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I agree!</p>
<p>Great post, thumper.</p>
<p>OP, I understand where your parents are coming from- and expecting you to get a full ride and taking it versus an expensive option are different things. I will be a college freshman this fall and during the college process I received a full tuition scholarship, a merit scholarship that amounted to tuition for this year, and a full ride. My father desperately wanted me to take the full ride but it was in NYC, which I didn’t like(I grew up near NYC, and wanted a change of scenery) and the fact that it didn’t have much of a campus. My parents let me make my own decision and I took the full tuition scholarship. I got into my top choice school that did not give students merit aid, and based on my EFC(which my parents refused to pay) the school expected me to pay 30k a year. My parents basically forbade me from committing to that school, even though I wouldn’t have because I would have to take out 20-25k in loans each year. The point is is that your parents want the best for you and them wanting to be practical and economical isn’t bad- you won’t suffer if you can’t attend a top 30 school. Apply to financial safeties that you like. The school I got a full ride to, while I didn’t particularly care for it, If it was my only financially viable option, I would’ve chosen it. PM me if you have any questions or need advice and good luck!!</p>
<p>Our rule is that we will pay what the most expensive in-state school costs and if you want to go OOS or private you need to earn scholarships to bring the cost in line.</p>
<p>One in college so far - she had many affordable options but chose a full ride at a good LAC because she knows she wants to go to graduate or professional school, and she wanted to save her college fund for that.</p>
<p>Rhodes College was one of her options. Unfortunately the full ride that curmudgeon’s daughter earned there no longer exists. Their top award (Bellingrath) is now full tuition, and they only award one instead of the three they used to give.</p>
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<p>I think your parents sound financially prudent. No need to pay ‘a lot’ (which is likely to be very serious money) for a top 30 if you can still get into a good school. However, you may need to educate them on just how competitive full rides are. Ask them for enough application funds to try different schools, like the LAC’s where you will be at the very top of the application pool. Take the time to get to know the fine qualities of these schools. The schools you mention are good targets, but full ride should still be competitive and difficult. Our state doesn’t give full rides except for need and that will have a loan component. Look at the pinned threads in the financial aid forum for the scholarships that are guaranteed depending on your gpa and test scores.</p>
<p>You should have a discussion with your parents about what they are able to pay if you don’t get a full ride, to be realistic. Maybe your should run an EFC calculator first.</p>
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<p>Who wouldn’t prefer that? My son chose a full ride to UMCP and I am grateful that we saved a ton of money. Woot! He’s a twin, and we couldn’t have paid full freight for both of them at public universities, let alone private ones.</p>
<p>My youngest daughter is Class of 2016 like you, and she’s at the same competitive HS as her brother. If she can earn a full ride as well, we will be happy as proverbial pigs in mud. Would we insist she take the full ride? No. But we will make it clear that we can offer x amount of money, and she’d have to fund the rest (keeping in mind that we wouldn’t cosign for private loans).</p>
<p>I think it makes a difference if your public university is reputable or not. UMCP is a fantastic school for Computer Science and Classics (my son’s two majors), and it also has a good reputation for fields that interest my 2016 daughter.</p>
<p>There are lots of GA kids, and I see you are from Atlanta, that stay in state, regardless of their stats or parent resources. The HOPE makes in state schools very attractive. </p>
<p>One of the “challenges” of the HOPE is that it makes most other options seem less affordable. So, kid gets a half scholarship to a private U, but remaining cost is still 24K. With the HOPE, that is still double the cost of staying instate. Many, many families choose the less expensive in state option.</p>
<p>It also depends upon whether you are planning to go to grad/med school. It doesn’t make sense to borrow tons of money for your undergrad degree when you will go to grad school. </p>
<p>Cast a wide net and apply to schools who offer the full tuition scholarships as this will give you additional choices. It is always good to have choices :)</p>
<p>TheAtlantic: My oldest son took a National Merit offer to attend the U. of Alabama, and he loved it. Got an excellent education, did research, traveled all over the world (even got scholarship money for much of the travel) and was involved in a variety of programs and on campus activities, including Greek life. He turned down a top 10 school and others for Alabama, as we did not want him to incur lots of debt. He’s glad he chose that route, because he wants to go to law school in a year or so. His kid brother is a rising HS senior, and we have concentrated our efforts in finding schools with merit money. He is unsure if he wants grad school, but he is sure that he wants little or no debt. The boys also do not want to put a financial strain on their parents.</p>
<p>We had to take a lot of things into consideration for our son - a music performance major. Because of my job (United Methodist clergy) he had automatic full tuition coverage at several schools - including a couple quite respectable music schools. But, we had to take into consideration all sorts of things - his level of accomplishment, the potential fit with a teacher, professional contacts and location (proximity to NY for auditions). So, he ended up with a 50% tuition scholarship at a great music school. Did it hurt not to take the full tuition offers? Sure. But fortunately, we are in a financial position to be able to make sacrifices for S’s undergrad. His masters degree will be entirely his responsibility.</p>
