<p>Right! We are trying to figure how/where to move when DD graduates HS in '14.
This state is tanking fast… our local taxes have skyrocketed. More and More will be shifted away from State and onto local , etc. Stupid corrupt politicians.</p>
<p>To take advantage of in-states in other states you’ll have to move before then. You need established residency (here in NY it is a year) to receive in-state tuition.</p>
<p>However, our NY OOS tuition is so reasonable, that people from other states come here while maintaining residency in their states.</p>
<p>As for pensions, my union (I’m a community college teacher) disbanded the pension plan a long time ago. We have only a glorified IRA, and no one I know can afford to retire with the poor performance the stock market has offered up lately. I am sure many institutions will be following suit. It is galling to watch the high school teachers retiring when our faculty doesn’t have a hope of this. Sigh.</p>
<p>Unless money is no object, I would favor both Pitt Honors and Oberlin over UVA in this case. Even if money is no object, I would at least consider Oberlin strongly, on purely educational/fit grounds.</p>
<p>Really, there are no bad options here. Congratulations!</p>
<p>OK, I should have said I wouldn’t pay out of state if it was more than in-state in my own state. To explain, UVA, U Cals are great schools, but if you pay 52K, I would rather spend my money on a smaller or private school where intro lectures aren’t online or consist of hundreds and hundreds of students and where you get into your classes, so you can finish in 4 years. And, yes, there is a difference in terms of individual attention between smaller schools, private schools, honors colleges, and your regular mass university.</p>
<p>I guess I was going with the class size, class format, and ability to engage in serious discussion when I said that I thought Oberlin might provide more individual attention. My daughter went there and her instructors wrote reco letters on time etc. </p>
<p>Out of state for me with reference to me would be a lot more.
Money is a consideration, but he has got money from Oberlin. He is not a music major, but would go for the all round sound liberal arts and sciences education.</p>
<p>I don’t know how it is at Oberlin or UPitt. But, at many schools (big and small), once you’re in your upper division classes, the class sizes shrink immensely so profs do know you (by name) and they happily write recs.</p>
<p>And, if your child is coming in with AP credits, he may skip over many of the large lecture classes anyway. My kids never had any of those History 101 classes in big lecture halls as undergrads.</p>
<p>My kids’ undergrad is a big one, yet their profs know them and they have had no problem getting LORs in a timely manner.</p>
<p>BTW…even small privates often have big 100-level classes. My older son is in a PhD program at a top elite small private. For each semester, he takes an undergrad class for fun and those classes are BIG.</p>
<p>But the LA’s that pride themselves on small class size don’t have doctoral students.</p>
<p>The flip side of small freshman and sophomore courses taught by faculty is that there is less faculty time to teach junior and senior courses – many small LACs have limited selections of junior and senior courses in many subjects, and may offer some important (for majors) courses only once every two years (so if you miss your chance, perhaps due to study abroad or other activity away from school that semester or quarter, you may not be able to take it without delaying graduation).</p>
<p>Theoretically, could the LAC model be scaled up into a big LAC and possibly allow more frequent offering of junior and senior courses while still maintaining the small freshman and sophomore courses taught by faculty?</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your comments. My son has decided against UVA, and seems to be veering toward an LAC.</p>