<p>Great news! - great kid gets accepted to lots of top schools! Sad news - can't afford them! Told daughter straight up when applying to the expensive privates that we couldn't afford them and only route was through merit aid. But honestly, we're solidly middle income group and extremely grateful for that blessing. Kid has stats that put her at the top of any school, but did not receive enough merit aid to make it possible. Do I tell her to go ahead, go in debt for $40K? It seems that kids attending will be the ones at both ends of the income spectrum. Will going into debt really give her a leg up? Am I the only parent going crazy over this?</p>
<p>40K for 1 year of school. NOT A CHANCE. 40K over 4 years, maybe a bit excessive, but even just with Stafford and perkins loans it’s possible to take on almost that much. Still alot, and I know alot of people will say don’t do it, but it’s really hard to stay under 20K for student debt for all 4 years unless kid is commuting or goes to instate public or gets great merit/need at a private.</p>
<p>BUT NO WAY to 40K for 1 year</p>
<p>what are the schools? How are they a better choice than other alternatives? My son wanted a school that some special features that he really liked. So we are paying more than we could have been paying for other choices so he could have those benefits. It is worth it to us and he is doing well and taking every advantage of this. </p>
<p>I have a friend who paid full freight for a small private college for her son, because he did not get into the flagship school and none of the other state schools was a good match for her. She felt he needed a small school with certain qualification in order to have a good chance of getting through college successfully. So she and her H stretched it pretty thin to buy this opportunity for him.</p>
<p>My cousins live in Delaware and they did not get into UDel. The other state choices were not what the parents felt were a good fit. So they paid for OOS schools and private schools rather than having them go to community college for the first two years. Two of them did transfer to UD after a year or two. </p>
<p>We know many families who are paying a lot and grateful for the opportunity to pay for schools like HPY. They would have done nearly anything for the opportunity. So it really depends on what your priorities and needs are.</p>
<p>We really did not feel like we could have paid a full $50K+ for our latest college kid this year. We worked out the numbers many times. Though I think he is at a perfect match, I don’t think we would have borrowed an additional $20K to have sent him there. It would just not have been a wise financial decision. But he turned down a full ride with allowance because he did not like the school as much. He did immediately discard the top cost no merit money offers as he knew that they would be problems financially. BUt we had gone over all of this well before the acceptances and he only applied to schools where there were merit possibilities or low sticker price with just one exception.</p>
<p>Pumpkin – sent you a PM.</p>