<p>" We’ve also had the discussion that grad school or law school, he’s on his own."</p>
<p>It’s obviously your decision, but since you are putting this to the group, maybe you want to rethink this idea. Logically, it is grad school or law school that is ultimately more important. Right now you and your son are rightly feeling flattered and excited and proud by the acceptance. That is an emotional reaction. But I would take a step back and wonder, really is this in my son’s (and my) real, honest best interest.</p>
<p>" I also know that even though we have the money that you can get a great education for less. So what I really want to hear is that Georgetown is so amazing, it’s worth the extra $$$ and that after graduation he’ll have his dream job ( or any job) waiting for him. Of course, we all want to hear that ! )"</p>
<p>You really want him to go there. It also sounds like you want permission (sort of) or your friends to say “go for it”. And many many people on these boards are convinced that a fancy top private school is the most important thing in the world, worth $250,000. To my mind, they are the victims of false advertising and magical thinking IF they have to pay anything close to full price. (if there’s lots of financial aid, then it’s not an issue).</p>
<p>I have struggled with this issue in my head for the last year, as I know we will have to pay full price for my 3 children. I’ve decided paying that much money is not a good investment when we have good state universities available, in my case, SUNYs. Unless my kids get great merit awards. </p>
<p>My advice is to save the money for grad school. Or retirement. Who knows what will happen to the economy in the coming years? It doesn’t look good.</p>
<p>Friends son graduated from Geaorgetown last May. Son graduated from another school. Both really bright kids. (My son was valedictorian, and this boy was not far behind.)</p>
<p>Son was given the option to attend any school he wanted, debt free (we’d pay). He was accepted at some highly regarded schools as you can imagine but in the end he chose a great school with full merit scholarship and amazing perks. He has no regrets. Friend went to Georgetown (ED), as he always wanted to go there. He told my son that it was not worth the money. Point being, not that he didn’t love the school/experience, but he realized he could have gone to same school as my son (or similar had he looked for a financial safety) and had his parents pay minimal, while he still got a great education.</p>
<p>Bright kid, great personality…has not gotten a job yet. He’s will likely go to grad school next Fall, if nothing comes along. </p>
<p>Lots to think about. Georgetown and other great schools??? Worth the full cost? Certainly, not a waste, but you can do very well and not attend those schools. Hard decision to make.</p>
<p>^^^i k ow not a single person who has paid for their own grad school^^^ find a job that will do so, though perhaps it is not as prevalent as it was</p>
<p>Redpoint: Other younger son is at a SUNY, again his choice. He got in to all 15 schools he applied to and although he had some he liked a lot, he picked his SUNY because he thought it was a good fit, good program in his major and the cost (he even got 1/2 tuition merit at his SUNY). He is doing incredibly well. Internships soph and already lined up for this summer with a possible job offer when he graduates. Doing research as only undergrad with all grad students since sophomore year. </p>
<p>There are some great SUNY’s. No regrets here (except for the coveted status).</p>
<p>gdogpa- None of the kids we know who are in or applying to grad school are hainvg employers pay for it… They are going to grad school as they don’t have jobs!!! (Other than those that have to go to grad schools as it is necessary for their career (ie- law, PT/OT, speech pathology/audiology, etc.)</p>
<p>It all depends on the invidual. Some kids go to top schools and get fortunate to have great opportunites come their way sooner or later. Other kids go to top schools and aren’t so lucky. Usually it depends on the ambition of the invidual and his/her skills/grades. In the long run, however, it will probably be worth it, and I’m sure your son will appreciate that you have invested so much in him.</p>
<p>For the record, Georgetown has one of the most generous financial aid offices in the country (They call it “need-blind admission.”) However, it gets more generous the more needy students who qualify for it are. I think all ivy-leauge schools and most top schools have adopted similar, non-merit, need-based financial aid policies.</p>
<p>Crazed, i can’t speak for everyone, but nepotism plays a significant role in 1st jobs, so perhaps that also,plays into the employer paying for grad school</p>
