<p>He has his college choice narrowed down to 2. 1) a top 5 school that he has dreamed about for the last year, 2) State flagship which is an excellent school (top 20) in his preferred area of study. </p>
<p>School 1 has given him some good aid which will include workstudy and student loans. School 2 has offered him a 100% scholarship (for 4 years) which covers tuition, room and board, books .....</p>
<p>This is his choice totally and we support him 100% either way. But he is stressing and I wish I had some good advice to give him but??? Any advice from those that made similar choices? Any regrets either way??</p>
<p>(I know there are other old threads discussing similar situations but WTH)</p>
<p>Our DD had a similar choice between number 1 and number 2. We simply gave her a deadline when WE wanted to send the deposit and never discussed this except to answer questions she asked (she actually didn’t ask any). She chose. Your son will too!</p>
<p>Sounds like he has a win win situation here.</p>
<p>We had the exact same situation - full ride in honors program from state flagship. I left the decision to my DS and he chose the pricey private. He chose in part due to it having the top ranked undergraduate business school in the nation. Also, the feel of the campus and how he would fit, enjoy life and thrive. He has had wonderful opportunities there that have been invaluable in shaping his future direction and growth - he is finishing junior year now. I am still OK with his decision - but if the situation were different and the state school fit him better - I would chose the full ride in a heart beat.</p>
<p>We do have the real deadline (may 1st) but our ‘soft’ deadline is early next week (want to send in housing deposit asap). We try not to talk about it but right now it seems to be the elephant in the room.</p>
<p>The loan amount would be substantial over 4 years for School 1. (We’re guessing maybe $30,000 or so)</p>
<p>I think a big factor is how much will you and/or he have to pay at the Top 5 choice. Can you afford it? If not, if it leaves him $5K in loans per year, okay. But if he is going to end up with $80,000 in loans then go for the full ride!</p>
<p>If he anticipates going to professional school (medical, law, or veterinary school) after college, the full ride to the state school is enormously attractive because he’s going to have to pay for professional school later.</p>
<p>If this is not the case, then the decision is more difficult.</p>
<p>$30,000 in UG debt is manageable, it’s the extra debt that would concern me if he goes to grad school along with the extra out of pocket costs. Is the cost difference between the 2 schools just the work study (non-issue I think) and the loans–which, if they are only federal student loans–are not that big of a deal. Find one of the student loan payment calculators and show him what those payments will be when he graduates–what his likely salary would be–how much more it would be if he had to take on grad school debt, etc. Sometimes seeing it in black and white makes the choice obvious.</p>
<p>$30K is not that much for going to a top 5 school. I have said this before, the reason a school is willing to give merit aid to a student is they are paying for something (student’s outstanding credential), it is not really free. The question is if your student (or you) would be willing to sell it for whatever that amount is. If I could afford it, I would rather have my kid to be at a school where there are more kids like him.</p>
<p>My sense is that your kid feels guilty about going to the top 5 because of the cost. I think this is the time when the parent needs to step up to tell the kid that he has the permission to choose the top 5.</p>
<p>This is similar to the thread where the parent asked if it was important to go to graduation because they lived overseas, AND the parent thought the student didn’t care. But once the parent decided to go, the student was very happy with the decision.</p>
<p>“Top 5” “top 20” such artificial terms. If only the real world looked at things the way advertisers do! Those in the business of selling school ratings are doing well.
If the reason for going to school is for student to be in a career he wants and have a better lifestyle, then the answer here is clear. See post 6, particularly given the student wants grad school too…
When one weighs the decision about investment in education, one has to weigh the costs and the benefits. Loans for years after graduation reduce one’s lifestyle.</p>
<p>oldfort;
There is no doubt S thinks about cost, as he should. He has been given ‘permission’ to attend whichever school he would like. If it were my choice I would tell him to go to school 1. But it is not my choice.</p>
<p>I agree with this. What we did with my D, who was deciding between two final schools, one of which would end up being about costing about $100,000 more over 4 years, was to explicitly tell her that we were completely willing to pay for the more expensive school if she did her own cost benefit analysis and determined that the more expensive school was worth it to her. She ended up choosing the full scholarship at the flagship.</p>
<p>What is the college GPA threshold to keep the full ride scholarship? 3.0 is probably not a big deal for the type of student who gets such a scholarship, but 3.5 may be more stressful and curtail exploration of courses of interest that may be hard.</p>
<p>Generally, attendance of PhD programs is only worthwhile if funded.</p>
<p>His major may also be relevant in terms of post-graduation prospects. A biology major may want to be more debt-averse than a math major, for example.</p>
<p>I think you should let-go of the idea that he will be helped if you give advise. He is deciding, it’s hard, and it’s stressful. But it is necessary. I wouldn’t hurry it, or make it more dramatic. I wouldn’t make it your own.</p>
<p>Grad school is not cheap either—full ride will make the costs of the full education–undergrad & grad—much easier to bear. And grad schools are very pleased to accept excellent students from their flagship state Us. </p>
<p>Are you going to pay for the grad school, too? Or is he? Unless he will be getting the advanced degree in a field in which the advisor is getting grants (say from the NIH) that pay his grad students’ tuition, there is going to be a big loan burden from that advanced degree.</p>
<p>I think I’ve figured out the Top 5 school, and an excellent one it is. I don’t know what your (Midwestern state) flagship Top 20 university is. But I agree that $30K for the school your son has dreamed about for years is not bad at all. What did your S think of the visits to the two schools? (In particular, what was his reaction to the state flagship?)</p>