College Costs: How High Would You Go?

<p>SUNY Albany has a relatively new honors program. I graduated from there many moons ago. And hey the basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament - 2 years in a row!<br>
The school wasn't all that great when I attended. Large classes, unengaged professors, no school spirit, LOTS of parties and bars (downtown). It may have improved though. In any case, I got what I needed and am doing just fine. Never really found it to be a handicap - but not a big help either.<br>
Geneseo sounds interesting - didn't even hit the radar screen when I was looking.</p>

<p>Thanks for the information - I don't think my son will be making it into the Honors courses, though!! Just not willing to put the hours in that are necessary for that kind of GPA in high school, unfortunately - :(
I have sent a number of kids from the two high schools I have taught in (12th grade and AP class) to Geneseo and I have not had a kid unhappy there, but that is not a very scientific study.</p>

<p>Five years apart!! You are lucky! I have two sons, 13 months apart, and another 3 years after that! Actually, this is better for us for financial aid, so we might actually be at an advantage!</p>

<p>I don't know whether to laugh or cry thinking about all our real estate fiascos around 1990!</p>

<p>It's funny... we lived in western NY for about 20 years, part of the time we owned the Rochester house and couldn't sell it we rented it out and lived very near Geneseo... it is a very, very beautiful area... only a 45 minute drive to Rochester for concerts, 1/2 an hour to the mall... you just have to adjust your concept of distance... in DC it takes me 45 minutes to drive 8 miles to work, it used to take me 30 minutes to drive 30 miles near geneseo...</p>

<p>silversenior etal: I have seen more of a reluctance for people, who on paper can afford to pay, actually want to pay. I do think many folks have gone through layoffs, real estate boom/busts, and stock market crashes. I think 911 has added to the sense of uncertainty peolpe have regarding their current finances and about what the future will bring. In this situation parents are looking for "bang for the buck" and trying to hedge there financial future. A lot of parents of kids I teach are very pro college and pro education but that to them does not mean they should not protect their hard earned savings ty trying to find what they believe is a better education deal. I know many folks view it differently but as a teacher the change I see has been pretty big. I also said that for some areas of the country top colleges now cost as much as a baby boomers first house which does create a psychological barrier. Just my take.</p>

<p>No higher than I am going - three years for undergrad plus one more year at the same level for graduate school. If he gets fellowship/TA/RA stipend offers, the latter would be spread out over multiple years to assist him with living costs.</p>

<p>I think the descision of how far to stretch is based on our personal inner yardstick, which may correlate with what we experienced as students. My parents paid for four years of college, then continued to provide modest living subsidies to stretch my lean TA stipend in graduate school - most appreciated!</p>