Cost of Private vs. Public College

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Seems a hard choice with Public(State Schools) like 20k to attend/stay vs Private Schools 35k-60k to attend/stay...... A YEAR.</p>

<p>Public Schools- Cheaper but also larger classes and less individual attention.</p>

<p>Private Schools-Smaller Classes and more individualized attention.</p>

<p>I just struggle to spend 60k or more total for a smaller Private School even if its getting better attention in classes.</p>

<p>What are your thoughts?</p>

<p>Whats harder is that I like the more expensive schools!</p>

2

<p>Generalizations are rarely accurate for all public and private schools.</p>

<p>For example, a Pennsylvania resident may find that a lot of private schools are cheaper after better financial aid than Penn State (which has really poor in-state financial aid). On the other hand, there are private schools with very large class sizes.</p>

3

<p>You need to compare the net costs after aid for families with income and assets similar to yours. For some, an in-state public university offers the best bang for the buck. For others, a private college or university does.</p>

<p>[Kiplinger’s</a> Best Values in Private Colleges-Kiplinger](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php]Kiplinger’s”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php)
[Kiplinger’s</a> Best Values in Public Colleges-Kiplinger](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php]Kiplinger’s”>Best College Values, 2019 | Kiplinger)
<a href=“http://www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/offices/InstitutionalResearchPlanning/Documents/financialAid.pdf[/url]”>http://www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/offices/InstitutionalResearchPlanning/Documents/financialAid.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Community colleges are public schools. Class size is often small.</p>

5

<p>Each place has a Net Price Calculator in its website. Run those for the ones you are looking at. Your final cost might not be so bad.</p>

6

<p>Public schools, contrary to public wisdom, are often more expensive than private ones nowadays, sometimes even so in-state.</p>

7

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<p>This not true for full-pay families.</p>

8

<p>The SUNY schools are a bargain for full pay NYS residents who do not qualify for financial or merit aid. The colleges run 16,000-18,000 per year for everything while the universities are just under 20,000 per year for everything.</p>

9

<p>William and Mary (12:1) has almost the same class sizes as NYU (11:1) …</p>

10

<p>It’s an individual situation for each family, and even for each kid in the family. Even for those with a zero EFC up to those with a 999999 EFC meaning no financial aid. THere are merit awards in the picture that can really change the costs.</p>

<p>My son’s least expensive choice, for instance, for instance would have been a pricey little Catholic school that gave him a full tuition award. He could live at home and commute. With a part time job which he could easily find, he would have been flush in money, had his car, and it would have hardly cost us anything. Better than the SUNYs that accepted him, but didn’t offer him any money. And it would have been less the community college which would have meant tuition payments and the drive being even further than this school. </p>

<p>For those who qualify for financial aid, a private school that meets need could be a better choice than a public that does not, and few publics guarantee to meet need.</p>

<p>But the way it seems to work most often for those whose incomes are midrange in the group of parents wanting to help pay for their kids’ college is that with need, the Private offers come in right around what the state costs would be. I’ve seen this scenario so many times.</p>

11

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<p>Regarding publics meeting or not meeting need, that depends on your state of residency. A check of net price calculators for a middle income family found that, for in-state students at the state flagships:</p>

<p>NC, FL, WA: meets need, student needs Stafford loan or some work earnings
VA, CA, MI: meets need, student needs Stafford loan and some work earnings
MN, NY, NJ, OH: does not meet need, student needs to find a few thousand beyond Stafford loan and realistic work earnings
IL, TX, PA: nowhere close to meeting need, student needs large merit scholarships</p>

<p>Of course, the state you live in may cause either 100% or 0% of your in-state public schools to meet need (if all of the in-state public schools have similar need-based financial aid policies).</p>

<p>Private schools that meet need tend to be the more selective ones.</p>