Some students are going to choose the cheaper option when it comes to college

Parents Forum
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<p>Last year my son and I did a spreadsheet comparison of what we called the net cost - basically the same data that bclintonk is describing above. </p>

<p>Building a spreadsheet with the best estimates of the costs - each school on a single line - and of the impact of financial, merit and athletic aid was eye opening to say the least. The public schools (UCs in our case) were not the least cost option - and the private schools varied all over the map. It was really amazing how very similar schools could come to such different numbers when it came to assessing DS for merit money.</p>

<p>I do think that each student needs to do this for themselves as the acceptances come in as it is very individual.</p>

22

<p>
[quote]
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)

[/quote]

Uh huh...and what offers a better value?</p>

<p>COL in California is high compared to Georgia. If you send your kid to school in Georgia (assuming CA resident), include higher travel costs.</p>

23

<p>The room and Board at any of the UCs is 50% higher than tuition. People living in CA seem to forget that.</p>

<p>We are fortunate to live within 15 minute drive of UCLA (20 minutes at rush hour). If our DD can get accepted, which is a 50/50 even for straight A students, our choices will be:</p>

<p>1) UCLA: $10,000 per year, live at home.
2) UCB, UCSB, UCSD, UCI, UCD, UCSC, UCR: $24,000 live in dorms
3) any UC, live in off-campus apartment, 4 people sharing 2 bedroom apt: $20,000
4) Cal State LB, Northridge, commuting: $6,000
5) Private, live in dorms: $50,000 - merit scholarship.
6) Santa Monica College. living at home, for about a year (she will have about 1 year of AP credit also), then transfer to UCLA or UCSB or wherever she is accepted for the last two years.</p>

<p>so the choices are all over the map. Save by not living in dorms. Save by commuting. It's not just public/private.</p>

24

<p>
[quote]
Santa Monica College. living at home, for about a year (she will have about 1 year of AP credit also), then transfer to UCLA or UCSB or wherever she is accepted for the last two years.

[/quote]

This would be my vote...but transfer to Berkeley instead. ;) Best of both worlds...figure out what you're gonna do, then move away from home after you're more mature and get out of the Socal bubble. In the end is a Berkeley degree + money saved. :D</p>

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<p>cptofthehouse, New Jersey's in-state tuition is the same as West Virigina's OOS tuition. NJ is only about $5k cheaper than Alabama, Florida, and North Carolina OOS tuition (schools D is looking into).</p>

26

<p>I hope parents of this year's HS seniors all get an estimate of their Expected Family Contribution early. This is so useful for kids applying to the schools that offer no merit aid: to know that each year you will be paying your EFC</p>

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<p>Jerseyshoremom, that is terrible. Are you looking at Delaware? I understand that their OOS is not that high. NY's OOS is still reasonable.</p>

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<p>Our society is being "restructured before our very eyes." The culprits are clear: mostly wallstreet greed and hubris (and all those elite Ivy League students who work in law firms and Investment banks sold us OUT! They made their coin....MILLIONS, while Rome burned.)</p>

<p>The final outcome is unknown. But creeping socialism is a grave concern. Manufacturing jobs are gone overseas and WONT come back. Now high tech jobs are leaving as well. The financial industry is KAPUT! </p>

<p>I am afraid the news is very dire. They predict 165,000 jobs will be lost in New York alone because of this crisis. That is a HUGE number. (Source: Bloomberg News). New York will cease to be the vibrant place it is today.</p>

<p>Some states may file bankruptcy or seek federal aid in the hundreds of billions.</p>

<p>Our government, behind the scenes, is in full panic mode. Publicly they are trying to appear in control and doing all the right things and calming people. I am not optimistic, frankly.</p>

<p>700 TRILLION in derivatives by these jackals of wallstreet did us in. They are all worthless.</p>

<p>Strap in, its going to get ugly on many levels. Socio-Economic Change is coming whether Obama is elected or not. And frankly, he scares me too.</p>

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<p>But you have to go to WVU. Yuk. NC or Fla might be attractive but the flagships are very hard to get into.</p>

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<p>Parents, Just a reminder:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>You can't count on merit aid, except at schools your kid very well might not want to attend</p></li>
<li><p>Most schools do not meet all financial need, so a financial aid calculator may not tell you what will be offered come spring. </p></li>
<li><p>Those schools that have generous need based aid (Harvard, Yale, Pton et al) will be absolutely inundated with apps from parents that fit the demographic. Do your own math regarding the odds that Johnny or Jane will get in, even with stellar stats. </p></li>
<li><p>Few state universities give more than Pell grants. They will of course help with Stafford loans. </p></li>
</ul>

<p>So lets be honest. Almost all of you reading here have kids that will not get a good deal at a private college. If you do, celebrate. But don't plan on it. Plan on even a state university education being a financially difficult adventure.</p>

31

<p>
[quote]
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.

