Take $$$ from good safety schools or pay dearly for "name" school?

<p>Awesome input and great perspective AriesAthena! Based on this, I'll bet you'll be a great lawyer</p>

<p>RE: "I could not live with myself if I deprived my child of a chance to go to his dream school."</p>

<p>I'm gonna puke.</p>

<p>Sorry you have such a sensitive stomache!</p>

<p>Imagine if you give up the scholarship money and send him to Duke or Georgetown and he changes his mind (like many freshmen do) after one year. I'd go for the money, especially since the scholarship schools are good ones!</p>

<p>I have to agree with ariesathena here. When I went to law school I borrowed all the tuition (plus extra for vacations!) and ended up with $9,000 in debt. The cost of law school now is horrendous unless you go instate to a state school. The pay rate of new lawyers has not increased at the same rate as tuition, and if your son wants to go into politics, most likely his first job will be with the government where the pay is not what you would get at a top firm. Additionally, lots of poltical connections are made in law school so it is often better to go to law school where you intend to practice and start a career in politics. So, if your son has these goals in four years, he should choose his law school wisely. This may mean that he is paying top dollar for law school; a free ride for undergrad would look mighty good then.</p>

<p>as a lot of people know - i'm a huge uva proponent...as i go there...but regardless.</p>

<p>first i'd like to say that your son obviously is really smart to get all that. </p>

<p>2nd, the only school that you mentioned that legitimately has a better name then the schools you got money from is brown. and please note that brown's atmosphere is significantly different than pretty much every other school you listed - check it out. Duke, Gtown, and Washu's names are no better than UVa's or Vandy's and marginally better than wake's. But no school is $140,000+ better than Wake is. I'd tell your son that you'll buy him a sweet ride if he goes to wake - hell you'll still be saving a **** ton of money - and then everyone is really happy.</p>

<p>If your son has an honors program at U Texas (I assume Austin?), it is debatable whether there is really a better name to be had. Perhaps Brown or Duke, but the difference, if any, is nowhere close to 40,000/year. If he would like the environment at a huge university, Texas is going to be hard to beat on academic criteria alone. Add in the money, and launching a political career in Texas, and there is no comparison. For what little prestige is worth, from the Northeast, I see the top students at Texas as about on par with Duke or Brown, and above all of the other places on your list.</p>

<p>Thanks Foo, BballMom, Denquist and Jags...The scales are heavily tipping towards taking $$ from Wake or U.TX Honors.</p>

<p>afan - I agree. Are you from the southwest? UT Plan II and Business Honors kids have higher SAT percentiles that most of the Ivies. Plan II (Interdiscipl Liberal Arts Honors) only admits 180 kids a year. Again, he perceives people (in other parts of the country/world) will see only "Univ of TX". Even though I'm a successful Wake alum, I believe that if he intends to live/work in the southwest, he'll be better off at U.T. and would be beating off recruiters. Typically, being a big fish in a big pond is better than big fish, small pond....with many more industry connections than Wake could ever provide in the southwest. Austin is a lot nicer than Winston-Salem too. I don't think he has a bad decision either way.</p>

<p>My daughter is in a somewhat similar position. She has full tuition scholarships to Case Western, Tulane, Pittsburgh, and University of Richmond, and also the $20,000 per year from Vanderbilt. She was accepted at Chicago, Princeton, and CalTech, and wants to study chemistry/physics or possibly some type of engineering and then go to medical school. I could probably get her through undergrad at Chicago, Princeton, or CalTech with minimal debt for her, but then I would be absolutely broke and could not help at all with medical school. Plus, my son will be in law school in a couple years, and I also have two more kids who will be entering college in the years ahead. Since I do not have a spare $1.6 million (i.e. $200,000 for undergrad and grad for each kid), I need to watch the dollars. Fortunately, my son has a tuition scholarship at USC. If we won the lottery my daughter would attend CalTech. Otherwise, she is leaning toward studying biomedical engineering at Pittsburgh or Tulane, so I can help her to graduate from med school with minimal loans.</p>

<p>pafather, what full tuition scholarship did your D get at Case?</p>

<p>Those are outstanding results. Mind-blowing, really. :eek: Many congratulations, and if you don't mind me asking - why not Case?</p>

<p>To the OP, I suggest you visit *******.com and post this question on their law board. Many of the posters there attended undergrads at state schools or at less prestigious privates on scholarship and are now at top 10 law schools. Also, think about how much debt your son would have to go into to pay his education off and how that may affect where he can send his own children to college. I think the best option would be to attend Wake or see if you can use Wake's offer to bargain for more FA at other schools.</p>

<p>Edit: LOL, I see that the "other board"'s link is considered profanity here. Just google "The most prestigious law school board in the world."</p>

<p>As a Wake graduate, I would tell your son to go to Wake! The difference with the "named" other schools is nominal and not worth the $.</p>

<p>OP: I'm not from the Southwest. I am an academic who has hardly ever been to Texas. I'm talking about national reputation of UT and a few other flagship state universities. For in-state kids who can thrive in a huge university these places are the best educational value around. If there is an honors program to provide them with something of the experience they would get at an elite private, almost impossible to beat. UT, like other flagship state universities has lots of top graduate programs, which influences the opinion of the university in the eyes of graduate and professional admissions committees. Everyone knows that lots of top students go to these state universities because the education, although somewhat impersonal, is excellent, and not everyone can afford 160-200k for undergrad.</p>

<p>pafather:You don't say what money Chicago, Princeton, and CalTech are offering. If none, and she is headed to medical school, I would cross them off the list. Here's why: Your daughter is obviously an exceptional student, and she will be on the high end of premeds in college. So any of these schools will be fine for getting into medical school. But med school is very expensive, and it is followed by years of low paying residency. There is really nothing the more expensive privates can offer (if they are not matching the financial packages from the other places) that could begin to make up the difference in cost. </p>

<p>I would cross off Caltech for a premed anyway. This is perhaps the one place where even your daughter might run a risk of a gpa low enough to risk her med school applications, and the premed advising appears to be somewhat limited since so few graduates go that route. Caltech is a mecca for math and theoretical hard science, but you don't need that for medical school. If she goes there and discovers that college level hard science is not as interesting as she thought, then what?? She is at Caltech. If this happens at any of the other places, including Chicago and Princeton, she just switches majors, and heads for med school. </p>

<p>She can take all the math and physics she wants at any of these places and then go to medical school with no undergrad debt, and perhaps some help from you at that stage.</p>

<p>curmudgeon,</p>

<p>Correction. The scholarship at Case is something like $26,000 per year, which does not completely cover tuition. Furthermore, the scholarship is a fixed amount, which does not increase with tuition. We estimate that we would have to pay about $75,000 or so over 4 years. Daughter liked Tulane, but as she just turned 16, we would like her closer to home, so she may end up at Pitt. She may attend Pitt for med school anyway (in-state), and it is a top-20 med school. She is still waiting to hear if she has guaranteed admission to Pitt's med school.</p>

<p>Guarenteed admission to Pitt's med school would make it worth it to go to Pitt. Otherwise, you have to be very careful of counting your med school admits before they are hatched.</p>

<p>DuRiteParent,
my niece is paying off her $163,000 law school / living expenses debt. She is making a very good living (UT Austin Law School grad) so the repayment is proceeding apace - but if she weren't it would be miserable. Professional school as a goal changes the rules of the game - and makes minimizing undergrad (and parental debt) a desirable goal. You are a great parent and should not be fretting about thinking rationally about the overall situation. Congrats to your son on his acceptances and accomplishments!</p>