Large increase for Michigan tuition.

College Search & Selection
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<p>Zagat, when I was there in the dark ages, I had very little red tape issues. I was fortunate to be in the Honors Program; they really look after their own. If your child gets into that, I wouldn't worry. There are also other themed learning communities which insure that someone is looking out for you. I don't think you're being elitest, just not understanding what an exceptional school UM is; it's not in the top 25 for no reason. The faculty is worldclass--as an undergrad, I took classes with profs who were giants in their fields.</p>

<p>Also, AA is just about the perfect college town, and Michigan football is just big fun.</p>

<p>I'm still a bit conflicted about both my kids turning it down, in case you haven't noticed :)</p>

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<p>Where did your kids end up and why did they turn it down?</p>

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<p>Zagat, so what if it takes 4.5 years to graduate from a UC? It is still cheaper.</p>

<p>If my daughter wanted to go to a UC, I would have been happy. She didn't get into Berkeley or UCLA. She chose Mich over UCSB, but I would have been happy if she went to UCSB even if it took 5 years to graduate.</p>

<p>My daughter wanted big. Ann Arbor is a little small for her. She prefers SF. She probably would have been happy in NY or Boston. What does your oldest prefer?</p>

<p>My daughter is going to graduate from Mich in 4 years. They gave her extra credits for AP courses. I'm not in love with the academic advising by the counselors. My daughter does seem to have to figure out her courses by herself.</p>

<p>Has your oldest taken many AP courses? The UCs and Mich do give credit for these courses making it easier to graduate in 4 years.</p>

<p>Most of the professors have been great so far. She went to a party thrown by a professor. Another one took her on a tour of his department. One professor didn't like how my daughter was performing in the class and kept asking her to go to office hours. My daughter blew her off. :) My daughter did hate one professor in women's studies. She said she was boring.</p>

<p>My daughter has taken 3 courses with 100 students and 5 with around 20 students. All the large classes were broken up into smaller discussion groups. One of the large classes was one of her favorites. She liked the subject matter and the professor. </p>

<p>Is Mich that different? To me, Mich is an upscale Berkeley with worse weather. Has your oldest visited schools? Is she looking at larger schools? I have a friend who has a kid at Michigan and a kid at Penn, and the one at Michigan likes his school a lot better. When my daughter visited Michigan, she knew that was the place. My wife agreed. Others may feel different.</p>

<p>If you hate the atmosphere of big schools, I can't see you liking Michigan. My daughter loves the school spirit at the school. She has seaon tickets for football and she never liked football before. </p>

<p>My daughter does say that people study all the time and there are a lot of nerds. Most kids study at least 2 hours a day. My daughter's roommate studied over 6 hours a day. There are very smart kids and kids that she wonders about. Most are smart. She says the guys could be better looking. :)</p>

<p>If you are comparing small schools with Mich, Hanna wrote a great post comparing LACs with universities. </p>

<p>Is Mich worth the cost? I would prefer to pay less. We will see in 3 or 4 years. :) For the money, as much as I like Michigan, I like Stanford better.</p>

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<p>My son, like so many CA kids, has Stanford at the top of his list. I guess we'll see, but I'm hoping he's not counting on it. Yes, he has many APs under his belt, with all 5s, so we're hoping he'll get some credit. His cousins go to Mich, they're in state, so he's spent some time there and really likes it. Like so many kids a few months from applying he's all over the place: Stanford, Williams, Amherst, Dartmouth, NYU and Mich.</p>

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<p>Zagat--my D turned down UM because it didn't have the major she thought she wanted (but didn't end up pursuing--Marine Bio). She was also a little apprehensive of going a planeride away for school. She went to a much lower ranked OOS public school, hated it, realized that A)she wanted a politically left school, B) she wanted a LAC, and transfered to Wesleyan.</p>

<p>My S applied ED to Columbia--loved the idea of NYC, and really intrigued by the Core. Big drawback was lousy football,but he's learned to live with it. He really liked UM a lot, had decided (unbeknownst to me) that if C turned him down ED, he was done applying, since he'd been accepted by UM rolling already and he liked it a whole lot.</p>

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<p>If money is no object, I would go to Stanford over any other school in the US (unless I wanted to live in NY :)).</p>

<p>Those are all great schools and your son is going to have a great college experience.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
how much funding has been cut from the state of Wisconsin over the last few years?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The biennial budget passed in 2003 cut spending on the U-W system by 7% in 03-04 and about 8% in 04-05. Two years of pretty deep cuts. They did allow the institutions to recover some of that lost revenue via tuition increases. In 2003-04 UW-Madison raised tuition by 18.1% and raised it by 15.4% in 2004-05.</p>

<p>As I understand it there was tuition restraint language added to the 2005-07 biennial budget.</p>

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<p>The actual net cuts to Madison amounted to just under 10% total as some areas such as employee benefits and debt costs get fully funded and our outside the cut areas. 10% is still a huge loss when inflation is considered. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.mbo.wisc.edu/basicfacts/index.html#BF0203%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mbo.wisc.edu/basicfacts/index.html#BF0203&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Sooooooooooo, the additional $19 DD#1 had to pay in fees at our local uni isn't too bad??? Tuition/registration/fees at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State for the semester was $2169 (in-state) for fall 2005, about $4300 for the year.</p>

<p>I guess I have no reason to complain! That and all the sweet tea a person could drink!!</p>

<p>Ouch on that 12% increase.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>That's all UNC went up? UNC is a bargain.</p>

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<p>Not so fast. Like many other state schools UNC has seen state support dropping. The lack of offsetting tuition increases means the quality is down.</p>

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<p>Barrons, do you think the quality of education has gone down at Wisc. since the cutbacks?</p>

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<p>Sure. Fewer classes and larger sections are never good.
BTW here's a link to UNC appropriations data. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.ais.unc.edu/ir/factbook/fb2004-2005/general_info/04tbl1.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ais.unc.edu/ir/factbook/fb2004-2005/general_info/04tbl1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Are Wisconsin's financials apt to improve in the near future?</p>

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<p>The next two years indicate small increases in funding and pretty good increases in tuition which means they should maintain the status quo with some small improvements. Fundraising has been going very well which will help too. The next state budget (2007) should be more favorable as many feel they have cut more than they should and need to build again.</p>

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<p>We took UNC and NC State's grad tuition into account also when we moved here from CA a few years ago. D's vet school tuition as an in-state resident will be under $10,000 per year. Their master's programs are not much more than their undergraduate program fees.</p>

<p>D's largest class has been her O-Chem class this summer which has about 45 students but her labs about 10-12 students. Her profs have been very available to her and especially within her major, animal science. She currently resides at the equine unit at the vet school during the year. She works with the breeding program for race horses and horse "whispering" in exchange for room and board. All the animal educational units (6) have residential space which are offered to all the students. It has been a wonderful opportunity and she was in heaven during foaling season; delivered many beautiful babies!!</p>

<p>The $19 was for an increased activity fee, tuition has stayed the same.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

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<p>When I went to grad school st UNC, I wouldn't tell you when, out of state tution was $385 a semester.</p>

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<p>I'm sure this is essentially an across the board issue.</p>

<p>I know UVA and W&M tuition went up for this year as well.</p>

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<p>I think Wisconsin will do better in the future. The state economy is bouncing back faster than other states in the Big Ten and this last budget already had a better outlook than expected (that is, the deficit wasn't as big as feared). It looks like the state should be in better financial shape. Of course, it's still unknown whether that will translate to Higher Ed appropriations being restored.</p>