<p>Have son/daughter at Udel and while we like the school, warning that significant uplanned costs exist. Many majors have 1-2 difficult courses that are recommended to be taken over winter/summer break. Plan on additional $12K+ since not cheap ($6-7K per course). Also, cafe food is generally bad so plan on more in town food trips. Adds up quickly.</p>
<p>Is it possible to take those classes at a local state university close to home or online. Should be much cheaper. </p>
<p>My son took 4 online classes over a summer to get required courses out of the way for his very busy double engineering majors.</p>
<p>Dining hall food is something that can change from one year to the next if the college/university changes contractors, but it is true that it can be quite disappointing. When visiting campus, it is useful to thoroughly check out the dining situation. Sometimes the options available to visitors are dressed up a bit from the normal fare. If the food is truly awful, and living off campus is a viable option, that can make for significant savings as well as improvement in the student’s diet.</p>
<p>There are variations in dining quality - if one knows where to look they can usually find decent food. In DD1’s flagship state school there are a dozen venues at least plus the usual food courts etc. One of these has about the best wraps I’ve ever had, and we always make it a point to eat there when we visit. Back when I was in college the Hospitality Management dept. ran a deli style cafe by students that had wonderful deli stuff.</p>
<p>We have a lot of family going and having gone to UDel, and after freshman year, they found cheap off campus digs and saved a lot on the food budget that way. Some courses can be taken summers at community colleges for a lot less to mitagate some costs. We are doing that with our son right now who is at a college and needed/needs some extra courses with his major change. He’ll take our in state courses over the summer to fill in the gaps, and costs are more reasonable than taking them at his college especially with costs for him to stay there over the summer.</p>
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<p>What majors and courses in particular?</p>
<p>There are a few majors that require averaging slightly more than the usual nominal full time course load of 15 credits per semester (e.g. chemical engineering at Delaware requires 126 total credits, or 15.75 per semester average), so students who are barely capable of handling the usual nominal full time course load of 15 credits per semester may be more vulnerable to delayed graduation or needing summer courses in these majors.</p>
<p>This is why state schools are rarely less expensive than private schools for most kids…</p>
<p>Students able to afford summer classes for reasons other than graduating early would seem to have lots more choices no matter where they go to school. At D’s private top 20 research university, students who go to summer school include those who are making up a W or unsatisfactory grade, students spreading out difficult courses or pre-med prerequisites over several semesters or taking a particularly difficult class such as organic chemistry at their state flagship, students changing majors or hoping to take additional electives in their major, and students who want the background to take upper-level classes outside of their major. </p>
<p>Sometimes students coming in with less than optimal background but more than sufficient aptitude are able to remain in a difficult major, or change majors and still graduate in four years, only because they are able to take some of their classes over a summer or two. </p>
<p>As for particular courses - at D’s school, many pre-meds are advised to take organic chemistry over the summer, some at a less competitive school such as their state flagship. Those taking it during the year are advised to take a somewhat reduced courseload. Some students - especially those in engineering - catch up on the calc sequence by taking summer classes.</p>
<p>Students taking intensive foreign language classes and lab courses are often advised to take reduced courseloads. Sometimes a heavier courseload works better if students do not take too many classes in fields that do not overlap, or do not attempt many (if any) upper-level classes outside of their major.</p>
<p>It has also been our experience in general that workload can vary even among classes that would seem similar in content and difficulty. Pre-meds and pre-laws are advised to avoid classes outside of their comfort zones that are not required classes, and many lament that they dare not attempt the types of classes that attracted them to the university in the first place!</p>
<p>This is why state schools are rarely less expensive than private schools for most kids…</p>
<p>Maybe some kids, but not most kids. Most kids can’t afford to go away to school at either, which is why most kids have to commute to their local state school or CC. </p>
<p>Most kids would not get accepted to the privates that give great aid. </p>
