Walking away from free money is hard to do. Son has the good fortune to have received scholarships amounting to 33 - 50% off COA this fall. We are flattered to have been offered these opportunities.
Now, for the human dilemma: He has been accepted to excellent public schools in VA, which are OOS Schools, with OOS premiums attached to them. While we have collective admiration for the Virginia Schools, we can not seem to reconcile the cost aspect. Also, neither school has offered scholarships that move the cost needle in our favor.
Inherently any public institution will have a premium associated with it, however, is there a tipping point that makes it impractical? Is there a number? Or, is it simply a matter of principle?
Wondering if there have been cases where walking away from a pile of money, to pay significantly more, has worked out for anyone?
So many variables and individual circumstances go into answering this question. Intended major? Can you afford OOS without taking out loans? Is your child planning on grad school? Difference in academics between your options?
@thumper1 1) Thank you for pulling up the schools, currently we are NJ Residents. 2) CS is still the major 3) Virginia Tech has been ruled out 4) Drexel University has been ruled out too
UD and College of New Jersey are most cost effective at moment, in essence, same price
I assume it is a hot topic partly because you didn’t lay out expectations on what you would spend before you kid applied, yes? It is better to have the money conversation before allowing them to apply to schools you don’t actually want to pay for. Do your kid (and spouse) have a different opinion than you do on this?
One of my kids took the merit money. One picked the most expensive school on their list (and we were full pay most of the time she was there). Both had excellent experiences. But first kid is a “bloom wher you are planted” kid who will get the most out of any situation. Second kid is less so, and I believe might have had a rough time at a lot of her other choices.
Without more info on the variables (including school names and costs), it is hard to give much more feedback.
This is purely a question of personal finances. For example, I would pay more to send my daughter to a school she liked better, but only within a certain range. So I would pay for OOS UMass Amherst over our instate school because my daughter loves it. However, I would not pay the 65k+ at a private university without merit aid, so we are not looking at those. That doesn’t mean that the privates aren’t “worth” it in general. Its just not right for our family.
I also don’t think its a matter of principle. If we had enough money to make that full pay private affordable without difficulty, I would gladly pay it as well.
@intparent Thank you for the thoughtful response. We admittedly cast a wide net in the search, not knowing what to expect with respect to assistance from any university. Took a cautiously optimistic approach, hoping for the best, but also level-setting our son in advance. In short, any choice had to make sense financially.
I refrained from putting costs and school names in my post as I did not want them to become the focus of the discussion; but, maybe I should have included after all.
Delaware is a fine school, and so is the College of New Jersey.
If it were me…I would let the kid pick from the affordable schools…if the finances really won’t work at the unaffordable options. After all…you have to be able to pay the bills.
If the others are not affordable…they need to be let go.
The tipping point will be different for every family. It will depend on what you can afford, what the student’s future plans are, what you are looking for in a school, etc.
My daughter got excellent merit to two OOS public schools and our in-state public and waitlisted at two privates. The publics would end up being 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of the privates (which represents real dollar savings of $140k to $188k over 4 years). Before all the decisions were in she would have much preferred the privates over the publics. She now seems excited about the OOS public college to which she has deposited so I’m not sure she even feels strongly about staying on the waitlists. We can afford to send her to the privates without taking out loans or hampering our retirement funds which is why we let her apply in the first place. However, if she did get off the wait list it would be harder now to pay full freight even though we were willing to going into it because the real dollar savings are material and known. And I think even she appreciates that the education and experience she can get at the private is likely not worth the extra dollars. At this point we will wait and see where the chips fall because if she doesn’t get off the waitlist it’s a moot point. So I guess all that to say that it is a very personal decision for each family as to whether the extra money for one school over another is worth it and depending upon the situation there may be no obvious right or wrong answer.
@adlgel Thank you for your feedback. Once you see the potential cost savings…it becomes progressively more difficult to unsee. Best of luck!
@lastone03 Distance seemed to be one of the bigger factors for sure…having said that, would not be altogether surprised if VT enters the discussion once more before decision is made.
“Inherently any public institution will have a premium associated with it.”
While many public colleges cost more for out of state students, and many don’t offer aid to out of state students, those policies aren’t held by all public colleges. There are some that don’t charge out of staters more (especially for online programs), & there are many that are generous with aid to out of staters.