“Many” colleges offer generous aid to OOS students? I would say it’s more accurate to say that SOME public universities offer generous aid to SOME students from OOS.
Some…not many.
@Clueless Leader - I have a soft spot for VT as my nephew attends, my children have had friends that have attended, and I know a lot of kids in the class of 2022. The kids in attendance or those that have graduated all love it. FWIW, the biggest complaint I have heard is that sometimes there can be challenges getting the classes you need, so you have to be proactive and persistent with advisors. Best of luck.
My son’s final decision for CS came down to a full-pay private, a private with merit money, and an OOS. He loved the full pay private, but not 20k more than his other options (Whew!), so that left the OOS and private with merit, which were about the same price. He ultimately chose the OOS because he liked the program and campus.
It has been difficult turning down good (and some great) merit scholarships at other schools, but there are many things you have to consider when making a four-year commitment - quality of program, resources, impacted classes, travel, “fit”, research opportunities…
@stardustmom Happy to hear his decision has been made and all are satisfied with it. Personally, could never have imagined how draining this process has been and am eager for it to be over. Finding the best place for our kids to learn, at a price that makes sense…that’s all we can do.
My DD goes to TCNJ…what an awesome value of a school!
@ucbalmunus TCNJ is also a public school. it is sort of an honorsy in-state LAC like college.
My other DD went to SUNY Binghamton …a top 10 OOS best value college.
My son decided on attending an OOS school -UVM. He got into a couple in state (SUNY) schools, one of which gave him merit money in addition to financial aid, which made it practically a free ride. He really fell in love with UVM (was just meh about the SUNYs) and with a generous merit scholarship and financial aid, we decided it is do-able (although we may need to take a Parent Plus loan to close the gap). He is working a job that pays very well (food delivery) and saving lots of money and he promises to help pay the difference himself (he already split the acceptance fee with us). I am not sure how much tuition he will be responsible for, but he certainly will be able to pay for books, travel and living expenses. It was really important to us that he find the right fit and UVM was it.
How to choose…it is tough!
We were/are in a similar boat. We could afford any of the 14 schools to which our DD2018 was accepted. Most schools were similar in rank/prestige and offered similar ammenities/locals. So this was our method (after consulting the CC braintrust, which was helpful!):
Most schools clustered around $35k (with merit), anything over $45k was eliminated immediately. Super safety academic schools were the next eliminated (those were actually the most affordable too, but we decided to follow the maxim: “you get what you pay for”). The next elimination was based entirely on superficial location (because her list was now fairly evenly divided between urban vs non urban), after some serious personal reflection on DD2018’s part, urban schools went on the chopping block. That left several schools which were essentially the same, all state flagships, including our own, with cost of attendance ranging from $25k to $40k and ranked between #42 thru #103. We were able, willing and ready to pay whatever she choose. It became abundantly clear to DD2018 there was no need to choose the more expensive, all be it higher ranked, OOS flagship when she would get essentially the same experience and ultimately the same outcome attending our more affordable, middle of the rank, in state flagship.
Is it worth it to pay OOS premiums? That entirely depends on the state where you reside and what options are on the table. In the end you are really down to personal choice and only your family can answer that question.
@momof2boys65 We’re in a similar situation with our daughter. Accepted to UF and Pitt. Hates the thought of living in Gainesville, but loved our visits to Pittsburgh (where I grew up). She understands that she’ll need to take out the Direct Student Loans and co-op/intern/work-study in order to swing it, and she’s willing to do so at this point.
Having done the loan/intern/work-study route myself, I think there’s something to be said for the motivating power of having to earn the money for college and finishing in 4 years. I had a friend in college whose parents paid for everything so he never had to work. He also had money to go out every night, take road trips etc. It took him six years to get a BA in History.
My perspective as a VA resident - How serious is he about the CS major?
My experience hiring interns is that the UVA students didn’t have a lot of coding experience - not sure what they are studying there, but there was a steep learning curve with the two we hired. The UVA business students are very strong.
The VT CS kids on the other hand are great - smart and easy to work with!
