<p>Agreed, dstark, Great post.</p>
<p>Tpshorty, I , too liked that post. </p>
<p>If,one looks hard, one can find low cost college choices a lot of the time. But unless you are truly flat out, in trouble, and can’t come up with anything, can’t borrow, there are a lot of other factors that go into a college choice. That blend is one that is different in every family. It can be hurtful to be stuck on all name brand school, as I have seen some folks, and it can also be hurtful to ignore other factors that are important in life for cost reasons only, especially when one can come up with some money. Most of us have spend quite a bit on our kids and selves on amentities, and for college, some of that can be a factor too.</p>
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<p>It is typically not even a legal lifestyle. Zoning laws restrict how many people not in the same nuclear family can occupy a residence.</p>
<p>In a “student ghetto”, there are a lot of illegal digs. Around here, the same, though it isn’t the students but the illegal workers who rent those places.</p>
<p>Dad<em>of</em>3 - Yes the Athenian corner is still there as well as the Olympia - and EmilyBee, Lowell is truly a melting pot with probably as many Irish as Greek (and every other nationality).
But it struck a chord to hear the poster say in essence that her high scoring son “deserved” a school with a high price tag. We were beyond proud to see our son’s acceptance to Bentley. However, without a Merit award, we had to tell him that sinking $200G+ would be a debilitating business decision for him and our family. In the meantime, the best offer he has received so far (at 1/3 the cost) has the following statistics -<br>
“PayScale.coms national survey of graduates with bachelors degrees found that the median mid-career salary for UMass Lowell is $91,000, the highest of any public institution in New England. The starting salary is $47,600, the survey found.
In the mid-career salary category, UMass Lowell placed No. 106 nationally among both private and public institutions, up from No. 124 last year, in the ranking of more than 900 colleges and universities around the country.”
As my dad used to say, “It’s a lot easier to say yes, than no.” Still, we would much rather “invest” in our son wisely, see him get a Master’s degree at his school of choice AND not have to live in our basement until he’s 30 because he’s drowning in debt. Just food for thought.</p>
<p>Amroy, you are so right! What an irony that there are so many college grads, now living at home with parents when it was so all fired important that they go away for college. Now without jobs and some with significant debt, they are back home. I’ve mentioned an dear, close friend of mine who is in so much debt as is her daughter, that they can’t even make the interest payments on those student loans they took.</p>
<p>“kat4444–not that it should matter to you but the response to that poster was based on that person telling everyone else they were spending too much on their kids…”</p>
<p>Talking about me? I’m the one who said I have spent about $100,000 on my daughter’s undergrad degree. My point was, yes, it is a lot of money. I never anticipated that I would have to spend that much when she born. But compared to others I know, it is about average for 4 years at an in-state public university. I’m not bragging about how much I had to pay- it’s a bit upsetting, actually, but it could have been much worse. I am one of those middle-class posters who earn too much for need-based aid, and whose kid didn’t get offered much in the way of merit aid, despite a 4.0 GPA, 32 ACT, and 2200 SATs as well as excellent music-based ECs. I’m just warning parents that it’s hard to find a free ride out there, or even a cheap one. USC, for example, accepted her but offered zip. She ended up at that other school across town at half the price and couldn’t be happeir with her experience.
I’m also the one who teaches at a CC and thinks it is awesome, maybe even better in some ways than a lot of the other higher-priced options out there, as well as a great way to save money.
