<p>This is a question for parents with students attending or about to attend what you consider to be prestigious institutions, and not receiving any grant aid.</p>
<p>How much more would you pay before you took Nancy Reagan's advice (Just Say No.)?</p>
<p>Now this is an unscientific survey of attitudes regarding luxury purchases, in this case, prestige colleges. (National surveys undertaken for various college consortia have shown that parents will actually pay more than they say theywill, which is why they don't fear raising tuition sticker prices.) And I expect that the highest income folks may not be on this list.</p>
<p>But, for sake of argument, it would be interesting to know at what point you "think" you would absolutely balk.</p>
<p>bump (no one want to share?) (We already know it is between 20 and 25% more than what you are currently paying - because over four years, that's what the increase in total costs will come to.)</p>
<p>I'd pay, and I have paid, the market rate for private schooling, never mind the prestige factor. I prefer private schools and I do not look at the price tag. If I work in the market, I assume I will be able to pay that price. So far, so good.</p>
<p>It's a free country, mini, and you don't know me or my other values but go ahead and give me the beat down.</p>
<p>No - I really wasn't looking for a fight. Seriously, and honestly. I really wasn't, and aren't. I actually think just about the very best thing ANYONE can spend their money on is a good college education. (and within the limits of my means, I am doing the same.) Folks have repeatedly asked how high could tuition go? And so to try to help answer that question, I asked folks the obvious question - "well, at what price point would supply outstrip demand?" I can answer for myself - it would have been at around $18k. There were schools that came in for my d. at around that point, and we would have been uneasy, especially given expected price inflation. But since we couldn't afford the sticker price, I can't help folks answer the question.</p>
<p>I'm sorry (really!) if you are offended - I think the question is a fair one, and it is one that many others seem to have asked in other ways (i.e. - how high can tuition go?)</p>
<p>yes mini, I also do not understand the purpose. Are you trying to determine that if schools raised tuition by X they would have so many $ that they can give it out to poor or are you trying to determine at what price point the upper middle class will be squeezed out. Then the private schools population will consist of 'haves' and 'have nots' with zero 'have something'.</p>
<p>I am simply trying to find out at what point full-sticker-price folks would determine that the purchase (relative to other purchases) is not worth the investment. (I don't think of it as being "squeezed out" at all - I assume rational actors making the best possible decisions for themselves. Pure Adam Smith at work.) I know what it is for me, and I assume that perhaps other folks know what it would be for them. (There was no agenda about "giving it out to the poor at all! The colleges can do what they want with it.)</p>
<p>The calculator tells me that at a total cost of $44k today, the answer today is $50.9k (this simply assumes a 5% increase each year, by senior year.) But I expect (given the number of applicants) the answer is much higher. But I honestly haven't a clue (which is why I asked.) I don't see what is offensive about the question, but I do apologize if others see it that way.</p>
<p>If what you're asking is whether people would pay large sums if they could get their kid into Harvard, the answer is that many would. I've lived among affluent people in LA, NY and London, and I know many who would have no issue paying $100,000 a year for a college education of their choosing.</p>
<p>There are many families paying $40,000/yr for each of 4 kids at top boarding schools in addition to their $10,000 summer programs. Add in tutors, "educational" travel and enrichment programs and you can see many families are spending huge dollars to educate their kids prior to college. What's a few thousand more to create their idea of the perfect educational resume?</p>
<p>These are the folks who congratulate on my daughter's recent acceptance to Colubbia and visably flinch when I mention her brother is at a UC.</p>
<p>Well colleges are currently not charging more than I'm willing to pay, so we are dealing with hypotheticals. I can't answer your hypothetical question without knowing the answers to other hypothetical variables: What is my income and what are my debts in this hypothetical situation? Are we talking about my first daughter or my second daughter? How old am I? How is the economy doing? Etc. Basically, there is no specific fixed ceiling. It depends on what I've got to work with.</p>
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<p>I don't see what is offensive about the question<<</p>
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<p>I don't think people are offended so much as suspicious. Suspicious that you are going to take their answers and run with them to "prove" some point - by battering them with a bunch of unvalidated statistical calculations you dreamed up and then triumphantly announcing that your point has been proved once again.</p>
<p>In addition to the points raised by coureur, I'd want to know whether all the schools under consideration by my child were charging roughly the same amounts.</p>