I can’t comment on W&M (although I have a kid there) because I’ve never worked with their CS students.
I believe the only schools under consideration by the OP are the College of New Jersey, and University of Delaware.
The Virginia schools have been crossed off the list due to costs.
See posts upstream.
@VAOptimist VT is currently a dark horse…So your feedback here is valuable indeed.
S18’s top choice was UVA. With the Echols program and AP credits he would have been able to graduate in 3 years and UVA is very strong and well connected in PoliSci. But in the end he couldn’t justify the extra OOS cost over in state tuition at UCLA ($65K pa vs $35K).
I don’t know how he would have felt if the comparison point was (say) UCSB instead of UCLA and Berkeley, though I’m guessing he would have gone to UVA in that case. But for him the Echols scholarship was the differentiator, without that I don’t think UVA would have stood out as worthy of considering paying OOS tuition (W&M didn’t have the same benefits to the Monroe scholarship and so he was fairly meh about it, despite liking the campus and student vibe).
Clueless,
Has VA Tech become affordable? You posted upstream that it had been ruled out.
Very few public universities offer ANY significant money to OOS students, OOS students are their cash cows. If you want to be a cash cow then go for it as long as money is no objection.
Thst is false- my daughter received significant merit from two OOS public universities. She received less merit from a few others… but it was still enough to bring it down to an affordable cost.
As complimentary and attractive as “cash cow” sounds, that is not my daughter and that is not her experience… at all.
Haven’t read through the whole thread but based on the title, you’re not alone. S went to a HS that supposedly focused on prep for college (not an actual Prep school but a small charter with a college focus). You would think the GCs would have been all over it but there experience was quite limited to in state schools (FL). Few from the school had ever gone OOS.
Your kid needs to become the own advocate. It’s a good lesson for when they get to school (and in life). In our case, S had to politely be on the GC for lots of things including scholarship nominations and additional reqs the FL state schools don’t require. Of course he initially thought "I asked him for X and he said yes so …"meant that he wouldn’t need to follow up and stay on top of things. Turned out to be a good exercise in project management.
Not sure what these GCs really do (at least at his school).
Drexel is overpriced in my opinion and not superior to the other affordable choices. UVA gives need based aid if you qualify, but merit is hard to get.
The schools that fit budget are excellent choices!!!
I think there’s two questions at issue – if it’s “worth” it or if you “can pay.” If you can’t pay for the more expensive schools, you can’t pay and you choose the less expensive options. It sounds like you’re trying to answer the first question – is it worth it?
My D applied to 12 colleges and accepted to 8. She chased merit and was successful, but ended up choosing a college where she didn’t get merit and it tied for 2nd most expensive (but not full pay.) It’s the top of what we feel like we can pay and we decided it is worth it. It’s a LAC and we feel like we are paying the extra for the small classes which suits her learning style, brand new facilities for her field, stellar reputation, etc. We had to walk through why were willing to pay the $$ and the benefits, and justify it to ourselves.
Alternatively D had applied to Cornell (got WL) but b4 she even heard back on her decision, we’d taken it OFF the list b/c we didn’t see the value proposition of paying so much more for a college similar in size to UNC (our flagship) but soooo much more $$. [Guess we should have figured that out b4 applying, but oh well…]
So, my advice is to figure out if you can name the concrete justification for paying the OOS premium. What are you actually getting for the extra $$? If you can’t, then you have your answer.
There are so many ways to “sweeten” the prudent choice! Study abroad, an Outward Bound summer adventure, heck, a month-long trip to Southeast Asia for your son all will cost a fraction of the difference in one year’s tuition you’d be paying for the OOS choice! Explain this to your child. Show him what saving tens of thousands of dollars each year can mean not just to you – but to him, as well!
@“Clueless Leader”
I’d take a tour around The College of New Jersey town surrounding the campus before making the decision. I did that and didn’t even wait to get home before removing it from the list. UDel is great. NJIT and Rowan are both late registration schools from which you may still have time to apply to. NJIT is ranked surprisingly high for Computer Science. I think i’d suggest UVA over UDel but both are fine.