<p>Money</a> crunch: college applicants opting for public over private schools</p>
<p>"An increasing number of college-bound students who had favored private colleges are now applying to public institutions in California and across the nation this fall as the faltering economy shrinks family savings and makes loans harder to find, experts say."</p>
<p>Interesting, but not surprising.</p>
<p>"Many parents and children who might not have considered state schools, where tuition is typically a fraction of private schools, are re-evaluating their college options, college counselors say.</p>
<p>And some prospective college students are finding they cannot afford a higher education and are putting plans on hold.</p>
<p>"Usually we have students apply to backup schools we know they can get into," said Bill McClintick, president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Va. "Now you are not just talking about academic backup schools, you are talking about financial backups."</p>
<p>The 23-campus California State University system, with annual tuition and fees of about $3,900 a year, might see a dramatic increase in the number of applications from first-year students and community college transfers, officials said....</p>
<p>Loredana Harrison, an independent college counselor in Andover, Mass., starts working with students about a year and a half before they begin applying for college so they can weigh their options carefully. But such planning has been thrown into chaos for many of her families as a result of the troubled economy, she said.</p>
<p>One family had said they wanted to cast a wide net because they had enough money for their daughter to consider any college that was a good fit.</p>
<p>"About a month ago, I got a call from one of the parents saying, 'We just need to let you know that we don't any longer have what we thought we had in the college fund,' " Harrison said. They will have to rethink their choices, she said."</p>
<p>This is a really good article - well worth clicking through...</p>
<p>This economy creates a special dilemma for parents who already have a child in college. How do you tell the younger sibling that you can't afford to send them to a selective private school when their older sibling is already attending one?</p>
<p>I like the annual tuitions quoted.
[quote]
$3,849 California State University
$8,100 University of California
$34,170 Mills College
$36,000 Stanford University
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Many people in my parent's generation have a hard time understanding why the people in my generation would think there are times when it is all right to pay Stanford-level tuitions and how the high school seniors in our kids' generation can ask their parents to pay these tuitions for four years. Private school tuition is so expensive (and was expensive before the stock market crash).</p>
<p>M'sMom, I agree. I think that most of us won't be telling our now-in-hs kids the same thing (about what we would be willing to cover) that we told our now-in-college older kids.</p>
<p>Note that these are all tuition numbers - add another 10-12K for living and other expenses. My mom still doesn't understand the "new math" - she remembers when I went to college and was just fine on 4,000 a year. When I tell her the size of the bills coming in the next few years it is just beyond her comprehension and it just doesn't register that college costs more than her house.</p>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>(10 char)</p>
<p>What about students who will receive need-based financial aid and are looking for a resource-rich environment (lots of research opportunities, well funded campus jobs, etc.)? I think those students still come out SUBSTANTIALLY ahead by applying to the most endowed (and thus most selective) private universities and colleges. </p>
<p>Just my opinion as a Big Ten university graduate,</p>
<p>tokenadult:</p>
<p>Do the math. What percent of college bound kids are going to receive such generous aid that an expensive private school will be less expensive than an inexpensive public school?</p>
<p>These "generous" financial aid plans have been given so much press, especially on these boards, that I think a lot of folks are being misled regarding the likelihood of any one student being able to take advantage of a generous offer. </p>
<p>Worse, you mention "need based" and "well funded campus jobs". Surely you remember that "need" is defined at most institutions by draconian federal formulas? Surely you are aware that many of these campus jobs are either work study or federal research funded jobs, and the latter is declining? </p>
<p>So please, don't give newcomers false hopes of affordability. This promises to be the worst year in a long time for admissions and aid. There is no way to put a good face on any of this, except that:</p>
<ul>
<li> a good deal of research shows that where one attends college does not matter. What matters is the student. Of course there are variations on this theme: An absolutely brilliant high performing student might be better off at a resource rich research university than a third tier poorly funded state college. How many of those exist, though?</li>
</ul>
<p>
[quote]
"An increasing number of college-bound students who had favored private colleges are now applying to public institutions in California...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's highly unlikely that there is any data to support the claim. The California publics just started accepting applications in the last ~10 days, so there is absolutely no way to know what seniors may do. Heck they might just head over to the local community college, but if so, they will not be "applying" until next summer.</p>
<p>btw: concur with tokenadult. Attending Harvard (and other great finaid colleges) can be a lot less expensive than attending a UC instate, which has a COA of $25k. Of course, the trick is getting accepted into those few highly-selective colleges with great need-based aid.</p>
