<p>"The $90,000 in stock Buffett inherited at 19 actually started out in the form of a farm left by his grandfather, but as Peter explains, “my dad can’t stand the misallocation of capital, so he sold the farm and put it into Berkshire Hathaway stock.”</p>
<p>Peter Buffett says the money was “a head start.” He was in college at the time, and he used the funds to buy some recording equipment. Had Buffett left the $90,000 in stock alone, it would be worth more than $70 million today — but he insists he has no regrets.</p>
<p>“I’m much happier having a life,” he says."</p>
<p>You can easily get a liberal arts education at a big state university, at least the flagship ones where there is considerable student interest in liberal arts that means that there are plenty of course offerings in such subjects (the less selective state and private schools tend to have mainly pre-professional students).</p>
<p>Or do you really mean the educational environment of a small “liberal arts college”? Whether it is better or worse than that of a big state university depends on the student.</p>
<p>I’m not anti-state schools. I didn’t think they were the best choice for my kids. </p>
<p>I don’t really like the segregation of honors colleges within a larger university. It feels icky to me, though I realize that’s probably pretty silly given that getting into an elite college is already a sort of segregation. </p>
<p>The few honors colleges I checked out (such as what was offered for a budding computer scientist at Stony Brook) were not impressive. And Stony Brook has a reputation for clearing out on the weekend as well.</p>
<p>I’m originally from the east but came to the midwest for college and have stayed ever since. I think my kids’ choices were shaped to some extent by the fact that I had heard of many east coast LAC’s that aren’t well known elsewhere; my D is at a top 10 LAC and my niece was at another top 10 LAC, both are relatively little known out here. But I don’t much care - it’s not important to me at all whether Joe Average has heard of them. I’m not “anti” state school at all; we have an excellent flagship. I’m just not interested, that’s all.</p>
<p>I have been reading all the responses and absorbing them along the way. I notice that most of the responses that feel that it is better to pay for a private school and are happy to pay it as they have the money, seem to be paying and not taking out loans. I say, good for them. If they want to spend their money on that and have it, they should.</p>
<p>I do not see responses from parents who cannot really afford to fund a private college for four years to a private school that their child is attending and their child is taking out loans. When I speak to a lot of neighbors, my daughter’s classmates, etc, many of their kids are going to private schools and although they are paying for some of the tuition ($25K for a $55K per year school as an example) the kids are funding the rest through loans that they will eventually have to pay for. </p>
<p>My story is: My daughter graduated in the top 5% of the class, took all AP classes and worked her ass off in high school. But she only scored “high average” on the SAT and ACT, which made her acceptance into her top private LAC an impossiblity. If she had gotten in, I would have paid the tuition (no aid) and would not have allowed her to take out loans, although I would have had to make sacrifices, which was fine. When she did not get into that school, she got into many other private colleges, some with a lot of academic money, some with no offers because they were very hard for her to get into with her standardized tests scores (Her high GPA and extra curricular activities must have swayed the admissions committee). However, she has no idea what she wants to do and whether her eventual career choice will require grad school, med school, etc. Therefore, she decided to attend a very competitive State University. Her choice, not mine. I was initially surprised by her decision but wanted her to decide. She felt that if she did go on for a least a graduate degree after four years of college, she would rather attend a public college undergrad so we could also pay for her graduate degree. I have four kids and paying for four years of private and then grad school is an impossibility. She is very happy with her decision, but does realize there are drawbacks to a big stage university compared to the small liberal arts college that she originally wanted. If she said she was not happy right now, I would gladly let her transfer to a private college, if that is what she wanted. It’s her choice.
I think that each family needs to make their own decision and do what works best for them. I think paying for a great education is definitely worth it. But I think that paying for a private college that does not have a great reputation is not worth it and I do not think that if a student has to fund a majority of the debt themselves (their parents cannot afford to pay) then they should consider a great State College/University as a possible option.
