<p>well If he can get a better college for a little more money then i’ll say its worth it
investment in education is is the best long term investment</p>
<p>There are lots and lots of long threads on this subject. If you read through some of them, you’ll be exposed to a range of opinions. When the dust settles, though, only you know how comfortable your family would be with the level of debt you describe. You are likely to find very few people who would advise you to assume $48K to $112K in debt given your “almost free” options. I probably wouldn’t, given your choices. I could maybe see taking on the debt for Case, but even then I’d hesitate. But $80K-plus in debt for these other schools? I wouldn’t do it. I can’t see how the cost/benefit analysis shakes out in favor of that much debt for any of these schools.</p>
<p>No amount of prestige is worth 80K in loans for undergraduate degree. </p>
<p>Also, your son will not be able to borrow 80k by himself. You will have to cosign for about 52k. Depending on your circumstances (income, credit score), he might find himself in a situation when he is able to obtain loans one year but not the next year.</p>
<p>It depends on your finances. Once we set a ceiling on the cost for our kids, we let them pick and did not start ruminating on how nice it would be if they went for free, an option they did all have. 2 out of 3 picked at the top of what we could afford, and have been very happy where they are. They immediately threw out anything priced over our limit and just focused on what we said we could spend. We told them that the money would be given them up to that limit, if it did not go to college costs. </p>
<p>It’s after the fact, now, but you should sit down and decide how much you can realistically afford for college, given what you can use from your savings/investments, what you can cut back on and use out of salary , and what you can borrow. Don’t lean to heavily on the borrowing because the fact of the matter is that it was easier to save before than in the future, and if you didn’t do it, it’s not as likey to happy, and borrowing is really just that. Cars break down and emergencies will occur in the future as well as they did in the past. </p>
<p>Your son will be able to take out some Stafford in his name. That would be his borrowing limit. So out of the $80K you are looking at for four years, unless those loans are already in the picture, it means you have to come up with about $55K in that tiem. Belt tightening by buying half price books, living cheaply off campus in the upper class years, and entering an austerity regiment at home could take about $5K off that tab? Do you and your son have some savings you can apply to this venture? </p>
<p>This is an extremely personal issue, family issue that only you can resolve. I’ve seen families borrow heavily and be fine, and some whose finances are in true shambles from doing it.</p>
<p>$30K in debt is plenty for a 23 year old. If you really have stretch, I’d say the total loan amount should not be more than the annual salary of the entry level professional job. Ideally I would cap at 75%. This is my personal experience. </p>
<p>Now, as to the prestige… not so much in the engineering world. Most jobs are fielded locally or regionally. As long as the specific major is ABET accredited you can find a professional related job.</p>
<p>The salary vs loan advise was indeed a new way for me to look at the problem.</p>
<p>When i factored in the loan amount I did factor in our families contribution. We dont mind paying all our available funds on college because we value education but we need to eat and drive to work, we are not extravagant spenders, but thus far have been financially responsible.</p>
<p>We are struggling with this dilemma as well. Our younger son can attend two excellent SUNYs, Geneseo or Binghamton with no debt, Providence (honors program) with a reasonable amount, University of Rochester with some debt or Notre Dame, his dream school with a fair amount. We have not received FA from ND but are not expecting much. Even with 100 k saved, covering the balance with income and loans will be tough.</p>
<p>Our older son is at Geneseo and loves it. Younger applied to ND with the hopes of attending with a ROTC scholarship like his father and got Lafayette instead. Sure enough he then gets into ND and we are facing a financial decision that we did not expect. His acceptance yesterday was tempered with a big dose of reality.</p>
<p>Though he is leaning toward math, he is a typical liberal arts student who, like his brother, will likely need to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I posted this just to get it off my chest. I know that the difficult decisions are ours to make. Gosh it is just so tough.</p>
<p>Engineering curriculum is pretty rigid and doesn’t vary a lot from school to school. There are only a handful of schools that might - might - be worth the extra money for an engineering degree, but none of them are on your list.</p>
<p>After his first job, no one will care where he went to school. It won’t matter at most places for his first job either.</p>
<p>If he really doesn’t want the free option, Northeastern is probably the best bet, he should be able to earn $40K+ over 18 months of co-op. If you require him to put his earnings towards his tuition, it would wipe out a lot of the loans.</p>
<p>Go to the best school you can afford,period…there are many differences in schools at the lower price point and the higher cost schools…however, you may or may not care about those differences, not unlike a luxury car and a cheaper car…</p>
<p>TCNJ is prestigious in the sense that it’s taken to rejecting a lot of students We heard it from our high school admissions counselors; TCNJ used to accept a lot of students and was a larger school, and then to lower the student population while increasing “prestige” and make more resources available (due to less students), admissions rates were slashed. It’s actually genius.</p>
<p>I think both TCNJ and NYU-Poly are the better of the 4 near-free schools on your list. Be CAREFUL not to confuse prestige with true value; you have to decide that on your own… it really depends on what you’re looking for in a college.</p>
<p>There is a solid body of research that shows, conclusively, that in terms of the quality of education that a motivated student can receive, prestige is totally irrelevant; and while prestige does matter when it comes to the opportunities that present themselves after graduation, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as most people think it does.</p>
<p>I realize that this is contrary to the conventional wisdom, but the research covers three decades of work by respected academic researchers who have looked for evidence that prestige matters and have not been able to find any.</p>
<p>For more details, consult Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick T. Terenzini, “How College Affects Students, Volume 2: A Third Decade of Research.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.</p>
<p>Happykid has been at the local community college for two years, and is headed to one of the in-state publics this fall, so you know where I am going to come down on this. </p>
<p>Sit down with your kid. Run your numbers here. [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) Talk about what your kid would rather do with that money, and be straight with yourself about the places you would be able to spend it if it needn’t go for a college education. When the conversation is over, you will know just how important is to both of you that he attend a more “prestigious” institution if indeed that still matters to you at all.</p>
<p>Tcnj has made great strides in recent years to become a btter school that attracts top students…That said, TCNJ and prestigious are not usally used in the same sentence aside from their orientation talks. ;)</p>
We heard it from our high school admissions counselors; TCNJ used to accept a lot of students and was a larger school, and then to lower the student population while increasing “prestige” and make more resources available (due to less students), admissions rates were slashed. It’s actually genius.</p>