So how much is your kid's college education?

Parents Forum
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<p>The yearly cost where my daughter is headed for college will cost us 53,900 dollars. Of course, that doesn’t include any tuition increases over the next four years. We are coming off of high school tuition at 37k yearly and happy to prioritize our daughter’s education over other potential expenses (even though she is a major prickly pain in the you-know-what).</p>

<p>Studies have shown that college costs are not commensurate with cost of living pay increases or even the rate at which other items (food, clothing, shelter) have gone up.</p>

<p>I came across an old tuition bill of my husband’s (from Stanford) and cringed when I saw that his tuition (not including room and board) was a mere 8,400 dollars, and this was the mid-80s. It seems like such a bargain, now.</p>

<p>N.B. I should add that the above expense does not include cross-country travel for either her or us (since we will likely visit her).</p>

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<p>MiamiDAP: That is why a college experience is not same as home schooling. Yes truly said you can get an online degree any time but that won’t replace the 4 year college experience.</p>

<p>It is not the degree certificate but the experience that is different at a state university and HMSPY. </p>

<p>You will get the same degree on a piece of paper in the major you chose but the experience is going to be totally different.</p>

<p>So you pay for the 4 years experience that will last with the child forever.</p>

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<p><<It is not the degree certificate but the experience that is different at a state university and HMSPY. </p>

<p>You will get the same degree on a piece of paper in the major you chose but the experience is going to be totally different.>>></p>

<p>I don’t quite agree with the argument because it’s private, it’s better, if that is what you are implying. I know plenty of students who have been deliriously happy and very successful from the likes of UVA, UC Berkeley, UNC at Chapel Hill, UCLA, Univ. of Mchigan, Univ. of Wisonsin at Madison, and the list goes on and on. I know students who have been happy and very unhappy at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Brown–I know students who have transferred from those schools, even. </p>

<p>Private, Ivy league, schools do not equate with some guarantee of a happy and meaningful college experience. It just doesn’t. And, frankly, both private and public universities have a certain emphasis on the graduate part of the institution which is felt by its undergraduates, and introductory classes in Physics, Chemistry, Shakespeare, etc., tend to be over-large at both the private and public university.</p>

<p>One other point–the small, elite, private colleges (not universities) are no place for the student who wants a world-class grounding in physics or math, for example. I had to transfer from a top-notch liberal arts college on the East Coast to a top-notch public university on the West coast because the physics major was that much better and vast in its offerings and its resources (linear accelerator, Cyclotron, etc. and 7 Nobel prize winners in the physics department, alone, 3 of whom I got to work with and do significant research). So, the idea that private is better is sheer poppycock. Depends on the school and the studet, not the tuition.</p>

<p>And, at the time, I would have given my eye-teeth to go to UCSF or UCLA medical school and didn’t get in–it was a particularly tough year for admission for white, California applicants. I had to settle for Harvard medical school, instead, which was no better than the UC medical schools, clinically, instructionally, and research-wise, and I couldn’t wear fashionable shoes because the weather was so bad.</p>

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<p>I agree that a student can find happiness and satisfaction at any type of university. In our D’s case, she visited and hated UC Berkeley (her top in-state option), but loved a couple of Ivies she visited. She is fortunate that we are able to send her to her top choice.</p>

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<p>"Private, Ivy league, schools do not equate with some guarantee of a happy and meaningful college experience. "</p>

<p>Thank you. </p>

<p>I graduated with an engineering degree from a state college. Today, I work as a fligh test engineer and that means that I fly aboard experimental airplanes to conduct various tests that are needed to prove out airplanes as being safe. We fly high speed, tight turns, rapid descents, all that good stuff. I honestly couldn’t think of a better job that I could be doing with my degree, and don’t see how a degree from a private school would have given me a better opportunity.</p>

<p>Nicer dorms? probably. Better food? Maybe. Nicer classrooms? Absolutely. But better education? No way. My education was what I made it out to be. And I made mine worthwhile.</p>

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<p>I should have added, Bigtrees, that private/Ivy doesn’t equate with material or professional success. A case in point: a friend’s husband is a failure analysis engineer-- product of public undergrad and grad schools–loves his work and takes home, post-taxes, overhead, etc., a half a million dollars, yearly. Don’t know that all the MITers and IVYers on the planet can boast of such a profile. And, again, he is happy doing his work, to which a lot of people cannot lay claim.</p>

<p>And I am not anti-private school–I am a product of both private and public, and my children are products of private secondary school educations and, now, my daughter will attend private college. I am just egalitarian in my approach.</p>

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<p>SWHarborfan:

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<p>I never said all private schools are better than public but only mentioned that the private schools DD have gone since pre-school have provided a much better experience than a public school would have provided.</p>

<p>We have visited all the colleges with DD before the application process so that she can make up her mind to which college she likes or be happy at. She really like some and she didn’t like some at all.</p>

<p>It was our feeling that the environment and experience at HMSPY was way better than any of UC campuses, the only state universities, we have visited. </p>

<p>Your experience might be different. The work one does in life or how successful is one going to be have nothing to do with the university they attend. A lot of university drop out have made it big.</p>

<p>The point was that the 4 year of college experience or 12 years of elementary, middle and high school experience. If you can afford then provide the best to your children. A good private school at any level will beat any public school at any level hands down in terms of overall experience.</p>

<p>If you sincerely feel that you have sent your child to state university even if the cost of attending HMSPY and state university be same then you are entitled to say there is no difference in college experience.</p>

<p>But if you talk about whether it is worth the money one has to pay to get that experience then it becomes relative. It may be for some and may not be for other.
But the truth will remain that experience at HMSPY is way better than state university.</p>

