Our daughter has been accepted EA (yay) but offered no need based aid (we weren’t expecting any) and unfortunately no merit either. There are so many articles, books, blogs out there right now saying NOONE pays full price at universities these days - except maybe the T20. Are we being foolish to pay full price at Tulane? It is my daughter’s top choice but she was offered merit elsewhere so we are wondering if we are “suckers” to cough up $77k a year!!!
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There’s an interesting chat on this topic going here:
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i cant answer that for you - no knowledge of your situation.
My question is - how many kids do you have? any still planning on going to college?
we are paying about that price for 4 kids total; no way could we do it for just one. but if we had just one . . . that’d be a differerent thought process. good luck – and congrats getting in.
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We have 3 kids and this is our first one going to college so lots of money still to be spent. Plus likely that our oldest (and possibly younger ones as well) will go onto grad school which we would love to help with. It is so hard when your kid has worked their tail off to get into a school they LOVE - they get accepted - and then you say well actually… We had heard so much about Tulane being generous with merit and her stats were within the range of what we saw from others so it was super dissappointing. Anyway ug.
I can’t tell you what to do either, but Tulane has been decreasing the total amount of merit aid over the last few years and shifting to more of a need-based aid model. I would not take on more than the max four year amount of $27K in direct student loans to attend Tulane.
There are lots of people who pay full price at many schools (don’t know about Tulane) so I don’t necessarily buy the people who say no one pays full price, because they do…for example, at Bowdoin about 50% of the kids are full pay. I agree with you that it is the highly selective schools where you find a greater proportion of full pay students.
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Has she applied for any outside scholarships? My son’s school puts out a monthly newsletter with several and I’ve done some searches on my own to find things geared toward his major. Every bit helps.
We are not rich either but will end up doing full pay if he gets into and decides to go to an “elite” school. He could get a full ride at some schools due to national merit. He’s our only child so at least we only have to go through this once.
Good luck!
This answer is so subjective. In our case we happened to fortunately have enough in the 529s to fully fund both our kids so for us it’s a no brainer (kids were/will be told that they can get any merit awards saved for use after college, so there is still an incentive for them to go for merit). But the calculation would be different if loans were involved, or if we had to use home equity or sell down assets etc. It’s like anything else - no one else can really tell you if it’s worth it. Some people will never pay full price for any college even if they can afford it easily, others will go in debt to the hilt to do so. I’d never advise going into debt. And if you really cannot stand the idea of full pay when there is merit on the table elsewhere, that’s understandable. But if it is truly your child’s number one school, and you can afford it without too much trouble /effect on anything else, then not doing it just because “they say” no-one ever pays full price doesn’t seem to me a good justification.
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This is such a hard call! My kid could have gone to our in-state flagship for absolutely free , including room & board, or we’d be full pay at her Ivy. We had been saving since her birth, so we chose the Ivy.
Her first year and a half were well worth it. She was unbelievably engaged in all sorts of ECs that were really opening up her mind and presenting all sorts of opportunities. Then Covid hit and it’s basically an on-line school for classes and ECs and it stinks, and we are really struggling to feel ok about spending all that money. But who would ever have guessed?
Thing is, though, that there could be some unexpected bump in the road for your kid too. Are you ok with that? Is your kid really going to take full advantage of the opportunities at Tulane? How are those opportunities different than what she’d get at her state flagship (presumably the honor’s college?)? Also, would you be putting too much pressure on her to perform at Tulane because of how much your investing in that choice?
Finally, what about the career office. What kinds of jobs do kids coming out of your flagship get compared to the kids at Tulane? One of the reasons I was willing to pay for the Ivy was when I went to school, I saw the tremendous difference in opportunities for the kids coming out of the state school I went to vs the undergrad kids coming out of the T20 school that I went to for grad school. It was an eye opener. I don’t think the difference is that stark anymore, particularly for engineering and some sciences, but it’s worthwhile to check that out.
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Well if you can cleanly afford it then it’s a non starter.
My daughter got into her number 1 school and without significant merit we said no. Yes, everyone involved was heartbroken for a few days. She went to her number 2 with merit. Our deal with her since we had kid 2 coming soon to college is go to second great choice and she will basically be debt free. She is. She actually changed colleges and got a $35,000 merit as a Junior so like 1/2 tuition. All her friends have loans. She doesn’t.
So if it doesn’t affect your other 2 kids ability to go to college then you evidently have the money… But… What if number 2 with merit was significantly less expensive… Hmmm… Why not set up an investment vehicle with 1/2 the savings (or what you can afford)… This was our ploy with our daughter. Nice to graduate with some money in the bank. She was able to take off a semester and hike through Southeast Asia… That didn’t suck and memories of her Number 1 choice quickly faded. In the end her number 1 would not of been the correct choice also. This is also fairly common.
My suggestions is don’t get stuck on a number 1. Doesn’t make a difference on how hard she worked. That’s just good work ethic for the future. We have back up schools for a reason. Personally $72,000 is not worth it for any education. What is her major and projected income?
