You would think so. But the campuses are not particularly easy to travel between due to highways, busy roads, as well as gritty neighborhoods.
I have been to Rutgers several times in the last decade but I haven’t checked out how the routes between campus have changed. The different campuses themselves are nice for outdoor activities. I want her to visit and notice that. 
I don’t understand this. Most people don’t know exactly what they are going to have to pay until they get accepted and get their package. For someone full pay, yes, you probably should consider the cost. But there again, you don’t know what your other acceptances are and if you’ll get merit.
We didn’t realize Umichigan was going to be beyond our " want to pay that much" range until our '22 was accepted. Looking at all the school choices, UM fell right off. We are OOS and 83K was far too much for this kid for this school. But I have a friend and if her son got into UM he was going there.
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts. As theoretical questions can sometimes bring out different points than specific situations, let me provide an example scenario.
A family was thinking of covering tuition, room & board at an in-state public but has not had any college budget conversations yet with the student. This would cost them $120k over four years if they were full-pay.
The family has an option of paying $15k total over the course of four years for tuition & fees, room & board at in-state publics.
Do you say that the educational budget is $120k or $15k? And does this differential sway anyone in one direction or another as to what educational options they would present to their child (i.e. limited choices to in-state publics)?
Let me make sure I am understanding you. The family has been assuming college would cost $30k/yr COA and were prepared to pay that amount, until they realized that an in-state option could be had for less than $4k/yr COA. Do they stick with the original budget, or do they set a new lower budget?
If that is indeed the question, I have to say that I would be seriously tempted to reset the budget to the lower amount, but could also be swayed by certain very specific fit elements (not all fit elements, though.)
Yes, you’re understanding correctly. So a family was preparing to spend $30k/year COA but now has the option of less than $4k/yr COA for any in-state publics. If you were to present a budget to a child to say that they can attend school with X budget, do you as parents consider the budget $30k or $4k? Do you as parents even think of the $30k as an option to present? What specific fit elements would sway someone to still give a $30k budget over the $4k one?
Perhaps common situation of this sort could be:
Will parents who can afford the former push their student to the latter?
Would those specific fit elements be limited to suitable academic programs and majors, or other things?
Of course, when parents and students do not have much money, the only fit elements that matter may be cost and suitable academic programs and majors.
I disagree strongly with this characterization. There is a significant difference in the college experience when one is living at home and when one is a transfer as compared to someone who attends a 4-year university all four years. Many families think that the difference of this experience is worth the added cost (assuming, of course, they have the means to pay the difference).
In the situation above, the student has the option of their state flagship, living on campus for less than $4k/year (or any other in-state public). So the residential college experience is not lost. But the choice of possible colleges is far more limited (however many public schools a state has as compared to the number of colleges private/public/in-state/oos as the family would have been able to afford for their budget).
So what factors would parents find compelling to offer a higher budget ($30k) vs the lower budget ($4k) when a residential experience (including a flagship experience) would be available at either?
Yes, cost is often one of the biggest fit factors. For this hypothetical scenario, assume that it’s a family who could pay $30k but would need to make mild to moderate sacrifices for it to happen without loans.
In our case, I think safety is a factor I would be willing to pay for. When I was living off campus at Rutgers because no on campus housing was available, I had to be really vigilant. Of course, it’s good to be aware of your surroundings everywhere. But I wouldn’t have felt safe walking home in the dark and that affected my lifestyle, especially in the winter months. I even had someone try to break into my apartment when I was there. So safety is worth paying for.
The other thing is if you can judge if there’s a much better chance of thriving academically and socially at one college over another. So you pay for where you think they have the best chance if being successful. In our case, with my D, Rutgers NB could be overwhelming. With her brain there would be too many things to keep track of and important things would get lost in the shuffle.
Other things I am thinking about:
Rowan allows students to retake classes for a higher grade and I think they take the previous attempt off the transcript. I’d pay mor for that over Rutgers that doesn’t. For some kids that wouldn’t be a concern at all, but I’d like to have that option after seeing what can happen with pandemics, online learning, illness, mental health crises, etc. I will ask at any college D is considering what their policy is on repeating classes.
I would pay more for a college where kids take four 4 credit courses a semester rather than five 3 credit courses…
Retaking for a higher grade and grade replacement is commonly allowed by colleges when the first grade is a D or F. This usually gives a better chance for a student on academic probation to raise the GPA enough to get off of academic probation. However, college policies may not apply to:
In addition, retaking a previously taken course means not advancing in credits earned or within a prerequisite sequence, so it would increase the risk of delayed graduation unless the original grade was an F or (sometimes) D.
That is a good question. We were faced with a similar type of choice. We are a full pay family and could paid full price anywhere, although it would obligate one of us to essentially “unretire” so as not to deplete retirement savings. So we were hoping and budgeting at the level of our state flagship instead (about $30,000/yr) although there was a little wiggle room in that. But then our kid qualified for National Merit status, and that opened up all the full ride options in the South as well as at some smaller directionals and niche religious schools. But our kid is gay, and also has some specific academic interests that would not have been met by these schools at all. He ended up choosing a school in NYC where his National Merit status brought down COA to the same ballpark as our state flagship’s final offer. It still is not the perfect fit school (has a core curriculum that he did not desire, a religious affiliation that does not match our family, lacks 1 of his potential majors, is smaller than his ideal etc.) but these are all “fit” elements that were negotiable.