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<p><<<a good=“” private=“” school=“” at=“” any=“” level=“” will=“” beat=“” public=“” hands=“” down=“” in=“” terms=“” of=“” overall=“” experience.=“”>>></a></p><a good=“” private=“” school=“” at=“” any=“” level=“” will=“” beat=“” public=“” hands=“” down=“” in=“” terms=“” of=“” overall=“” experience.=“”>

<p>Tell that to the Nobel Laureates who got their start at P.S. whatever and graduated from Bronx Science or Stuyvesant or Hunter High, all of which are public testing schools with worse admission ratios than Dalton, Choate, Harvard-Westlake, etc.</p>

<p>Such provincialism, and I say this as someone who went to some of the top secondary private schools in the state and has children emerging from them as well and who went to both private and public colleges/universities/medical school. And my daughter heads off to private college but not because of some misguided and insecure notion that we have that paying more means that better is provided but because the school is an exquisite match for her.</p>
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<p>I don’t think anyone on this thread said that private schools are better because they cost more.</p>

<p>Having put my kids through 3 different private schools and 4 different public schools (we moved several times), and having myself attended a public and private university, I think private schools are better in general, because they take a more personalized, less institutionalized approach to education, not because they cost more, (although that is a reason why they cost more).</p>

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<p>SWHarborfan: I think you are mixing school experience with professional success even though I clearly stated otherwise.</p>

<p>One can have an excellent high school experience and won’t win a nobel prize while another person can have a terrible high school, college and real life experiences but win a noble prize.</p>

<p>I don’t think there is any co-relation to having a good high school experience with that to winning nobel prize.</p>

<p>While there is a co-relation between having a good high school, college experience and having a healthy memorable life.</p>

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<p>^^^ I’d agree that there may be some correlation between having a good high school / college experience and having a healthy memorable life, just as there is a corelation between having a healthy childhood, and leading a happy memorable life.</p>

<p>But if you believe that the only way to attain this good high school college experience is at an elite private school, that is just about the silliest thing I have ever read anywhere. Exactly what tier of the USNWR improves your chances at lifetime fulfillment?</p>

<p>You can’t swing a stick where I work without knocking over a few Ivy Leaguers, and I have certainly never noticed that they are necessarily more happy or fulfilled than anybody else. Better educated and more informed? Gnerally. But happier (or even wiser)? That’s certainly not my experience. They are people like everyone else.</p>

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<p>It would be nice to have a thread comparing what people pay without any arguments and value judgements over the choices that other people have made.</p>

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<p>MiamiDAP:</p>

<p>^"About the same as we would be paying at one of the state universities. "</p>

<p>Nope. Not at SUNY Geneseo or SUNY Binghamton. She would have been in line for $2,000 or so in merit money. And our EFC is in the mid-20s so we wouldn’t be eligible for anything else.</p>

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<p>So how much is your kid’s college education?</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.toyvault.com/montypython/Black%20Knight%20-%20Large.jpg[/url]”>http://www.toyvault.com/montypython/Black%20Knight%20-%20Large.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^^^lol…It’s only a flesh wound.</p>

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<p>So far $0, except for things like travel and miscellaneous expenses. Full rides for all. All fantastic schools offering uncompromisingly wonderful “experiences” in whatever way one wishes to define such things. However, our last one is not fully decided at the moment so I guess I shouldn’t count those chickens yet, so to speak. </p>

<p>Obviously, we feel extremely fortunate about all of this, but I don’t consider it an entirely random result. Such outcomes were not mandatory or essential, but were always set as an important objective. Why? Because we understood that such opportunities existed. I raised my kids in such a way that I doubt it ever occurred to them not to pursue scholarships very aggressively. It was the best hedge against rising tuition costs DW and I could come up with.</p>

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<p>I believe that there is a relation between $$ spent on UG education and the goal of UG education, which is different from case to case. If kid is planning to go to Med. School (just as an example) and deal with resources that are not unlimited, then it makes sense to spend the least in UG, get the best out of it (like GPA=4.0 and all other experiences that specific kid is looking for at college - minors, sorority, research, job, sport… and all EC’s that are recommended to have on Med. School application) and save $$ for Med. School, which is very expensive and have very few scholarships. This is our plan. Others’ plans are very different with many variables in consideration that are different in each case.</p>

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<p>We pay nothing for tuition, room/board, books. We pay for travel. She gets $2K from her savings a semester for whatever - hers to budget. We spring for the travel. We are grateful beyond words.</p>

<p>In retrospect, we did a 2-pronged attack. We invested in the pre k-12 education and did the college savings and investment for the kid since birth. The outcome is the a full merit scholarship for undergrad and funds (growing) for grad school.</p>

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<p>My parents spent over $200,000 on my undergraduate education and it was the worst 4 years of my life. I was completely miserable because it was the wrong place for me, full of people I couldn’t connect with and I spent most of my time in isolation. That being said, it was a great private school and I did get into a good graduate program so I guess I’ll have another chance, but I’m not expecting much in terms of experience. My parents will also be paying for my graduate education (where would I get the money?). I did have an awful time in college but I guess I did get something out of it and I’m hoping things will get better.
I realize it was a mistake for me to go to a LAC and I probably would have been happier at a public school. Cost was never a factor for me because my parents always told me they’d do anything to pay for wherever I wanted to go (I’m an only child). Maybe at a public I could have done better academically because it would have been easier than the strenuous level of work at the LAC and maybe have gotten into a better graduate school, but then maybe I would have been less prepared. Hindsight is 20/20.</p>

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…and one can have an excellent experience at literally any college in the country. If you want to argue academics, fine. MIT is indeed a far better school than Bemidji State. But the idea that there is a connection between prestige and experience is crazy. I don’t think even USNews claims to rank “experience”…</p>