Hello, all. My daughter was accepted, in-state, LSA on Jan. 27. She planned to go to college in N. Carolina, and has been accepted by two well-ranked schools there, one private, one public. However, a new (in-state) boyfriend has entered the picture , so she scrambled and applied to Michigan right before the Nov. 1 EA deadline.
I am quietly hoping she follows through with her original OOS plan, but I know she will get a good education at Michigan if she goes that route.
Surprisingly, the valedictorian of my daughter’s class was rejected EA - not even deferred, just rejected, while two other kids in her grade, who are very dedicated to band, were accepted EA. One of my daughter’s close friends was deferred, but accepted at Purdue and will attend there.
My daughter’s stats, in case they are helpful to any tea leaf readers:
4.0 UW / (I don’t know her Unweighted)
Dual enrolled since 11th grade
Took the maximum allowed AP and IB courses (received all A equivalent grades)
Class ranked #1 amongst all dual enrolled students in the county (I didn’t even know this was ranked)
Okay EC’s, a few sports, a few academic minded EC’s, volunteer work
Won various writing awards, fine art awards
Has held a part-time job throughout the school year since 10th grade
Became an RBT on her 18th birthday
Summer internship / behavioral therapy
So Michigan as an instate option is absolutely one of the best priced options out there for a university that is ranked top 10 in like 45 undergraduate majors. I grew up in Michigan but live in Chicago now and still it seems that locals don’t know how good they have it . Really so many great instate options at every level. Congrats.
I agree, as instate mom myself, I think UM isn’t as highly regarded in state as it is by OOS folks and it was surprising to come on CC and see the level of interest and so many describing UM as their dream school. Some of that comes from our experience though, I have friends with kids attending and their experience hasn’t been uniformly positive either while attending or post-graduation (job search support/outcomes). Compared to OOS, it looks like a great deal, but I am struggling with the concept of paying 35k/yr compared with around 5k/yr with merit scholarships down South. Although much is said (on CC at least) about the stats of in state kids being lower, a lot of these kids are still eligible for substantial merit scholarships elsewhere and if you don’t have 100k in college savings just sitting around, that’s still a big chunk of change. It’s tough to embrace that cost, especially with a kid who is still actually undecided. I have been lurking here and am actually kind of hoping that my son is rejected (he dawdled and applied RD) so that we don’t have a tough decision to make between a school with fantastic ranking and a school with mediocre ranking but seemingly good fit programs for far less money.
I was just saying growing up there and even now people with kids applying they are just now discovering what all us OOS people are talking about. They just see it as staying home and that school in Ann Arbor or East Lansing etc. For “most” their instate options are the most affordable. But then you add on the national reputation… It’s really just a great value as a whole.
I rarely hear about kids not liking it or having trouble getting jobs but I am sure it happens. I noticed when the students are active on campus and try to make something happen plus get internships etc they rarely have trouble taking the next step. Good luck to your son.
Just looking back at our check book (OK, no one has a check book ).
Two OOS kids and even one with a Presidential half scholarship… College is really expensive! I know… Enlighting… I can’t get my money back and they both graduated.
I would pick the most affordable best fit college. Looking back almost every kid I know that went to college in the last 6 years ended up liking their experience. I think we put forth to much effort to make the kids happy. Their getting an education and it’s the best thing you can give a child but don’t have to go into debt for it. That’s just a choice.
That CU # does not include estimated travel & personal as the UM does (at least personal, maybe not travel). For CU, the total estimated cost of attendance for engineering for THIS academic year (Engineering | Bursar's Office | University of Colorado Boulder) is $63350, with a planned 4% tuition increase for next year bringing it close to ~$66k. If we assume the same 4% increase for UM next year, the lower division COA would be ~$75k and upper ~$79k. CU locks in tuition for all 4 years, so over 4 yrs (assuming 4% annual increases for UM) UM would be ~$50k more expensive ($264k v $314k). Rough numbers, but probably fairly close.
, so she scrambled and applied to Michigan right before the Nov. 1 EA deadline.
. Really so many great instate options at every level. Congrats.