The short answer is…it depends.
Here’s what DH & I would be considering in such a situation:
I’m not yet to the point of discussing COA with my D25 but when it’s time we will be very clear on what is in her 529, what we can easily continue to pay monthly all 4 years and what the fed loans are all about. There will be wiggle room but as much as I want her to have the freedom to choose anything it’s just not our reality.
The 30k vs 4k dilemma would be an almost easy decision say if it’s between TCNJ at 30k and Rowan at 4k. We can technically afford both and I think TCNJ would be the better program and likely her top choice but if a really good school like Rowan somehow came in so low I would probably push for the 4k. It would save us from having to work extra and possibly take out the fed loans. I doubt we’ll have such a significant price difference since my D isn’t a top student and NJ isn’t generous to middle class students. I don’t think I’d push for a lesser school than Rowan or another equivalent for 4k vs TCNJ at 30k just to save the money because quality has a value as well.
I think you allow your student to find schools that meet the 30k/year and apply, but with the caveat in the discussion that there has a real reason why its much better than the 4K school. Also make it clear that there will not be anything left over.
DS could have gone to a school with free to almost free tuition nearby (UAH or KSU) , but chose to go out of state to what was a much better fit. At the time GT was off the table, even if he got in, due to EF issues that the school he went to had a program to help.
We could afford to send him. In return, he understood that there was no extra. We offered to put the difference aside for the future if he wanted. Now in return he did us a favor and graduated in 3 years instead of 4 and currently is working his first job.
I’m in the camp of setting a budget (in our case, the equivalent of our in-state flagship, ~$30k) and letting our D’s find options. I work at a University, so we do have an option for free tuition, but I don’t think it is a good fit for either of my kids, so although it has always been a back pocket “just in case”, I would never limit their choice to that. My D20 was lucky enough to have her choice of schools that all came in well below the $30k budget (thanks to a generous tuition exchange scholarship benefit through my work). My D24 is not going to be a strong of a candidate for that scholarship, plus it has gotten significantly more difficult to get, so my guess is she’ll have fewer choices.
Isn’t the obvious option to say “here’s the $120K we’ve saved” (eg in a 529). If you go for less then you keep the balance (eg for a home downpayment later on). That’s what we’ve done, and it’s been helpful. D18 got a full ride and can use some of her leftover 529 money to cover costs she’ll incur for the next year as a trainee ballet dancer (some small amount of tax will have to be paid but it is minimal once she is out of the kiddie tax net).
in a very similar dilemma ourselves.
State flagship/live on campus … . $7k. (fulltuition + new state incentives)
neighboring states or elsewhere . . … $30K. - almost a $100K difference.
we’ll have 19 yrs total of higher education when its all over. if i had just one or two kids, i think we’d feel a little more generous
But with 4 kids, a transfer, RISD grad school – we will be subtly pushing for the instate option for our kiddo; and then if she wants a bigger better grad school, we’ll see.
Bottom line for us is will the school likely provide:
A solid education, assuming the student applies themselves but also considering whether there are supports and an environment that meets our student partway academically.
FIT. This varies per student but things like size, weather, residential campus versus commuter campus, vibe, diversity, safety, comfort come to mind.
If these two above criteria do not work then it doesn’t matter how cheap the price is. Our kid will not launch and end up with a solid education and our long term goals will not be met.
Not all young adults are equipped to endure any environment in college just to spend the least amount of money. In our case, we are fortunate to be able to choose to spend more money if needed and up the odds for a successful outcome. I understand that isn’t possible for every family.
That’s a huge difference from $15,000 to $120,000. I would say the budget is $15,000, give or take a little.
I told my kids we would provide each of them a basic college education in our state. We bought a prepaid that was 2 years college and 2 years university plus 1 year dorm for each. If they wanted something different, then that was on them to work for - scholarships and such. It seemed fair and they were in agreement. But budgets are part of life with us. It just wouldn’t make sense to pay so much more to any of us.
My family was thankful for a lot of very good options. We did not withhold options from an applications perspective despite a limited budget (30K per year max) because of my family’s natural inclination to hunt for merit scholarships (internal and external). All of the full needs based top-tier schools that we looked at also had affordable price tags for my family (ranging from 6.5K-16K per year when checking net price calculators). Both of my kids had a group of HBCUs on their lists and most of those schools had competitive merit based scholarships up to the cost of attendance .We knew we could afford our GA state schools (with Zell Miller Scholarship paying full tuition), so we strongly suggested that our kids apply to at least 1 in-state safety, but my 2nd child did not get into any GA state schools. They both ended up with a bevy of very affordable options to choose from, but I was very happy that both chose the “full cost of attendance covered” option on their own.
Did your 2nd not get into the flagship schools, or any GA schools? I know many kids who dont get into GT or UGA and then go out of state with good options (as well as many who then go in the other lesser known in state options)