I work at one of the higher-paying suburban Chicago K-8 school districts (not as a teacher), and the most common school I see here for teachers – by a good margin – is Illinois State. If it were my kid, I’d suggest that for the difference in cost between UIUC and Illinois State they can likely pay for a master’s degree, which is needed to get certain positions and pay bumps.
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Believe me, we’ve told her all this x1000. I have a B/(W) variance column on my college workbook and I regularly just stare at the cost savings IL St over UIUC. And the cost of IL State should be even lower than it currently is but she didn’t apply for the education specific scholarships, only the presidential, and only bc I made her (she was afraid if she got it I’d make her go - to her relief, she did not). She’s in the Honors College there, there’s a really nice LLC for teachers… but she just hates it there. She attended a theater fest her freshman year on the IL State campus and she thought the buildings weren’t in great repair and found the general vibe of campus depressing. There’s just no budging her off that POV, unfortunately.
Appreciate everyone’s comments, though, I will, in fact, read them to her.
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Here are the offers our S23 received (merit first, then net price):
U Alabama - full OOS tuition, 1st yr. room & $1k/yr. Net price about $4k first year, then $14k
U Pittsburgh - $5k (in-state)/ $28k
Allegheny - $41k/$28k
Ohio Wesleyan - $29k/$39k
Wooster - $41k/$33k
Kalamazoo - $42k/$29k
Rollins - $32k/$39k
Hobart & WS - $41k/$40k
CC prototype “average excellent” kid in rural public HS. Valedictorian, 1500 SAT, 4 APs (school only offers 6), ECs mostly sports and mentoring underclassmen at school. Intangibles will make him stand out at any college (emotional intelligence, sense of humor, empathy, natural leadership abilities) but did not apply to any super competitive schools because of cost and he knew he didn’t have any ECs that would jump off the page. He will take the Bama offer and he is very grateful for it.
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Great choices & congrats!
(Pitt, btw, just sent out its COA email and it’s now $35,700, in-state for direct costs only. Big jump from last year)
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Thanks. We hadn’t seen that yet. I was guessing on that one based on figures from last year.
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As I mentioned somewhere above, we were clueless going into this process, and we didn’t know about the Bama scholarships. I believe it’s too late at this point. 
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We are not done yet but here is what my DS has received so far, same format as other posters:
Alabama – Full tuition, 1st yr Room, $3500 addl, hons/ COA $1500 year 1; $10k after that depending on off-campus housing costs
Clarkson $45K/$30K
U South Florida $15K/$15K
UNC Charlotte $3k yr1/$21K
Rejected from UNC-CH, waiting on NCSU (expect $0/$21K), Lafayette and Lehigh (reaches, guessing $30-35K).
Stats are 3.7/4.3/SAT1420. Mid ECs and not a motivated writer. 6 APs, 2 DE.
We focused on auto-merit and schools known to offer good merit for engineering.
Unless NCSU happens, kid is headed to Alabama and like @CarPayDM , we are very thankful for the awards!! Roll Tide!
FWIW, @tsbna44 and I exchanged a lot of DMs and he convinced me (and me in turn my son and wife) to give Alabama a fair shot. We visited and son loved it!
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That’s awesome and you can’t beat that COA number!
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Roll TIde!
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If you don’t mind me asking, how did you get full tuition plus to Alabama? Their auto merit scholarships appear to cover most of tuition but not all and no allowance for R&B. Or am I overlooking something? My son applied later so maybe not qualified for all merit? I know he gets automatic 28k OOS.
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He is a College Board National Recognition Program awardee – top 10% of SAT takers nationally that are Rural, Small Town, Hispanic, Black or Indigenous. Also, auto qualified for the engineering honors program, which is another $2500 per year.
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My D’s results so far and only includes merit as we did not qualify for financial aid. (COA is off memory and includes tuition plus room and board per yr. Merit listed first then COA):
Seattle U: $25k, $40k applied to Honors college which could be another $1,800 per yr
Willamette: $25.5k, $36k
Western WA: $1,000 total, $26k per
Laverne: $25k, $38k per
Whittier: $33k, $28k
Gonzaga: $21.5k, $48k
Univ of Portland: $30k, $38k
Portland St: it is WUE and COA is roughly $30k
Oregon St: $10k, $38k
Pacific Univ (OR): $25k and $40k
Santa Clara: deferred, went in reg applicant pool. Likely going to be expensive if she happens to get in.
Univ of WA: Waiting on result
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I’ll give a shoutout to @tsbna44 as well - big help with getting some things figured out with my current Bama student and internships. smart kid, but needed a little guidance . . . and that turned out pretty great. 
D23 is down to two schools including Bama as well. waiting for one scholarship co-hort at our state school to get back to her. waiting waiting waiting like so many!
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What is the other school?
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UNL - in triple land-locked nebraska. We like UNL; good teachers and programs and state support, and affordable. Our older two kids have done great with undergrad degrees from the school - although they are now part of the brain-drain which is happening in real time.
** in fact, when my kiddo was interviewing for this co-hort, she met a kid from the east coast who was interviewing who’s brother also went to Bama, and that kid was looking there as well. there’s a charm there.
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I get that brain drain part. FWIW, I asked my son to look into UNL due to generous scholarship money. He was not interested. I know a few faculty members there and tried to persuade him. I think it had the opposite effect, he did not want to be taught by anyone that knows daddy. Lol.
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People in the Midwest always seem to be kind.
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Midwest nice is real, speaking as someone from the south who attended a Midwestern flagship.
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Listed on Bama’s page below the standard auto-merit is the Presidential Elite or something like that. My kiddo got it as well. Automatic based on 4.0 gpa and perfect SAT or ACT.
Full tuition 4 years
1st year housing
1k per year
$500 per year books
$2,000 for summer or research
And she doesn’t want to go there 
Mine also got-
Full tuition to Pitt (TE scholarship)
41k TE plus additional $9k to St. Lawrence (still leaves +30k)
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Does Oregon State have a good honors college?
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