As a student now stuck between choosing my in-state college (Maryland) and my dream school, Wisconsin, I find myself carefully examining both costs of attendance and tuition. As I know I can lower the tuition costs through scholarships, is it possible to lower the increasing cost of attendance of $45,000 through careful spending and planning, and does this estimated cost really a very accurate estimate of what it would cost per year? Do you think the cost of attendance could be lowered to possibly $40,000
Thanks
Obviously without financial aid as well
The OOS tuition is 30k and the living costs are 15k, so you’d have to live on 2/3 of the typical costs for rent, food, travel, and miscellaneous expenses.
I would say save the money and go to Maryland. They are academically comparable. I would save the money in the event you want to go to grad school…
The grass seems greener, but I don’t think UW is worth the difference in cost.
U MD is a very good school. Not quite as good as UW in engineering, but still top 25 and most likely better than UW in some other majors. I am a PhD engineer, so I only know about engineering. Grad school for engineering is generally free at major universities. Tuition is waved and TA/RA’s are given a stipend to live off of. I believe stipends are now in the $20K to $25K per year range. The same is true with some of the sciences, although stipends might be smaller. If you do well at U MD, you should be able to get into a more prestigious graduate program, at least in engineering. Medical school, law school, dental school, etc. are not free and are rather expensive. If you are thinking of pursuing one of these careers, minimizing undergraduate debt makes even more sense.
A friend of mine had a daughter who faced a similar dilemma last year: dream school William and Mary vs U MD. She ended up going to U MD and will be spending next summer semester studying abroad at Cambridge. I doubt she regrets not going to William and Mary.