the entire thing. :slight_smile: Good luck to you too. :slight_smile:

Again, thanks everyone. You’re all helping me think this through. I’m open to more comments. Anyone have any other thoughts on the other schools mentioned?

7

@jesse’sgirl I might have missed represented it, but worth the read for both student and parent.

My parents have been similar to you. They want me to be responsible, but beable to grow outside of the classroom too. Their number one rule it was my decision because without the passion I wouldn’t succeed. Regardless of what happens I will have to pay $5k a year so I have investment in it to. They will carry the loan with minimal interest. As my dad said you need some skin in the game.

8

SJSU and CPP appear to be about half residential and half commuter, based on percentage of frosh living in the dorms. Colorado State has 95% of frosh living in the dorms, so it is more residential, which may be the attraction to him.

However, if he has no previous work experience and has not given indication of ability and desire to work, going into a situation where he must work a significant amount to barely afford school may not be the best idea, especially in his first semester when he has various other adjustment to college stuff to work through. Also, if he needs an extra semester to graduate (perhaps more likely if he has to work part time to barely afford school), being right at the edge financially is more risky than being within or under budget.

Another issue that may distinguish between the schools is whether any of his desired majors are difficult to get into (e.g. require a high college GPA to enter after starting undeclared). But that needs to be looked at individually by school and major.

Perhaps he can make his own account and ask the question for himself (i.e. “is Colorado State worth federal loans plus needing to work versus SJSU or CPP that parents’ contribution fully covers?”). Pretty sure many posters here would say “no” if they see such a question from him.

9

For what it’s worth, CSU State offers a more complete “college experience” than SJSU.
I’d say, before you let him take the $5,500 federal loans, see if he can find work, starting with getting applications everywhere this week and if he can get a job by April (and hold on to it). However, if it really is his favorite choice and he can earn a certain amount from his job ($500 since he’d be very part time; with potential to moving to full time over the summer).
If that doesn’t work, UMontana or NAU allow him to go OOS at a decent cost - UMontana’s better based on what you said about him.

10

We have set an approximate limit as you have. My son is a junior and I have wondered what would happen if he goes above. Would we pay? The answer we think is it depends. Will it give him more opportunities to find a job after college? Does it have better courses/faculty/co-op’s/etc in his intended major? Is it a much better fit than the others? While I don’t have specifics in the colleges you mentioned, these are some of the questions I would be asking when comparing the schools. My son has been working a part-time job for a year now so has started saving. In your case, there could be some “lending” of money from you to him, but if it were us it would come with a requirement of summer employment and a part-time job on campus after first semester or year so that commitment is there. Good luck in your decision!

11

Multiply the extra costs out by however many kids you have. Your son can borrow ~$5500, but you’ll have to dig up ~$3500/year ($14k total) if he can’t come up with it. If you have 3 kids and do that for each one, that’s an extra $42k that’s not going toward your retirement. Are you willing to spend that much?

A budget that includes the federal loans isn’t bad, but if you don’t need them there’s no reason to take them just to make the student contribute. You seem to have several schools that are comfortably in budget so those are the ones I’d consider. You don’t want to have to rely on him being able to find enough work to cover costs. If he does work during the summer, he’ll likely want some of that money for spring break or to study abroad. He probably won’t be able to cover the entire $3500 difference.

All schools on the application list must have decent programs and be good fits or they wouldn’t have made the list. I think it’s a slippery slope to set a budget then find reasons to justify going above it. If you go over $9k/year for kid #1, how much will you go over for kid #2? And what’s worth going over budget for and what isn’t? That’s not a conversation I’d want to have every application cycle.

12

One thing you mentioned in passing caught my attention - that he has no desire to work. I don’t want to make too much of this, it can be fairly typical of a kid his age who’s got a lot on his plate in HS. But I wouldn’t let him think that this “attitude” is acceptable for his future. Make sure he understands he really needs a job or internship beginning summer after freshman year. Employers will look back at those summers and if they don’t see something that shows a kid willing to work, it’s a big red flag. He’s got to show at the very least that he’s responsible and will show up when expected, willing to work and learn (even if it’s fast food), those type things. The kids I know of who are having trouble launching all were work averse and didn’t do even the bare minimum to try and find a job.

13

The budget is typically understood as parental contribution + federal loans + work earnings. You won’t go over your budget, so he has to show how he’ll make up the difference through his contribution. He has to decide whether he’d rather work to afford going to school, or work to afford going abroad or taking an internship in a costly city (which keeps the option of not working at all ifbhe wished, whereas in terms situation where it helps pay for school, he’s got to work.) However I’d leave it up to him to show you what he can do and to make the final choice.
Can he articulate what Colorado state has that Montana doesn’t, for example?

