<p>boosnews10-
If the decision were based on academics and nothing else, I would choose McCormick over Madison for engineering. That being said, however, I have always understood that Madison’s engineering program was quite good, even if not as highly regarded as NU’s.
I think Madison is a fine state school, and that its actual academic quality exceeds its reputation. NU is better still, but sometimes it makes sense to look at the cost and decide whether the difference in quality equals or exceeds the difference in cost. If it’s a fairly small difference, I’d go to McCormick, but if it’s really substantial - such that it would be a major additional burden - I might send my kid to Madison.</p>
<p>Boosnews10 - have you given your son a buget of what you are willing to pay for his education? Let’s say it’s $30,000 a year. Then he can decide if he wants to take out loans for the extra $8,000 each year. I am assuming that Madison is a much better option for you price wise (and a GREAT engineering school too)? Our D too is looking at McCormick, but with the figures you just mentioned, it does not look like we will get a dime off. And for our daughter to take on that kind of debt (above what we told her we would contribute) - I know we have trained her well enough that she won’t!! Good luck with your/his decision!</p>
<p>WCASParent - Has NU been all that you’d hoped it would be when you made the decision in favor of it? Have you perceived it to offer a significant value beyond that of good state schools?</p>
<p>Do all schools assume that families will meet their full EFC, and not offer kids loans for any of that portion of expenses? If so, how would a student get additional loans to help cover the EFC? I like NU’s policy of limiting student loans to a total of $20k as leaving college with more debt than that sounds like a recipe for trouble.</p>
<p>Our D wants to major in a very tough field (and one where our state schools have mediocre programs compared to NU’s world class offering), so the ability to easily double major at NU is potentially of great benefit to her.</p>
<p>MomCares - 20k total in federal loans, so if your EFC over those 4 years exceeds that you will still be expected to pay (federal loans don’t fall under coverign EFC). But a cap on any loans is great. NU has a loan program it offers, and in our case my parents ended up taking out a PLUS loan to cover our EFC. I intend on picking it up when I get a job out of school, but yeah, it can be rough to cover it but it is possible.</p>
<p>A couple more thoughts (you can tell we’ve mulled this over since D’s ED)…</p>
<p>1) You shouldn’t have to take the entire amount from savings if you’re still earning money while your child is in school, true?</p>
<p>2) I figure we’ll ultimately need less $ saved for retirement if we learn to get by on MUCH less for the next 4 years. :-D</p>
<p>Pretty good rationalization, doncha think?</p>
<p>When crunching the risk/reward numbers it may not be prudent to overlook an important variable. Almost without exception, students at NU are focused like a laser on graduation and/or graduate school. Elite state schools such as U of Michigan, U of Wisconsin, U of Illinois, or George Tech (at least math and engineering programs) have excellent academics but a student body much less focused. </p>
<p>Do you want to pay $50 for the bus that gets there as infrequently as half of the time, or $100 for the bus that gets there 90-95% of the time?</p>
<p>gadad-
To answer your question, I have been thrilled with my daughter’s experience at NU. I do think that it offered opportunities for intellectual and personal growth well beyond what our best state school (which is quite good) offered, and that she took advantage of all of those opportunities. Bottom line: I think that NU is one of the top universities in the country, and that those who can afford to send their kids there will never regret it.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, for me, that more reliable bus is going to run more like $300. :)</p>
<p>First let me say that I’m an engineer who did some course work at Georgia Tech, and it’s a better school for math than any of our state schools are for what our D will be studying.</p>
<p>Also, we have a younger child whose college will overlap with D’s for two years. Since our EFC is over $60k, we’d end up spending that much for at least 2 years even if D chose a state school. This way we will max out our EFC for 2 years, so one child or the other should qualify for some FA for a couple years.</p>
<p>I respect the fact that NU says it’s committed to meeting 100% of every accepted student’s demonstrated financial need. If one of us loses our job in the next 4 years, I apreciate the idea that NU will step in and help.</p>
<p>@boosnews - curious to hear what your son has decided.</p>
<p>Our freshman son is THRIVING at NU and loves it. He passed up full rides to different state schools to go there with our NU determined parent contribution at 26k (which will go up to 29 or so next year because some of his local state outside scholarships were for freshman year only). I still have friends that look at us and think we are (financially) crazy to pay that amount every year when he had free rides to the best of the state schools in four states. He is a brass performance major in the Bienen School and I cannot imagine him anywhere else. He is in an amazing, stimulating environment full of incredibly bright and creative kids and his access to performances of the Chicago Symphony is nothing short of a dream come true for him. For us, it is the best money we have ever spent - no choice is “perfect” but this one by far meets his needs the best. I would recommend looking long and hard at the merit of the college major programming for your child at each of your choices, the resources for growing to the next level, and the major area professors. That is how we made the decision as a family and for us, it is working. YMMV. NU does meet full determined need, and if a family’s financial situation changes, and more need is determined, they work with you. That is reassuring to me as a parent. I appreciated how they communicated the financial aid package and it is very straight forward and up front. I cannot say that about some of the circles we had to jump through at some of the other colleges just to get consistent financial information. NU does have a good 9 month payment plan that has a small yearly fee up front - 9Pay, and it has worked well for us this school year. Feel free to PM me, and good luck in your journey.</p>
