<p>My wife and I both graduated from UMASS and we both had great experiences. Our son is a High School senior and was accepted to UMASS (Communications program). We live in New York and the tuition at UMass has gone through the roof. I also hear that they are trying to increase OOS acceptances so that the increased tuition will offset some of the budget cuts.</p>
<p>My son is a good student and has been accepted to a number of SUNY schools including Albany, New Paltz, and Oneonta. We do not know what to do. All of the SUNY schools are good ones and I believe that New Paltz is rated even higher then UMass. So we are torn.</p>
<p>Our son can go to UMass for $34K or a SUNY school for $17K. I do not want to sound cheap but what what will he get for the extra money? We have visited all of the SUNY schools and they seem very nice and I am sure that he can have a great experience at either one.</p>
<p>I would love any advice, recommendations or thoughts that you can provide.</p>
<p>My S was also accepted at UMass (Isenberg - Sports Management) and we live in NY as well. He has been accepted at several SUNY schools with good business programs so I understand where you’re at.</p>
<p>I think it’s a matter of how your son feels about the school and it’s environment. In my my son’s case he wants a “Big School” experience and there’s no argument that UMass can offer that over most SUNY schools (the nature of the beast with NY’s many smaller state schools vs. MA’s large state school).</p>
<p>As far as cost we have a similar situation in that my son is also looking at some private colleges (Northeastern, Syracuse) that are double the price of UMass. My wife and I are SU grad’s so convincing him that a state school (NY or MA) is the way to go cuts both ways.</p>
<p>In the end I think it will come down to how much my son wants to “bite-off” to go to a more expensive (and not necessarily academically better) college. We will layout the costs of going to each, inform him how much we can contribute to his education, and let him make the decision as to taking on debt to go to his “dream” school.</p>
<p>I am an alumnus of SUNY ALbany years ago when it was the flagship state school. If money is an issue, I would suggest that your son opt for a NYS state school. Schools like UVa, UNC-Chapel Hill, etc… might warrant paying more not a school like UMass-Amherst. Lately, I am subscribing more to the thought that it is what a student does at college, how he/she does it and where they go to school ( in that order ) that is important. Good luck.</p>
<p>I hear where you’re coming from. I think I would have a hard time paying twice as much for no extra prestige. On the other hand, the Five College area is very special. Can you spend a little more time at New Paltz? Or, bribe him a little bit? For example, say that you’ll split the difference between him and yourself and bank part of the money he would save by going to New Paltz for his graduate school? If you live in the NY area, it just seems so much more convenient and sensible to have him in state. You can also tell him he has to take out the max amount of Stafford loans if he goes to UMass, and won’t have to take out any loans for New Paltz. That’s a savings of $27,000!</p>
<p>UMass Amherst is a great school, my kid loves it there, but I don’t think there is anything there that makes it worth an extra $70,000 (with one or two exceptions maybe, like Sports Management, that are hard to find at other schools).</p>
<p>Offer to buy him a car when he graduates with some of the money he saves you by going in-state, that should do the trick. ;)</p>
<p>
This is a good strategy and mirrors what we did, but we went a little further - there were some schools in the $50K+ range that offered no FA and no merit aid, and we told our kid those were off the table, because there was no way we were going to take on $100K+ in debt, or let him take that much. He wasn’t happy at the time, but I don’t think kids can really understand what it means to have that kind of debt, so the parents have to step in and draw the line.</p>
<p>Point Taken – As this is our first one (of three) going to college it’s hard not to let the emotion of your kids’ desires influence the fiscal logic. Good advice from this and the other posts on this site – There are way too many downsides to a kid (or their parents) taking on huge debt when there are very good schools (at reasonable cost) available to your child.</p>
<p>NRE, we are in the same boat, we had to take a couple of privates off the table. Like syrece, this is our first of three. Going in to it we did not have the understanding we have now as to what we could expect for financial aid (little to nothing) and merit aid (little to nothing at the more competitive privates) given my son’s stats.</p>