<p>The students that find privates to be cheaper tend to be the high stats students who have lowish EFCs and are attending the ones who give lots of aid. For the rest, privates will either be more expensive or about the same cost as the flagship COA because of tuition discounting or other aid.</p>
<p>We got hit with a lot of extra costs this year for my current college son. He ran into some issues, and things happened here at the house that really jacked up our expenses. DS got a first hand look on why one should leave a little breathing room when selecting an affordable college. We did not do so on our end, actually upping our contribution over what we should have, but DS had left leeway in terms of his Stafford Loan and hours of work. He’s looking at some cost cutting measures for his junior year, because the housing he was assigned cost more than his freshman double. Add a small increase on top of all of that in terms of COA, and it becomes significant.</p>
<p>HopJim,</p>
<p>Our D ran into the same issues while at UDel. She ended up double-majoring due to the difficulty of getting into core courses in her “Minor.” She did end up using one Winter Session to take a couple of courses unavailable (to her) during Fall-Spring. And she did take one course over the summer at a different university.</p>
<p>Be aware that not every course taken at an outside university will be accepted for transfer credit by UDel. Check first!</p>
<p>mom2collegekids–if you pay $15,000/year at a state school plus and extra $15,000 for summer credits ,how is that school less expensive than a $30,000/year private school–at which you most likely got merit aid. As for “going away”, staying at home and commuting is RARELY less expensive then living on campus. We are talking 4 year colleges, not community colleges so that is irrelevant-however, the community college down the street is about $1000/year more than our kids will be paying at their private school because of very generous merit aid and that isn’t even factoring in the cost of needing a car, groceries at home, utility bills, etc…</p>
<p>Our kids have good stats but not OMG stats and we are full pay…</p>
<p>I would think that you would know this by now after your time here. Look at the “merit aid” thread and look at the size of the awards these kids are getting and then run the numbers. Not all, heck most, of those kids are super high stat kids. Most are B/B+ students with slightly above average test scores (25 ACT or better). The Ivy’s, if you get in, are typically the most affordable schools for people in the $200,000 income and lower–so MOST people in the US. When state schools are in the $25,000 range, you are hard pressed to find a private school that is more expensive net cost.</p>
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<p>Here is an example, using a state school and a private school that are widely cross-applied to and have roughly similar selectivity (although the state school appears to be slightly more selective):</p>
<p>UCLA in-state: list price cost of attendance = $31,902 residence hall, $28,917 off campus, $23,424 commuter living with parents, according to [Fees</a>, Tuition, and Estimated Student Budget - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm]Fees”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm) . UCLA charges $279 per quarter unit tuition for UC students in the summer session.</p>
<p>USC: list price cost of attendance = $59,883, according to [USC</a> Financial Aid - Applying & Receiving Financial Aid - Undergraduate - Costs](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/undergraduates1/costs.html]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/undergraduates1/costs.html) . Even if the student gets one of the half tuition scholarships that USC is known for giving out, that leaves a remaining cost of $38,022, or $6,120 more than UCLA. USC charges $1,420 tuition per semester unit (equivalent to $946.57 per quarter unit) in the summer session.</p>
<p>For a student with no merit scholarship but from a family of 3 making $50,000 per year and no significant other income or assets, UCLA’s financial aid estimator estimates a net cost of $12,206 (living in the residence hall), while USC’s net price calculator estimates a net cost of $14,536.</p>
<p>SeveMA -</p>
<p>For those students who qualify for some merit money, it is not at all unusual for a private institution to be more affordable than community college followed by home-state public. And yes it can be surprising to parents to see just how far down the GPA/SAT/Class Rank scale some colleges and universities will go and still award merit money. However, the fact remains that nationwide most students don’t qualify for merit aid. Most students and their families really, truly do end up paying for their local CC and/or in-state public educations with current income and loans.</p>
