<p>The decision is dependent on many factors, including the potential talents and interests of the young man or woman. We chose to pay full freight at MIT for our daughter, and have no regrets at all. She has been able to find paid research positions from her first year there onward, and now as a rising senior, she has a paid research position in Germany this summer and a solid offer for the summer after graduation. She has so many skills under her belt, that I believe she will easily be able to support herself with work she enjoys. Not easy in this economy. Moreover, by the time she graduates, we estimate she will have contributed around $35,000 toward her own education, so in the end the bill hasn’t been quite as painful as we anticipated. </p>
<p>On the other hand, for the past several years, our son has expressed an interest in high-school teaching and wanted to attend a liberal arts college. Although we were willing to pay for him to attend the college of his choice, we were very pleasantly surprised (and grateful, in fact) when he chose to attend the university that offered him a very large merit package. We think he’ll be very happy there, it won’t break the bank, and he will be well prepared to obtain a teaching credential, if that’s what he wants to do after he graduates. In terms of the current job market, we are far more worried about his possibilities, than about those of our daughter.</p>