NJ Stars program is for top 15% rank in class. He wouldnt qualify.
Its really not that much different. RCBC for 2 years is like 12 grand, full pay plus a car and probably 3 grand in additional insurance for those 2 years with an 18 year old boy, then depending on which in state you choose, 30 ish with less merit because you are transfering in.
If you believe the student loan debt levels at Interactive Map - The Institute for College Access & Success , NJ is pretty bad, but NH, PA, CT, RI, DE look worse.
You either have to be flat broke, or a genius. There is very little for the above average kid.
Our fall back was always Stockton, because my daughter attended there so cheaply (with elite stats). Stats that used to get you 10K-12K when my daughter went get less than half that now.
I am not sure if it is due to Covid, or they just got attendance to the levels they wanted to fill all the brand new AC dorms when things open up.
@Billb7581 I am in the same boat. Iâm in NJ and so far FDU has been the lowest for us, but my daughter doesnât want to go there. Itâs looking like Monmouth Honors or Rutgers for her. Right now Monmouth is slightly above Rutgers so hoping I can have them meet that. She also got decent offers from Rider and Seton Hall but still looking at 30K+ a year. Rider & FDU lowered their tuition for 2021 but who knows after that. Her 1st choice was Marist in NY but they gave the lowest merit so far. We appealed it so we shall see.Iâm looking at 30-35K/year for each school
What is she looking to take up?
My seniors are #4 and #5, the price tag has mostly been $30,000 - $35,000 OOS, IS and private after the highest merit besides full ride (all east coast colleges), I think Rutgers came down to $25,000. Stockton got down to $22,000, I donât know if my higher stats daughter wouldâve received more because she wouldnât apply.
From what I have seen, Stockton merit tops out at 10K now. Used to be 18K
Either PR/journalism or marketing
Rutgers only gives merit to the highest applicants
For some schools, we donât know for sure how much money they will give out for merit. For us, daughter just applied and wait to see all the offers before making decision but so far the range is 25K-30K.
One example, our daughter applied to Temple because in the past, she is guaranteed to receive full tuition scholarship (36 ACT, 4.0UW/4.79 W).
She did received admissions with Provost scholarship, which is 18K leaving us about 30K-32K a year to pay if she wants to go there. We reached out to admissions and they promised to review and come back to us and that was over a month ago.
At this point, even our state school UMD would be cheaper and much closer to home. There are wait-and-see schools in our list but Temple moves to the bottom of that list. I guess Covid does affected this year.
Where you make out at Stockton is the off campus housing is super cheap, and plentiful and most of them offer 9 month leases. My daughter split a 2BR townhouse with 3 other girls and it was barely 400 a month and the place was nicer than my house LOL.
Now apparently Susquehanna has entered the chat. Just eyeballing the numbers I doubt it is competitive or affordable, but we told him to cast a wide net, and damn near everyone has free application these days.
My daughter had a great experience at Stockton. She was very involved and wrote for the paper, despite being a Math/Comp Sci major. Was a VP of APO service Frat. Its not for everyone, being in the middle of the woods, but she liked the proximity to the beach.
UMD is a great option, my daughterâs best friend from MD at UD also got honors and the $17,000, and Iâm guessing it was a tough decision with tuition being only $10,000 at UMD, and Iâm sure she got merit from them as well, even if only $5000.
At this point Temple is my daughterâs cheapest option with the $18,000.
Even with $5k scholarship from UMD, the cost would be cheaper than any other options so far. I do feel for all of us parents having to paying higher cost of colleges than before.
Nowadays, we may have to mortgage our home to put our children to colleges 
Unfortunately since we have 5 and arenât eligible for FA, my kids have loans (we co-sign and then they get us off of them after graduation). Fortunately my 2 graduates have good jobs and can afford their payments. Now if we only stopped at 2, weâd be good!
PA is most definitely worse. There are lots of lovely private colleges in the $70k range. There are PSU and Pitt and Temple - about $37k in-state. Then there are the lower-tier directionals - West Chester is the best of the bunch - that are about $22k+, with next to no aid, maybe a couple thousand off at best for high-stats kids.
S21 is getting a similar or better deal PA private then in state NJ.
Rutgers and Temple are both roughly 33 sticker price, no? (in state)
He just got off the call with Susquehanna coach,. Coach seems confident they can get close to where he wants to be. Application, and Fasfa change happening right now.
Repeating what Iâve said before on this thread: It is quite possible to obtain an affordable college education.
Now, is it possible to do so is you have a lot of boxes to check off? Maybe, maybe not. It depends.
But if finances are whatâs really driving the decision, then worry about that checkbox and let the others slideâbecause there are plenty of affordable options out there.
There literally are not affordable options with sub elite statsâŠeven the free CC college program here in NJ ia top 15 percent of class. Full pay CC plus car plus insurance for 2 years only plus 2 years pub in state will be over 70 grand