It is fine that you seem to be thinking a lot about value for the money.
But it seems that you have not actually said anything about whether the amounts in question are affordable to you to spend for each of the four kids. A good value that is too expensive is still inaccessible.
Note that room and board do vary from one college to another, so looking at total cost of attendance minus financial aid grants and scholarships is a better way of comparing cost and value.
I think @ucbalumnus is really asking if you are prepared to spend between $640,000 and $1,000,000 on your children’s education. As you know, it will be all on your shoulders. Even with multiple kids in simultaneously, your EFC will likely be too high to get any need based aid. If all four are in at the same time, you’ll be looking down the barrel of a twice yearly $80,000 bill.
I concur. We are all certainly taking cumulative tuition costs as well as investment return into consideration. There is pretty much no chance for need based aid and thus we are dependent upon our investment income, work income and merit or athletic aid. Fortunately or unfortunately, there will be only two in school at once - unfortunately because the last is quite a few years down the road to enter college and the costs will likely be much greater. In either case, for this D, the 4 year cost range is 40k for Utah to a high of 160k for some of the others - plus travel and other incidental expenses. My S wants Aerospace engineering - he will be fine with U dub which is fairly solid at probably around 25k when he starts.
The thing that’s extra enticing about Utah is that they make it very easy to achieve residency status. You just have to reside there for a full year and give up your dependent status. That would make The U affordable even if she dropped below a 3.6 and lost her scholarship.
DS has a terrific job lined up for after graduation. We tease him that he has terrific return on investment…HIS return, on OUR investment. Of course that’s just on the financial side. The schoolwork investment came from him.
LOL Colorado Mom. I know what you mean. Lake Jr. just accepted a Co-op offer, therefore I have teased him about MY INVESTMENT paying off for HIM! Well at least now he’ll be able to afford an unlimited calling plan to keep in touch with dear old dad.
LOL! We are fortunate to have kids looking at what degrees can produce jobs later. At many schools that we visited, LAC kids have no idea as to what they want to pursue well into their Junior year. Some of this is fine; however choosing a few degrees where you can, if the student chooses, stop after four years and actually produce work that has a good associated income is necessary these days given the costs of education. I think the final choices are Utah, Colorado, WPI, U Dub, Rose Hulman, and G Tech. D was accepted directly at admission into the Chem E program at U Dub.
I would like to chime in on WPI. My daughter is a freshman and all I can say is that it has exceeded my expectations in every possible way. It was originally one of those quirky schools on her list during the application process, but quickly rose to the top after an overnight visit. She is a BME major. We are from CA. Some of her other choices on that coast included GW, U of Roch and Yale (though waitlisted). All offered generous scholarships.
The new president (female, NASA background) is amazing! Her enthusiasm and passion is infectious. And, she is readily seen on campus with the students during all kinds of events. Although very, very few have heard of WPI here on the west coast, I think WPI is on the rise. My daughter finds the professors to be well qualified and extremely prepared. Most importantly, they are readily available. They are very accessible for questions, reply promptly to her emails and most classes are small. They definitely know her by name.
The dorms are fine, the food is good. The town has some sketchy parts, but the campus is the hub and I’m comfortable that she is very safe. Fantastic sports/rec center (the current trend on most campuses). Lots of clubs to choose from. Although small, it is full of positive people - students, faculty and administrators! Therefore it is an extremely motivating, supportive learning environment. This is the “priceless” part that is hard to recognize during a visit/tour and the most significant reason I love WPI.
The 7 week program is awesome. Challenging curriculum, but the students tend to really focus on their studies and are collaborative, not competitive. During break, my daughter has visited friends at other schools, toured Boston & NYC. The only downside (if it’s really a downside) is that a majority of the students are from the New England area (even though there are many international students in her dorm). When I hear “study abroad”, I intuitively think “hmmm, 5 year plan?”. I’m still a little skeptical, but my daughter has met upperclassmen who have done their projects abroad and have stayed on track to graduate in 4 years.
