<p>Buffalo never appeared on our radar screen! Will certainly do the due diligence. </p>
<p>“Are you ok with your kids taking out student loans?”. </p>
<p>Ideally we do not want to saddle my S with loans, if we can help it. Wayyy back when I finished grad school, I had zero college loans. That has been our guiding principle. Of course, things have changed over the eons since then; as they say, never say never. All the schools are being viewed through the lens of U of Michigan College of Engineering: Net price Vs. Quality. Vs. Admissibility</p>
<p>My S is also grappling with the decision whether he should apply to the following schools. Pl. note my S is considering only engineering, either BME and/or ChemE. They appear to be reaches, both from an admission & financial standpoint of view. </p>
<ol>
<li>CalTech</li>
<li>Fu College of Engineering, Columbia</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Harvard (can take classes at MIT, if needed)</li>
</ol>
<p>Even paying full fare at UMich should be a drop in the bucket for your family. I would hope that you are at least willing to pay that much … and UM engineering is well respected.</p>
<hr>
<p>We, as parents, have a fiducial responsibility to ensure our assets last our lifetime, so as not to end as wards of the state.</p>
<hr>
<p>You live in Michigan. Do you not understand that you have far more than most??? You are hardly headed to skid row in your retirement. I guess my H & I must be total idiots for forking over our EFC without grumbling (too much ;)) … we are thrilled that we have lived a life that has enabled us to pay our share. Is it a “fair share?” Probably not … but everyone is being judged by the same standards.</p>
<p>I would say…sure, choose one or two of these to apply to. Many students apply to reach schools both academically and financially (you never know how the chips will fall). However, if you have financial constraints, and you feel strongly about them, please let your son know these up front so he is not disappointed if these schools come up short in the money department. Of course, you could have a nice surprise. But remember that none of these schools gives merit aid…only need based aid…and it’s their institutional money that is what is generous. </p>
<p>It’s looking like your son has a well balanced list of schools from both a financial and admissions point of view.</p>
<p>The 24-hour Roth deposit and withdrawal is a wonderfully creative contribution to CC’s store of college financial strategies. In fact, it’s inspired me to brainstorm some more:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Fake a mobility impairment to get a handicapped parking sticker and then sell it to the highest bidder.</p></li>
<li><p>Photoshop the face of a URM your own age over yours on your photo resume and apply for endowed minority scholarships.</p></li>
<li><p>Advertise a donation of goods for disaster relief every time there’s a natural catastrophe and then return the donations for credits at Wal-Mart.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Gee, the possibilities are endless once you think about it!</p>
<p>Lol, gadad, but some of those are truly unseemly. I favor just marrying the kid off in order to make them independent for FA…if you can manage to do it at a really early age they may have no memory of it whatsoever.</p>