<p>Happykid completed her AA at our local CC and now is a Junior at a state U. I consider the meals a wash because if she were still at home, I’d have to feed her. This might be different if she were a hungry teen-age boy who could get an all-you-can-eat meal plan on campus. Our utilities did not drop when she moved out. Calculating transportation is tricky because her work brings her home a couple weekends each month and it is cheaper & faster for me to get her (90 min each way by car) than for her to use public transportation (approx. 3 hours each way), but in general terms, they appear to be higher than last year when she took the city bus to & from class, or I dropped her on the way to work. Housing and utilities for her shared apartment are running about $650/mo for a 10 month lease. So yes, it is more expensive having her “sleep away” than it was when she was a commuter.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids–if you pay $15,000/year at a state school plus and extra $15,000 for summer credits ,how is that school less expensive than a $30,000/year private school–at which you most likely got merit aid. As for “going away”, staying at home and commuting is RARELY less expensive then living on campus.</p>
<p>Since when would “most kids” get merit money at their private school? lol Your premise was that attending a private would be cheaper for “most students”. That is just wrong. </p>
<p>And if the OP’s kid is paying THAT much for summer tuition, then the student is attending an OOS public…which isn’t the same as attending one’s own public univ. UDel isn’t likely charging $12k for summer school for its instate students. </p>
<p>And, living at home and commuting is OFTEN cheaper than R&B. R&B can be about $10k+ per year. Driving a few miles to school doesn’t cost $10k per year. Why do you think so many students end up attending a local regional/directional public?? Because their tuition can be about $4k-10k per year and they can live at home for free. Yes, they’ll have transportation costs, but not as much as R&B unless they live far away (and that’s a different situation).</p>
<p>For the cream of the crop students (not “most”), merit money can be had at privates, instate publics, or OOS publics. Nothing special about privates.</p>
<p>I’m not sure exactly what the hours are, but I know the hours of dining halls at Michigan are very short so if you live at a dorm there you will need to eat a large number of meals outside the dining halls or plan every day very carefully to ensure you can get in the dining hall.</p>
<p>Also, tuition jumps like 2K/semester (instate) after you hit 55 credits.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids–if you pay $15,000/year at a state school plus and extra $15,000 for summer credits ,how is that school less expensive than a $30,000/year private school–at which you most likely got merit aid. As for “going away”, staying at home and commuting is RARELY less expensive then living on campus.</p>
<p>another obvious point is that if the summer experience is only a one time thing, then that $30k expense would be for one year only…the other years would be $15k each. So, again, cheaper than a $30k year private.</p>
<p>UDel Summer rates 2012 (new rates not yet posted)</p>
<p>Max instate rate per summer session: $1612 (4-7 credits)
Max OOS rate per summer session: $4324 (4-7 credits)</p>
<p>So, it sounds like the OP is talking about the OOS tuition, room and board costs for 2 summer sessions if the cost was $12k. </p>
<p>Again, when comparing public vs private, it’s really not fair to use OOS rates anyway. The point of comparing public vs private is to compare instate rates with private rates.</p>
<p>$6-7K per course</p>
<p>Don’t know where the OP is getting that from.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids–obviously you live in an area where kids don’t get merit scholarships, here, most kids do get some. It isn’t just for the cream of the crop. They are graduated awards based on ACT/GPA. Our oldest had a 3.0 with a 28 ACT, no where near cream of the crop, and still got merit money. Look at the 3.0 thread and all the kids there getting merit awards–again, great kids, certainly not cream of the crop. </p>
<p>When comparing state schools to private schools–for our kids the state schools come in at $5000+/year MORE than the private schools. Living at home is not FREE. Your parents still have to pay for food, utilities, gas, car upkeep,etc. </p>
<p>Most people go to state schools because they have parents like you that THINK private schools are too expensive and don’t apply. People automatically assume that you pay the full sticker price at a private school. That just isn’t the case for MOST kids–yes MOST. That information is easily found on the CDS or school websites–average aid packages–merit or otherwise and the % of kids getting those packages. You don’t really think that 90+% of the students applying to these schools make $50K or less do you?</p>
<p>Again, schools like the HYP don’t give merit aid but their financial aid is more than generous. How many private schools did your kids apply to? How did the numbers work out for them?</p>
<p>"$6-7K per course (?)
Don’t know where the OP is getting that from."</p>
<p>OOS, residing on-campus, taking just one especially difficult course. Without getting into specifics, yes I knew a number of kids who ended up with this scenario. It doesn’t have to cost $6-7K for a single course … but it can. (Choice … it’s what makes America great!)</p>