<p>You can’t afford to get wasted in NYC.</p>
<p>Wait, what? You mean he really doesn’t have Michigan? Or Minnesota? But Minnesota is the natural NMF safety scholarship school for Midwestern kids. It’s in a big vibrant city, feels like home, has very strong academics in many programs…</p>
<p>OK, we’re in Madison and if my NMF kid didn’t get into our flagship, as admission is getting tougher every year, I might nudge him to UMN-TC. But I don’t think I’d insist on Oklahoma or Alabama.They are great schools and they get a lot of OOS kids coming for the NMF money. But a kid has to be willing to go south of his own volition, visit and decide it’s an awesome school himself. Your H might insist and your son might love it after awhile. But if it turns out he’s not the type to want to adapt to southern culture and decides to be miserable, well, that won’t be fun for anyone.I don’t think going to those schools is at all like what my S (who refuses to even visit) imagines, but there is some difference in culture. They are college towns filled with a wide variety of people from all walks of life, yes, but someone who wants to be unhappy to make a point, could easily find reasons to do so. I’m saying this as someone who wants my kid to visit and love one of these southern schools, but I know it doesn’t happen for everyone. Nebraska is probably fine, but not very exciting, I suppose. Fordham sounds like a super option. But none of these schools will run you anywhere near $22,000 with the scholarships. Is he in at some Midwestern LACs, like St.Thomas or St. Olafs? Is there no place he likes? </p>
<p>Please don’t anyone take offense at anything I said about southern schools. I didn’t word it properly and I don’t know how to say what I mean here. I can imagine some kids in other parts of the country might be wary of the Midwest.</p>
<p>I’m confused. Is your son’s choice between Fordham vs Oklahoma, Nebraska or Alabama? Which is his dream school?</p>
<p>This might be useful reading. A young lady in similar circumstances to your son who decided to go to Fordham and thrived there.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thecollegiateblog.org/2013/07/24/student-stories/”>Loading...;
<p>Can your son still call his top choice and ask whether they’d increase his work study?
It sounds like, if you remain frugal, you can fund about $35k and your son would be in charge of the rest - since your son wouldn’t be taking more than the federal loans I assume he’d either have to pay you back or take from his own savings, right? That doesn’t sound too bad, especially if after paying for college you’d still have 100k in savings.</p>
<p>Your second son would have to apply to 100% need schools</p>
<p>I would caution against a large flagship for a homeschooled kid. The few I know who tried it ended up transferring (ymmv of course). It’s just too much of a shock, going from a school for 2 to a school for 40,000.
In any case, a kid who’s enthusiastic about a small, isolated LAC, isn’t as likely to thrive at a big school. He may, but he’d need to choose it and be proactive, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t think Fordham is especially bad wrt drinking. It may be more preprofessional than some of the top LACs but not all.</p>
<p>It’s hard to give you advice since we don’t know whether we’re talking Middlebury or Bowdoin or Swarthmore, and whether your son wants to study languages or engineering or writing or math… If his top pick is Middlebury and he wants to study CS, there may be a reason to choose Fordham, but for languages it’s hard to beat Middlebury. For anything Wall Street, Amherst, Williams, and to a certain extent Bowdoin are hard to beat (and are recruited like Harvard etc.)</p>
<p>BTW, Social Security isn’t going anywhere and 70s inflation isn’t returning. We’re more at risk from deflation than from inflation ran amok. 
