Incremental Costs

Parent Cafe
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<p>$20K for a summer class or 2 seems really expensive. My s took 2 classes at our local tech flagship one summer and lived on campus and it cost less than $5k total (classes and housing). Because he was enrolled in school elsewhere, he didnt qualify for the special instate scholarship that is otherwise available to instate residents. </p>

<p>A friend’s child took a summer class at the local top 20 U here and paid, IIRC, 11K. Hard to fathom a summer program would cost as much as the full year. If it did and I couldnt afford it, I’d look for other options PDQ.</p>

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<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>Hah!</p>

<p>I live in Merit Country! Private schools are not cheaper for MOST kidsl…which is what your premise was. </p>

<p>I’ve seen that 3.0 thread, and they are lucky if the merit brings cost down to about the COA of a state school (so not cheaper). In many cases, the merit awards are like $10k or 15k per year which still leaves COA higher than most state schools. </p>

<p>Your oldest that got merit money with an ACT 28 and 3.0…where did s/he get merit that brought the cost down BELOW your state school? How much was the merit award from this private school? I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but most kids couldn’t get enough merit from a private with those stats to get costs below their state school. There just aren’t enough seats at those privates for most kids to attend and get such merit. </p>

<p>And a bigger point…an ACT 28 is in the 90th percentile. Guess what? Most American kids are not scoring in the 90th percentile. lol The more avg student with the ACT 24 isn’t going to be snagging merit for it to be cheaper than his state school.</p>

<p>And, again, your premise was that privates are cheaper for “most kids”. No. “Most kids” are not in the 90th percentile or greater. lol</p>

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<p>My S2 is a 2012 grad. of a large directional state u. He was a low B student in h.s. w/ a really low SAT. There would not have been any possibility of merit aid for him (unless he played football which he didn’t want to do). Even if there was, it still would not have been equal or less than our state u.
His costs over four years at directional state u. (including four summer school classes on campus) averaged around $16,000/yr. </p>

<p>My neighbor’s D who was a B+/A- h.s. student w/ 1100 SAT is at a small instate private that no one on CC has probably ever heard of. She got $16,000/yr merit scholarship that still left her paying about $800 /yr. more than the instate public she was also admitted to. Another friend’s D attends same small college . Her gpa was high but best SAT was 1040. She got less merit and is paying a couple of thousand more per yr. than state u. She had applied to three other small privates in our state…same results for all…cost always came out above state u. costs.</p>

<p>The vast majority of students from our upper middle class suburb’s three high schools and our large metropolitan county attend our state u’s. Our state schools are a bargain compared to privates for the majority of kids.</p>

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<p>Tuition/fees/room/board for our 2 main publics is $15,500 per year. The only private schools in our state that you might be able to pay less for as an average student are clearly inferior options when it comes to quality of faculty, programs, student services, etc. Sure, many kids could attend schools like Wartburg, Central, Simpson, etc for a price equal to our state schools but you are paying for an inferior product. I wouldn’t do it.</p>

<p>The privates equal to or better (Drake, Grinnell, Luther, Coe) than our 2 state schools wil not be less than our state schools for the vast majority of people. Most of the others aren’t worth attending at any price.</p>

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<p>This is very low compared to public schools in New England. Public schools in New England are typically 11,000 - 13,000 and then add room and board on. That said, there are merit scholarships at the public schools here too but I think that you have to be near the top to get the most money.</p>

<p>BTW, here’s the statement from Boston College on Merit Scholarships:</p>

<p>Boston College is committed to need-based financial aid and, therefore, offers very little merit money. The Presidential Scholars Program offers our only merit-based scholarship, and is awarded to the top 15 students each year. Presidential Scholars receive a full-tuition scholarship regardless of financial need. There is no separate application required to be considered for the scholarship. To be eligible, students must simply apply through the Early Action application process. Scholars are selected by the Committee on Admission based on academic excellence, demonstrated leadership ability, significant community service involvement, and potential. Boston College awards all other money (more than $60 million in 2008) through need-based financial aid.</p>

<p>From Tufts:</p>

<p>“The Class of 2014 received more than $18 million in total aid, $14 million of which was in the form of grants. More than a third of enrolling freshman received an institutional grant.”</p>

<p>That works out to around $11K per year in grants. They list their costs at $56K per year.</p>

<p>Boston University:</p>

<p>“If you are a high achiever, Boston University wants to help you accomplish everything you possibly can as a BU student. One of the ways we do this is through a variety of scholarships. Last year, Boston University awarded nearly $12.5 million in merit-based scholarships to entering freshmen. Most awards are for academic achievement, while others go to talented athletes, performers and artists. The competition is keen: typically, recipients rank in the top 10% of their graduating class, but achievements outside the classroom in schools and communities can also make a difference.”</p>

<p>That’s an average of $3,125 in merit aid per student and you have to be in the top 10%.</p>

<p>Amherst College:</p>

<p>“No, we offer no “merit-based” scholarships of any kind. Amherst has been committed to a strictly need-based financial aid program from the college’s beginnings early in the 19th century. Need is the only criterion for receiving financial aid from Amherst.”</p>

<p>I will say that they offer excellent need-based aid to the lower and middle-class student.</p>

