Hello All,
I know I am lucky that my parents offered to pay for my college experience. I have a dilemma, though. They are willing to put in around $250,000 for college, but if I go to a lower ranked school with merit aid, then I get the remaining money when I graduate college to start a new business/venture/invest it. How important is a name brand college, and what would you do in my position? Thanks!
Depends on what you want to do. Different career paths can have the following:
For career paths that involve graduate or professional school, if prestige is important, it will be based on the graduate or professional major.
I plan on going into some kind of business field, working for about 5-10 years to build a little start up capital, and then start my own business. I am just torn on whether going to a more prestigious college is worth the $200,000 extra.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful for you to have a large nest egg when you graduate so that you can start your business, or work someplace to gain the experience you need…without having to worry about money?
Also, if your parents are contributing $250,000…the balance even at a less costly college is not going to be $200,000, unless you commute from home to a directional public university. Your state public flagship likely will cost about $40,000 a year including tuition, fees, room, board, travel, misc expenses, books, personal expenses like clothing. So…that’s $160,000…leaving you with $90,000 if the total is $250,000.
If your grades are great, you might find that you will get some merit aid to also lessen the college costs. Look at your instate flagship and it’s honors college. Look at a variety of options.
Have you already been accepted to a brand name?
It really depends on which schools and disciplines you are comparing. If it’s to study history at Yale (private) vs. Framingham State (public) , I would vote for Yale, although of course it’s not my money and many posters here would disagree with me. If it’s to study chemistry at High Point (private) vs. Missouri M&T (public), it’s Missouri, hands down every time.
Rigor matters. It’s not just about the money, but of course, the money means you need to look at a wide variety of factors.
“… whether going to a more prestigious college is worth the $200,000 extra.”
It seems premature to assume merit would bring costs down to $12500/year.
And consider that college costs run about 300k for four years. Unless you have offers in hand, I think you need to revisit the math.