@Acersaccharum I think lots of schools use their alumni for career services. I can speak to Bowdoin specifically but I bet it’s the same at most smaller schools anyway. Many, many internships and jobs are found through alumni. We were at a summer event and it seemed like every current student and every young alum got a job by using Bowdoin alums. I will say that career services was something we looked at very closely when looking for S19. I dove pretty deep into how it worked at each school and what kids were doing during their summers and after senior year. The connections made are super important.
Have you visited William and Mary? S19 really liked it. As for Denison, the town is super small but cute and surrounded by a beautiful, mature neighborhood. Lots of fun stuff to do on campus. When we toured, the guide said the school provides transportation into Columbus (about an hour away I think?) on weekends and kids go there to hang out for the day, shop, see a movie, go to a concert, etc. I know some happy kids there. I’m taking D21 to visit at some point
I see it the other way - why should there be much of a price difference between schools in the same area? The actual cost of education has to be pretty close.
@Johnny523 Perhaps. Just wondering out loud. We have a pretty generous budget for college, but I am still gobsmacked at the $77k price tag. I know that some websites calculate a “Return on Investment” score, but haven’t looked at them very closely and whatever they show may not move the needle very much when it comes to picking the college that works best anyway.
@Acersaccharum Yeah, those list prices are absurd. Of course nobody actually pays them, but it’s still a shock to see. I wish they would come up with some better system for pricing colleges so you can see more easily what you can afford instead of having to wait for the offer.
D21 and I went through the College Board’s “school finder” database (can’t remember what it is called) and the results were really consistent with what she’s already considering - plus a few schools that are long shots (Duke and UNC Chapel Hill OOS).
The one school that came up that was not on our radar was Elon. Does anyone know anything about that school when it comes to Math/Science. I saw from their Common Data Set that most of their undergraduates major in Communications and Business.
@3kids2dogs no first hand knowledge, but a friend’s son just applied there for a science major. He’s planning on PA school, I think. He loved the school. I gather they have good sciences based on their visit.
@homerdog I stand corrected. Every school we’ve looked at says some very high percentage of students receive some sort of aid. So either they aren’t being truthful or we’re looking a totally different class of schools.
@Johnny523 School like to give an average cost for their students and many times that number comes up in the admissions meetings when you visit schools. Sometimes, they even have that number in their literature that they send out. It’s a bit misleading because, honestly, the average means absolutely nothing to any given family.
It’s also not a great marketing idea to talk about how many kids get need based aid in those sessions. My husband was not a fan of hearing that we will pay $74,000 but the average family pays half of that. Schools should probably just stay away from talking about how much aid is given but they are afraid the price tag will scare off families.
@Johnny523 Actually, lots of families are expected to pay full price. We are one of those families too. We do not qualify for financial aid. Yet, anyway. We might once S21 starts and we have two kids in college at the same time. Regardless, this does not mean that we are all willing to pay sticker prices of $65-70k per year. Some are, which is totally cool. But Mr. InfiniteWaves and I aren’t.
So we focus on mid-tier schools that offer merit scholarships as well as our in-state options. We are PA residents which means two financial tiers of in-state options. We use the higher tier (Penn State, Pitt, Temple) as our baseline budget. Our S19 just started at Penn State main campus.
We have already told S21 “no” on some prospective schools as the chance of merit is non-existent or slim. To be quite honest, we personally feel that no college is worth $65-70k per year. Not even the one we attended (and we adore our alma mater), which is currently about $65k. Again, others might feel differently, which is totally cool.
We are in a similar situation as @InfiniteWaves , where we “may” qualify for aid with 2 in school. Some schools are known for having more generous Fin Aid calculators, but we won’t really be able to plug good numbers in to an NPC until our 2019 taxes are done. So we are waiting to give the thumbs up or down for certain schools. Does anyone know if we do qualify for aid, would that aid disappear when D19 graduates and we only have 1 in school?
@Acersaccharum I would assume so. If it’s need based aid and the amount is determined when you enter “2” in school n the net price calculators, then that’s the estimated cost with two. What I’ve done is run NPCs with two kids and then with one to see if there’s a difference.
For us, with two, the kids can get work study. With just one, there’s nothing. Work study is not a big deal, at least for S19, since kids with or without work study can easily get jobs on campus.
Yes, @Acersaccharum and @homerdog, that is what I assume as well. Potential financial aid for the two years they are in school at the same time and no financial aid for the four years we only have one in school.
So, we are budgeting accordingly. Which means, not really considering whatever aid might be offered during those two years. Because we just don’t know. And for us, no school is worth $65-70k per year. Not for the eight years we will be paying anyway.
If we had one kid to put through, maybe the budget concerns and thoughts on being full pay would be different for us. And our S19 is currently in ROTC non-scholarship. If he decides this is truly his path and ends up getting a three-year scholarship before S21 applies next year, we might also re-evaluate.
Looking through my notes from last week’s visits, Northeastern did say the Fin Aid does not decline even if your circumstances improve. So that’s good, but I’ll bet you are both right about it dropping at most schools after older sibling graduates. I haven’t run their NPC yet, so maybe we won’t qualify for anything anyway.
Circumstances improving is not the same as a change in how many kids your have in college. And financial aid is determined every year so that can’t be true that NEU would give you the same package if you came into some windfall of money sometime after your child enrolled there.
It is true about Northeastern. A friend’s son is a junior there - they say they do not re-evaluate financial aid after initial admittance, unless you request it. So if you win the lottery 1/2 way through freshman year, you keep getting what you got freshman year. If you lose your job 1/2 way through freshman year, you can call and they will re-evaluate for sophomore year.
@NJWrestlingmom Wow. Well, one should hope their income is low for freshman year consideration at NEU and then a big boost in income for the following years! I’ve never heard of a school not reevaluating financial aid each year.
I never had either. I’m not sure how it works, because FAFSA is required every year for loans. I guess it’s just if you get need based from the university. Of course, my friend doesn’t get any so I haven’t actually seen it in action!
Apparently I wasn’t clear - my point is that the schools we’ve looked at say something like “95% of students receive aid”, meaning that only 5% pay full sticker. But again, it seems that we are looking at a different class of schools. I wasn’t talking about the average net cost, because obviously a lot of people pay more or less than that.
I can see why NEU and others wouldn’t recalculate aid every year unless it’s requested. It probably doesn’t change for more students so why do the extra work.
We have an S20 along with D21 so I’ve been running the NPCs for him with 1 and 2 in college to see if there is much of a difference. He’s going to go to Arizona and the NPC shows he would get an extra $6k scholarship with 2 in college. His second choice was Washington State, and their NPC showed he would actually have to pay about $500 more with 2 in college than 1, so obviously something isn’t right.
I did the FAFSA last night for him and it’s pretty ridiculous how much of an EFC they come up with.