<p>I still believe students should apply to the private schools. For example, my alma mater was cheaper to attend than the flagship state school (OK, Univ of Michigan is an expensive public school). The private schools with large endowments sometimes can be more generous with financial aid (I had grants, scholarships, federal stafford/perkins loans, federal work study and loans to cover me). </p>
<p>I didn't qualify for any of that when I was accepted to Univ of Michigan.</p>
<p>I found the article misleading when it compared UC tuition with the total cost of attendance at an expensive private college. Maybe she was implying that a student going to a UC could live at home and not have to deal with room and board, but UC applicants can't count on being able to live at home unless their families live near Merced.</p>
<p>The room and board costs in California are high enough to blur the difference between the total cost at a UC and one of the less expensive private colleges. For example, look at UC Berkeley vs. Berry College in Georgia:</p>
<p>UC Berkeley - total cost about $25,300 (includes $15k for room and board)
Berry College - total cost about $33,200 (includes $8k for room and board)</p>
<p>A lot of families I know are in the position of qualifying for little if any financial aid, but are not in the position to pay the $50k+ it now can cost per year for a private college. Borrowing opportunities are drying up and the any savings in the market is shrinking. Banks are no longer offering generous HELOCs. Jobs are in jeopardy for a lot of people, and moving and selling the family house is not as easy an option as it used to be. You bet it is affecting folks. I was thinking of maybe selling our big house now that I just have two kids at home, but Im told that so little is moving here at the present. Banks are not giving out mortgages, but reluctantly so many who want to buy can't. </p>
<p>Parents are insisting their kids include some low cost options that may not have made it on the lists last year. I know the SUNYs are looking awfully good right now. The price is right. Or commuting. Fordham's $6K commuter's discount of the tuition is very attractive. Now those who have the money will continue to pursue the more selective schools, and folks will try for merit money. But if it doesn't pan out, they want those low cost options. Also, I can tell you that I got rid of the Public OOS colleges on my kids' list other than Georgia Tech. Just not worth the $30K they would cost, and the chances of any substantial merit money was small. Only reason we stuck with GT is because he applied to that in September for a generous scholarship.</p>
<p>I don't doubt that there a lot of colleges where the reality is that most students are paying full list price from family resources (which may include family borrowing). That's one reason why high-income, low-ability students enter college and complete college at higher rates than low-income, high-ability students. But students at all income and ability levels still need to shop around, and figure out solely by comparing actual offers, not just by reading newspaper articles, which college offers the best value, considering all available financial aid and all opportunities to work during college study.</p>
<p>Enrollment</a> at state public universities, colleges rises 4% - The Boston Globe</p>
<p>Enrollment at state public universities, colleges rises 4%</p>
<p>Average yearly tuition and fees at community colleges are about $3,900, compared with $6,400 at state colleges and $9,585 in the University of Massachusetts system, state data said. Enrollment at state colleges and UMass rose 3 percent, with UMass-Lowell seeing a 7 percent increase. Many of the state colleges are at or near capacity, and some have capped enrollment.</p>
<p>Governor Patrick will announce state budget cuts. I think that the state university system is expecting cuts around 5.3% which might result in intrayear tuition hikes.</p>
<p>We'll see what those numbers are like this next year. Kids in college now applied last year this time before things were this bleak.</p>
<p>It will be interesting how this impacts OOS enrollments at state schools that count on that tuition income.</p>
<p>This is not a surprising things in these days because fees of private colleges are increasing gradually,that is why students are opting government schools because of less fees.</p>
<p>I think each student/family needs to take a hard look at the NET cost of attending (COA), that is, COA (tuition & fees, room & board, books, personal expenses, travel) LESS scholarships and grant aid. This will vary from institutions to institution and individual to individual, depending upon the financial aid formulas used by each school. (Note that I don't include student loans and work-study even though these are widely used in FA packages, because these are essentially forms of self-help: you're paying, the institution is just giving you a boost in finding ways to pay).</p>
<p>Blanket statements like "publics are cheaper" or "privates are cheaper once you factor in financial aid" are just wrong. The comparative figures I've seen on net COA at various institutions and various income levels shows that it is indeed often cheaper to attend a well-endowed private if your family income us under $60,000 or so, because of the superior financial aid. Above the $60K level it's usually cheaper to attend a public, and the higher up the income scale you go, the greater the disparity, until at a family income above $120K it typically costs almost twice as much to attend a private because at that level need-based FA is phased out. But again, this will vary a great deal from school to school. Some in-state publics are dirt cheap, others not; some private provide need-based aid higher up the income scale, and of course some of each kind of school provide merit-based aid which can completely throw these generalizations off.</p>
<p>Bear in mind that merit money can play a role in all of this too. My son received some nice awards that really put some of the costs right at out of state publics. He could not beat the state schools' prices however, even if we paid full freight at one of them. But some states have expensive public school. I am surprised at the costs in PA or MD for instance.</p>