As a final note, I remember working as a Special Education Teacher in a Private School when I first started working (20+ years ago). I had paid for my college education myself, both undergrad and grad, paying as I went with different jobs (Public college). When I started working, I was able to save money and was able to buy a house, car etc (Nothing fancy, but mine). My co workers worked in the same school as me, earning the same salaries. They lived at home with their parents, making big monthly payments towards student loans as they made the choice to go to private schools (which did not have as good a reputation as the State University that I attended). They were struggling to make ends meet and get ahead. A lot of them said that they wished they had made different decisions regarding college choice and having to take out loans to attend.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head - excellent education with bright, engaged students at their level; a traditional “collegiate” type of experience; most students living on or very close to campus; a student body that draws nationally as opposed to regionally; not too large of a school (by which I’d define large as maybe 10,000+ undergrads). </p>
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<p>For the same reason I want them to order what they want to eat, and not worry that the steak is $15 and the shrimp is $17, to steal Bay’s example.</p>
<p>This is simply why my husband and I worked as hard as we did and were frugal on so many counts – so we didn’t / don’t need to be frugal on this one. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>How ridiculous! In the end, a degree and a good education is what counts. State schools may have a weaker educational program, but work experience will definitely balance it out. I would rather my child go in for a full ride and enjoy not having loans to pay off forever. Sure, connections are invaluable. But so is the luxury of a safety net after completing college.</p>
<p>Employers know which state schools have great departments and recruit many students from there. </p>
<p>Son2 is at SUNY Buffalo (his choice after applying to and being accepted at 15 of 15 schools)and will graduate with a BS in Aerospace and BS in Mechanical Engineering in May. Had great experiences on campus and great internships (through college job fairs). Already offered 3 jobs upon graduation. Debt free and no regrets.</p>
<p>Son1 (valedictorian, etc) turned down great OOS schools (ie UVa) and top pick Berkeley for a full tuition and perks at a private U. (He made this decision well informed that we’d pay all college expenses.) He is now in law school (Got 25K of 45K tuition as merit award) and we are able to pay that and expenses. Very well regarded private vs some other great undergrad schools… no real difference in the end. </p>
<p>Key is to make a well informed decision not based solely on rankings.</p>
Continuing with the restaurant metaphor…I guess I’m wondering why you would restrict their decision-making power to the choices on the menu. What if they were to prefer the steak + a $2 candy bar to the shrimp, even if the shrimp were preferable to the steak alone?</p>
<p>Sevmom@ post 74. I think you made the right choice given the schools your son was considering. But I don’t really consider a UVA, or even a William and Mary, in the same category as many other state schools. Clearly the Virginia state schools, for whatever reason, offer an outstanding education for a reasonable price to in-state residents. The quality of these institutions is evident by the number of out-of-state applicants wishing to attend at a much higher tuition rate. I put them in the same category as a few in the California system. Would you have made the same decision if you lived in say Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware?</p>
<p>Bisouss, For wealthy kids or kids who know their parents are willing to pay anything for college, the kids can look anywhere(because they know their parents will pay -whether an Ivy or expensive private or LAC) That is not new. It is what it is. URM’s, first generation , legacies,athletes,etc.-I’m not losing sleep over it.</p>
<p>I was not saying this, and I don’t think college prices today reflect their appraised tangible worth, rather prices are based upon open-market competition, so I don’t think there is any value in that question. I was saying that I don’t want to entice them to make a college selection based upon how much cash will end up in their pockets. College is a life-changing experience that becomes a part of who you are, it is not a financial decision when you can afford to pay any tuition. Would you choose a spouse based upon how much your parents were willing to pay you for a particular choice? Or make your decision whether to have children based upon an offer of money if you choose one way or the other?</p>
