Can’t help but say it. 350K is a ton of money for an undergraduate degree. There are other equally or better options. You can have plenty of “life experiences” for that amount of money. If you’re made of money go for it. If not, don’t. Prices at some of these colleges have gone through the roof in just a few short years. I wouldn’t think twice of saying “nope” to 80K a year. The “but you let them apply” argument doesn’t apply when they all make a big deal about merit money. Some things just need to come off the table.
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ND does not make a big deal about merit. It’s clearly almost impossible to come by. And even then, the “if you don’t get merit, it’s not an option” discussion needs to happen in advance of the application IMO.
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This! Peace Corps is wonderful. I hope it all works out for OP’s kids. He is in a tight spot for sure. But at the end of the day, his kids might not be in a position to help out if dad and mom needed expensive end of life care. Even if one is a diplomatic officer or an engineer.
We hugely underestimate how much it costs to die in peace and dignity.
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I think cost/benefit analysis and values are big part of the decision. It is not that simple. Some choices that we made cannot be changed. They may lead to lifelong results.
For example, if I had a choice to go back, I would give all my money to enroll my kids in private K-12 vs. so called top public we had. But we thought we couldn’t do it for 3 kids and schools were great on paper. Wrong decision.
Coming to college we had to do it again. However, despite of money this time we went for OOS public vs local flagship with scholarship. Then Covid destroyed everything. Life is complicated.
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Schools were great on paper. That is one of the most simple and profound statements.
I think that is one of the things we tried to step away from with our college search…the idea that because a school was ‘good on paper’ that it would be good for each individual child.
It’s why we didn’t try to look for the ‘best’ school. We tried to find the best fit for the student.
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I worked at a finance company. They hired a new general counsel who asked in a meeting one day what APR was. He didn’t know, and certainly didn’t know how to calculate it or what was included and excluded from the APR. He honestly had no idea how loans worked. Luckily for him, we, the staff, did know how to run the company without him.
The previous general counsel had been part of the group that drafted the Truth in Lending Act. Big difference.
We chose Stanford for out S21 over a Big UC. The difference in price was money that would have gone into his trust fund.
It wasn’t about opportunities post graduation so much than his happiness and mental health over the next four years. Our public high school was a pressure cooker. He did not want four more years of the same.
My husband and I had the best years of our lives in college and picked hobbies and lifelong friendships that made our life better. We wanted the same for our kids, and we could afford it. YMMV
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Some may choose to spend that 350k on a college education which can benefit one for a lifetime, rather than end of life care, which may prolong an already poor quality of life and the recipient may not even be aware of it. Having paid for 3 relatives in dementia-care, the college costs seem like a bargain by comparison to that. I will choose another route.
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Let’s not forget - OPs (both parents) have been “retired” and are young - and while they have savings, it sounds like they will need to work again at some point.
I think this part keeps getting missed.
Once you are aged out of a job, getting back in might be at 50% or 75% of prior - if you’re lucky.
It’s easy to spend a lot of money - but what if you ultimately have to live on limited funds with no inflow?
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The other part that keeps getting missed is that they counseled her to put in applications assuming there would be some sort of merit aid. If that aid didn’t meet expectations, it’s not “backing out on the deal.”
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I understand why you are balking at the price tag. We are full pay also and that is a ton of money and in my opinion totally not worth it particularly for engineering. Your daughter has other options, which are better for engineering and cheaper. This is a totally personal decision but it seems there are better uses for those funds.
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But let’s not forget this part too!
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I wonder if the parents set the 529 up with the student as owner and beneficiary, but didn’t realize since the daughter is still a dependent student the 529 assets should be listed under the parent asset section which is a fairly recent change. Parent assets are usually assessed at a much lower rate when calculating EFC.
“The total value of a 529 plan (prepaid tuition plans and college savings plans) generally is an investment asset of the owner of the account (not of the beneficiary because the owner can change the beneficiary at any time). The exception is when the owner is a dependent student, in which case the plan is considered an investment asset of the parent(s).”
https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/where-to-report-529-plan-in-fafsa
https://financialaid.nd.edu/how-aid-works/expected-family-contribution/
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The other thing to check is that any rollovers to retirement accounts were reported correctly.
It can be difficult to do that correctly and with two parents recently leaving their employers that is something worth reviewing with a financial aid officer at Notre Dame, too.
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OP never implied they were expecting need based aid… just merit. So I think it’s grasping at straws to suggest that ownership of the 529 or rollovers would make a difference. Not qualifying for aid means not qualifying. And the hoped for merit did not materialize- which is a pretty frequent occurrence.
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Notre Dame’s not exactly a top ten slam dunk better for business or engineering school that I can tell - Even another local option in university of Indiana (Kelley) would be better for business? And Ohio State Fisher as highly regarded at half the price, I’ll bet. I already mentioned for engineering the quality to price gap as compared to Purdue. Not to mention South Bend is not exactly a great neighboorhood that I recall from prior visits.
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I am not sure Kelley is is a better choice. That might need a more nuanced discussion. Kelley’s business program has some 800 kids or more per year I think. Regardless, Kelley is not currently a choice for the OP. And I did not say ND is good both for business or engg. I said ND is better for Finance. Purdue is better for Engg. If there is a 50/50 chance you might want to do finance, then you may want to lean ND – not sure.
But OP doesn’t have an assured path to a finance major at ND, although I agree that ND Mendoza > Purdue for business…but it doesn’t sound like OP has been admitted to Mendoza. They can take all the business requirements for Mendoza their first year, and then apply at certain points freshman year to get into Mendoza, but that is highly competitive (of course they can do Econ in Arts and Letters, but lots of peeps don’t care for econ). And they wouldn’t have room to do both first year business and engineering requirements.
The OP wants to do Econ. There was no mention of Mendoza. “If” you want to go into a finance career, an econ major is equally good.
Got it, I thought you were talking about a finance major. Econ > finance for certain jobs like IB. And, as I said before lots of non-Econ stem majors going into IB/Banking/other finance/consulting jobs too.
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