OOS Publics/$$$/Frustration

<p>mmm....Paris sounds good; think I'll go there instead! Fantasy thinking is fun, but when it comes to family and college decisions fantasy ain't gonna cut it. Thanx, katliamom for hitting the nail on the head. This started as a venting post for me and I am now offically vented-out! Thanx to all.</p>

<p>You can't be vented out in only 21 posts! That un-CC!</p>

<p>honors college is a good choice-
you are in CA- and I know you realize it is a big place
have her visit Seattle...* in July* and see if she still thinks it is warm!</p>

<p>I haven't checked cause we are in Seattle-but does UW have a reciprocal agreement with Calif?</p>

<p>No the UW is not part of the WUE but Washington State is. I wish it was!</p>

<p>Unless there was a good reason that an in-state school was not a good fit (eg., a kid who needs a small LAC vs. 30,000+ state flagship), which is not the case here since your D WANTS a big state school, I'd offer to pay the cost of the in-state public and let D know she's on her own for the balance. The trick is to do it early enough that she realizes what is possible for her (depending upon her finances and merit possibilities) so she doesn't get her heart set on something else. She needs to be open minded and happy to go to State U or she may not have a good experience due to negative attitude and "what ifs". Fortunately (or unfortunately) for our kids, our state flagship isn't that much cheaper than some OOS publics (not UC, of course!), so making up the difference in cost wouldn't be an insurmountable task.</p>

<p>D. did not apply to OOS because of cost. Very happy at her in-state public where we are paying close to nothing. We told her that since we are saving so much in UG, she can apply to any Graduate school in-state or OOS. However, if she is accepted at few Graduate schools, we would still consider cost vs prestige / opportunities.</p>

<p>I'm an urban kid at heart myself, so I understand her POV. Both for undergrad and grad school I applied only to schools in large cities. I do think college is a good time to get to know another part of the country where the culture is significantly different from where you grew up. I expect you could argue that northern vs southern CA is practically two different states! If it's about money, I think you should be clear - this is what we can afford, but you are welcome to make up the difference.</p>

<p>I agree mathmom- we allowed our daughter's to apply to colleges anywhere in the country if they could find options within the cost of our state flagship. It took some diligence on their part to find schools that met our criteria, but they were both happy with their choices. They are both at OOS publics ( what they wanted) in the area of the country they wanted to experience. D1 managed to save money over the state flagship with merit scholarships, and d2 is only very slightly over the cost after all of her merit aid but is happy to pay the difference.
I am happy that they are able to have the experience they want and we can provide it, but we were clear up front about the parameters. It helped them that our state flagship is quite expensive compared to other states ( PSU)</p>

<p>well I wish I could help- my daughter wants to go to Santa Cruz.</p>

<p>your daughter may want to keep track of the wa state budget concerns- UW tuition could be raised 7%. ( and OOS higher)</p>

<p>I think with our S we have concurrence that for public schools, he will restrict himself to the IS offerings (for him, likely just some of the UCs.) He's very California centric so our difficulty is that for the privates, we'd like him to consider the world beyond the borders of CA but so far that hasn't happened (even though we've pointed out the rather long odd of getting into places like, oh, Stanford, CalTech and Harvey Mudd.)</p>

<p>It's not like he doesn't enjoy going to other places. During summer vacations over the years, we've managed to take him to 7 foreign countries and he did a student exhange to Mexico in fifth grade for six weeks.</p>

<p>My DDs good friend is a WA resident paying OOS at SDSU and probably transferring back to UW in the fall, missed her friends & home more than she thought and is working way too much to pay the OOS difference. Wouldn't it be great if you could do a student to student trade between states ;)</p>

<p>UW did not accept any new students for the spring quarter citing over-enrollment, and the tuition will be hiked 7%:</p>

<p>Politics</a> | Wash. lawmakers, universities ponder budget cuts | Seattle Times Newspaper</p>

<p>
[quote]
Wouldn't it be great if you could do a student to student trade between states

[/quote]

It's funny - after reading EK4's post about her Washington D wanting to go to Santa Cruz I was thinking the same thing - an intrastate student swap. It doesn't cost the states/taxpayers any more money and you end up with two happy students.</p>

<p>That's essentially what Minny and Wisconsin do.</p>

<p>You all are making me laugh. There are plenty of us on cc who could trade our kids around like a swap meet, keep all the students happy and the parents pocketbook happy as well! We could call ourselves "College Swap: The Reality Show". Thanks for the heads up on UW tuition going up 7%. As much as she'd like to go oos, she's smart enough to know that level of debt just isn't worth it.</p>

<p>barrons, yes, because when Wisconsin kids are just tired of living in Wisconsin and want to go somewhere totally different, someplace with a whole new outlook on life, instead of going to college in Wisconsin, they go to.... .... .... .... .... Minnesota! :)</p>

<p>jk,
It is a nice system - would be nice if every state had reciprocity with another to give the kids more variety.</p>

<p>It really is frustrating isn't it? My kids wouldn't even consider the in-state option of Penn State while others are paying high OOS cost to go - IF they can even get accepted.
I really do understand their desire to try something new though. Soooo many from their high school go to PSU and they just wanted to experience something different. </p>

<p>And it is fun to visit them...</p>

<p>We have friends whose daughters did go to OOS public universities rather tthan their state schools. They prefered southern schools. THey did not pay that much over their instate flagship at College of Charleston and Virginia Tech which were the schools their girls chose.</p>

<p>We live in NY and our instate options just don't have the same flavor that Penn State, Ohio State, UMich, UMD have. I know a number of kids who want to go to OOS flagships.</p>