<p>Coureur, yeah. Our family grew up with the expectation that a "Harvard education" would eventually reach $100K, which is what all the financial planners kept telling folks like us that started saving for college from the moment of conception! I remember thinking how preposterous that sounded, but now, of course, we're well beyond that. I can't believe how much people are spending on houses, hotels, restaurants, vacations, or any numberr of other things. It's market driven.</p>
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<p>Are we talking about my first daughter or my second daughter?<<</p>
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<p>In rereading my own post, I seemed to imply that I might be willing to spend more for one daughter than another, which is not all the case. We are committed to both of them to provide the opportunites to attend the best schools. What I meant was that my finanicial situation will likely be different when D2 goes to college, and that might cause me to choose different strategies.</p>
<p>Well, let me see. The rock bottom price for a 4-year college education (public in WA state) is around $15K/year for tuition, room, board, books. I am paying about $35K/year for Reed and around $40K/year for MIT. Do I think a differential of $100K total is worth it as an investment in lifelong earnings? </p>
<p>For MIT, absolutely no question it's worth it. My son will earn at least $10K/year more than his friends graduating from UWash will, so figure at most a 10-15 year payback, with everything else over his working lifetime as a bonus.</p>
<p>For Reed, I'm less sure the problem is financially easy to solve. I do know that my theater/lit daughter has found a welcome niche in the small world of Reed theater, and I also know she wouldn't have been stage managing as a sophomore in a larger school. Will this experience pay off monetarily? Let's hope so. Has it paid off educationally? Absolutely.</p>
<p>Mini, I like your question:although, I don't think we are ever going to get an answer on these boards.</p>
<p>To me, it is the old cost-benefit analysis, plus peer pressure.
In my opinion, with more and more kids getting a college education, and wages growing very little, the degree just isn't going to mean as much as people think.</p>
<p>I will make this decision in two years. Don't know how I will choose, since I don't normally like to make poor financial decisions and I think the public is being railroaded into overpaying for college.</p>
<p>Who benefits if we overpay? Obviously, the schools. Maybe, less obviously, investment companies. The higher costs go up, the more we have to save. The more we have to save, the more brokerage houses, banks, and mutual fund companies make.</p>
<p>Kirmum, I don't know if you said that comment with some kind of pride (Because these people are your friends), about how people hold their noses when you mention your kid goes to a UC. I, personally would lose those people's phone numbers.</p>
<p>I'll chime in: about $48k/year (for law school, but that still counts, right?). I just can't bear the thought of more than $2,000 in monthly loan payments.</p>
<p>Pride Dstark? Not at all! Clearly all my real friends know I'm equally proud of my kids and I fully support where they chose to go to school. Unfortunately, you have to just grin when chatting in the school parking lot or grocery store when half strangers ask that all important question--So where is DD going next year? And BTW, the askers are the ones who have top schools to report for their little darlings.</p>
<p>Mini, I was just thinking of you. On another thread I mentioned Flagler College in Florida, a good quality private school that charges $8,000 a YEAR in tuition, plus another $5,000 or so for room/board (actually you can go even cheaper with a less expensive meal plan). That's $13,000 a year for a private school education. The catch is, their majors are very limited - they know what they're good at and stick with it: business administration, journalism, psychology, sports management, theater, graphic design, and a smattering of traditional liberal arts majors. They even offer decent financial aid.</p>
<p>My thought is: if one private school can offer decent education at a reasonable price, why can't (and don't) others? The answer, of course, is that many are charging what the market will bear. Of course, some will argue that colleges and universities NEED to charge nearly triple that amount because they have such hefty overhead costs --- but I wonder how much of those overhead costs actually translate into something tangible for undergraduate students? I mean, do colleges NEED to support esoteric departments in subjects that few students really major in? Or would students and parents be better off if schools specialized like Flagler and a few other schools (cooper union for example) and then charged significantly less for those programs than a "full service" school.</p>
<p>And, in answer to the original question: when I started researching colleges I was convinced that MY children would only get a good education at a "prestige" private college. Since then, I've spent many, many hours investigating the differences between colleges at all levels of selectivity and prestige, public and private, and I can honestly say that I think there are enough schools out there where you can get an excellent education without paying through the nose. So, no, I won't pay more just for prestige, and I won't pay more just because a school is harder to get into. I MIGHT, however, pay if I am absolutely convinced that a more expensive and prestigious school is a significantly better fit for one of my kids but even then, I think there are many "good fit" schools out there for every kid at many different price levels.</p>