<p>We are in state for Umass Amherst, so are hoping S gets in. He’s also been accepted to an OOS public, but I can’t see paying twice Umass rates to send him there. If we were instate for that school, I couldn’t say we’d encourage him to pay 2x to attend Amherst, not when they would give a comparable education.</p>
<p>Martina99 (and others) – This is a great dialogue going on in this room!</p>
<p>Like you, we are in state for UMass, and our son has gotten in to UMass Amherst EA. He has also gotten in EA to an OOS state school. I think he’s actually going to choose the latter, and if he does, we will let him (despite the fact that it will cost us nearly twice as much).</p>
<p>Many probably think we need our heads examined. But frankly, I think the decision really comes down to what you can afford, and being open with your children about that. Unlike you, we have 2 (not 3) kids to put through college. No small feat, but clearly a bit easier than what you are facing. Assuming you can afford these different options, here’s the important point: After seeing many schools (we actually visited about 13 with our S over the past year), I’ve really come to realize that every school, even every state school, has a very different culture. We have gone to UMass, UConn, UVT, and URI, and each is very different, ranging from size of campus, layout of campus, size of many classes, the general ‘feel’ of the campus, and above all else, one’s son’s or daughter’s impression of 'how well will I fit in, and will I be happy here." This decision making is far from being a pure science, but I do think we need to let our children decide (if you believe your children have the maturity to do so with our guidance) where they can be most successful and happy over the course of 4 years, provided you have the opportunity to afford to send them there.</p>
<p>Exactly - if we could have afforded $55K/year without jeopardizing our retirement or causing massive debt, my S would be at a much more prestigious school.</p>
<p>And my kid still had choices - we could have afforded a more expensive school than UMass, but against all odds he wound up liking it better than the other choices. Win/win!</p>
<p>Yep. If S were our only child, we could afford to send him wherever he wanted to go. With the second, we’d have to go into debt a bit, but could probably swing sending him to a prestigious private. But with three - nope, can’t do it. </p>
<p>He understands, though I think he is secretly holding out the hope that one of the privates will shower him with generous aid. He really liked Amherst, so if gets in there, he’ll be happy. And I’ve told him if he does well in college (as opposed to how he didn’t do his best in high school), he’ll have more options for graduate school.</p>
<p>Romann, My husband and I both graduated from UMASS Amherst as well. I was a communications major. I would say that your son should look closely at the communication programs at each of his schools. My experience is that the UMass program is more of a critical look at media and socieity. It is not a very practical or hands on program. Although it has been a while since I graduated, we were on a tour with our son 2 years ago who also wanted to be a Comm Major and we heard from faculty in the department and it didn’t sound as if much has changed. My son is now a dual major at American University in both the Comm dept and the college of Arts and Sciences. The Comm program is a lot more hands on at AU. I do love UMass and for certain programs (Engineering, Restaurant/Hotel Travel Admin/ Isenberg School) I think it is top notch. I don’t think their Comm program is that exciting. Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>I adore UMass, but if I were in your shoes (and I likely will be), I’d have to try to sway my kid toward a NY public school. The only exception would be if UMass was so much more of an ideal fit for the kid than any SUNY was, or if the UMass major was much higher ranked than any available at any SUNY or CUNY. Otherwise, it’s the SUNYs. </p>
<p>And there’s the rub. He applied to communications. UMass has one of the top 10 comm departments in the US. Does that make it worth paying for, for you? Is the focus of that department a match for his interests? Did he also apply to Buffalo? SUNY Buffalo also has a very well ranked comm department - comparable to that of UMass, and well worth considering. </p>
<p>With that said, I’d try to find a SUNY that offered the max of what my kid saw and liked about UMass. Maybe Buffalo is it, due to its well ranked comm department. Or maybe New Paltz might not be a bad idea. Yes, it’s a lot smaller than UMass, but it’s in a funky town - similar to Amherst’s environment, in a way.</p>