I went across the country for college and grad school. Best education ever. He has never gotten on any of the other campuses due to covid. Except Fordham, which is also loves. But at that point, my husband thinks he should just go to LMU?
UW doesnāt participate in WUE, so Iād guess itās full bore, over $200K
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We live in Redondo Beach. When we drove to the beaches, he said they were just like home. His point was that San Diego, while 2 hours away, is culturally the same as the South Bay of LA
You can go on most any campus. Get in the car and go. You cannot necessarily go on organized tours. They all have maps and many have self guided tours you listen to as you walk.
It almost sounds like heās afraid to leave home. If he goes to lmu u will meet for dinner, he will want to come home weekends.
Itās a mistake. SDSU is a better option.
Most kids get homesick but they grow. You are not doing yourself or him any favors by having him so close.
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Is U San Diego too pricey?
LMU sounds like the best fit since he also applied to Fordham. (BTW, it IS a Catholic university, but a bit less intense than Pepperdine.) U San Diego would be a Catholic university thatās a bit farther away but not toooo far.
Fingers crossed for SDSU Honors, although they got rid of priority registration which was a huge benefit.
Has he sent a LOCI to UCSC? His odds of getting off the waitlist are decent so I hope he accepted the spot on the WL by April 1.
UWashington is intriguing, his strongest choice academically. It is, however, very big and based on what you said, farther than heād want, although if you canāt spread your wings at 18ā¦ and since itās very big, it may not be a good fit.
UW would still be cheaper than the private schools here.
We got some money from the private schools, but feel we need to negotiate due to covid. We are in the travel and convention business, which died last year.
Need to work on our negotiations for more scholarship money tonight. Any tips?
So the choices seem to be:
- 1 in-state public: SDSU
- 1 out-of-state public: Washington
- 3 Catholic schools: LMU, USD, Fordham
- 1 Methodist school: SMU
- 1 Churches of Christ school: Pepperdine
Seems rather odd to have a list where the private schools are religious when you are ānot super religiousā.
What is the net price of each, and what you can afford without parent loans or cosigned loans?
tip #1: donāt use the terms ānegotiationā or ānegotiateā. you can ask for a āreviewā in light of YXZ event that you forgot to put on your FA form (due to covid, x happenedā¦ Y cost moreā¦ impact on business resulting in Z lessā¦); for his #1 choice "Z College is his favorite, unfortunatley < Rival > offered us $ā¦ resulting in a net cost of $ā¦ and itās very difficult to pass up considering we <suffered problems that weāre listing:ā¦, ā¦ > "
āMay I request professional judgement?ā then conclude.
tip #2: universities āreviewā their offers only in light of offers by universities they consider peers or rivals.
Privates donāt review offers made by publics. Publics donāt review at all.
Can you rank costs for Fordham, LMU, and USD? Those would be the most likely to accept a review in light of another offer (ie., LMU reviewing offer in light of Fordham offer, etc).
He didnt love Santa Cruz when we went last summer. He did follow up with Miami. Strangely, he will go across the country for that!
I think Washington would be a good idea. We need to get him up there.
U of SD gave him the most money. We donāt know a ton about it. We walked around last week but it was dead. No tour. No people. Lots of crosses.
We sit on 100 zoom calls for each school every week. Iām so frustrated. When we did tours before pandemic, we got into dorms, cafeterias, classrooms. Itās just not the same now. But we are here and healthy. Thanks for listening!
Those schools donāt meet full need. You needed to apply to schools that meet full need. They all will have appeal processes which you need to go through ASAP but the likelihood of you scoring more aid is slim to none.
You best bet is SDSU. If he has a 3.9 or higher Iād apply to AZ. itās drivable, tuition would be $7k with a 3.9 unweighted or $2k if he has a 4.0 and they honor it four years.
Now you say private is likely too pricey given your business and thatās ok.
This is a four year call. What if you go one year to LMU and then have to drop out.
You need to plan ahead. And sometimes compromises have to be made for the benefit of the family. College is outrageously expensive. Even cheap ones. No one has 30k a year just to throw awayā¦thatās a cheap one.
I think you need to dig In deeper and more strategically.
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We are hearing mixed reviews about SDSU honors. The good news is if you want to opt out after Freshman year you can.
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The amount of money doesnāt really matter - it only matters in relation to COA.
A university that costs 70K with a 30K scholarships remains more expensive than a 35K university with a 5k scholarshipā¦
==> What matters is net direct costs.
Can you calculate
(tuition, fees, room, board) - (scholarships, grants) =$ā¦
for each university?
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Ha. I think the religious schools liked him because he does a ton of community service!!!
I went to SMU & not religious aside from the name. I donāt hear Jesuit schools being super religious. My husband went to Villanova and said religion wasnāt a big deal.
USD and Pepperdine are the only ones I was worried about.
USD gave him $20, the others gave him $10. $20k would bring the costs (with room and board) down to around $50. SDSU is $30k. I
What can we afford? If the travel business picks up again, we are ok. If not, it would be loans. So much uncertainty.
When we visited Pepperdine with our younger kid, we all thought it was the most beautiful and NOT diverse campus we visited (28 college visits over two kids). The religion requirement is hard and fastā¦three specific courses, no choice. Itās a pretty conservative place.
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Yes! I just read some not great things about the honors program as well! What did you hear?
I thought out was great bc his classes would be smaller!
Budget should be number one here. Pick a school you can afford. Going into debt for an undergraduate degree and chasing a ābetter schoolā is simply not worth it. Period. Debt stress is awful.
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If even the least expensive ($30k for SDSU) would require parent loans, then it may be worth considering starting at community college (~$3k tuition and books, live-at-home-and-commute costs are typically lower than living on campus) and transferring to a UC or CSU after two years (perhaps a local one if money is still tight).
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Just hearing that some of the required courses can get in your way if you want other minors. I havenāt dug too deep, but after meeting with an SDSU student on campus last week I got the impression that it doesnāt really add value and that no one cares if you are honors or not. I suppose the freshman dorm is nice, which is why I think some go that route, and then drop it sophomore year. At first we were fixated on our D21 getting into honors, and now weāve just let it go.
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I think those community college plans are great. He has a couple of friends that did that.
We are ok with state school costs. I think the community college route would kill his spirit. I would like him to have the full 4 year campus experience.
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You should clearly not consider the private schools. The amount of stress and strain you would have is immenseā¦markets go up, markets go down. We all hope for the best but we donāt know.
Loans are pricey. They come with points so you are borrowing less than principal. They come with interest. They come with many years of extra payments. They come with stress and other emotional costs.
You clearly should not go down that financial path. What if business doesnāt recover ?
I had a friend at Syracuse. Her parents sold their house so she could go. Moved into a trailer. Two years later she had to drop out.
It seems like you are going outside where you reasonably should. I know you love your son but you need to make choices that suit your long term being.
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