<p>My daughter was accepted to both schools. We live in CT and she received 50% off tuition so it will be reasonable. BC is a great school with a great location but is 64,000 and no merit aid. Which would you steer your child towards?</p>
<p>It depends on your family financial situation and how much the extra money is worth to you. It also depends upon your child’s personality and goals.</p>
<p>I believe that BC is a somewhat better school overall than UConn, even with the Honors College. But unless your family can part with the money without huge regret or misgiving, then UConn is the way to go. </p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think BC has enough prestige to warrant paying so much more. If the choice were MIT or Harvard instead of UConn, then I’d suggest you spend the money. But this is a personal decision, as NJSue says. </p>
<p>That’s a big price tag difference, approx. $50,000 for 4 yrs UCONN vs $130,000 for BC. UCONN.</p>
<p>Assuming you’d be full pay, I think you should look at where and how you’ll be spending the 130k cost differential. Would that amount of room in your budget allow your daughter to take some really beneficial unpaid internships or maybe allow her to do some interesting summer travel that would otherwise be spent off in the salt mines? Without knowing your family’s financial situation or your daughter’s major, it’s too big a price difference to make any clear judgments. </p>
<p>BC’s got the better reputation, no doubt about it. But for our full pay family, it would be no contest, our daughter would be heading off to our flagship’s honor college. </p>
<p>NO school is worth crushing debt. State flagships have much to offer.</p>
<p>We had a similar decision last year…our instate land grant vs others, including a failrly highly regarded private…</p>
<p>Our instate U at about $13,000 per year.
Tulane at $40,000 per year.
Son liked our state school better anyway and we didn’t feel the private school was worth anywhere close to $40,000 per year.</p>
<p>Will also allow son to use summers for travel and/or low pay/no pay internships. had he taken the more expensive option, he would have needed to make ‘school’ money during the summer.</p>
<p>Decision was easy and son loves his school!</p>
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<p>UConn has had a respectable academic reputation in the NE and is popular among students in the NE/Mid-Atlantic for good academic and big sports. </p>
<p>While BC has greater cachet, it’s not THAT much greater…especially considering the amounts involved. The academic rep gap would have been narrower 2 decades ago as I found from HS classmates and friends in the tri-state area/New England. One hallmate of a friend I met at a private Boston area university was rejected by UConn as an in-state student because he didn’t make their GPA minimum. </p>
<p>One older friend who was in-state for UConn said if he had not gotten admitted to Tufts with a fantastic FA/scholarship package, UConn would have been his enthusiastic #2 choice. Even above higher ranked private colleges on his admitted list. Incidentally, he still cheers for the UConn Huskies during basketball season. </p>
<p>In this case, I’d be likely to opt for U Conn. If there were another good private with significant merit/FA that came in in between the two, I’d consider that. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t pay $64K for BC unless I could do so without feeling an instant’s pain.</p>
<p>How affordable is BC to you? Do you have to borrow? Does it endanger your financial security? Does it compromise your retirement? Does it mean less to leave when you die? Is it that you don’t want to pay that much for the school? It really depends on a lot of such factors.</p>
<p>If it’s there is a pretty good likelihood this is going to cause your financial issues, the answer, IMO is easy. UConn all the way. I could not afford BC for my kids without really bringing our already inadequate savings down to a really low level. Didn’t want to sell the house and move or take on a job, so it meant we had a maximum we could pay, and maybe a little bit more, but not $50-60K a year. Also are there thoughts of med or prof school? Are there other kids in the picture. </p>
<p>If money were not an issue, yes, I got with BC. With me, it is, so my kids took BC off the table. </p>
<p>D did choose BC over the state school. We told her she would need to borrow 10,000 each year if she really wanted to go there. She did. H and I had to borrow a little, too. Was it worth it? Yes, every penny. She had a wonderful four years there, received an excellent education, and has a large group of great friends still in contact several years after graduation. She has already paid back over a quarter of the money. </p>
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<p>She borrowed $40,000, but has only paid back $10,000 “several years after graduation”?</p>
<p>That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, ucbalumnus. “Several years” sounds like 3 to me. :)</p>
<p>ucbalumnus - She’s been pretty busy going to medical school. And yes, she had to borrow more money for that. Would she do it all over again? Yes, in a heartbeat. Every student / family has to make decisions based on what is right for them. This was the right decision for her and for our family. </p>
<p>I agree with you that BC is a great school, but also agree that it is not so much better than UCONN that you should but yourself in an uncomfortable financial position. If paying for BC would be overly burdensome to you or require your daughter to graduate with a lot of debt, I think UCONN spiked be the way to go (especially if she thinks she will want to go to grad school.) </p>