Purdue was our son’s second choice also. His first choice was UAH. Grandparents wanted him to go to purdue. Even offered to pay, but no way he will go there, with them offering nothing. RPI, RTI and a dozen other schools wanted him for soccer and academics, but he did not want to go that far from home and not sure he wanted to play soccer and do honors college. Sent NMF paperwork to UAH today.
Purdue was our son’s second choice also. His first choice was UAH. Grandparents wanted him to go to purdue. Even offered to pay, but no way he will go there, with them offering nothing. RPI, RTI and a dozen other schools wanted him for soccer and academics, but he did not want to go that far from home and not sure he wanted to play soccer and do honors college. Sent NMF paperwork to UAH today.
@MG100 UAH has a great engineering department. My husband got his masters from there, paid for by his job here in Huntsville. Lots of defense contractors here for internships and job prospects!
We have visited the campus several times. We also visited GT, Case Western and Washington University. My son did not like any of those schools. Does not want to go to an urban school. I think UAH will be the best fit for him.
anyone know if a purdue presidential scholarship can be applied to room and board instead of tuition?
I know it can if they are living on campus, I believe otherwise, the overage will be refunded to you and you can use it for an apartment.
In my son’s case, OOS & not getting any aid from Purdue makes it, over 4 years, $40-60k more expensive than 3 of his other top 4 choices (all OOS publics). Purdue is $35k less expensive than the 4th.
@bellevuedad I recall you from the ISU board. We visited ISU for the first time and Purdue for a second time over President’s weekend. ISU was certainly impressive especially considering the price and the honors program structure. But Purdue still brings the reputation and appears to be a notch ahead in terms of facilities and opportunities. We are still debating whether it is worth the cost differential. What are your thoughts at this time?
We are also OOS and looking at a $40K per year difference over the more frugal alternative… Here’s how I justify the added cost: I assume that a Purdue education will result in a better set of opportunities for employment, friends and spouse; plowing past the speculative and intangible nature of those benefits, I’m going to peg the value at between $5,000 to $10,000 per year for a 45 year working life (remember spouse likely earns more, too). Assuming a 3% annual real rate of return, the present value at graduation is between $120K - $250K. So my choice is to pay for Purdue, or when D graduates plunk $200K into a well-diversified investment fund for her to make up the difference.
We won’t be taking out loans, so that makes choosing Purdue easier… your assumptions and circumstances will vary, so best of luck to all the worried parents, but I sleep better now.
I completely agree with your justifications @frugaldad! Fortunately, we won’t need to take out loans either. I appreciate that for those who need to, it is a much different decision process. If my OOS chooses Purdue because of “fit,” to me it will be worth the price differential. The difficulty is measuring the intangibles. The key as you suggest is give up the worrying and let your kid decide. If only it was that easy. Given that @bellevuedad is comparing two of the same schools, I was hoping to commiserate.
@frugaldad Without knowing what “the more frugal alternative” (MFA) is and the quality of education there, it’s hard to know whether that’s a reasonable analysis since we have nothing to compare Purdue to. If the MFA is “Bad Quality University” then the extra $160K for Purdue is almost surely justified, but if the MFA is “Nearly-As-Good-As-Quality-As-Purdue University” then it’s harder to see spending that much more for almost the same return on investment. The only thing we have to go on from your analysis is that --perhaps-- you’re assuming that the MFA won’t result in better benefits just because it’s cheaper. In other words, you’re assuming Purdue is better than MFA just because it’s more expensive. But I might be making assumptions about your assumptions. 
So --inquiring minds want to know-- what university is the MFA?
I like your justification @frugaldad . We too are OOS and Purdue is my daughter’s top choice. It would definitely be the best fit for her I think, and the best school she is looking at for what she wants to do (double major in stats and actuarial science). It is also the most expensive, by far. I can’t believe we are even considering it to be honest, but the opportunities it would give her, along with our desire for her to feel happy and like she fits in wherever she goes, is making us seriously consider paying the huge difference in tuition.
Trying to leave a reply to @frugaldad but it’s not showing up – trying again: @frugaldad Without knowing what “the more frugal alternative” (MFA) is and the quality of education there, it’s hard to know whether that’s a reasonable analysis since we have nothing to compare Purdue to. If the MFA is “Bad Quality University” then the extra $160K for Purdue is almost surely justified, but if the MFA is “Nearly-As-Good-As-Quality-As-Purdue University” then it’s harder to see spending that much more for almost the same return on investment. The only thing we have to go on from your analysis is that --perhaps-- you’re assuming that the MFA won’t result in better benefits just because it’s cheaper. In other words, you’re assuming Purdue is better than MFA just because it’s more expensive. But I might be making assumptions about your assumptions. So --inquiring minds want to know-- what’s the MFA?
To CornyDad: I know our situation sounds extreme, but it is… I’m a prof at a state flagship, so my D can go here basically for free; however, our engineering school is ranked about 100… I’m not going to out myself more than that, since it would be bad marketing for my employer! We have other options, but I just wanted to get across that even $1K more in annual lifetime earnings/benefits is worth about $5K in annual college cost, as a very rough approximation…