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<p>Don’t count on it before your kids are through college. Parents have been saying that for the last 15 years or so as college costs started to climb dramatically. </p>
<p>It does seem to be southern schools that have some of the best scholarships – although Northeastern and Case Western are a couple more northerly schools that have some pretty hefty merit scholarships, I think.</p>
<p>Romanigypsyeyes: </p>
<p>I apologize if I offended you with my word choice of debt as “slavery”. You are right. Except when they hit you for medical bills, it’s voluntary, but it does sort of take on a life of its own, cost more than you think, and end later than you think it will. </p>
<p>And, I was thinking of the term in the biblical sense:</p>
<p>"The rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender.”
Proverbs 22:7</p>
<p>And Oh…wouldn’t it be nice if this happened:</p>
<p>The Year of the Jubilee involved a year of release from indebtedness (Leviticus 25:23-38) and all types of bondage (vv. 39-55). All prisoners and captives were set free, all slaves were released, all debts were forgiven, and all property was returned to its original owners.</p>
<p>intparent: I know. I am not counting on it to help me out, but once it does burst, it will be easier for future generations, I guess, at least for a little while.</p>
<p>Just like it was easier for lots of people who were prepared and had saved money to buy a home in 2009 or after. Prices had dropped and no one else was buying.</p>
<p>Tranquil, debt is a tool like any other. I borrowed for graduate school- and was earning three times my pre-grad school salary when I graduated, paid it off early, and took the payments I had been making and put them into my baby’s college fund. Debt=good tool.</p>
<p>I’m sure you know people who have bought real estate and were judicious about borrowing, ended up making fantastic returns with high leverage. Debt=good tool.</p>
<p>You and your D can research a bunch of options and figure out when and where debt makes sense. Small amount of loans to allow for significantly richer academic experience? Maybe a good use of debt. Slightly larger loans which allows for both richer academic experience and enhanced employment opportunities? Probably a good use of debt. Big time debt for a kid who is going to major in Beer Pong and wants an “out of town” college opportunity? Not so much.</p>
<p>It’s a tool. Like any other. I am grateful to the banks who made my grad degree possible. I would have been stuck in low wage/low growth jobs for 20 years if I had to save enough money to go back to grad school. Borrowing allowed me to go when I wanted to, and gave me two decades worth of significantly higher earnings during the years I would have been grinding away.</p>
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<p>CT1417, I initially wrote it off because of the size issues, too, but I’ve been reading up on their Honors College, and it sounds like they do a pretty good job of creating that smaller LAC experience within the larger university. They have some strong boosters from PA on the UA threads here on CC, so I think the school must be doing something right. When I compare it to the cost of my son attending Penn State, whose Schreyer’s Honors College sounds very hard to gain entrance to, 'Bama is very appealing!</p>
<p>I’m still not sure how they handle GPAs for students coming from schools where they don’t calculate them, but it sounds like they rely on the high school to determine it, and accept either weighted or unweighted (whichever is higher).</p>
<p>[Home</a> | Honors College](<a href=“http://honors.ua.edu/]Home”>http://honors.ua.edu/)</p>
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<p>Tranquil, I can’t comment on the bugs, but no place is perfect, and I think too many Northerners write off the South and the Midwest far too quickly. I can see the distance concerns–we have them too–but so much great art and literature comes out of the Deep South. (And for what it’s worth, Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, is a Civil War historian and native Virginian.)</p>
<p>ETA: Apparently New York and California are “buggier” than Alabama!</p>
<p>[Got</a> bugs? Alabama among most infested areas » Local News » The News Courier in Athens, Alabama](<a href=“Got bugs? Alabama among most infested areas”>Got bugs? Alabama among most infested areas)</p>
<p>It’s not the big bugs that get you, it’s the little ones. The smaller, the worse, IMO.</p>
<p>Have you seen the ‘Falling in love with my safety school’ piece on the admissions forum, for one student’s feelings about winding up at a school that had not been her top choice but that offered her generous merit money?</p>
<p>Lucie…I noticed that Scholarship for Alabama…but it’s ALABAMA, where the bugs are the size of turkeys. Seriously, she might look at that one, but really wasn’t much interested in the Deep South. Except for Florida, also expensive.</p>