So you can rest easy on these points at least.</p>
<p>If your income is 100k, (not 199k) then I have run enough NPCs to know that your savings must be pretty hefty to have a 52k EFC. If your retirement is being successfully funded, you don’t care about the material trappings of a big house and a fancy cars, and your children will be gone after next year then this is the question I have…what plans do you have for your savings if not college? Believe me, I know what it is like to wrestle with college costs when you have a frugal nature, but just something to think about.</p>
<p>@cuter1, Depending on your Ss major he may have the option to move to the Lincoln center campus if he thinks there is too much drinking going on at Rose Hill.</p>
<p>I don’t think Fordham is the first choice school. The OP stated that the school is a top 10 LAC. If so, and it’s a school that meets full need, it is highly likely that the school will honor its NPC for the second kid in college I just made a point to say to be wary, just in case it was not such a school, and for the benefit of others following this thread. THe NPCs are pretty accurate for those schools that have no merit awards and that guarantee to meet full need. However, I always caveat that there are exceptions to most all school for that full need met. Few schools extend that guarantee, for example to international students and to any special divisions that cater to non traditional programs (Columbia General Studies, for example), or to wait list or to transfer students. Another category are those kids who have a second sibling coming in later. So it’s always a good idea to get confirmations for the fin aid office that the NPC is accurate prospectively for a second kid in college. It’s always a risk as to what will happen when such situations arise. The same when you have two kids in college for that freshman year, but that older kid will be out in a year or so. There is that risk that the change in aid package may not be as the NPCs showed for one.</p>
<p>I agree fully with Blossom. COuld not put it better in anything said in that post. </p>
<p>It seems to me the OP’s son has a choice of top LAC with financial aid only, Fordham with free tuition through merit, but still have to pay room/board other expenses, and full rides from those state schools. With a family income of low three figures, and the cost for the LAC ranging about half of that, and Fordham at 20% or so of it, I can see why Dad loves the idea of free. Especially when savings and retirement goals are not yet met and a second kid is going to be in college next year. Though the cost at the LAC will go down with two in college, it won’t be halved as PROFILE schools will do a 60% of parental contribuiton rather than going halfsies as the FAFSA EFC would. Fordham is not going to give anything more IMO next year since the award is all merit and they do not guarantee to meet need. </p>
<p>Good luck on the decision.</p>
<p>^Good point: A Top 10 LAC will decrease costs when the 2nd kid starts college, but merit won’t change and Fordham doesn’t meet need, which means they may change the award when Son2 starts college, but they may well not.</p>
<p>OP: can you calculate costs over 4 years,
with Y1@52 + Y2, 3, 4 at 32
vs.
Fordham’s costs X4?</p>
<p>Cp, I think you are suggesting that a top LAC is not Fordham. I have no idea if the Honors program there is 10% or less of the population. I don’t know if there is Honors Housing, or special advisers for honor students, special classes, etc.
I wish OP had been open about the actual choices weeks ago so we could offer opinions based on facts and experienes.</p>
<p>I wonder if Fordham and the large flagships are being compared to Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Pomona, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Davidson, Haverdford, … I’m sure I left out a few, but is the dream school one of these? </p>
<p>If so, I have an opinion, especially for a home-schooled young man.</p>
<p>I think OP said Fordham is the son’s (distant) 2nd choice. I recall now that Fordham is one of those schools with atrociously high rm/bd, around $16,000. The other schools are not free, unless son has extra scholarships. Nebraska gives full tuition plus $2000 plus a book scholarship. Alabama is free the first year and you pay room after that. Oklahoma is complicated, but it’s roughly a bit more than full tuition, a bit less than Alabama.</p>
<p>Yes, Bookworm, it is one of those. What is your opinion?</p>
<p>I’ve had kids with the same choices. One chose the pricier LAC, one chose the state school, one chose something in the middle. So it all depends. I left the choices up to the kids, but I’d also committed $X a year and they had to work with that.</p>
<p>cuter, you pushed the button, right? Don’t look back.</p>
<p>Turns out, the national merit designation can remain undecided another month so the button isn’t pushed. But a deposit will be made tomorrow and unless a better offer comes through via one of his waitlisted colleges (not likely) he will be attending the liberal arts college that he desires. Thanks very much for the comments.</p>
<p>Fordham, unless it’s Amherst or Williams. The drinking, drinking, drinking is essentially everywhere, everywhere, everywhere and and every successful kid needs to learn how to manage it at school and at work, especially business. Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama? They are fine, but I’d rather send my kid to Fordham, even if it costs. U of MN as someone suggested above is not a full NMF ride, but is a good option. Good luck.</p>
<p>I’m weak. I would have let him pick. </p>
<p>
There is a happy kid here. Who says it is easy to be parents?! LOL.</p>
<p>Congrats Cuter and Cuterson! At least one of you deserves a glass of wine. No regrets, full speed ahead.</p>