Yes, he would definitely live on campus if he goes to the U, I want him to have the whole experience. Good to know your son enjoyed Cal Poly and that they have small class sizes. Thanks for the offer to PM with questions. He may have some after his visit.
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Negotiators often talk about expanding the pie. There can be room to trade off wishes of both parties in coming to a deal that makes both parties better off instead of simply asking “what is the lowest price for X”. I see a possibility for an analogous approach here.
The OP has said the family is willing to pay half of college costs. Taking a quick look at the COA estimate UofU is about $30K/yr and UCSB is about $60K/yr. So over the 4 years the parents are willing to spend an additional $60K for an OOS school. Let’s recast that as a willingness to spend an extra $60K for a better educational experience. That opens up some creative options.
For example an extra year at UofU to get a grad degree is another $30K. Should the student attend UofU on the 5 year plan the parents could offer to fully fund that last year and throw in a $1K/mos stipend to boot. Call this offer A.
The OP wrote “we would love him to experience life and culture outside of Utah”. How about a college year abroad? Except for schools like Stanford that operate their own overseas campus it can be difficult to do this as an engineering major. Because of the tight structure of engineering programs it may take another year in college, typically the year after sophomore year. Why not offer to pay for that extra year? See https://www.coe.utah.edu/students/current/study_abroad/ although it may also be arranged thru the study-abroad office of another college. Can this offer B.
In the vein of offer B, many colleges offer summer classes that are open to any college student. At Cal Poly the link is https://openuniversity.calpoly.edu/ Now summer is not the same and spending 4 years there but it can offer an experience. At UCSB summer sublets are often dirt-cheap since landlords make students sign year leases but most go home for the summer. Probably the same elsewhere. Call paying for summer school if he goes to UofU offer C.
If this is an avenue of interest I bet you can come up with many other options to augment the college experience if he goes to UofU.
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Thanks, and thanks for the link for ‘attending college in your hometown’. Good information. Yes, he applied to the Honors college but as others have said he’ll have enough work do to completing his engineering requirements let alone the additional Honors work. I don’t know if that would be a good fit for him.
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The student got a full tuition scholarship at Utah, resulting in a net price of about $18k per year. CPSLO would be $48k per year, UCSB would be $68k per year, and Colorado School of Mines would be about $60k per year.
The problem is, if the parents contribute half of the costs, how is the student going to come up with $24k per year for CPSLO, $34k per year for UCSB, or $30k per year for Colorado School of Mines? The student can only borrow $5.5k first year without a cosigner, and a reasonable work earnings expectation is a few thousand dollars more. That would put $9k for Utah within reach of the student, but not the others.
Basically, the parental financial parameters leave Utah as the only choice, even if that may not be the parents’ intention.
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Thank you, I didn’t realize there were such programs . I will have to check with my son if he is aware of it. Great idea!
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All great suggestions and information, thank you. Thanks for the links as well.
Actually, he has an aunt who has offered to loan him 1/2 the funds needed for college. But still, for an 18yo it’s a sizeable amount to commit to borrowing.
I can’t overemphasize how beneficial graduating debt free is. Any advantages gained by choosing a “better” school will be quickly eaten by debt service.
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If you are willing to pay all of Utah since it’s so much cheaper, maybe you could sweeten the pot by offering to pay for a summer semester abroad or something similar. My D is at Utah and going to France this summer and will earn a minor in business while there for example. Also, check out the engineering scholars program: https://www.coe.utah.edu/engineering-scholars-program/ . Through that my D received an extra $1000 freshman year, guaranteed research position, and a poster presentation. Plus that program led to a $3k a year scholarship for the remainder of her time at Utah. I think room and board is about $13k, so an additional $3k really makes a difference. I think she gets paid for the research next year.
Utah seems to have good guidance for internships and jobs. It’s about the same as Mines. We live close to Mines, so I’m very familiar with the school.
I think all of the schools he is looking at are great and about the same level of academics. It’s really just does he want to spend the money for a different experience.
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Yes, we would be willing to pay for all of Utah as he has a scholarship for tuition so it would be just room and board. Travel abroad is definitely an idea worth looking into if it can work with an engineering degree curriculum but as you have shown traveling in the summer makes it possible. Thank you for the link to the Engineering Scholars Program! One more reason for him to take advantage of staying in Utah. Thanks also for your thoughts about Colorado SOM compared to the U of U.
I forgot one more thing! They give a ton of credits for the IB diploma. That helps make the engineering load a lot easier.
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Our daughter has a similar problem but from a different geographical perspective. She has been accepted at Purdue, CU Boulder (Aerospace), C of Mines and UF. We are from Florida, so her deal at UF is the same as your son’s deal at U of U. Free tuition!! So, why even bother with these others? Well, she received very good merit scholarships and she wants to expand herself similar to your son. The Colorado schools and Purdue (Top ten in Engineering) are very different than Florida and UF, plus UF has around 85% in-state students whereas CU, C of Mines and Purdue are heavy OOS population so there is at least geographical diversity. All that said, we told her that she has to make a solid argument on how these other schools would provide a life experience worthy of us spending upwards of 100K more. If she does, maybe she should study LAW. Lol 
Good Luck to your son, the fact that he has this as a problem proves he will be a winner no matter where he ends up
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4 great acceptances.
School of Mines is actually the outlier - smaller than the rest.
UF is heavy in-state because kids like your daughter never leave!!! How could you with the deal you get!!
Congrats to her.
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Thanks, good luck to your daughter with her decision and if she has a good argument for attending school out of state that you agree with please share it with me! LOL! Diversity is always a plus in my eyes as I am not from Utah…
Wow, a summer at Cal Poly is a real deal! It looks like the cost per credit is the same whether one is in-state or out of state?
That’s the way it looks. But it appears that the Open University is only for Cal Poly classes that don’t fill with Cal Poly students. I tried to see if how they define “community members” but didn’t see anything about needing to be in-state or in the local area (the way the UCs define local). Perhaps @Gumbymom might be able shed some light on this?
Pursuant to the CSU Executive Order 1099, Open University allows non-matriculated individuals to enroll in state-supported course offerings on a space-available basis after matriculated Cal Poly students have selected their classes. At that point, Open University may offer any remaining space to community members (non-matriculated individuals).
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I really have no additional information regarding Open University but then I have not been following the reason for enrolling in the first place. If you plan to go to Cal Poly as a Materials Engineering major, you cannot enroll in the Open University.
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In this thread it was mentioned as a possibility for a student to experience Cal Poly during a summer if he decided to attend his in-state flagship (Utah). Thanks for always being willing to help out on the California publics!
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