OP, have you seen this?
The link to this discussion
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2084946-dont-be-scared-away-by-the-sticker-price.html
I think that the answer might be quite different if you were to expand “top 20” to “top 50”, include public schools, and add in highly ranked LACs (which might not generally be listed in the top 50 due to their small size).
Also, as others have said this may vary quite a bit from student to student, particularly if you include public schools.
Personally, I don’t see the point of limiting choice for an undergraduate degree to the top 20 private universities. I have seen many students who did their master’s at “top 5” universities (or even “top 1” for whatever they were studying) after doing their undergrad at their in-state flagship, a “top 100” university, or at a good LAC.
Almost all of the people that I know who are rich enough to afford to pay $70,000 per year for four years for each child got there at least partly by being significantly more frugal than their income would have required. As such I am sympathetic with at least half of the original question (the “I don’t want to pay full price” half).
@CupCakeMuffins Not sure if you have seen this article/study from last week in the NYTimes “What college really costs”, but it might be helpful to your research.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/05/opinion/columnists/what-college-really-costs.html
The MyIntuition calculator may also be a helpful resource for you.
You might get more useful/specific recommendations if you share your child’s academic stats, any preferences (aside from prestige), what you are willing to pay etc.
^the thing is, the OP is already done with the process, and is looking for “general” information for the good of future parents. As your post @happy1 implies, the best info will be highly dependent on a given family, and student, profile.
When you compare the total COA of schools, if you are looking for small differences in the $5K range or less, even with full pay students there will be factors that vary. The athletic guy who needs the most comprehensive meal plan vs a kid who would rather get a cheap meal plan and eat pb&j and cheerios half of the time. Maybe it’s usually cheaper for my kid to fly to NYC than to MSP but that factor is flipped for a kid who lives in Omaha (making stuff up here, I don’t really know). Will your kid live on campus for 4 years? In a double? Triple? Is apartment living reasonably-priced in that town or ridiculously expensive?
^^on the same thoughts here.
For the IVY schools, I would think there won’t be much difference in COA, the “minor” difference would be in cost of living/pocket money, ie living in NYC would be significantly more expensive than living in upstate NY?
@EllieMom But the OP didn’t ask how to try to figure out how much merit your kid might get at a school that offers merit to more than a tiny number of students. There are ways to glean that info — but that is not what this thread was about. This seems like a unicorn thread — there aren’t really ways to make the top 20 cheaper if you have a very high income.
@intparent That’s why its important. If you are a full pay or high pay elite student, Vanderbilt would cost half of Williams or Columbia. Vandy’s tuition is $47K and a decent number of students get merit scholarships averaging $21,000. Now compare it to Columbia’s $57k tuition with $0 merit and decide if you can afford extra $30k per year or difference between two is worth it to you when you have to spend another $20k-$30k for boarding, meals, books, travel, semester abroad and miscellaneous.
I understand there aren’t many full pay posters with top 1% stats who are dealing with $75k per year EFC but that niche demographic exists. It’s a genuine issue for them. Even for ones who are getting $10-15K in aid, paying rest of it can be difficult.
^Sure there are, this site is filled with them. It’s the “top 20 including IVYs” part of the OP that is throwing people off on this thread.
@CupCakeMuffins In your post #48, you’re using “would” when “could” is the mot juste. Is there the possibility of getting a generous merit award at Vandy? Yes. Is it likely, even for a great student? No. I think the mistake is assuming that just because there are students who receive merit aid at Vanderbilt that that is something a family can reasonably assume their own student would be a likely candidate for. From their own website, here’s the sobering reality of the likelihood of getting a merit scholarship at Vandy (in answer to a question about what percentage of the applicant pool is offered a merit scholarship there): *“Roughly 1% of the entire freshman applicant pool will be offered a merit-based scholarship award. The number of merit scholarships is limited, as the majority of Vanderbilt’s student financial assistance is provided in the form of need-based financial aid.” * I, for one, don’t like those odds and wouldn’t base financial decisions on a long shot like that.
@EllieMom the odds of getting merit aid if you can get admitted to Vandy are not nearly bad as the schools statement quote implies. The 2017-2018 CDS reveals that 134 freshman enrollees of the 733 freshmen who did not qualify for financial aid, received a non-athletic related merit award. So 18.3% of the enrolled freshmen who don’t qualify for financial aid receive da merit award. And CDS says the average merit award is $23,629.
So roughly 1 of 5 enrolled kids at Vandy (with no financial aid) receive a $24k (on average) merit award.
If you are a top 1% kid, those odds may be worth an application (over say a Cornell or Brown where the odds are 0% chance for merit aid).
A merit award, if it involves giving money to a student or reducing the student’s education expenses (which describes pretty much all merit aid), is financial aid. In other words, a kid receiving a merit award is not a kid with no financial aid.
Private colleges are a mixed bag of worms. Often what the net price calculator tells you, and what you actually receive in your financial package can be two very different numbers. You’ll be surprised how often students get burned. It depends a lot on the college and how much endowment money they want to shell out that year. Be sure to have a good affordable public school ready, preferably with a scholarship, just in case.
Also, don’t put your hopes and dreams killing yourself to get into a school with a 90% rejection rate. You’re much better off with a scholarship.
@BelknapPoint that is not correct. CDS Section H2A (line n) represents the number of merit awards given to kids who do not qualify for financial aid. Please read section H2A line (n): “Number of students in line a who had no financial need and who were awarded institutional non-need-based scholarship or grant aid (exclude those who were awarded athletic awards and tuition benefits)” This was 134 Vanderbilt freshmen last year.
In contrast, CDS Section H2 (line g) provides the number of freshman students who qualified for financial aid and received a merit award. This number was 77 Vanderbilt freshmen last year.
The point @BelknapPoint is making is that students who receive merit aid ARE receiving a form of financial aid…but it’s based on academic merit.
The top 20 schools that do award merit aid have very very competitive merit aid awards that NO student should count on getting.
It doesn’t matter what CDS says or how CDS uses the term “financial aid.” As a general matter, merit awards and need-based aid are both financial aid, in that they are both monetary support (that’s the financial component of “financial aid”) and they help pay for higher education expenses (that’s the aid component of “financial aid”).
See here, among many other sources:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid_(United_States)
http://www.collegequest.com/different-types-of-financial-aid-for-college.aspx
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Then I guess I’ll just close this thread and wait for that day. In my mind, the best answer to the original post is no such list exists, and every applicant will yield a different result based upon circumstances.