<p>What the heck? I’ve lived in Alabama for several years now, both of my kids graduated from U Alabama on near free rides. I have NEVER seen large bugs here. We’ve never had a “bug problem” at all. Where are you getting this idea from?</p>
<p>When people use the term “Deep South” as you have, I’m nearly certain that you mean it with a negative connotation. You’ve never been to U Alabama…cuz if you did, you wouldn’t consider it to be “deep south.”</p>
<p>Anyway…the campus is gorgeous and the merit awards are awesome.</p>
<p>@Mom2collegeKids - You are lucky you’ve never seen a “palmetto bug” in other words a very large cockroach.Ugh. We have them in Georgia … although luckily I haven’t seen one in recent years.:)</p>
<p>Florida has bugs the size of turkeys. Okay, maybe not that big, but they’re huge.</p>
<p>I was shocked when I ran the EFC calculators for the first time, when our oldest was a freshman. I am so glad that we ran it then, though, as it has really helped to focus our college search. I think every college counselor should have every parent run it early, before they start looking at colleges. So many of them say “Don’t rule out any school due to the cost, initially.” I now say hog wash to this! I equate that to shopping for a house and looking at a million dollar home when you can only afford a $250k house. Of course you will fall in love with the expensive ones and then the ones you can afford may pale in comparison. I am grateful for all that I have learned through these forums over the last 1 1/2 years, to help me locate high merit scholarship schools that are definite options for our children. I don’t know if I could have gotten all of this information from our college counselor, and I think she is much better than most when compared to experiences of other parents. I’m still amazed at how little some parents in our daughter’s class have researched and their kids are starting to apply to schools now!</p>
<p>Yeah, if bugs are the concern, Florida is not the place to be.</p>
<p>I live in Louisiana, BTW, where we do indeed have bugs the size of turkeys. Probably far worse than Tuscaloosa bugs. But I think Florida could compete.</p>
<p>It’s not just the south. The unofficial state bird of Minnesota is the mosquito.</p>
<p>I grew up with palmetto bugs (giant blind cockroaches that randomly fly AT you). They’re horrible–but I would still take them over rodents.</p>
<p>[Rats</a> Taking Up Residence In NYU Dorms - chicagotribune.com](<a href=“Chicago News - Chicago Tribune - Chicago Tribune”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/wpix-rats-nyu-story,0,5543058.story)</p>
<p>And I won’t even get into the ridiculousness of paying up to $28K for the privilege of sharing a space with them.</p>
<p>Midwestern: I agree. The first time I ran the calculator I almost peed myself. Shock is an understatement. Cost is the foremost unless your child is an academic superstar, world class athlete or of course if you’re wealthy. It’s also given us time to talk with spykids and let them know our financial limitations.</p>
<p>I lived in Florida as a child. The water bugs are amazingly large, as are the gators. I can handle snakes all day, our cat used to bring them in by the dozens. But rodents? No thank you.</p>
<p>NYU has been barraging Spygirl with email, snail mail and fancy brochures. She’s not interested and we couldn’t afford it even if she was. But I wouldn’t be happy paying $24K for rodent infested dorms.</p>
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<p>Goodness, I was just joking. We have been through most of the states around there, and you are right, it’s actually Georgia with the big bugs that splattered the windshield, now that I think about it.</p>
<p>No disrespect was meant with my reference to the “Deep South”. To me, the connotations are HUMIDITY and more humidity and lots of heat, which I find difficult. Unless you are at the beach. Everything is better at the beach. </p>
<p>She might even apply. We’ve talked about it. I’m sure it is beautiful. So long as the AC is working, I’m down for visiting.</p>
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<p>Ew! No thanks!</p>
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<p>You are smarter than I was! I’m going to be well prepared for the next one.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think U of Alabama is one of the best deals for smart OOS students, and I have only heard positive things about the school. It might be worth having your child apply early just to have one feasible acceptance “in the bag.” </p>
<p>As for the humidity, yes, it takes some getting used to if you are from a more arid climate but IMO it is nowhere near as awful as, say, Philadelphia in July…</p>
<p>Im just happy that the only place I have ever seen cockroaches was at the zoo.</p>