Parents, are you full-pay for OOS flagship? Reasons for your decision?

Parents Forum
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@Toeupwms, OK, I take it back: If it is financially doable for you and you are secure in your job, sure, it is an option, though I would just consider your payment a gift. I don’t think you want to go down the route of drawing up a legal document.

And do you have other children? They would expect the same deal or else a lot of bitterness could last in the family for decades.

I would definitely figure out how much I could pay for each kid and offer each the same deal. I know other parents have done it differently without familial rancor ensuing, but that is taking a risk.

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No other children. Only child. I only mentioned the repayment because I want her to realize the choice she is making by not taking one of the better offers. Unless something drastic happened, I would never enforce the pay back, she could use that for med school. Just didn’t want her to know that. Kinda wanted to force her to take responsibility for her choices, I guess…

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@Toeupwms, I don’t think that would do it. Loans are just meaningless numbers to kids that age unless they have already been working to support themselves.

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What understanding about financial limitations did you and she have before she applied to colleges?

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@appalachymom absolutely, I personally would never pay OOS full pay (and by that I mean I’m picking up the entire cost of attendance), There is always an in state school that will give your children a solid education at half the price if not better. Again the people that I know that send there kids to OOS or not a top LAC/Private have enough money that it makes little difference to their finances. People can do what they want but financially its not a good idea to spend a significant portion of your money just to go to an OOS public university. I do know people that send their kids to Harvard/Stanford/ etc. and stomach the cost because they believe its worth it. I myself have made some financial sacrifices to send my DD to UChicago, but OOS public, not even on the table. JMHO.

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Why Tulane …Med school adcoms could care less where a applicant does undergrad at. Go google a forum called oldpremeds where people often get their credits at CC and the cheapest option possible just score well.

What are the other offers I would gently sway her to those!

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@CU123, though not all OOS publics are the same.

I consider Cal, UMich, and UVa to be Near-Ivies. Granted, Cal and UMich are huge, but so are NYU and USC, and UVa is roughly the same size as Cornell. And W&M is mid-sized like Emory/WashU/Vandy.

Would you be willing to be full-pay for NYU/USC/Emory/WashU/Vandy (say for the right majors/programs)?

If so, then why not the OOS rate for Cal/UMich/UVa/W&M (for the right majors/programs)?

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@labegg

May sound sound to you, but it’s not realistic in the real world. You room with a friend from school. Everyone hangs with high school friends. The same high school friends join the frats and sororities and clubs the older kids from their town are in. It’s a cycle.

FOR SOME that’s ideal. They love it. But if your kid doesn’t want to be apart of that and is EAGER to branch out, try your hardest not to make them deal with it. It’s REALLY hard to reinvent yourself and branch out if 100+ kids from your hometown attend your college. 20k-50k never feels THAT big, especially with tech and iPhones.

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Would not full pay for OOS public. Ever. Some would and that may be right for them, so not bashing anyone, but we would not.

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@ucbalumnus “Of course, to a NJ student from a wealthy family, going anywhere but Rutgers or other NJ public is probably reason enough to pay the out of state premium.”

What does that mean?

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All OOS public schools are not the same. I say this as somebody with a child at a top 5 OOS public… who also has another child and several very close family members who stayed instate. Can students instate receive a solid education? Yes… of course they can.

@Toeupwms can you live on $42,000 a year? What are your D’s other options?

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@bookworm OOS Tuition and Fees at Tech is $33,014. In-state Tuition and Fees at UF is $6,381. That’s a $26,600 difference, before merit based, need based or Florida prepaid. Florida prepaid will pay in-state tuition (minus the differential fee), so about $4,500 a year. You could also have purchased the room and board prepaid option, and that would give you additional funds.

With prepaid and need-based aid, it’s possible to get the cost down to $12K a year. However, even then, don’t forget that they likely gave up the Bright Futures scholarships (which covers 100% of in-state tuition + $300 a semester for books, etc), so that’s about $7K a year in scholarships they gave up.

Then consider that room and board cost are higher in Atlanta (duh!), and that GT is under pressure to raise OOS tuition, each year, while keeping in-state tuition rate increases to a minimum.

@shortnuke Last year, we had to decide between OOS GT or In-state UF (Aerospace Engineering, GT’s program is ranked #2, behind MIT).

It wasn’t that hard, because while my son liked the school, he wasn’t a fan of Atlanta and much preferred a college town (unlike your daughter!). Also, as a Gator engineer alumni (and clearly biased), with GT engineers in the family, I know they both go on to work for the same companies, earn the same money, etc. The outcome is very similar and really has more to do with the student than GT vs UF. it’s more a question of “options” available at GT that may not be available at UF, and simple student preference (Atlanta vs Gainesville). All of which is balance based on cost.

She has two great options. :-bd

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@Gator88NE You bring up another good point I’ve been thinking about:

States try to keep tuition increases for in-state students as small as possible (sometimes even freezing tuition for a student’s entire college education), and are likely to increase OOS tuition significantly during a 4 year education.
:-?

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We have great in-state options in VA, but the top 3 are out of the question if you live in northern VA and have more than a couple of Bs in high school.

We have a set annual budget for college that is more than in-state publics but way less than our EFC. There is one in-state public (VA Tech) that had the major D wanted. She did not have the GPA to get in there so she went OOS at a cost of about $33K. More than VA Tech, but less than W&M.

My son (a junior) has higher stats but not quite high enough for UVA and W&M, and he doesn’t seem that interested in VA Tech. He will definitely be looking for affordable OOS matches while schools like James Madison and George Mason would be in-state safeties.

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@appalachymom, though you have to investigate the policies of each school. At a school like UIUC, for instance, you pay the same rate you pay freshman year all 4 years. Some UK unis are like that as well.

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Towupwms: What are her other options? Is she sure about med school? Many kids start out aiming for med school and change their minds. If she is sure about med school, much better to have that money to help her out there. But it may depend on her other options. Living on $42K may be tough, as there are other expenses involved with college including travel, books etc.

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@Toeupwms With med school in D’s future I would recommend going with the option that will be most affordable over the long haul. I personally would want to spend less upfront so there will be money left for med school.

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@njdadjets what are the few top schools you think is worth going full pay? I am asking because you and others keep saying not worth full pay except for few schools. What are the few schools in your opinion?

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@Toeupwms One other thing – you wrote “I only mentioned the repayment because I want her to realize the choice she is making by not taking one of the better offers.”. Something she needs to consider is the money needed in the next four years for Tulane might dry up any funds for med school. I would draw up a complete picture of the total cost.

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Opportunity cost also. Invested well, the $300k can turn into $500k in 4 years. But since you would be paying $70k per year, you can still invest remaining money.