Parents affecting the child's college choice

[DougBetsy]

<p>LOL. I’ve been away from the thread for a while and never thought I’d see anyone discussing my earlier post when I returned today. </p>

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My D had to rule out her #1 favorite (William & Mary) because attending would require debt. </p>

<p>Her final decision came down to 2 debt free schools: Gettysburg v. Muhlenberg. She made a weighted scorecard of 14 factors and Gettysburg won 107 to 103. The “parental preference” factor was worth 5 points and, one could argue, became deciding factor. Without that criterion, Muhlenberg would have won. </p>

<p>So now, if she’s not happy at Gettysburg, we’ll always wonder if sharing our opinion landed her in sadness. </p>

<p>Sigh. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

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@laurendog

Am I the only parent here that would pay the money to send the student to William and Mary instead of having her choose between Gettysburg and Muhlenberg? I am sorry, I cannot remember whose D this was, but I remember that William and Mary (a truly wonderful school and the D’s dream school) was crossed off due to ‘debt’ and the D was left to choose between G’burg and M’berg. </p>

<p>I truly believe that some things are worth the price tag. Is there anyone else here that would have paid for William and Mary, or am I way off base here?

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@frazzled1

For full-pay families, I think that highly-regarded OOS public schools like W&M are worthwhile because, despite the undeniable higher cost than at an instate public school, it’s still $12-18K less per year than comparable highly-regarded private schools, many of which do not award merit aid. If your yearly college budget is $45K, W&M is within your budget, while Gettysburg and Muhlenberg are not.

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<p>W&M would have cost about $47k/year in her freshman year, and probably more than that in subsequent years. Our annual budget is $40k. So, D would have needed about $28k - $40k in loans for undergrad. </p>

<p>Gettysburg and Muhlenberg, OTOH, cost less than $30k/year. (She got great merit aid at both.) And, when she graduates from Gettysburg, she’ll have no debt and money left over for her DPT degree. </p>

<p>Gettysburg is a fine school. We have no doubt she’ll emerge with an excellent education. :)</p>

<p>It’s like Mick said, “You can’t always get what you want. But, if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.” ;)</p>