<p>Sorry I’ve not read the whole thread yet, and I don’t want to derail the main point, but I want to know where I can get 8% over the next 15 years. Can I hire you taxguy?</p>
<p>On Phd programs…I know for a fact that for a PhD in a business-related discipline (where both the jobs and money are after graduation), it does not at all require a top undergrad school to get into a top PhD program. Huge mix in every class across the many schools I’m familiar with. The ‘top schools’ are not concentrated in some kind of USNWR ranking and if you can work with reknowned faculty in your respective field while an undergrad (and that could mean a wide range of different types of schools), you could be extremely successful in your grad app.</p>
<p>Starbright, actually the stock market has done BETTER than 8% long term. The key is keeping the money in a diversified fund long term. This also takes dividends into account.</p>
<p>You can get 6.75% at National Australia Bank right now for a 60 month term deposit. They were paying 8.3% for one-year term deposits a few years ago. 60 month term deposits were probably higher. Australia’s kicking up their interest rates because their economy is running hot.</p>
<p>Australia’s economy is doing quite well as are parts of Asia. Part of the US’ recovery is in selling stuff to Asia. Europe is pulling up the rear.</p>
<p>taxguy…again, for students incurring overwhelming debt, I concur on everything. For parents who will be unable to pay back parent loans, I also concur that a cheaper college would be the way to go. What I don’t agree with are the many posts that a cheaper college is the way to go and use the money you would have spent on a more expensive college on something else. We will find a way to pay the parent loans and all the rest of the money we are putting toward college. This is not money that I would have given to my kids instead, had they gone to cheaper colleges. </p>
<p>Also, my kids did not pick their colleges based on the hopes that attending elite colleges would help with grad school admissions. That topic never ever arose. Yes, my kid who attended an Ivy for UG, got into several of the top grad programs in her field. I can’t say that is because she went to the Ivy! I think it is cause of who she is and what she did. She got the top award in her UG dept. at graduation, and this was coming from an unknown rural public HS where she was the only student in her class to go to an Ivy. So, I think it is the student who makes it, not where they came from. </p>
<p>The reason my kids selected their colleges were based on fit in many areas. We didn’t choose by price. But I understand that price matters if you can’t come up with the funds to pay back loans, etc. But if you can, many of us do think it is worth it. Also, someone brought up the kind of jobs one can get when they graduate, such as in performing arts, and if paying a lot for college is worth it. Again, we did not consider the price for the college in terms of potential pay for our kid. We paid for the education in and of itself. I went to elite college and grad school and am in a low paying field myself (education). We are pleased with the experiences our kids had at their respective colleges and that as worth it for its own sake. </p>
<p>I don’t believe in spending money on what you can’t afford. But if you can find a way to pay for it, I see nothing wrong with going to a more expensive college if the fit is better for the student, even if one could save the money for some other purpose.</p>
<p>^ Here’s my take: any decision involving money inherently involves balancing opportunity cost. You could always do something else with the money. That something else could be: put it into savings for the kids as they grow up, use it for retirement, pay for medical school, go to Hawaii, or anything else. If you choose to spend more, you knowingly give up your opportunity to use that money for any of these other things. If your family examines the available options and decides that this trade-off is worthwhile, fine. But I do feel that families should examine the available options, because they may find that it is not a good deal even if they can make it happen.</p>
<p>The opportunity cost argument is why I decided to go to public school… would’ve been about $100,000 for me to go to what was originally my first choice college, an almost Ivy level private school. I decided that given the other things I could do with the money, the marginal benefit I would get from the private college wasn’t worth the opportunity cost. Wow, you can tell the econ AP test is coming up haha… opportunity cost, marginal benefit… vocab words. :)</p>
<p>Exactly. With my kids we had the kitchen table meeting. We told them we saved for their future and told them that it was their money, not our money. We had saved enough so they would have more than enough to be full pay students at any school. That said, we told them to think about their options because when their money is gone, there is no coming back to the well to drink. Thus, if they wanted cash for grad school expenses, or a down payment on their first home, a start-up business or even start retirement funding (including working through a quick example) that was up to them. </p>
<p>With my older son, his reach was also a economical choice so it really wasn’t a ‘college choice’ issue. However, as a sophomore, he moved out of the dorms and saved thousands in combination of food/lodging. Making that happen was completely his call and without our involvement (other than asking him if he had thought things through). </p>
<p>My younger son is tight with ‘his’ money. To say that he was interested in the financial aid being offered by the schools would be an understatement. He decided to not try to get in a ‘reach’ school as a full pay because he did not want to spend ‘his’ money that way. IF we simply had told him, ‘we saved money for your college’ VERSUS “we saved money for your future” he would have done things differently.</p>
<p>Great! Which gets back to the point it’s far more important what you do in college then WHERE you go to college. </p>
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<p>I view it as very important (with the caveat we are still only talking about the ‘paper chase’ and getting into the top grad school). Candidly put, the bottom half of the graduating class at a top LAC is undoubtedly stronger than the bottom half of the graduating class at a state’s flagship university. So what (in this context)? Neither segment at EITHER school is going to have great grad school options coming out of school. </p>
<p>This is what students and parents spending money chasing dreams need to know. It’s still gets down to what you achieve at a school and NOT where you went being the biggest factor.</p>