On the question of budgeting for 5 years at UW, my kid is current double major at UW and will have no problem meeting all his breadth, gen eds, and 2 non-overlapping major requirements. He came in with some AP/IB credits, but not a slew of them. It has taken some attention to detail, and not just random “oh this class looks fun”, but is entirely doable.
From what I hear from him, kids often take a “super senior” year bc Madison is just such a great town, and they can live fairly cheaply off campus while finishing up some extra coursework. It does not seem to be a case of not being able to get into required courses etc., as we have heard happening at some publics. Full disclosure, my kid is in L&S, but a lot of his friends are in engineering and from what he says, they are comfortably on track.
Certainly, if a kid changed Schools (L&S to CALS) and started over sophomore year on requirements, I can see the need for an actual 5th year.
UW does have articulation agreements for admission and credit acceptance with the regional campuses – I believe it is something like 2 years at a regional campus and a minimum gpa, and there is auto admit to UW. I could be wrong, or that could be out-dated info, but transfer to UW campus after cheaper, commuter campus while getting gen eds and breadth out of the way could be an option.
Also, we found UW’s estimate of living expenses to be MUCH higher than we experienced, and we are out of state. Dorms are reasonably priced, for a regular double, and food is what you actually eat, so my kid spent much less than the estimated. Books were pretty easy to get used for the UW bookstore or online. He has worked during the school year for spending money, and that covers his pizza and beer and entertainment. So don’t be frightened by the big numbers UW lists for expenses – your mileage will definitely vary.
True fact (as they say): Nationwide, more traditional-age college students commute to local CCs and public Us than go “away” to college. If your kids commute, they will be having the majority experience.
Back before the NPCs existed, I ran a couple FAFSA calculators and was horrified at our EFC. I could see that Happykid wasn’t going to have the test scores, GPA, or other special talent for the kind of merit-aid that we’d need to make things work, so I concentrated on learning to love our local community college. As luck would have it, she scored a merit-based scholarship there that meant we could save those two years of tuition toward the remaining two at a not-flagship state U. Also, as luck would have it, the program for her major at that CC proved to be arguably better than the first two years of that major at any of the state Us including the one she transferred into. Win-win all around.
As for college savings: Whatever you can scrape together is a good thing. One full year of college? One semester at a CC? One year of books? All good. However you save it is good too. 529? Regular savings account? Under the bed in a shoe box? Do whatever works for your family. With only one kid, a 529 made no sense to me. Our money was just in regular savings and CDs.
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I would not necessarily say tuition at UW-Madison is expensive, currently at $10,640 per year. And if EFC is $12000 or lower, there is automatic grant aid of $3000.
Tuition at other UW System schools:
UW-Whitewater $7600
UW-Eau Claire $8750
UW-LaCrosse $8902
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I wouldn’t say it’s “expensive” but since a number of flagships (and even non-flagship publics) are now charging that much (or more), these schools are becoming unaffordable to those whose incomes are beyond much/any aid…unless commuting.
A school with $11k tuition quickly costs $25k per year or more once R&B, books, fees, and other costs get added in. For a family that would get little/no aid, and who has a few kids to put thru college, $100k per kid becomes unaffordable. We all notice that R&B, books, fees, etc, …can cost more than public school tuition!
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I expect our kids might possibly reach a college fund of about $20k per kid (total, currently funded by grandparents) and we could reasonably pay $8-10k per year out of our own savings/income at that time.
Given a strong possibility of 5 years at a UW, I was thinking, conservatively, $4k (fund) + $9k (our income/savings) = ~$13k. Then again, we have 3 kids and 1-2 will not likely overlap, but 2 and 3 will overlap 2-3 years in college. We could not double our contribution to $18k! One of our kids has $$$ medical needs, which adds an element of uncertainty for much of our financial planning. We have good coverage for those expenses now, but that could easily change.
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I also wouldn’t assume 5 years per child.
Any kid who carefully plans his schedule, doesn’t take unneeded classes, pays attention to requirements, doesn’t drop a bunch of classes, takes at least 15/16 credits per semester, should be able to graduate within 4 years. (sometimes PARENTS have to “help” over see some of this to make sure no requirements fall thru the cracks!)
And, yes, AP tests and CLEP tests can help, as well.
Both of my kids easily graduated within 4 years. They could have graduated within 3 years because of AP credits, but chose to go the 4th year to take some fun classes and finish minors that weren’t needed.
For some degree plans, finishing at UW-Madison is beneficial. When one has tight finances, looking for all the merit and Wisconsin eligible grant money, plus commuting options. Lots of good info on this thread.
The student should be saving earnings. Parents can save in their emergency fund. Working together, transparent so the student realizes that mom and dad are not a money tree. Also being careful on any student loan.
Student should not put money into Roth IRA (that is for retirement, not college).
If parents have debt beyond home mortgage, consider taking a $100 financial peace course to help with family budgeting.