<p>Many factors to consider and one I have not seen mentioned is if the parents already have paid for private high school. Our rising senior’s high school will end up costing over $45k. Many of his peer’s parents see this as both a quality education and as an investment.</p>
<p>We finally had a serious financial discussion about college and we asked him if he was willing to take out any loans to pay for it? He looked shocked and said, no not at all. This helped to quickly narrow the choices.</p>
<p>Good point KCtaxguy. I am paying for private elementary, middle school and high school for my 3 daughters. The money I saved for college will cover the three for an instate public college. It will barely cover one for a prestigious private school. Add the fact that the oldest wants to go to medical school. So, I am expecting my oldest to do whatever it takes to maximize merit aid, minimize expenses and not require a loan. If she was admitted to a top prestigious private school, no way would I pay for it or allow her to go if the cost of attendance is more than another option. Keeping her out of unnecessary debt is the best gift I can give her.</p>
<p>Yes, private school can also diminish resources available for college. We spent about $45K on S for HSvand about $33K on D, plus their college and Ds CC. We are glad we were able to pay so they could each graduate debt-free.</p>
<p>$45,000… wow… in this expensive part of the country, the tuition for the most academically elite private high school is “only” around $39,000…</p>
<p>The price was for 4 years, and 3 for D, not annual for HS. S ended up starting his U with 60 credits due to all his APs and well-prepared for college engineering, so no regrets.</p>
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<p>When we lived in Hawaii, their public schools were pretty bad so our kids went to private school. It was expensive then so I can imagine what it costs now especially at Punahou.</p>
<p>Punahou is currently $19,950 per year, grades K-12. I believe rental of mandatory school iPad is extra per year. It sure does add up. Many of us wanted to keep our kids in public school but it was hard when they constantly were losing their peers to private school. The last straw was when the GT teacher in 7th grade decided to ignore S for 2 years while he was in her class because he had asked her Qs she couldn’t answer. D was accused of plagerism by her middle school teacher because of her advanced vocabulary and her classmates often made fun of her when they didn’t understand her vocabulary ( tho she was trying to fit in). We did feel compelled to allow our the kids the option to apply to transfer for HS, which was a MUCH better fit. It was pricey.</p>
<p>Well I guess the Hawaiian public schools have not gotten better since we left :(</p>
<p>Ironically, when D started college two years ago it was the first time we hadn’t paid tuition (twelve years of private school, seventeen if you count preschool). We told her that we would make it work at any school she chose, but that if she chose a school that offered merit aid then she would have the ability to study abroad, join a sorority, etc. that we could not fund if we were full-pay. </p>
<p>She was lucky to have several merit offers, but in the end her longtime first choice offered no $. We were relieved when she chose the full ride at her second choice and even more relieved when she told us that fall that she was so happy there, she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.</p>
<p>She observed that there were kids in her high school whose parents bought them new expensive cars as graduation gifts but wouldn’t pay for out of state tuition. Different families, different values. I agree that life without crippling college loans is far better than starting out with big debt – also believe that college is more about what you do than where you go. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>We did not expect our D to get a full ride - there are so few full rides out there, and she’s not at the tippy top of all applicants, so it would not have been a reasonable expectation. We have the good fortune to be able to pay full freight at any of the schools to which my D applied. We preferred to pay as little as possible, of course, but we told her to choose her school without regard to finances (she did not apply to any $50-60K/year private schools). She had a couple choices where she’d be full pay (including our state flagship, where in-state tuition alone exceeded $20K), a couple choices where she had partial merit scholarships that brought the cost to roughly the state flagship amount, and one school that offered full tuition. She chose the school that offered full tuition and is quite happy there, and we’re happy because she’s at a school that’s a great fit and isn’t costing us a fortune. </p>
<p>I think it’s perfectly reasonable for parents to put financial limitations on their kids’ college choices and to choose not to fund an expensive private school when there are plenty of less expensive choices where one can get a very good education. I do not think college is one of those things where you get what you pay for, at all. However, I also don’t think it’s reasonable for parents who can afford to help their children with college to refuse to do so and expect the kid to find a full ride.</p>
<p>Yes, sorry, that $45k was for 4 years and I probably underestimated it as you are required to buy all the books, pay for every retreat, pay for the new mandatory lunch program, etc. Other options were to move (chosen by many) or send to KCMO school. Currently the Kansas City School District is “unaccredited” or “non-accredited” … not provisionally accredited although they are working to regain that status.</p>