14

I am in a fairly similar boat but am much farther off than you. If it was only a matter of kicking in another $3,500 per year so my son could attend his top choice, I would jump at the chance. I think your in a very good position if that is all your talking about.

We can basically afford state schools. My son likes Private schools. They are off by about $20K/year. That is just too much for us to bridge. Boy would I love to only be $3,500 off.

Kids are fickle. He might still surprise you and choose the CC route.

15

For what it’s worth OP,
It seems like SJSU has a really really low 4-year graduation rate

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/san-jose-state-1155

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/colorado-state-university-1350

I’d recommend thinking of it as at least a 4.5 year degree with such a dismal 4-year grad rate. I understand that it might still be easier because it’s less per year, but I just wanted you to be aware.

16

Oh my goodness, I am so overwhelmed with the responses. And I hate to sound all crunchy, hippy, namaste, :wink: but I am seriously grateful for every one of your replies. This has been such a burden on me, and I don’t have really any help figuring it out. My husband is very laid back about it all, and really kind of leans on me to be the planner, decider, figure-er-outer. You all have given me so much peace. I intend to sit down with husband and son and read through all of this, and see where we end up. I’m confident that, wherever that is, it will be the “right” place for us given that we will now be making decisions with all the right stuff in the forefront of our minds. Now for some responses to your posts…(gotta keep the conversation going, and suck everything out of you all that I can. LOL)

@philbegas, yeah, I know about the 4-year grad rates. :confused: It’s been in my mind. The thing is, from what I’m learning, a lot of the engineering degrees can end up taking 5 years, even at CSU. Also, SJSU is largely a commuter school, and has a fairly high acceptance rate, so you will have students who may be a working a lot, and/or students who aren’t able to take a very full load. So, I find these grad rates daunting, but confusing too. I don’t know how much stock to put in them, to what extent they are transferable to my kid. I need to find out how much of that is due to not being able to get the classes one needs.

@MassDaD68, oh yes, we have those too. For the most part, though, we didn’t even let him apply to schools that would be that far off budget. Trust me, I would love for him to go to one of those fancy, nurturing, but highly academic schools, but it’s a no for sure, unless he can transfer from CC.

@JustGraduate, of yeah, trust me, his entitled, spoiled ways are in the forefront of my mind. He works very hard in school, and in hos sport, but beyond that, everything is like pulling teeth.

And, again, thank you all VERY MUCH!!!

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@jesse’sgirl: If you son comes into SJSU with some AP credit, it could help him get through faster. My son is a CS major at SDSU and came in with 38 units of AP credit. He can graduate at least 1 semester earlier but may do a study abroad so he can walk with his fellow students in May of next year. It does not have to take 5 years to graduate for SJSU even for Engineering. With some AP credit and few classes during summer session along with being flexible on class times and days, 4 years is doable.

18

@jesse’sgirl If he works hard at school and in his sport, that’s a good sign. Engineering internships for the summer after freshman year can be challenging to find and frankly I wouldn’t worry too much if he doesn’t get one. But it’s very helpful for the next year’s internship search to have something on the resume that shows he’s worked, come in when scheduled, that type thing.

Taking more than 4 years for an engineering degree is one of the fine lines you have to walk. We’re looking at 4.5 here but then he didn’t start out in engineering. Plus he dropped a couple classes at the very end because he was concerned he wasn’t going to get the grade he needed. While we wish he hadn’t needed to do that, he also needed to protect his GPA for purposes of jobs and potential grad school down the line. One thing to consider is taking summer classes at a local CC over the summer to supplement and lighten the load. They will likely be quite a bit cheaper than his U - but make sure they can be transferred!

19

Does any of this affordability include any grants, work study and is there also a ‘contribution from student summer earnings,’ already factored in the bottom line? If so, work during the school year and next summer isn’t really “extra.”

If he needs 3500 on top of a student loan, this year, don’t forget he would need at least that for the following years. He’d need a plan that accounts for how he pulls that together. And what if he doesn’t? Then you might be facing this same issue again. But then it would mean either pulling him out or coughing up the extra anyway. “Deja vu all over again.”

And all this insistence on CO State sounds pretty tentative, if he hasn’t even seen it.

20

Graduation rates tend to correlate with admission selectivity. I.e. stronger students are more likely to be able to take full course loads (without failing and needing to repeat anything).