I just don’t understand why any smart kid, whose parents clearly do not understand the burden of years and years of debt they are taking on, would insist on applying to a school that will burden them significantly as they age.
YOU can choose all sorts of paths that will minimize their indebtedness. YOU can choose not to fall for the name brand problem that seems to be rampant among a lot of parents. You will still get a great education.
Your parents will retire or be forced to retire at some point due to health reasons. They will no longer be able to borrow money to pay for their retirement. Who will fund their retirement?? As an environmental engineer from Cornell, will you make hundreds of thousands more per year than an EE from a state school? NO!
Will you be the one to put a stop to the insanity?
The debt burden isn’t worth it. Your parents have worked so hard all these years and are willing to risk it all in order to put you through a name brand school. Will you let them?
That is a way to save money for 1-2 years (you probably have a decent chance of getting full-tuition/full-ride scholarships from those SUNYs) so that your parents can save up for the final 2-3 years at Cornell.
Hmm. This sounds interesting, but my parents would like for me to either go big or go home lol. They told me they don’t want me to transfer into Cornell midway through my education for various reasons. Thanks for the advice though!
This conversation is becoming circular, as not matter how many times you post or how you want to justify it, the answer is still the same.
Fact 1: you are not eligible for enough need base aid to make Cornell affordable. therefore
Fact 2: your parent must either write their check or take loans to pay for Cornell
Fact 3: You cannot borrow the money to attend Cornell with out a co-signer (your parents)
Fact 4: Even if you get a SUNY STEM Scholarship to CAS is will only be ~ 6k, which is not enough
Fact 5: if your parents what you to go big or stay home it is all good as long as they are willing to do or live with facts 1-3. IF they want to chase prestige, no judgement here, they are first in line to pay for pay for your education (and they need to be prepared to pay the whole ball of wax). While you don’t want your parent to take on the financial burden of paying for you to attend a prestigious college remember the aid you seek comes from the generosity of other people’s parents who have graciously given to the endowment to make Cornell affordable for students who need financial assistance; not for those who choose to spend their money on other things.
Now say this over and over again until it sinks in or
FACT 6: you need to find some affordable schools. This does not mean HYP, Columbia, MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, etc.
Closing your eyes, clicking or heels 3 times or any other wishful thinking is not going to change facts 1-6.
What are some more affordable schools besides SUNY Albany & SUNY Binghamton that are similar in quality to schools like Georgia Tech, UIUC, UMich, etc.? I’m particularly interested in engineering.
University of Alabama is highly ranked, has excellent facilities, and internship opportunities esoecially in engineering, and would likely be affordable for you on the budget your family has set.
It is interesting why everyone says that’s with salaries `200K you don’t have chance for any financial aid. It depends on college. I tried two schools that gave me about 35K EFC and about 26K of financial help (200K gross salaries, no assets, but primary residence, 30K cash). With the same data I tried two other school and got zero financial need. You need to ask parents to enter their data in the financial aid calculator for Cornell and see what the numbers will be. Based on this you can discuss with them what is your options.
I was looking recently at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Looks like a great school and they have interesting merit scholarships.
Yeah I’ll definitely look into WPI. My eldest sibling who went to an Ivy League for undergrad received a great fin aid package, but he’s almost a decade older than me so times may have changed lol. Thanks for the feedback!
@Nata11 are you talking about need based aid only? Only ONE kid in college in the family? If so…with a $200,000 in me, this student would not receive need based aid.
If the school gives merit, the kid could get merit.
If there are multiple siblings in college at the same time, then yes, this student could get some need based aid with a $200,000 income.
Please tell your whole story…because with $200,000 in income…and only one kiddo in college, this family would,NOT get need based aid even at the most generous colleges.
If your parent income was $200,000 when your Ivy grad sibling went to college, I would suggest you apply to THAT college. You say that student got great aid (and it had to be need based).
But I will say…10 years ago, I doubt your sibling got great need based aid at an Ivy with a $200,000 family income. Maybe he or she got some kind of outside scholarship…or maybe your parents had more in savings to self fund college than they do now.
Colleges will determine your annual expected contribution at anywhere from 10 to 25% of your family income,
and often 5% of your parent’s savings (much more of your savings, closer to 20%). So you may get financial aid, but the amount could vary significantly in terms of need, and even more as to what % of need would be funded with scholarships/grants vs loans.
Regarding low cost but high quality engineering, SUNY Stony Brook and SUNY Buffalo are your best bets.
Binghamton has a very tiny engineering program, hard to get in as a result of size, and very ancient facilities anyway.
I was not too impressed with Binghamton for Engineering. Buffalo gave my kid a partial merit scholarship, so
the total cost was going to be about 20k or less (forget exact figure since he turned it down). I feel engineering and other STEM fields don’t require much more than you can learn from textbooks at a SUNY. You could get much more personal attention at a WPI or Stevens Institute of Tech, at double the cost per year, but learn basically the same thing. Kids seem happier at Buffalo but Stony Brook seems more of a serious and less happy school.
My son turned down both as we felt it worth the extra money, but if we could not afford a private school, would
have likely sent him to one of these 2 SUNY schools.