<p>My son was accepted at the 3 instate and 3 private/OOS schools he applied to. Unfortunately, the scholarship/financial aid packages offered from the private/OOS choices would necessitate us paying more and him taking out loans. We can pay for the instate schools without loans and have money available for study abroad and unpaid internships. We haven't said he can't chose a non instate and take out loans, but we'd rather he didn't. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, he's just not very excited about any of the instate choices, including our very competitive flagship university. The flagship is a great school with everything he has said he wants in a school. The problem is that many others students from our community attend/will attend the school, including many of his closest friends, and it doesn't seem special to him. </p>
<p>Any suggestions for getting him excited about the flagship?</p>
<p>When my DS was choosing colleges we put together an Excel spreadsheet listing all the total costs of his 7 choices. We also used some rankings info on his two possible majors. We gave him a fixed dollar budget. DS is graduating with honors next month and has most of graduate school paid for with savings. He will be working for a few years, but wants to continue for his MBA/JD. He chose one of his top 3 choices that offered a lot of merit aid. DS was always go</p>
<p>Make him take on as much of the tuition as he can, including every dime he earns during the summer and working during the term. Make it clear there will not be money left over for pizza, gasoline, dates, etc. He will be THAT student who never goes out without mooching from his friends. He’ll probably understand all that a lot better than the problem of loans, which can be pretty abstract to a teenager.</p>
<p>Maybe he would prefer to not study abroad, not take unpaid internships, and have federal loans when he graduates. I think you need to lay the choices out for him – but all of those three things seem like consequences for him, not for you. Unless you would have to take out loans beyond the federal loan amounts, then it is a different story.</p>
<p>I would (1) lay out the financial implications of the options for him, (2) have him attend accepted student days (if it is not too late) at his top 3 choices (or the instate flagship and his top 2 other choices).</p>
<p>DS was always good with $$. He treated the $$ we spent as his own. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>DS was always good with $$. He treated the $$ we spent as his own. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Like WasatchWriter, we did give our kids some responsibility for their college costs. In our case it was spending money and books, along with some federal loans for the kid who picked the more expensive school. We also told our kids if they want to take an unpaid internship, they are responsible for any costs associated with it, especially if it is in a city we don’t live in. My D1 managed to intern quite a bit in college even with this restriction. She accomplished this by:</p>
<ul>
<li>Participating in an internship semester program in DC that she could do through her college. We paid regular tuition, and they provided housing and she got a semester of credits for her internship and a few other requirements the college had (attending seminars and writing a research paper).</li>
<li>She saved from summer and on-campus work, and paid her own expenses for an unpaid summer internship.</li>
<li>Her college career office had a listing for a local part time unpaid internship during the semester, and she did that for a semester near her campus.</li>
</ul>
<p>My D1 did study abroad. In many cases you pay regular tuition to the college, and they cover the study abroad expenses. Except for airfare and probably some additional insurance, it isn’t much more expensive than a regular semester in college. But that does depend on the school – some tack on some extra fees, you have to ask.</p>
<p>Go for an accepted student visit to the flagship.</p>
<p>I agree with thumper–this is the first thought that came to mind. Tour some dorms, visit with faculty in his area of interest, etc. </p>
<p>To some extent, it depends on what you mean by loans. Minimal or enough that parents are actually taking out the loans for the student to re-pay? If the loans are minimal and it means no extras at school, that is one thing. </p>
<p>For one of my kids, I used a spreadsheet to show what the repayment of loans for the full pay school would be. And then what rent, car payment, utilities etc would be. He took the merit money school and never looked back. Good luck.</p>
<p>Here is what my buddy did. He told his kids they got a certain amount of money for college and that was it. If they went to a more expensive school, it was on the kids to fund. Any money left over after graduating was theirs. Both kids picked very affordable schools and got the majority if not all the money due to the scholarships they received from their instate schools. </p>