Depending the the kids’ profile, there could be lots of merit aid to be had at the midwestern privates - in Wisconsin, Lawrence and Beloit are both terrific and good with merit; in nearby MN, for strong stats you have St Olaf, but easier to get into check out Gustavus Adolphus (Macalester and Carleton would meet 100% need so if you’re lower-income, they may be cheaper than UWi - but they’re hard to get into so your kids would need to have interesting ECs or work consistently at a job + have terrific grades and test scores). Another 100% need school that’s generous but hard to get into is Grinnell. Other schools to look into: Butler, Illinois Wesleyan, Luther, Nebraska Wesleyan.
Money Magazine January February 2015, two page article includes 20 best colleges for merit aid (none of top 20 are in WI) - however that is with greatest percentages of the students with merit. There are strategies in this article, and Beloit College (in WI) President talks about how to get merit there (if you are a serious candidate). A student does best if they are in the top quarter of a school’s applicant pool (ACT/SAT and GPA, maybe HS rank…).
A higher stat student with financial need does have to balance out having some student loans and potentially a better education at a private college.
In PA, I would consider Penn State to be the state flagship. Any Penn State commuter campus that is not in driving distance was not affordable for us. DD19 drove to one and was very unhappy. She said it was very hard to make friends as everyone took off right after class. I was VERY unhappy with the campus on so many different levels. Better than half of the kids graduating in the NHS in the high school listed this campus.
Luckily DD was able to transfer to another school with a great PTA program, same costs, but a much better run school. The program is very intensive, but she is doing very well, and has made a number of friends there. Two year program was affordable.
I did not even consider Penn State for DS, waste of time and money. He had the stats for full tuition at University of Alabama and Temple. I consider the choices an absolute blessing. Still quite a bit of $$ for us to come up with, but it is manageable if he takes out full loans and works periodically. The PHEAA schools did not have the engineering he wanted.
Youngest is being advised to do very well in HS if she wants to go away to school. It won’t be Penn State in any way shape or form.
Sorry, I just got back to reading this morning and I really do appreciate all the new advice.
I had not heard of some of those WI grants, so thank you, I will look those up. I am glad to hear that UW’s estimates are on the high side for living expenses, per your experience. College savings are in a 529 but I think under grandparents/child’s name, I’d have to check on that.
Also, I will change my expectations to just 4 years since a whole chorus of you said its possible with planning and maybe a few AP credits coming in. Our HS offers 5-6 AP classes, but all in History/English so I think they will just turn into “electives”. I wonder if dual enrollment might do more for us with the right articulation agreements in place.
I do think that for some careers having the Madison vs. branch distinction could be useful, but we’ll have to wait and see what paths look right for our kids. I think one of them might be better served going with community college route, but we’ll see if those goals change.
I would love it if my kids could achieve the stats and merit to attend an LAC like Lawrence or Beloit. Oldest kid does very well in school and scores well on standardized tests so I’m hoping that carries over to the PSAT. Part of the reason I stumbled on this place is because I want to set realistic expectations for our kids from the start about what we can afford and how their options will depend heavily on their performance in HS. I don’t want to pressure them to be superstars, but they need to know that gpa/rank/psat will really affect their ability to have more choices for college or go away vs. commute.
In terms of AP credits and planning etc at UW – if your kid were to be in the College of Letters and Science (which mine is), it is pretty clear breadth and gen ed requirements. So, for L&S student, they need:
Communications A and B – you can test out of Comm A with AP/IB scores or high enough score on the mandatory placement test. All students have to take Comm B which is basically a writing focused class offered in many different departments.
Quantitative Reasoning A and B – again, you can test out of both, I think, not just A, with AP/IB scores or high enough score on mandatory placement test.
Foreign language: a student who studied the same language for 4 years in high school automatically meets the foreign language requirement. Or you can take placement test and test out if you don’t have 4 years in high school.
Breadth: 12 credits each in Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences (including mandatory 3 credits in Biological Science and 3 credits in Physical Science). A typical class is 3 or 4 credits. AP/IB scores count as credit for these. My student came in with 6 credits each in Humanities and Social Science from his AP/IB scores; his (and my) regret is that he did not self-study for a science AP to at least get some science credit taken. These credits can also count towards the major requirements, as my student had a boost in credits for one of his majors from his AP US History exam.
Ethnic studies: 3 credits (1 course) in US diversity related topic – this includes literally hundreds of courses, from History, Literature, Anthro, Sociology, etc.
These are very manageable requirements and absolutely doable with planning.
Some students graduate from UW-Madison in less than 4 years. I know of students who graduated in 3 years or less.
"A higher stat student with financial need does have to balance out having some student loans and potentially a better education at a private college. "
-This concept is not correct for the most. The quality of education that student get in UG vastly depend on the sutdent and NOT the school. Tha is why many Grad. Schools (including, but no limiting to Med. Schools) primarily care about the student stats and NOT the name of the UG that applicant attended. There are few exception to that, but nobody cares what UG the MD attended, it may as well be unknown local college.
I just don’t see that Wisconsin (at any of the campuses) is not generous with financial aid or merit. When I looked at UWSP for an OOS student, it was less than some schools at instate rates. The housing alone was half of what I pay at my daughter’s private school. If the sticker price is lower than most other schools, you don’t need as much merit or FA to make it work.
You also have the option of the ‘cold belt’ states - North and South Dakota, Montana, Utah, Wyoming. All have very low OOS tuition, and merit aid. And you can’t claim your kids don’t like cold and snow!