<p>Three years ago, my daughter was accepted EA to Georgetown, though it was really her second choice after Chicago where she was also admitted EA. We do not even apply for financial aid, but we are not comfortable just writing the check. My daughter was interested in languages, but after talking with the director of Slavic languages applied to the college rather than SFS. Anyway, we told DD that she would need to take out some loans because we wanted her to have some ownership. She decided to go to Pitt where she was awarded a full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>She is a junior. She does not regret her decision. She will graduate with money in the bank. An advantage I see with the choice she made is that her university was fairly generous with AP credit, which helped fill gen ed requirements. She has been able to try many more things than she would have with a school with lots of core requirements.</p>
<p>Oh, and when we went to look at Georgetown, the cab driver told us to keep our tip as we would need it if DD attended Georgetown. Still makes me chuckle.</p>
<p>“grad school” includes law school and medical school - good luck getting an employer to pay for those.</p>
<p>Nepotism is no doubt used by some to get their jobs but for a lot of people, probably the majority, they need to stand on their own merit and get jobs without the benefit of nepotism. Unless one knows for sure they have a shoe-in at dad’s business or their favorite uncle’s company they better make sure they have some attributes desirable to employers in general.</p>
<p>momtotwins,So true that it is so much easier for kids to spend mom and dad’s money.MD Mom, We took a similar approach with our older son-we are in Virginia and have great instate options like UVa, William and Mary and Virginia Tech. He really liked UVa but thought he might also like to apply to places like Duke and an Ivy. We told him he was welcome to do so but he would have to take out more in loans as these schools really do not have merit aid(Duke maybe has a little). He elected to apply ED to UVa and we were full pay (this was for 05’ when they still had ED) as he didn’t want to pay more for his education at a private. It was a lesson for him in financial realities. He had a great 4 years at UVa at a fraction of the cost of the privates he looked at. We had him take out minimal unsubsidized Stafford loans(less than the maximum he could have gotten) which he groused about at the time but he was very proud when he paid off his loans himself within a year of graduating. Loved UVa.</p>
<p>Nepotism,as i describe,open doors, but you can’t be an imbecile…you still need to be educated…and as far as grad school, those i know who go for free are not those who attend med or law schools</p>
<p>Md Mom, I went to graduate school at Pitt-your daughter made a great choice! I’m kind of glad I did not find this site until 1st son was already in school. This was before the more middle class initiatives with some of the Ivy’s. Probably would have taken us on a more complicated path. He would have been a good candidate for some of the merit aid at schools like Pitt and Alabama as well but I wasn’t savvy to all that back in 05. No regrets though. We paid it all at our instate public and were happy to do so. Son was not required to pay anything upfront for his education even though he had good jobs every summer during college. The loans were just a way for him to contribute to his education and he easily paid them off with his summer savings and income from his first job out of college. Good luck,laserp. Not an easy decision.</p>
<p>The kids’ side: “It is way easier to spend mom and dad’s money” than to spend their own hard-earned money. </p>
<p>On the parents’s side: these are our babies and we want to provide absolutely the best for them.</p>
<p>But I think the emotions (not to mention, pride, status, being able to say “my kid goes to Georgetown”) get in the way of reason.</p>
<p>And what are we teaching our children? To buy something expensive, just because we want it, because marketers and friends have told us it will open so many doors.? We want to believe it, because we are proud of our kids, out of love, but the truth is, most of it is hype. </p>
<p>Now some states have much better state universities than others. If the state school available isnt that great, I might have a different opinion. (in fact, as a kid i wasnt going to be caught dead at mine, since my father was a professor there, but had a great cheap oos option) But UT is by reputation, good (I think), and VA choices are incredible, and SUNY has Binghamton, Geneseo, Stony Brook and other good choices. So I would say, frame the acceptance and then move on.</p>