<p>I saw a gas station this morning at $3.27/gallon. Economic deleveraging and demand destruction are taking a bite out of energy prices and I'm starting to see falling food prices too. That said there are financial and emotional benefits to being nearby. Our son is covered by our health insurance plan which works out because the network provides are in the area. This saves us $1,000 a year as we don't have to purchase the Uni medical plan.</p>
<p>BCEagle, there is a lot to be said for the medical situation. This is a big issue. My older son might have needed an allergist and a dermatologist for what turned out to be a horrible case of poison ivy. I called my insurance company and he would have had access to the dermatologist, but it still would have required transportation from campus. An in network allergist would have been a real hardship to get to (perhaps an hour away in each direction and one would need a car). I was fortunate because the day before he left home to go back to college he saw a dermatologist close to our home (he became ill in August). She gave him enough medication to get through it, and he was able to have his stitches removed a bit early (he had a biopsy for this).</p>
<p>My son had a bad upper respiratory infection and the school's clinic diagnosed the situation accurately but under medicated. My son was not getting better, and I told him to just go to an ER because I knew everything would be covered less my $100 copay. </p>
<p>We decided that would let our son go far away, but there would really need to be a deeper up front discount to make up costs of flights, and these type of medical situations. My son will apply to some local schools, but in the northeast the problem is that we had trouble finding schools we could pay for! I may be wrong, but I am hoping schools south and in the midwest will be more affordable. If the difference is only 2k, then my son can go locally, because airfare for a year can easily run more than that. Medical costs can pile onto those costs, not to mention the stress of having a sick child so far away.</p>
<p>My friends with kids attending down south indicate that costs are considerably lower than they are in the Northeast. Overall costs of living are higher up here and the migration of people from New England to the Southeast mirrors the desire for lower education costs.</p>
<p>I don't see public universities in New England getting cheaper as states cut university budgets and as they get applications from more students adding to the pool of students that can pay full fare. In fact I think that the the costs at public universities will rise due to cuts in state budgets. I'm not sure what the privates will do but I have a hard time seeing privates dropping the sticker price. They may target aid more to those that can afford most of the bill though.</p>
<p>At the moment, I see bailouts for money market funds, banks and this morning, I heard that the Fed is looking at making commercial loans to businesses. Perhaps we could provide a little love to college students.</p>
<p>BCEagle, money is the only reason that we have casted a wider geographical net when considering schools. Our instate public schools cost $20k. We could not afford many of the private school options for our older son in the northeast, even where he received some nice merit awards. As a consequence, our younger son is exploring out of the northeast, as well as possibilities closer to home. I feel like we have been being pushed out of the northeast for a long time and between us, we have 4 sibs that moved out our area.</p>