<p>So I know public schools, specifically SUNY schools, are cheaper than private schools. If I am comparing two similar colleges, a private and a public, and the private is more expensive, can I assume the costs will even out after financial aid/scholarships? In other words are private schools usually more generous than state schools because they are more expensive? (I am talking about two schools on the same academic level but two different prices). </p>
<p>No, you can’t assume that. It really depends on the school. We are in California and only one private school matched what we’d pay at an in-state public and it is a “meets 100 percent need” school. One other private got within 5K. The rest of the private schools were laughable even with generous merit… because 20K a year truly IS generous but for us, it still left a 10K or more gap that we were unwilling to fill with loans. Of course, the cheapest was to live at home and go to one of the local publics and no private got that low.</p>
<p>Your situation plays a role too. A family with a high EFC might be better served in a private school with high merit potential. If you have a low EFC, there is short list of schools that will really be comparable to an in-state public… and they aren’t easy to get into.</p>
<p>Nope…you cannot make that assumption.</p>
<p>Both of our kids went to private universities. It cost us roughly $50,000 a year for each of them. More than double what our instate public would have cost.</p>
<p>It depends on many factors - run the net price calculators of the colleges to get the answer for your particular situation.</p>
<p>Maybe I shouldn’t have said the prices will even out, because I know In The end I will be paying more for a private school, but will private at least give me a better package than what SUNY would give me</p>
<p>Agree with the nopes above. There are so many variables: what’s your EFC? Are you considering out-of-state or only in-state-publics? Are you comparing the flagship university to the private colleges? Does your state have a “Hope” scholarship (GA, TN, others)? Does your child have high scores, GPA, and ECs? Run the NPCs on different college sites to get a sense of your family’s cost range. </p>
<p>Some private schools will NOT give you more money than a SUNY, especially if you are eligible for TAP.</p>
<p>ETA…it’s not so much how much money the school GIVES you that matters. It’s what YOUR net cost will be. If a $60,000 a year school gives you $20,000, you still have to come up with $40,000. </p>
<p>Your instate public university will cost LESS than $40,000 without a nickel of aid.</p>
<p>Thumper1 is exactly right. Do the math for YOUR situation and work it out over 4 years. On the whole, the state institutions should be less but in D2’s case, the net, out-of-pocket cost of two privates were less than our flagship but one of the state universities would have been free, likely with money returned. That’s based on D2’s scores/grades/ECs. For D1, a public state U was very inexpensive. </p>
<p>There was only $2000 difference between the out-of-pocket costs (per year) of “living away” in-state public school and “living at home” private school for my kids.</p>
<p>Well yes…living at home and living away adds a dimension to the costs. </p>
<p>Also to be considered…the costs of private,schools vary considerably. Look at the cost of York College in PA, and compare it to the cost of Stanford. </p>
<p>Absolutely not. It CAN happen, but most of the time, for most people, the state schools are the best prices. I know for all but one kid, it was the case. In state with a small scholarship was tough to beat. My one son did get a full tuition award at a local private that made it the least expensive option, even less that community college if he commuted to that school. </p>
<p>As of a week ago, one of my SIL’s nieces was looking at instate flag which is PSU vs OOS non flagship with a small merit award and private that gave hefty financial aid. The family is right at the point where the EFC is very close to the state school cost, so all three options were within a few thousand dollars of each other. The dad was shaking his head, saying one can’t win for losing, that the system has you every which way, and so it does seem in this case. The only way to beat the EFC cost by anything significantly would have been to commute to a public college, one of the directional state schools or community college, or have gotten significantly more merit than the financial aid award she got at the private. Since merit and aid are integrated, it’s pretty dang hard to beat the EFC if the kid is to go away to school. I think a smaller state school, like WestChester or Clarion would have been the least expensive for a sleep away college, or possible a non main Penn State campus, though I don’t know the pricing structures for sure. But the three top choices are close in price.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the student’s stats, the family EFC, and the colleges. My son was accepted to a couple of SUNYs NOT in commuting distance. Our EFC is just under $5k. We got no merit aid from the SUNYs, just a few hundred for TAP and maybe $1200 for Pell. It would cost us about $20k for him to attend. A NYS private college, also not within commuting distance, gave him a renewable merit award that brought the yearly cost down to what the SUNYs would’ve cost us. Check for automatic scholarships at the schools your child is interested in, because they do help. I don’t think many schools meet full need, though, so you’ll have to figure out how to cover the gap. You can also save money on the undergrad degree if your child gets accepted into one of the 3+2 programs. The private school my son was accepted to has guaranteed admission to Columbia for his major. Assuming he was certain about his choice of major (he’s not), and was able to finish it in 3 years, the total cost for the private would be $20k less than the SUNY. You really have to examine all the pieces and know what your options are. And run those net price calculators.</p>
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<p>Do not assume anything.</p>
<p>Go to each college’s web site and search for the Net Price Calculator. Put your family financial information in each one to get an estimated Net Price after financial aid for each college.</p>
<p>You really cannot assume anything. It will depend on the financial situation of the family. Particularly, most private schools use CSS Profile while most public rely on FAFSA to determine your EFC and your need. Often time, these two calculation do not agree with each other depending on your family asset allocation. In addition, most top privates do not offer merit aid while public do. The scholarship amount will largely affect your final cost. In my D’s case, the private school has the highest CoA and offered a lot of aid, but at the end, it is more expensive than 2 public (1 in state 1 oos), cheaper than 2 other oos public, and about the same cost as another oos public. So the figure can go anywhere even for the same student.</p>
<p>The bottom line for YOU is all that counts in the end. I’ve seen kids get their best packages from schools like BU NYU that do NOT guarantee to meet full need, and don’t most of the time. They are known to gap big time, but hey, if you are one of the lucky ones to get full need met and by a definition more generous than other schools, good for you. So you do try to cast a wide and varied net when applying for fin aid. The only caveat I make is not to bother at schools where by definitions you have NO chance of getting money and you absolutely have to get it. An international student is wasting time and an app to apply to schools that out and out say there are no awards for non US students. If you have a very high EFC, you are not going to get anything from those schools that have zero merit money and you can clearly see you don’t qualify for need there. </p>
<p>It depends. Our EFC is 40K and with two kids in college FAFSA became 20K for each. Every private college my son applied to gave a financial aid package that reduced the cost down to basically equal to our public in state colleges. For the 60K colleges, the financial aid package was about 30K in scholarships/grants and 10K in loans & workstudy. So for us, each kids FAFSA efc was 20K, the privates reduced down to 20K and the publics are a llttle over 20K. </p>
<p>When I compare financial aid packages, I still consider work study and loans our out of pocket expenses.</p>
<p>^ So do I.</p>
<p>And so you should. When you get the packages, you then figure out as close as you can , how much each school will cost you. Strip out the loans and workstudy from the the packages so that you can compare those numbers. All things equal–two schools, identical cost, if the loans and work study lowers the costs of one over the other, that give that school an edge, but not until you’ve gotten down to that point. Kid can find job at school WS or not, most likely, and the Direct Loans on an unsub basis, just about any one can take out.</p>
<p>MLM, it sounds like your son applied to colleges that meet full need for all. Did those colleges also require the Profile?</p>