I was just using Wyoming as an example of an OOS school that comes in under $20k. There are others, mostly midwest/west and south, that do too.
No way would Wyoming cost $35k. When my daughter went (graduated 2 years ago) the OOS sticker price was $27k, and NO ONE pays that. She only got a $3k/yr Rocky Mtn Scholarship (now Brown and Gold), but then got a small dept award, a small alum award (Wyo form of financial aid that’s not called FA), and all (and I do mean ALL) of the itemized costs like incidentals just don’t come in to play. Everything is included in student fees, even football and basketball tickets. She didn’t spend much money at school at all. She lived in a sorority house sophomore to senior years and it was cheaper than the dorms, even including dues.
Just an example, as there are other schools like that. For both kids, they would not have gone to the schools they did if I’d just looked at the sticker prices. My daughter at the private school with a sticker price of $50k (when she started; $58k when she finished) was almost a non-starter, but when I dug into the grants available and talked to the coach, it worked out. Daughter did know that if she lost either the big merit award or the athletic award, she’d have to transfer. The other awards (she had 9 grants/loans in total every semester) were not as crucial, but sure did help.
There was a woman who posted on CC for years. She went to Embry Riddle and she had a combination of outside scholarships and school grants that made it a much better choice for her than any other school, even those offering full tuition. She found, as did we, that combining several smaller awards rather than hoping for ‘full ride’ worked better.
Even while middle class might be hard to define, I believe that OP’s original point is valid. College will still cost $20k+ for most.
There are very few full-ride scholarships anymore. Even if you are a top student and get full tuition room and board is still a significant cost. Home prices have skyrocketed in every popular metro area which affects housing around colleges and universities. The old idea of living off campus to save significant money does not apply in many areas.
The bottom line is that many are finding that their kids don’t have the same college opportunities as they did both with getting accepted into college and having costs be reasonable. Our state flagship is $30k a year in state and significant merit scholarships are only available for your top 5%.
Yes, but part of the problem is focusing on OOS flagships, rather than looking at the entirety of the higher education system.
The United States has a really solid higher-ed sector. There are just under 2,000 nonprofit 4-year colleges in the country, and anything in the top quarter, probably even top half, of that will give you a thoroughly solid education.
People look at things like the USNWR lists or whatever and marketing kicks in, so they start to feel like if it isn’t in the top 20 or 50 or 100 or whatever, it must not be worthwhile. That is incorrect, and leads to demonstrably false claims like the idea that a middle-class family can’t send a kid to college for less than $30k/year without significant merit aid—because yeah, for that top 100, that’s probably the case.
Broaden your view beyond that, though, and there are solid options.
I don’t quite get the point of those last two posts, @Billb7581.
What I’m saying is that there are affordable options out there for a middle-class kid with no merit aid, but an exclusive focus on the sort of colleges that people on College Confidential fora seem to think are the only worthwhile options (which, yes, includes places like Wooster and Ursinus and Duke) excludes a lot of said affordable options.
Broadening the search to include, say, Louisiana Tech and Truman State and Bemidji State and South Dakota State and so on, however, will still result in getting a solid education at a reasonable cost, even for OOS students.
And that’s what you were after in the original post, right?
Bill- going to be a tradeoff. Truman State is an exceptional value (even for a kid from NJ) and a college which punches above its weight in hiring and grad school admissions. You and your son need to decide if it’s comparable/better than/worse than his other options. If you believe that all the options are the same academically and intellectually than it’s an easy decision- find the most affordable option once you’ve factored in travel and living expenses. I believe there are some colleges worth paying more for- of course, if you can swing it combining your kids federal loans, kids earnings both summer and during the year covering books and incidentals, etc.
It must be frustrated to get ghosted by coaches… hugs to you guys.
Bemjdi state is 20, he would get 2 merit. And be back in the same boat adding travel and carting his stuff back and forth or storing it.
He has a couple more FA packages he hasn’t received yet. He can probably get to sub 20 at the strongest one he has right now (Albright) with off campus housing.
We lived within an hour of one kids college and about 3 hours drive for another; an hour from one kids grad school . I STILL have stuff belonging to the kids friends in my basement! So don’t worry about the cost of storing it over the summer- kids are remarkably resilient when it comes to finding free storage (I was told “just a few weeks until he gets an apartment”… ten years later, still here. When the next Covid shutdown happens, I’m cleaning it all out and donating to Goodwill!)
Are you using the college’s estimates for off-campus housing or connecting with students and parents to get real life numbers??? We found that housing was more expensive in some places and less in others vs. the “official” “what it costs to live off campus” estimates. It helped that my kids did not have champagne tastes (the places were rather grungy) and they all learned to cook simple meals for themselves before they left for college (the upside of having two working parents! They can make dinner!)
