State school for both and money to both for grad school.
There is no way to equitably do #2 or 3, and #1 is just not financially smart.
Purdue and Baylor will be there for grad school.
Gah! Twins make it difficult. I’ve had different standards and choices for my various kids but with the age gaps, it wasn’t like waving a flag announcing them. Not on the table at the same time.
There is no right or wrong way to handle this. No good or bad answer, as it’s something that has to be done, given your personal situation and the characters involved.
On paper, IMO, without the above knowledge, the fair thing to do is to come up with what you are willing and able to pay. You don’t say what that figure is. You may not know what that figure is. Say it’s $50K a year, after tightening the budget and taking out loans that you feel you can handle and whatever savings you have for their college. Each girl gets $25K a year, and they have to come up with the funds to to whatever school they choose. If it’s State U at $15K total, then that’s $10K a year in pocket, or $40K as a graduation gift. If it’s Purdue for the one, she has to come up with $45K-$25K=$20K each year. If she can’t, it’s not a choice.
When we discussed college costs for my youngest, his siblings had all graduated from college, They guaranteed $15K a year among them which covered on campus room and board, books at that time. that, along with what he had saved, part time work, summer job and possible Direct Loans, it was very doable A great summer internship and room/board, an inheritance, an uncle pitching in made the final cost much lower than expected So sometimes out if the immediate box ideas and sources can be tapped
With all the additional information, the in state college for both is the option I would choose.
Ask them. If you can afford the $28k for instate, that’s the budget and they have to figure out how to make it work.
I had two going to college at the same time. The budget was $15k each. One picked a school that was about $50k for the first year (and more than $58k for the last). She got merit and athletic and other aid and made it work. The other was at about $20k and took more in loans than her sister. Both were happy.
KU and K-State are great and they aren’t settling, just making a good financial choice.
Don’t beat yourself over not sending them to the private schools. It will probably mean that you can help them with grad school. $112,000 for both over four years as opposed to $300,000.
When KU or K State are the instate options, then no, Baylor and Purdue are not worth it, especially for pre-med (when you want to maximize savings and minimize debt) and for engineering (where the academic route is fairly fixed).
Instate hand down for both.
Well as a person whose son turned down other options for K-State (OOS with great merit) I say go in state (either school). My son is so very happy there! Of course he is pre-vet which they are awesome at. His gf from Wichita (hs val) is pre-med and got research her freshman year and is also very happy. Their classes have been high quality and they have not felt a lack of going to any other school.
Go with the state school. KU and KState are wonderful schools!
KU and KState are both great choices. Save the money for grad school.
Purdue was my daughter’s dream school as well. It’s OOS for us and even with her $5000/yr scholarship, it was going to be tough for us and we told her she would have to take some ownership as well and take out the maximum loan amount per year probably with would have her graduating with considerable debt. We were not going to go into debt ourselves for this. She chose to go to UF instead where she qualified for instate tuition,which is less than $7000/year. She’s a practical girl and did not want any debt if possible. Just explain the situation to them, I’m sure they will understand.
With med school and grad school on the horizon, either of these in state publics make sense to me. There is so much buildup and expectations with the college process that the in state gems feel like some sort of a consolation prize. But things change once the semester starts and they get busy, and discussions have moved on to something else.
What did you tell your kids about college finances before they applied?
The other issue is that neither med school nor eng degrees are a given. Most kids never get to med school and many eng kids drop/weed/ out or/and change majors.
I’ve learned from my D, if you are 100% sure you want/need to go to grad school, make sure you kids go to a school where they can excel in grades. Build up those GPAs for later grad school applications.
Don’t forget you can ask for more money too in merit as a low percentage try. Never hurts.
To get Baylor down to 32K means they must have given some FA as well as their merit, right? They list 21K a year as their top merit single scholarship. Purdue would have not offered FA to an OOS, if the kids knew that this was a punt at merit/FA/merit, the Baylor punt worked out nicely. I suppose that is the real issue for the OP is if they had decided on, say a 30K each as a budget, one kid did come close. It really comes back to the pre application discussions and budget restrictions. Parents absolutely can walk back from that precipice, whatever promises were made.
Your pre-med D will not only save $ on in-state options, but also will be around to make connections for in-state med school.
No reason for you to end up in debt (or have your kids end up in debt) when there are other great options.
Sending them in-state is not a “bad choice”…its a realistic choice.
Say "We’ve run the numbers, and we can only afford 50K/40K whatever you want to be the number per year. We hoped there might be more merit from some of the schools. We are not going to take out big loans and neither are you. To achieve that, you both will need to be under $25K so that means UofK. "
Now maybe one kid woudl say “But if Janie went to Purdue, it would only be 55K…couldn’t she take a small loan out?”
Then maybe that coudl work but it would have to be her idea.