We had 529 money and because of my daughter’s merits etc we are actually paying ourselves back now.
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I agree with @Knowsstuff - if you can afford it, then it’s a non starter…
However, everyone’s situation is different. I was VERY skeptical and scared at first to pull the trigger at Tulane with my son (current sophomore). I was convinced we wouldn’t qualify for much need-based money based on our profile, and he got a very small amount of merit ($7k), mostly due to his community service efforts and leadership (which was a big draw to Tulane I might add).
When he was then completely committed to Tulane (once he was rejected from his #1 choice), we did engage and appeal to OFA and were able to provide more information on our specific financials. They awarded him some aid, but were very clear that it could not be guaranteed each year (some schools will do that, and probably should as a matter of best practice, I digress). In the end, we took the leap…
Boy, was it worth it. Not only is he SUPER happy there, the school completely stepped up again this year, and with his sister entering her freshman year, they upped it to meet the EFC differential. It may not be the cheapest school, but my experience has proven that they’re investing in him (and her too potentially) as much as we’re investing in them. It just takes a little effort to start the dialog and indicate that you’d like to work with them.
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I think the “can you afford it without taking on debt” question is a complicated one. Yes we can pay the full tuition without taking loans but SHOULD we? We would have to find money beyond what we have saved in her 529 in order to make it all the way through the 4 years, although we could do that. We also want to help her with grad school and we have no idea what the other two kids will want to do or where they will get in. We are continuing to contribute to the 529s for the younger kids so hope they will be in a good position too. I guess I am also asking what else can we do about the sticker price? She is applying for outside scholarships (no luck so far on anything that makes a real dent). I think the school environment is really important and she would thrive in a smaller school environment like Tulane (as opposed to our big state school or other large schools where she has admittance and merit) so I am just wrapping my head around spending roughly $308,000 for that experience!!
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Is there something you can leverage in a discussion with the FA office, like improved GPA, updated SAT score, an honor/award, or could they match merit you received from another private college?
If you have 2 kids in college as you indicated that will make a difference for lots of people
Welcome for college 2021… 
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We had 529 PLUS we paid our of current income for 2 OOS kids… That was our plan. But with merit somehow we actually ended up with some surplus and our paying ourselves back now 
…
So the decision is often a personal one. Grad school isn’t cheap if she’s not sponsored… It is usually more important to go to a better grad school then undergrad if your sizing up importance… Covid is affected many families ability to pay all 4 years and the kids can only take $27,500/4 years on their own.
I wouldn’t take our loans /mortgage the house etc for any college.
Lots of T20 kids working low paying jobs and having trouble paying back their loans.
I don’t want that for my kids.
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I personally do not think Tulane is worth 320K especially if you have some very good public flagship or similar options that are much cheaper.
I think this should have been a discussion with her before she applied. “If you don’t get x merit than we will not pay for Tulane.”
With that said, she will get a very good education at Tulane and NO is a fun city to spend your undergrad college years in.
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We are full pay as well. 3 kids and one in college. We have too much money saved in our 529s for each kid for our state flagships but not enough for OOS public or private - sounds like you may be in the same situation. Our oldest will have a bunch left over due to scholarships so we could theoretically combine with the others and pay OOS for them. Even so, it would have to be something pretty spectacular (Ivy) for us to do it. We are lucky to have two very good to excellent flagships and my boys want big schools so that plays into it as well. We are planning on using the extra to pay for grad school for anyone who wants to go and passing any left over down to their kids when they are born. It would be hard for me to justify an extra 300k personally. . . particularly when that money would likely be funneled towards retirement. I certainly would not take out loans to do it.
Is there a dollar amount of aid or scholarship that would make a “yes” easier? For ex, if Tulane offered $5-10k, would that get you over the hump? I’m asking bc I’ve heard of students getting a modest amount more in merit when the student for sure wants to go but has a financial gap. Not at Tulane per se but elsewhere at similarly ranked private schools.
Private universities are a mixed bag of worms. Some offer decent need-based aid. Others just stick you with the bill and say “take it or leave it.” For me, $300,000 for a bachelors degree is a horrible deal. It’s like getting offered a job at Google for $20,000 a year, when I have other offers for the same job for $100,000.
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I think you are erroneously assuming that the college one attends is exactly like the others, which I disagree with that premise. Some colleges might give one a better return on their investment over other colleges and I’m not only talking about financial returns…
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I completely agree that NOBODY, regardless of ability to pay, SHOULD be paying $300,000 for a bachelors degree, completely absurd. But I also think your analogy on the Google job is just a bit simplistic, especially considering these kids will likely change their minds several times during their studies (and likely in their careers as well).
The conversation that should be had in weighing these decisions is about what value and flexibility do you see in the opportunity to attend XX university for X$. As stated before, very few people pay full sticker price. If they do (likely due to good fortune and plenty of financial resources), perhaps Tulane isn’t the greatest option and Illinois, Michigan, or Wisconsin provide a much better value. But I do think think you give up lots of great “intangibles” (flexibility in curriculum across schools to explore, more intimate setting, better teaching/learning environment).
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