Fair enough. I don’t view opportunity cost calculations involving institutions in the same sense I might with individuals, but that’s simply a matter of personal values.</p>
<p>To answer your question, yes, I think my kids should attend a, “well known, expensive private school at full tuition”.</p>
<p>And they do. But I don’t know if that’s the right choice for you or anybody else. That is your own decision.</p>
<p>In our case, it is definitely the right choice. Son #1 is a senior at Carnegie Mellon, and has a high paying job lined up in exactly what he wants to do…seven months before he graduates. He fit in perfectly in the geeky tech, brainiac environment that is CMU, and is extremely happy.</p>
<p>Should he have gone to our local public school, he would have been swallowed up in the large classes, and never would have been able to major in his field of choice (way too competitive). Don’t know if he could have even minored. He would have spent most of his time at home, and no way would he have gotten the job opportunities and offers he did. It would have been an entirely different world for him. I can only speak for my own children, and that’s it. The jury is still out on the youngest because he just started, but he is on top of the world, so how can I regret anything?</p>
<p>It would be a different choice if any of us had to take loans, but we are able to pay for this from current income. Who cares if our cars are dented and we can’t take that many vacations? This lasts forever. Many kids are doing great at their public universities, but in our case, I know this was the right choice for them. You can’t speak for anyone else’s choice.</p>
<p>Yes, HarvestMoon, Probably. But I am a contrarian with elitism. Have elite school graduates in the family ( the in laws) - Yale , Columbia, CMU,etc.-great .Pitt and Penn State- state schools were never considered by them- their position was that you would be better off to go to Lehigh , Bucknell or Allegheny than to end up at Pitt or Penn State. Great schools but to write off state schools like Pitt simply because they were public always seemed strange to me. I was a state school grad and my future SIL dissed state schools to my face so I admit to a bias! The in laws just didn’t want to tell their country club pals their kid was at Pitt-too pedestrian.</p>
<p>“The few honors colleges I checked out (such as what was offered for a budding computer scientist at Stony Brook) were not impressive. And Stony Brook has a reputation for clearing out on the weekend as well.”</p>
<p>Out of all of the colleges we visited (and some were quite impressive…Princeton, Cornell, Harvard), my son could have cared less, he had no compliments but said he couldn’t find anything wrong with them. Carnegie Mellon was the one that he liked.</p>
<p>We visited Stony Brook, because a close relative lived nearby and she insisted. When we got onto the campus, it was the most depressing place ever. My son’s comment? “Why are we here?” We left quickly. It may have a great CS program, but what an unappealing and depressing place. A tuition difference for out of staters between Stony Brook and CMU of 28K. For us, with one school that our kid really liked and another that was completely unattractive to him…well worth the difference. Should we have lived nearby and he could be a commuter, plus if we’d had to take out loans, it would have been a different thought process.</p>
<p>One also needs to consider where one intends to spend one;s career (location). If you live in Georgia, for example, and intend to stay in Georgia, the depth of UGA alumni base is probably unparalleled and the few who live there who went to Ivies are not regarded necessarily as part of the tribe. Respected, surely, but no great shakes. If you live in Texas, a UT degree or A&M degree is really all that is necessary to put you in play. There really aren’t enough Harvard and Yale types running significant companies or industries (by comparison) to give any of these grads any advantage. Of course, if you want to live in the Northeast, the tables are turned and the Ivies matter. I’m just saying that the State schools matter for people who intend to live in-state. The Georgia or UT degree doesn’t travel north very far, but within those states they truly dominate the opportunities. Same for North Dakota, Oklahoma, etc. etc. A Harvard degree is an Northeast and International credential that can open doors, but for the balance of America is it a nice to have not a have to have.</p>
<p>busdriver, H and his dad were both CMU grads (Carnegie Tech). Cool. Not the right choice for either of my kids, but a great school. Donner Hall rocks!
S2 also has a great job lined up already when he graduates in May, due to an internship he had this summer. But he is only at Virginia Tech, interned with Yale ,Cornell, UVa ,etc. kids and he did fine. The cream rises to the top.</p>