Oh yea, I’ve done all the forms. What I haven’t done is gone back to the FA office just to inquire.
Yeesh! That pulling the rug hurts!
Agree. Saw an analysis a few weeks ago that showed that bottom and top quintiles are well represented at the more expensive schools, whereas middle 3 quintiles underrepresented. So it’s a U shaped distribution.
1 Like
We’ll be fine. We’re lucky.
1 Like
Thank you - that’s very considerate for you to share this. I’m reasonably certain we are where we are (no expectation of aid later). But worth a phone call for sure to explore.
And yes, if these were in same ballpark as some of the other offers, wouldn’t even be asking these questions. Re fit, the vibe of each place is different, but not bad. We know kids who’ve had great experiences at the other schools. None would be a disaster I’m sure & D hasn’t taken them off the list yet.
Re pals and debt payments – ouch! That’s gotta hurt. 
We’d like to help our kids avoid that, but as someone else mentioned, also want them to have some skin in the game. A little bit of debt can serve to bring that home.
2 Likes
Mostly agree. Tho I know quite a few folks in advocacy roles who aren’t lawyers. Many have done either grass roots organizing, or they were staffers on capitol hill or inside agencies who then got picked up as lobbyists by companies. (That’s for another thread on another cite perhaps.)
Not exactly. Both kids have known for some time what their 529s had in them. We’ve been transparent about this, and the cost of each program we’ve considered has been part of the convo. Deciding where she goes will be as a result of a conversation, and she’ll have a big say. At same time, want to be sure all of us are thinking about why one program might be worth (not cost) 120 to 200K more than another. These are (to us) real chunks of money, and I don’t want the decision to be made lightly. At the least, if she decides ND is her school, she’ll KNOW what it is costing and will try get as much value as she can from being a student there. Finally, as brought up on othe parts of this thread, will this wreck our retirement? No.
2 Likes
Good advice. I’m pretty confident daughter can make friends, but the overall culture of a place is certainly important to consider. I know from visits there were some schools that just didn’t fit what was important for her.
Good points, though, at least for the companies where we’ve worked, one needed to be selected by management for MBA support if you wanted to attend full time at a top school. For that, 1st step is to get hired at such a firm (meeting specific job rqmts), and 2nd, get the exposure to management level that makes those calls.
Reimbursement for course work, or a degree at the local college, was usually not a problem. That might help you a bit within the company, but would not provide the career pop that leaving could offer.
Yep. You’re 18-21 years old in a world made up almost entirely of people your age. And parents not around!
Not sure that convinces me. If I knew every company hired 2 to 3 cartographers a year, then …
2 Likes
Thank you for the thoughtful/helpful points. Very nice.
My answer to the original question is no, the additional costs would not be ‘worth it’. We budgeted and communicated the cost of a 4 year UC degree and said anything above that would be their responsibility. The thought was that a UC education was more than enough, anything beyond that cost is for prestige. S21 looked at a couple of schools that would have come well above. I would have helped him with loans for a CMU/MIT/Stanford, but he would have had to make that choice knowing it would be paid back.
4 Likes
Hmmm … she likes ND, but is still open to the other choices. I think she could thrive almost anywhere. My only concern is the availability of support/encouragement she might want if she hits a rough patch.
That’s anywhere if you seek it out but that requires the student to make strong relationships with RAs, profs, etc. my daughter has multiple me ties and still talks to her at home counselor. Sues at a mid size public.
UND doesn’t have the market on a great experience.
1 Like
We’ve been blown away by the supports at Purdue. In addition to office hours and prof and TA review sessions, each freshman engineering class has a free help room that students can drop into any time. So there is a help room for all the math classes, physics, chem, CS, etc…. My D’s advice is to avail yourself to everything, even if you don’t think you need it.
4 Likes
Our family was also in a “difficulty justifying the cost” situation. We had a 85K/yr option at a “name” school highly ranked in his major vs a 21K/yr option (due to big merit) at a school with a good program in his major but not nearly as well known. We are very frugal (cheap) in our lifestyle even though we didn’t need to be in. We had the money saved, but also had a big change in employment for one of us, with unpredictable future income. Our child’s major was one with very low predicted future earnings (arts.) In our case we decided we couldn’t justify the cost, but felt comfortable “making” him go to the less expensive school for the following reasons 1. we felt the education was just as good, even if not a famous name 2. we knew there would be a loss of industry contacts/networking, but felt we could overcome this because we have family members in the field who could provide guidance/contacts 3. we liked that the cheaper school actually had better ability to easily change majors or double major. 4. we felt the social “fit” at the cheaper school was quite similar and in both cases excellent (social fit potential was huge for us, as our kid is not a typical kid in that sense, needing a “niche” social scene so to speak.) 5. Both were in the location our kid preferred (again, sort of a niche kid, with niche needs.) 6. Our kid was pretty mellow and open to either choice, so no hard feelings were predicted 7. He was the first kid, and we wanted to set a precedent. 8. Our school district had a culture of prestige-hunting for the top students, but we were reassured by a close friend that this social pressure would melt away in the summer after graduation, and that her own kids had “gotten over it quickly” after being made to go someplace less expensive. 9. The cost of the more expensive school just seemed sort of gross to us.
13 Likes
We went into the process with a clear budget and my children knew what it was (and it was not $348K 
)
As mentioned earlier. We agreed on the college application list, knowing the probable costs, before applications were sent. So…I guess we made that decision prior to applications being sent.
Since we agreed on the application list, any acceptance the kids chose were fine with us. We, like you, had a plan.
We did NOT change our minds because some schools had lower net costs than others after admissions had been received.
2 Likes