I’m also the one who cautions that s#$% hapens, so don’t count on being able to delay retirement or pay as you go.</p>
<p>^^I don’t know what Kat’s problem was with that but yes, it was you I was talking about. You said you were a cheapskate, I was just commenting that we are too, and even more so. You bring up a good point though, your child didn’t get offered much merit but you also focused on state schools from the way it sounds. That isn’t unusual. Your child would have done better at many other schools that she or he applied to smaller LAC. The point is, there ARE options if you look. I don’t think it is hard at all, we found 100’s of options that all cost less than any state school and your kid’s stats are a tad better than our kids’.</p>
<p>USC is University of Southern California, which is a private school, right?</p>
<p>By the way the 1/3 price @ the school I mentioned includes room and board at a newly renovated dorm that features learning communities (with their own kitchen and common area so students are accessible to students who are studying for the same tests, etc. are together or the option of a brand new dorm). Just to point out that the "other’ choice doesn’t always have to be commuting or CC. (Not to knock either! Each is great for the right student.)</p>
<p>SteveMA
One of the Ivies. actually more than 900/month 8000/8month</p>
<p>Didn’t read all the posts but want to add in my 2 cents. I don’t think most families are paying full price for a $60,000 a year school and if they are, many are taking out loads of debt. I work in a field where I see kids after the fact - when they are dealing with this massive amount of debt. Try buying a car or getting a home with so much debt. Just worked with a young lady who had one car loan, and her student loans. No other bills. Her debt to income ratio was 104%. All her money was going to pay her loans! She only got the car loan because mom cosigned. She is a college graduate, working in a field appropriate for her degree. It seems going in that the fancy school is worth the debt but it is sure hard for these kids after the fact to deal with the debt. We sat down with our kids and an amoritzation schedule and showed them what $50,000 of debt looks like on a monthly basis. Both are in schools where they can graduate with no debt.</p>
<p>TIgerdad, is that board alone? Hard to believe that as their costs are closely clustered. It’s usually the room AND board package that comes to about $9K. NYU is the one that is really up there is cost. Not an Ivy, but the costs are way up there but that comes with the territory when that territory is down town Manhattan.</p>
<p>According to a couple of definition in wikipedia, anyone in the next 47% below top 1% is middle class.</p>
<p>[American</a> middle class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class]American”>American middle class - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>tigerdad14–are you sure you are looking at the meal plan and not the dorm cost? I haven’t found any of the Ivy’s that have an $8000 meal plan, most are in the the $4000-6000 range so far. Must have missed one that is $8000 I guess.</p>
<p>For purposes of college, I’ve often said, that it’s the average range of incomes of those families with college aged kids that count. There are more expectations of such families in terms of income and savings than for young adults just starting out and elderly who are on pensions and Medicare.</p>
<p>The dollar amounts aren’t as important even if they are off on the meal plans, but the sad fact is that tood costs have gone sky high at most colleges. For many of us old times, the cafeteria was often the only choice, so when you bought a meal plan, the meal services could plan accordingly. Now, most kids want the minimum meal plan, and who knows when they will show up at the cafeteria? Also there are more eateries within a meal plan. Makes planning meals more difficult and costly. You don’t get the discounts you did once upon a time, and some schools are even getting rid of their cafeterias because of the waste factors. Kids like that mall style food court a lot more, but it costs more, particularly if you have big eaters like I do. Packing lunches has become uncommon and uncool. I remember packing lunch to work. Where DS works they don’t. They all eat out. Makes it hard to save money when your lunch tab when you scrimp is $10 a day.</p>
<p>It’s board alone. but to be fair it’s not strictly by school (2500 more than school dining hall for lower-classmen). About 75% upper-classmen are under this plan. (60% of them get FAid and the delta is paid by school) dorm is another 8k</p>
<p>SteveMA, would you please share how you plan to provide four years of college to all three of your children for less than $100k total? This would be a huge help to those looking for ways to fund four years of college on a shoestring budget.</p>
<p>I’m not SteveMa, and I only have two children, but I spent less than $50k total for both of my kids’ undergrad years. One cost us only about $12k total and the other one cost us about $25k total. They both received large scholarships. Older son was then offered a fully funded PhD program, so didn’t have to pay anything for that.</p>
<p>But, now we’ll be paying big bucks as younger one goes to med school in August. Not complaining. It’s all good! :)</p>
<p>Probably the Princeton Eating Clubs.</p>