Depends how much money I have and what I was going to major in. If money was no issue, then the Ivy school. If the state school had no reputation or a great program for my intended major, I would consider the Ivy then. If I was planning to go to grad school, then I would do the state school and use the money saved for grad school, depending on the state school, maybe go to the ivy for grad.
“Manypeople still do not realize, that in many instances, not all, that attending a top tier Ivy is probably more affordable than your own state university”
Can we ban the phrase “top tier Ivy”? They’re all top tier. It’s like saying top tier of an Olympic team, and it bears no relation to reality.
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are the schools, to which I make reference. It’s based on their endowments and how they put together their aid packages. You could also include Stanford and MIT.
@MinneMom2 Honors colleges and honors programs vary significantly from school to school. It pays to do your homework. This link is a place to start. http://publicuniversityhonors.com
Fwiw, our strong, advanced student is attending Bama and decided upon it bc of their CBH research honors program. They accept 40 students per yr. The program is specifically designed for grooming research skills and providing undergrad research opportunities. You can scroll through this list and see some of the research presented by these students: https://live.cbhp.ua.edu/schedule.php Students from this program have been named Goldwater, Hollings, Truman, Mitchell scholars. UA is amg the top 4 universities of Goldwater winners. http://www.as.ua.edu/home/students-win-goldwater-hollings-truman-scholarships/ Our ds was sold on the program bc his ultimate goal is physics research. (Two additional factors were they allow stacking scholarships and the fact that UA allows undergrads to take grad level courses.)
Going to an Ivy doesn’t necessarily mean paying more than for a state school. Private college endowments can be quite creative. And lesser debt doesn’t necessarily mean easier-to-be-paid-back. You gotta look at the whole picture to formulate risks/rewards/payment options/the student, etc. to assess “value”. Where your valuation intersects with theirs is where the “price” is.
Neither does going to an Ivy mean paying less. Ivies do not give merit scholarships and everything is based on familial financial profile. Merit $$ at some schools can definitely make them cheaper than “meet full need” schools depending on the individual family.
It’s not just “top” Ivies or the tippiest-toppiest schools like Stanford that may prove less expensive than the in-state option. It’s really any well-endowed college or university. For my son, several privates (schools in the top 20 LACs and universities) would have been less expensive than our state flagship–but we also happen to live in a state with one of the most expensive COA’s for in-state students.
I think your main point, @boolaHI, is a good one, that the larger the endowment, the more generous the aid. BUT it’s important for families to recognize that the bigger the endowment, the more the demand for admission–from both students who need aid and those who don’t–so the admission rates for these schools is usually anywhere from single-digit to about 25%. That’s why it’s so important to not make a lot of assumptions before running the NPCs on a wide range of both public and private colleges/universities if your child is a top student. Also, merit aid may make a “second-tier” school a clear winner in terms of affordability and overall value for your family.
So much will depend on your particular family’s EFC, the state in which you reside, and the type of program your child is interested in studying. I agree with @Mom2aphysicsgeek that that public university honors site is very helfpul. As is visiting any of the schools that are contenders before ruling them out. My son is also at Bama but his profile (aside from having high stats) is about as different from her son’s as you can get. He had NO idea what he wanted to study at college but was interested in engineering precisely because he didn’t want to HAVE to head to graduate school after four years of college. And he had no interest in any of the elite programs offered at Bama; the honors college itself was enough to make the school stand out for him when combined with a great experience when he visited the engineering school and the generous scholarships.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - I have been all over that web site. It is a useful resource. And it’s areassuring to see that the flagship honors program DD is considering is on numerous “top” lists. What I was hoping for was more personal insight from other posters - actual experiences that confirm such honors programs are actually rigorous, intellectually stimulating, and get students on the path they need.
Thank you for your comments. I would say, my comments were prefaced, with the following: ability to obtain admission, respective family income and competing merit/need offer from your own state university. That said, my own experience, and that is certainly not definitive, unless family income was over 150k, the aforementioned schools, offer superior net financial packages. Part of that is tethered to their institutional philosophy of meeting all need and it being met entirely with grants, and not loans. So, that is one feature not all Ivy plus schools adhere to—something to perhaps factor into the equation?
With all due respect, H-Y-P are considered to be the top Ivy schools. Further, one could delineate that from a combination of factors, including: endowment, financial aid, academic reputation and alumni. And again with all due respect, no is going to confuse Dartmouth and Cornell with the afore-mentioned institutions. That said, they are all stellar universities.
@minnemom2 I think you’ll need to ask about specific programs. Generic answers are probably not going to be helpful. Our son, for example, knows that a recent physics grad from his program is now at Stanford; he knew after he went for his interview for the program that he would be amongst peers; etc. It took investigating program by program to get the answers he wanted.
Re: #129
However, Dartmouth and Cornell are very different from each other in many respects.
That is very true.
What if you were to meet your future business partner at an ivy tommorow? The one who will help you make millions if not billions, this is more likely at an ivy school. Granted if you are majoring in Psychology or History or English, you should not, it is only worth it if you are a business/STEM major.
@manas1997, that is more likely at a top public CS program like UMich’s or Cal’s or UIUC’s as well.
@PurpleTitan yes but those schools are ivy level, except for UIUC, they are only ivy level in STEM, but for all intents and purposes I would consider UIUC an ivy as well.
I would definitely pick a state school with a full ride over an ivy! I actually have two full rides right now and am just waiting to hear back from one more school but I am definitely going to a fully funded school. I think this is more of a socioeconomic question rather than a how-ambitious-are-you question though because a lot of people who can’t afford ridiculous tuition would much rather go to a University for free. Also, a lot of students from poorer areas go to less prestigious schools and so if they went from a less-affluent school to an Ivy, they would be competing with students at an ivy level who have been having tutors and attending fancy private schools. While I have a 4.5 at my school, I know I would flunk out of an ivy school because there is no way I could compete with students who have had years of amazing education. Attending a State College over an Ivy has nothing to do with intelligence or even willpower to succeed and everything to do with opportunity.
feel free to answer mine
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1740097-can-someone-help-me-edit-this-essay.html#latest
@mitkid1994. Out of nowhere…you claim to be an MIT “student” right now. So how would you know this?
without having any experience at that athletic conference school? By word of mouth? Rumor? Or are you bitter about being at MIT?
Not all schools in that athletic conference are created equal nor do they provide the kind of strength in all fields…some are strong and some are weak…
And what is strange…you are going after schools in the south with blanket general statements…
So engineering with 1/2 scholarship to UMich or ND vs. Cornell paying full price? Parents have $ but not enough that it would not matter.
I would go to either UMich or ND.