[/quote]
What is that - like 1-3% of all college applicants?</p>

<p>In most cases, publics are by far the better option financially.</p>

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<p>SCUA- we did the same thing, when DD got her offers, we listed the above the line costs & incentives- tuition, dorm R&B, grants/merit (non repayable aid) and did a sub-total; then we figured out how many round trips per school year and how many visits, so more family visits at the closer campus, at Southwest prices to get a reality version.</p>

<p>We did not include work study $ or loans, nor books or personal expenses which while real should be somewhat consistent- I guess for NYC vs small town country school you could include a differential.</p>

<p>For us, 4 FAFSA schools in 3 states were all in the same ballpark, private & public, there was some difference, but not enough to base a decision on, as the travel was an estimate anyway.</p>

<p>Profile was waay more due to home equity (this was before all the newer rules for medium income & limiting equity etc) I found it very informative to make the chart, I did not expect them to be so very close in the totals, so running the exact numbers was helpful</p>

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<p>@ newsmassdad</p>

<p>That is why I suggested in my earlier post for parents to don't count out private schools as options. Public schools are not going to offer you generous financial aid if the total household income is above $50-60,000. It's sad but reality. I got more financial aid from my alma mater (a private school) than the flagship state school in my area (which gave me NONE).</p>

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<p>It is such a personal situation depending on so many factors- FAFSA, Profile, income, assets, equity, etc. People should apply to a variety of schools and see what the offers are, especially with the first student to apply</p>

35

<p>For my S it was cheaper to attend the private LAC that he preferred(Kalamazoo College) than it would have been to attend U of Michigan (flagship state school). </p>

<p>K College gave him four year scholarships, merit aid and grant money. Michigan offered nothing. Publics within MI aren't that inexpensive.</p>

36

<p>bbkitty is right. Public schools in Michigan are moderate to expensive in costs (tuition, room & board).</p>

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<p>I was taken by DunningLA's post as I think that college list reflects a reality for many they thought would never be. The kid who would have surely taken the more expensive options last year may well be attending a cc next Fall. If anything will make rankings less important to many organizations it will be the fact that this bust forced many top students to go with the cheapest decent option.</p>

38

<p>I agree with Jerseyshoremom about the instate tuition in NJ schools. This is why I am allowing my son to also look at 2 SUNY schools.</p>

<p>I have been on these boards a long time. I have seen that private schools for parents of all income levels above the $60k mark can cost less. One way it can cost less than a public U. is if a parent has a student with fairly good stats (exceptionally excellent are not necessary) and applied to 4th tier colleges. Here is an example of post that I saved. Unfortunately, I did not save the screen name of the original poster. I am sure someone else has that information, bc this post has been reposted at least once:</p>

<p>
[quote]
Update on What I learned about free ride scholarships </p>

<hr>

<p>About a year ago I posted the details about doing a college search with the goal of obtaining a free ride (tuition, fees, room and board). The thread went way off topic with many comments about the reason why a parent would consider this approach. (I never answered those questions about my family.) I think the thread can still be searched by using my poster name.</p>

<p>I still see posts occasionally from parents and especially students who have few options for funding their higher education. Here is the update including names of universities that offer the possibility of a full ride. None of the universites on the list require the student to be in-state. A student can be competitive with an SAT score of 1410 and weighted GPA of 3.8. Some on the list are possible for students with SATs as low as 1250.</p>

<p>I have 2 sons who are currently on full ride scholarships. Son #1 had a 1250 SAT and 3.6 GPA. He is in his second year at a 4th tier public and has a 3.5 GPA. He has been enjoying exploring classes in fields that are not part of his major. Son #2 had a 1410 SAT and 3.8 GPA. He is in his second semester at a 3rd tier public. He had 5 free ride scholarships to choose from. He is enjoying learning how to study and to socialize at the same time. He currently has a 3.3 GPA. Both sons need to keep a 3.0 GPA to keep their scholarships.</p>

<p>Again I recommend the book Honors Programs and Colleges by Dr. Joan Digby. Both of my sons are in honors programs, one has a scholarship that requires it and the other son does not have to be in it. I am happy to provide information on the search and the scholarships but again I do not want to discuss the personal reasons for this type of search.</p>

<p>Note: It is probably past the deadline for the 2007 search season for most full ride type scholarships that are institution based. the list that follows is not exhaustive.</p>

<p>Arkansas Tech
Henderson State
Louisiana Tech
Stephen F Austin State
University of Missouri at Kansas City
University of Arkansas
University of Southern Mississippi
Millsaps
Drury
Drake
Southern Arkansas
Pittsburg State (Kansas)
McNeese State
Southeastern (Louisiana)
Northwestern (Louisiana) </p>

<p>With above 1410 SAT, students may be competitive for
UT Dallas
Univ. of Kentucky
Univ. of Alabama
Univ. of Pittsburg
Univ of New Mexico
Oklahoma State

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I agree with cptofthehouse, regarding rethinking OOS public Us. I found that overall they have just outpriced themselves. I felt this way 3-4 years ago about states like VT. I feel this way nearly across most states with some exceptions, as Jerseyshoremom has pointed out. There are some OOS public buys out there in addition to the ones mentioned by JSM, like MN-twin cities, perhaps a SUNY with an OOS merit scholarship, USC has offered instate tuition along with some merit scholarships. I am not addressing OOS public COA for the higher stat student, that might be a different story.</p>

39

<p>Another option for compromise but still choosing the private school experience is to attend a local CC the first two years, then move to the small private to finish up. My DD chose this and it will work out to about the same cost as 4 years at the large state U</p>

40

<p>You can't count on merit aid, except at schools your kid very well might not want to attend</p>

<p>@newmassdad: The key is to find lower-tier schools that your kid DOES want to attend, that may be ranked lower than your state flagship but is a better fit.</p>

<p>And the post northeastmom quoted is by momfromtexas.</p>