<p>Just as a counterpoint, my D says that at least three of her friends read this post and voiced to her their opinion that both gadad and boosnews should opt for the state schools as the better alternative.</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure, however, these kids are current RD applicants (part of the 28,000 RD applicants) and nervous wrecks hoping beyond hope to be accepted in order to matriculate as one of the only 1300 remaining ‘class of 2015’ freshman spots at NU.</p>
<p>Desperatu - too funny! We also know a couple of eager NU RD applicants who would vote the same way. ;-D</p>
<p>Some other thoughts related to the OP, which presumes all/ most tuition would come out of current investments. I thought someone told me that the EFC calculation is driven primarily by income, which is weighted far more heavily in the formulas than savings or investments, true?</p>
<p>Do those parents currently paying tuition find that by cutting back you are able to make much of your EFC payment without taking a lot of loans or dipping too heavily into savings? Or does the EFC assume that families will have to borrow to meet their EFC?</p>
<p>FAFSA is going to capture 5.6% of parents’ assets (beyond primary home and formal retirement plans + 20-25% of student assets per year.</p>
<p>Given (as I’d understood) that FAFSA is only considering ~6% of parent assets, doesn’t that imply that the formulas assume we can/will make most of the tuition payments using our salaries versus dipping into investments/ selling real estate, etc?</p>
<p>Do parents currently paying EFC find they can do it largely from current income, or are you gutting your savings and/or taking huge loans (this question is directed primarily at families for whom the EFC seems like a stretch rather than those for whom $60k/year is a trivial amount)?</p>
<p>Our plan/hope is to carve out much of the tuition payment by drastically cutting back on luxuries like travel, dining out, etc. and probably not contributing as much to retirement plans for awhile rather than taking huge loans or spending all our savings.</p>
<p>I guess my question is, are the FAFSA EFCs realistic, or someone’s pipe dream?</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>If you have to ask, it’s not worth it. People who opt for paying that kind of difference shouldn’t feel burdened by it. Go to GA Tech.</p>
<p>I would go to GaTech if I were your son. I am in the same predicament (school-wise). It’s either GaTech or NU at this point but NU would cost $14k more to go to NU (which is a worse engineering school, mind-you). Does it make sense for me to even consider NU?</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>We’re in a similar situation. Considerably lower tuition at state school, and others offering merit money, vs a school that is generally held to have a better reputation.</p>
<p>If your question boils down to ‘is it worth it?’, unfortunately, no one knows. There are many studies that say no, but it seems that people at the very top tend to disproportionately come from the better schools. Is it that the school is better? or is it that the better students go to these schools, and would thrive anywhere?</p>
<p>Add to this the fact of grad school. If your child completes 4 years thriving at a state institution, then goes to a name brand grad school, the academic credential that will follow him/her around is the grad school one. Overall, this is likely to be less expensive than going to a more expensive school for undergraduate.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, I think it comes down to this. Students who go to the schools of higher repute are not worse off and may be better off than others. Whether it’s worth the extra $200k or not, only you can decide, after factoring in what spending this money will mean to your family, retirement, obligations to educate other children, and other obligations.</p>
<p>Something else to keep in mind, which does not appear to have been mentioned yet, is what the student wants to do once s/he graduates, if not graduate school. Top firms in some fields will have a stronger on-campus recruiting presence at NU than they will at some state schools, where they might not even recruit. This isn’t a consideration for everyone, but if the goal is a job in, say, finance or management consulting, NU might offer easier access than others to top firms. Whether or not this is worth spending an extra $200k is questionable, but it’s just another angle to consider. </p>
<p>Also, regarding graduate school: PhD programs are most interested in recommendations, demonstrated research potential, and commitment to the discipline. In the OP’s particular case, I can’t imagine that the GA Tech experience would be any less fruitful than NU in those areas. However, other schools might not position him/her as well for graduate study.</p>
<p>At any rate, whatever decision you make will end up being the right one, I’m sure.</p>