<p>a tiger who wishes once again to have been a wolverine 8-> </p>
<p>As between those three schools, personally, I’d send my kid to Michigan in a heartbeat, but I can afford it. Lots of others make that choice; Michigan’s entering class is now 40% + OOS. But it depends on your family’s finances. I wouldn’t choose Michigan if it meant sending myself or my daughter deeply into debt. Have you received an FA offer from Michigan? Don’t assume they’ll give nothing; they’re committed to a goal of meeting 100% of need for all students, but they acknowledge they’re not there yet for OOS students. They’ve launched a huge capital campaign that should get them there in the next few years.</p>
<p>We received the FA offer from Michigan. We are expected to pay approx 50,000 per year. My daugher is the oldest of 4. With an EFC of 50,000 per year for each child, we are certainly looking at loans. </p>
<p>UMichigan isn’t worth $50,000 per year for a family with 4 children and taking on more than the federal loans ($27,000 for ALL FOUR years) is unwise.
So really your choices are between UAlabama and Ohio U.
Is it possible for you/her to spend an overnight at both?
If your daughter likes the Tutorial System, it may be a good choice for her. Ask how many students total are involved, how many freshmen, can they enroll in Honors sections or Honors Classes in addition to their Tutorials (or is the Tutorial advantage only 1 class out of 5 per semester until they reach a sufficient level to take senior-level or graduate level classes? Do they have 2 tutorials, 2 honors classes, and 1 “regular” class?) What tutorial program was she admitted to and do the requirements match her interests?
I would lean toward UAlabama simply because the Honors College is very comprehensive, has 4,000 students, and provides a different cultural experience than Ohio (which may be a State she may already know.)
However the unique tutorial system may make it OU a better option.
What type of research is being conducted by current Honors students at both universities? What kind of research are the professors working on right now in the depts she’s interested in? This may make the difference.
It also depends where she plans on pursuing a career - obviously OU will be better for Ohio and perhaps surrounding States, UAlabama will be better for the Deep South.</p>
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<p>Be sure to consider the effect on your family if you spend all of your money on the first kid’s college, but then the later ones wonder why there is no money for their college.</p>
<p>I wonder if bclintonk has ever recently visited UA or OU or even has recent info from the 3 campuses. </p>
<p>Someone that can afford to pay the price tag may not find they will get value for $$. We work too hard to ‘overpay’ for an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>Michigan would be off my table, and I have two children. Both have in-state college scholarships.</p>
<p>At UA, contact the honors college for the type of visit you would like (seeing particular classroom or research area, department interview) - and get the full picture; 205 348-5534 try to have Susan Alley or Allison Verhine (both involved in student recruitment on honors college) set up a visit day.</p>
<p>You have a recruiter assigned to your state. Look at the UA web site (under admissions) and find out contact info, or call admissions.</p>
<p>Has Alabama been as aggressive/successful recruiting top faculty and upgrading facilities as it has selling itself to students? I think not so much.</p>
<p>“I wonder if bclintonk has ever recently visited UA or OU or even has recent info from the 3 campuses.”</p>
<p>Does it really matter in his case? He already stated that he would, “send my kid to Michigan in a heartbeat, but I can afford it.” bclintonk doesn’t need to visit UA or OU to know that Michigan is clearly the superior academic environment for his son/daughter. For many folks, paying full freight to have their chiildren attend a school like Michigan is well worth the dollars spent. It happens all the time. Of course getting a freebie to attend 'Bama or Ohio is a nice way to entice top students who otherwise would never consider either school. That is not to suggest that either school/program is bad, it’s just not Michgan…</p>
<p>@bclintonk, I get that you’re a Michigan alum, so of course you think it’s a worthy school, but do you have some substantive knowledge about Bama that makes it such an obvious non-choice? This is an honest question, not meant as snark. We may be deciding between Penn State (full pay, in-state @ $34,000/year) and Bama’s Honors College for engineering, which includes four years of free tuition plus a $2500/year stipend.</p>
<p>@barrons, not that USNews rankings are the be-all-and-end-all, but Bama is tied with UCSC and UC-Boulder at #36 among Top Public Universities. Is that really so disreputable?</p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public/spp+50”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/top-public/spp+50</a></p>
<p>"“Has Alabama been as aggressive/successful recruiting top faculty and upgrading facilities as it has selling itself to students? I think not so much.”"</p>
<p>yes, you’re right…you don’t think so much.</p>
<p>Bama has recently built over 900,000 sq ft of new STEM academic space. that’s not including the 40+ other state of the art buildings that its recently built.</p>
<p>As for recruiting the best faculty, since Bama doesnt have money problems it is able to hire rather than freeze/reduce faculty numbers that other schools have been forced to do. </p>
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<p>Yikes.</p>
<p>Do you mean loans for you, the parents? Do you mean co-signed loans for your child to pay back? How much?</p>
<p>The problem with Plus loans is that the loans will still be a liability when each younger child goes. Are you going to borrow for 16 years of loans (4x4)? Even if you only borrowed $10k per child/per year, that’s 160k (plus interest) that YOU would seriously hurt retirement plans, etc.</p>
<p>Co-signing loans is no better. The child becomes over-burdened with loans and then the lender looks to you if your child can’t pay. And, your credit is hurt each time you borrow or co-sign.</p>
<p>Umich is a very good school…but it is still a state school. NOT worth $50k per year.</p>
<p>“Umich is a very good school…but it is still a state school. NOT worth $50k per year.”</p>
<p>…and yet thousands pay full freight every year.</p>
<p>rjkofnovi: you’re a proud alumnus, we know that. But advocating paying full freight for Umich is insane <em>when the family would need to take on loans.</em> Especially when the family has 4 kids. ( How do you see that conversation? “Oh, sorry, we remortgaged the house for your big sister, so now you other kids just figure college out on your own, too bad she was our favorite and we’re broke.”)