I hope the OP’s daughter enjoys her visit. Good luck! BTW, my son was accepted to WPI Class of 2019 (as well as Purdue, Cal Poly, Rose Hulman, Miami Ohio-Honors and others). It’s definitely one of his choices although he hasn’t committed just yet.
I am also a fan of WPI, although I wouldn’t say that it is on the rise; it’s already excellent. It has been a great STEM school that has produced highly competent engineers for a very long time. Enjoyed our visit a couple of years ago. Lake Jr. ultimately chose elsewhere but would have been perfectly happy at WPI.
There are lots of good options, but direct admit at U Dub along with instate tuition makes it pretty enticing. WPI and Rose are both much smaller. They are great programs in their own rights, but even with $80k in aid will likely still be much more than U Dub, by somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-60k. Utah will likely be a bit cheaper than U Dub and the sun shines many days of the year in SLC. It’s a tough call.
If you can cover the $140k WPI will set you back, I’d definately go look. It’s a very innovative, unique program. It moved to the top of my son’s list when we visited, only to be displaced by another, last minute. I agree with @LakeWashington, WPI has been good for a long time. What is on the rise is the perception of WPI outside of engineering circles. They were moved from a regional to national university by USNWR and that impacted their ranking (all of which are really highly flawed). Like Utah, I think WPI is far better than their ranking would suggest.
If not, or if WPI doesn’t resonate with her, U Dub and Utah are both good schools that offer very good value with her merit awards.
Boulder is a great community and has a good engineering program, but not knowing her merit situation there, I’d guess it would be one of her more expensive options. It’s not WUE, very expensive OOS and they are in high enough demand that they don’t have to offer too much merit.
Rose has a great reputation, but I think the M:F ratio is 80:20, or somewhere close to that. The bottom line there…it’s in Terre Haute. Gulp!
Lastly Georgia Tech. Great reputation. I know this only through the grapevine, but I’ve heard it can be a bit of a soul killing grind. Take that with a grain of salt as engineering is tough no matter where she will go.
Good luck!
Thanks for help everyone! She is beginning her tour tomorrow. The CO merit is something like 17k - so price is pretty much the same as WPI. Engineering ranking sites position WPI very favorably - Best-Engineering-Schools. It sounds as if there are no wrong decisions at this point and that she is searching for a “feel”. She has already visited Rose and didn’t mind Terre Haute and has visited U Dub as well… Will let you know her thoughts as visits take place and thanks to all and any additional input is always appreciated.
Lots of great choices. We did not visit WPI or RH, but from my research both are great option for students that want a strong undergrad-only geeky atmosphere. (DS did… but he took that to the extreme by picking Olin).
I am not far from CU, so pm me if you have questions. It’s a fine option if the preference is University setting, but it would be hard to justify extra cost vs direct admin for U Dub in state.
In summary so far, she has visited Utah, U Dub, Utah, UCI, WPI. She likes the project based training / job placement at WPI. Concerned regarding the academic rigor / job placement at Utah although impressed with the money and facilities / labs offered there and loves the setting in SLC - academics may be a bit too laid back for her. She likes the job placement / grad school service record at Rose-Hulman - 10k more than WPI and ? better. Totally does not like the non-academic, party atmosphere at any level - so there will be some eliminations on this respect - unless engineering schools are a bubble within the remainder of the university at places such as CU, Clemson, UW-Madison, UI Urbana, etc. Will be visiting CU (who knows) and Georgia Tech next few days. Will probably come down to WPI, Rose-Hulman, U Dub (accepted CE), G. Tech and maybe Utah. Primary goal is placement, ROI, internships, co-ops, success relative to cost still. Also has a little consideration of Drexel and NEU in light of Co-ops reducing overall cost… Any insight on Rose Hulman VS WPI? Seems that Rose is better known nationally…