Restaurants get expensive really quickly- especially for a man. One sandwich from a fast food type place is not likely to fill up your son for dinner…
Your original question was if ALL colleges are going to cost $20-30k for middle class students. I assume you were asking are you going to get need based FA. At most schools a family in the over=$100k income range isn’t going to get much need based FA. At Ivies? Sure, but not at most public flagships or smaller privates. Those schools may give more in merit aid for a top gpa/score.
CAN a school cost less than $20k for the average student? Sure, and several examples were given above. You posted the numbers for Wyoming saying $2300 for incidentals, and that’s the official COA for the school, but I’m saying that wasn’t even close to correct - my daughter didn’t spend $300 a semester. She did the free activities at the school (lots of them, including D1 sports), ate at her sorority house, bought used books, went to free movies and theater on campus. Most of that $300 was spent on Starbucks.
There are colleges all over the country where students are going for less than $30k, just not as common in NJ or the rest of the northeast. My other daughter went to Florida Tech and I’d guess about 20% of her friends were from NJ/NY/PA/MD. Transportation from Newark was cheap to Florida, and more often it was the parents traveling TO Florida and not the kids traveling home. Who doesn’t want to spend Thanksgiving in Florida?
These are just suggestions. If you’d prefer to pay $20k and have him stay in NJ, do that. If he’d rather go somewhere else, there are school available for around $20k with his stats. If he can play football at D2 schools, he may get more money for that, and I think he would at several D2 schools in NC, SC, MS, Fl.
You haven’t mentioned what type of school he likes or what he wants to study. Florida Tech is mostly engineering. St. Leo’s is big on business. Presbyterian is D1 football but Pioneer league so no scholarships, but merit scholarships available.
Lots of options. But to your original question - there are some schools where middle class families pay under $20k. I did it twice for two very different kids. We chose the schools to fit our budget and their needs/wants.
I’m not counting any of that 30K DIRECT COSTS.
They are still gapping him 26k
You cannot just snap your fingers and be a D2 player. He is active on Twitter and his recruiting profile he isn’t getting any d2 looks,
You said your kid was a D2 athlete, that is a special circumstance.
My oldest went to college for practically free, that program has since dried up and he didnt qualify for it anyhow.
@Billb7581, and you’re ignoring the clear <$20–30k/year counterexamples that have been given on this thread.
Not to mention that you aren’t just limited to sticker price, because there are a number of schools where merit aid is pretty easy to come by—f’rex, Wyoming’s automatic scholarships for OOS students start at a 3.0 GPA/1060 SAT, which brings you down below $30k though admittedly not down to $20k (for that you need to fit on a sliding scale somewhere between 3.4/1570 and 4.0/1390, though somewhere between 3.0/1530 and 4.0/1060 gets you really, really close).
So in answer to your question in the original post, the answer is quite simply: no. It is completely possible for a middle-class family to send a child to college for <$30k/year, and in fact for <$20k/year. You just have to search out the best deals.
I ran the numbers on the ones with the simple calculation where you just enter EFC and state of residency and they all come out to barely below 20 then you have to factor in a car or traveling, which puts you back above.
So my point still stands. I dont make over 100K I am a mechanic.
Given the not-so-great hand you have been dealt (NJ in-state FA not being that good), it may help others help you if you mention in a summary list, since others’ responses have been all over the place, and not always based on full information.
How much you (the parent) can actually contribute.
The estimated net price of commutable NJ publics (Rutgers Camden, maybe Rowan).
The estimated net price of NJ publics that would require living on or near campus.
The estimated net price of commuting to community college first before transferring to a NJ public.
The estimated net price of other colleges you have looked at consideration.
Whether the net prices you are comparing include incidentals beyond tuition, fees, room*, board*, and books (i.e. miscellaneous / personal expenses). *Substitute live-at-home and commuting costs for the commuter options.
Starting with the parent contribution, the student can take federal direct loans of $5,500 per year first year (increasing slightly in later years). Many college FA offices assume that a college student can hold a part time job during the school year and save some money from a summer job (total about $3,000 to $5,000 per year). So a stretch budget may be about $8,500 to $10,500 plus your parent contribution. However, lower is better, since needing the loan or work money is better than needing the loan and work money. Also, if he does join a football team, it is best not to count on being able to work during the school year (or at least football season).
I can answer one, $30,000+ a year with room and board, a little less off campus depending on the area (and your standards). My recent graduate at TCNJ paid about $32,000 I think?
Although I only have 2 complete “packages” his lowest cost option is slightly below 20K.
I am in the process of rolling my heloc that is almost paid off into a new one so I can push out the draw date and it helps with the cash flow situation . I figure I can pay 8-10K a year and just set aside 200 a week most weeks, back to the heloc.
He applied for an additional scholarship at another school that would bring it down to 15 OOP but not banking on it.
Since he wants to teach and coach football, it looks like he can get 17.5K in loan forgiveness if he gets the right job at a title 1 school. I also think being on a team and the structure it provides will give him the best opportunity to be successful in college. If we have to pay more to make that happen I think it will be a worthwhile investment.