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<p>Haystack–Well, I guess “inferior” is in the eyes of the beholder. One school our son is considering is Central. He has already been offered enough money to make Central less then our instates, and has been invited for scholar days for the potential of more funds. Central actually has a better program for his major then his lottery school, and has a better program for his major than any “superior” school you mentioned. He’s looked at them, hated Grinnell–worst tour ever there. Drake would have been an option but he couldn’t get past the dump surrounding campus. Coe was ok but he didn’t like being “in the city” and Luther is just too popular with kids from our area. Our state schools are very expensive for what you get.</p>

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<p>It looks like those schools are in low-cost-of-living areas. They don’t have to pay for Billy Bulger’s pension too.</p>

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<p>Most schools will let kids take courses at local CCs or on-line for non-major classes. The student must start figuring this out early.</p>

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<p>*One school our son is considering is Central. He has already been offered enough money to make Central less then our instates, *</p>

<p>Yes, but if his stats are well above average (which if I remember correctly, they are) than “most kids” wouldn’t be eligible for his awards. </p>

<p>Haystack is right. There are some inferior student-desperate privates that might be handing out large merit for good-but-no-superior stats. Many of those schools aren’t going to have the updated facilities that many publics would have. </p>

<p>The problem is that many kids who are “good/average students” have very limited choices unless their parents can pay full or near full freight. </p>

<p>We see this all the time here on CC. They’ll post their “big lists” and average stats, and mention that their middle class family can’t pay much. The truth is that for many of them, they’re not going to be accepted to the schools that give the best aid, they won’t get merit, they’ll get gapped, and many have unaffordable EFCs. </p>

<p>I saw this with our sons’ high school classmates. Many of the ones with stats below the decent merit awards had no choice but to stay home and commute to the local state school. Tuition is under $10k, so with a student loan, some part-time earnings, and maybe some family contribution, costs are covered. Yes, they were accepted to some privates, but not with enough aid/merit to bring costs down to even the COA of the flagship.</p>

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<p>Hey -
Lets go back to the original post. Incremental costs… Ok for those of you that have kids already in college.,… What are some of the costs of college that came up that weren’t included in those cost calculators?</p>

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<p>Michigan/Georgia,</p>

<p>Some science clases have pricey lab fees. I forget how much they were, but it was an add-on I hadn’t thought about. </p>

<p>As long as you have personal health insurance for your kid, that cost can be removed from school fees. But most/all (?) schools will require a student to have health insurance, and if they cannot provide proof of coverage, they’ll see a hefty fee on the annual bill.</p>

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<p>What is the breakdown in grants, loans and work-study?</p>

<p>Some of the websites that I looked at didn’t do a breakdown of those things and it’s harder to compare without those breakdowns.</p>

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<p>Son required floppy disks for a logic design course. They used some ancient piece of equipment for labs and the machine wrote the output onto floppy disks. It was fun trying to find them.</p>

<p>Clicker for large hard science courses. These are wireless devices that have unique IDs for students and allow the professor to take attendance (of the clickers) and get an idea of how well the students were getting the material. The Professor could ask a multiple choice question that the students essentially voted on.</p>

<p>Printer costs, either using the printers at the library or bringing a printer and paying for printer ink.</p>

<p>Flash Drives - these are dirt-cheap today but they weren’t always inexpensive.</p>

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<p>The extra fees didn’t really bother me that much as I had them factored in. There can be extra fees for all sorts of things in life (landline phones, cable internet, the phone company, gas bills, electricity bills, buying a car). Everyone has their hand out to get a piece of the action. Oh yes, how about local and state taxes on hotels and rental cars?</p>

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<p>^^in that updated facility I guess…</p>

<p>With our older two, we haven’t run across anything that wasn’t specified as a potential class. Lab fees were spelled out, books are always an estimate but we have always come in under that estimate.</p>

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<p>Watch out for some pretty spectacular costs for majors like Architecture (or any creative arts I guess). The joke is that they save a lot on books (maybe $100 a semester) but tools and supplies per semester (and not to mention software) can get expensive in a hurry.</p>

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<p>Some schools charge “university fees”: These can be Student Rec Center fees, Health Center fees, Technology fees, etc. There are some schools that have gotten quite creative at adding in fees. I remember someone posting a link to their child’s school which had a few thousand dollars in fees each year. </p>

<p>Many schools charge “course fees”. These are different from university fees. Course fees are usually related to the type of course. Think “art fee” or “lab fee”. These are used to pay for supplies or technology. STEM majors tend to pay more in course fees. </p>

<p>The course fees can vary by school. For my Chemical Eng’g son, his course fees have been about $200-300 a semester (so about $50 per class). </p>

<p>At some schools, course fees can add about $1000 per semester. :(</p>

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<p>D1’s school is forcing us to pay $475 per semester for 4 years for a required laptop. Makes me crazy every time I have to pay it, since of course she already had a perfectly good laptop.</p>

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<p>Why cant you just buy that ()<em>)#</em>!$#)&+^ required laptop? Would be cheaper than that usurious rental rate.</p>

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<p>*D1’s school is forcing us to pay $475 per semester for 4 years for a required laptop. Makes me crazy every time I have to pay it, since of course she already had a perfectly good laptop.
*</p>

<p>Wow! What school is that? I wonder how they justify this?</p>

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<p>jym- believe me, we tried. We argued, showed them that we could just go out and buy it for a lot less, etc. , but there was no way to get out of it. Makes me insane, but at least D1 loves everything else about her school.</p>