<p>Wis75, you do sound harsh. Furthermore, it doesn't sound as though you read my original post carefully. My husband and I would LOVE for our son to wrestle this year. Where are you getting that we are not "letting" him wrestle, or "spoiling" his senior year?
Our son would have multiple oppportunities for a free ride if he makes it to NMF, as he well knows, at some state universities. He also knows that if he gets a large amount of scholarship money, then we will cover the room and board. This is generous compared to what my husband (and siblings) had from his upper-income parents, which was nothing. He worked construction to get through both undergraduate and graduate school, and so school (and money) were never taken for granted. We were still paying off student loans when he was in his thirties.
Believe me, we are not "rich enough to pay it all." What world are you living in? Tuition to college of his dreams, to which you glibly refer, costs more than $34K per year. We would have to earn $51 THOUSAND DOLLARS, before taxes, to foot that.
To expect him to pay 8K annually for r&b seems reasonable. Why would it "bother" you that we are asking him to pay for his own room and board? He could stay at home for free for the next four years, if he chose to do so. We have plenty of colleges in this city, as well as a large and relatively inexpensive university. </p>
<p>Atomom (LOVE the name!), we could give a rip about "prestige" schools. The most important thing to him is that the school have a good philosophy department. The most important thing to us is that it be a good fit, and that the undergraduate experience not cost and arm and a leg, for some manner of graduate school is in our son's future.</p>
<p>Muchado: take a look at the permanent thread "Schools with good merit aid" at the top of this forum. With a 2130 SAT and (hopefully) GPA to match, your S would qualify for at least partial merit aid at a number of these. The wrestling might add an advantage at the smaller (NCAA Division II and III) schools.</p>
<p>I sounded harsh because you did. I read and reread your post before submitting my reply, you stated you would not qualify for financial aid and that you require your son to come up with thousands for necessities, not luxuries, therefore he doesn't have time to earn the $ and wrestle. There are people out there who can afford any college- often due to a good education and a lot of hard work. It does NOT sound reasonable to make your son give up so much, just because the previous generation wasn't fair. </p>
<p>There is a cost to staying at home- both economically and in personal development- why not factor this amount as money you would have spent and let him use it for living away from home, requiring him to come up with his share as whatever he can earn at a summer job? Right now he's more concerned about being able to afford leaving home than he is about wrestling. If I misinterpreted you your son may also have gotten a different message, especially with the family example. Remember he'll be elegible for more financial aid at a more expensive college- noone is going to limit you to what the least cost scenario is. </p>
<p>Do not go shopping only for the best financial deal in colleges, some schools try to attract good students with $ to upgrade their student population- come up with a good fit list, then figure out which of those schools works best based on monetary and educational factors.</p>