Of the thousands who pay full freight, how many are OOS? How many of those pay off college funds or exceptionally high incomes/assets? How many of the rest take on loans that they end up regretting or that shackle them for 20 years?
Thousands people choose to buy a Lexus every year. Doesn’t mean I have to go into debt to buy one when my current brand serves me well.
is certainly what you believe in your heart of hearts, but you won’t be paying for this family, so pulling at the family’s heart strings and guilt-tripping them by saying that other parents make the sacrifice, implying they, too, should, after all others manage it… is not very nice of you. (if you’re willing to make a $200,000 donation to the family, I’ll change my mind 
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<p>“Umich is a very good school…but it is still a state school. NOT worth $50k per year.”</p>
<p>I don’t think it is unreasonable for a public university to cost $50k per year if it is good enough. There are literally hundreds of private universities that are more expensive than Michigan, and most of them are nowhere nearly as good as Michigan.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I agree that it is not worth going into such debt over a college education, public or private.</p>
<p>" But advocating paying full freight for Umich is insane *when the family would need to take on loans."</p>
<p>I agree. My response was to the comment mom made that no state school is worth paying 50K/year. </p>
<p>" But advocating paying full freight for Umich is insane *when the family would need to take on loans."</p>
<p>Furthermore, I commented earlier on this thread that chosing the Honors College at Ohio University would appear to be the best choice for this poster. </p>
<p>Ok I understand rjkofnovi. Sorry. I do believe that UMich is not an “ordinary state school”. It is a public school, in the noble sense of the term, dedicated to excellence in educating its state’s smartest youth at a reasonable cost, and its status group is among the highest in the country.
But not worth 50k if that means debt, in the sense that even colleges in that elite group aren’t worth 50k if that means such debt for a family.</p>
<p>“But not worth 50k if that means debt, in the sense that even colleges in that elite group aren’t worth 50k if that means such debt for a family.”</p>
<p>Certainly not for an UNDERgraduate education. WIth that I agree…</p>
<p>“They’ve launched a huge capital campaign that should get them there in the next few years.”</p>
<p>Michigan, with a $9 billion endowment, needs a huge capital campaign to improve aid? Sad.</p>
<p>“”“Umich is a very good school…but it is still a state school. NOT worth $50k per year.”</p>
<h1>…and yet thousands pay full freight every year. “”</h1>
<p>So what? there are very affluent folks out there that can do that without batting an eye. Guess what, there are thousands that pay full freight OOS at Bama as well. MOST OOS students at Bama do NOT have the fab scholarships. Most are paying a lot of money. Now, do I agree with paying that much? No. But, for the very affluent it is no biggie. I get that.</p>
<p>THE OP is not in that situation with 4 kids and needing to take out loans to even consider UMich. For a family of 4 that means ending up with maybe $150k - 300k+ in debt once all are thru college.</p>
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<p>Frankly, I still hold to that unless the family is so affluent that they can pay without hardly noticing. But substantial loans, especially when 3 more will be going to college is just a horrible idea.</p>
<p>Cptofthehouse wrote that she let her first child choose his school ((NYU) and it req’d loans for the parents. Then, that put them in a pickle when it was time for the rest of her children to go to college. They still had the outstanding debt from Child 1 (and her kids are spread out quite well). So, then they had to “back up” with the next kids and set limits because they realized that they couldn’t afford the idea that the kids can choose wherever they want regardless of cost. </p>