<p>As a student in senior year of high school who have recently been accepted to a bunch of public and private institutions, I see a large disparity in the costs of public and private institutions. Exactly why are private institutions making tuition so expensive and unaffordable even with financial aid for the average family? What do they have to offer that are better than state colleges? I feel that state colleges to a certain extent will leave me with little to no debt and thus would be a more economical and wise decision. </p>
<p>Hypothetically speaking, I would be more apt to choose a state college than private institution because of cost unless it is a really top school or Ivy League. What's your stance on the debate, state colleges vs. private colleges?</p>
<p>State for undergrad b/c a Bachelors is just that, nothing too special, esp when (nearly) everyone has one–it has become the standard.</p>
<p>Private for grad!!! Those rankings in magazines are derived from the graduate departments, and that’s where most of the money/funds go to anyway. Grad school is expensive regardless of where you go, but at the undergrad, its just another stepping stone to many high achieving people, who later want to go to grad school.</p>
<p>And why would you want a HUGE amount of debt when you’re planning on grad school in the very near future? There are MANY very very good state schools! </p>
<p>Private schools don’t have government funding, so that’s a reason for such high tuition costs. However, Cali , is broke, so their increasing tuition… =/</p>
<p>Cause a lot of them can. They have ‘prestige’ or large alumni networks with powerful people at the helm. Doesn’t mean it’s worth it though. If you wanna go into investment banking or have an easy in to politics then yeah it might be worth going to an expensive top-ranked institution. If you just want to make a living then that’s really not that important.</p>
<p>I’m definitely going to choose the state school. I’m from Massachusetts and I got accepted to UMass Amherst (Honors Program) and Boston University. Boston University didn’t give me the best financial aid package, but slimmed the cost of attending from $55000 to about $25000 (scholarships+loans combined), which is still a lot of money. UMass Amherst gave me a full financial aid package so all I’d really have to pay is loans which is about $5000.
The only thing is that I don’t actually know how the course curriculum for the state school is going to run. I’ve been taking 6 AP courses concurrently this year, so I don’t know if this is equivalent or above average for the average freshmen/sophomore. Will the college courses be equally difficult? Will there be less competition from fellow classmates?..What’s the college life like between state and private institutions?</p>
<p>lol, a lot of prestigious private schools are thought of highly because they have a lot of money, while their graduate programs lag behind. The top public schools have much better grad school rankings than the private schools that sit just above them in the undergraduate rankings.</p>
<p>At public schools, undergraduate tuition is usually subsidized by the state. At a lot of private schools, non-FA students essentially subsidize the students that receive the most FA money.</p>
<p>I’m trying to move away from the stereotypical idea that private colleges are better than state colleges. I don’t really think there’s much of a difference in education from a state college like UMass Amherst to a private institution like BU. I would think otherwise, if it was a more prestige institution like MIT or Harvard which definitely has some strong programs in various field of studies. </p>
<p>I found it ridiculous that so many students at my high school would choose to go to a middle-tier private institution over the state school even though they’d be paying such a high debt with financial aid (20k-30k a year). Are private institutions really that much better than public institutions to prompt students to invest so much on the private institution?</p>
<p>It’s not as insane as it looks. They jack the price up real high so that rich people pay the full price, and often poorer people can get financial aid to make the price more affordable to them. The ones who get screwed are the people who make enough that they don’t qualify for much “need” aid, but don’t make enough that the full price is easy to afford. It’s not uncommon for students to get an aid package from a private college that makes it cheaper to attend than a state college.</p>
<p>The reason why colleges cost a lot is because they spend a lot. They’re non-profits, so you would think that the cost would be lower than a for-profit college such as, say, the University of Phoenix. However, colleges spend their money on lots of things. About 1/2 to a 2/3rds of the colleges budget goes towards salaries for teaching faculty and other staff members. This doesn’t mean that professors make all that much, though, since the median salary for post-secondary (that is, college) Professors is still just below $60k a year. At the same time, while really senior tenured professors make the most money and teach the fewest amount of classes, there aren’t enough of them to be a really big problem; most colleges rely heavily on grad students, T.A.s, and other lower-paid employees to reduce costs. </p>
<p>At the same time, colleges are expanding rapidly in terms of physical amenities. Colleges these days have high-speed Internet access, bigger dining facilities, gyms, concert halls, apartments instead of dorms for students, and all sorts of stuff that are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain and expand in perpetuity. Colleges do this to attract students and increase their rankings in well-regarded publications like the U.S. News college rankings.</p>
<p>Financial aid also helps cushion the blow of tuition costs for private colleges in particular. I’m not really talking about things like the Pell Grant, which are pretty much a drop in the bucket compared to a COA of $50k per year. The relative availabilty of loans and the existence of things like 529 plans and tax credits also helps reduce the blow of high tuition costs. If people don’t really have to pay the actual COA, then they usually don’t get too upset over it.</p>
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<p>No, but good luck convincing anyone of that. Unless you have the means to finance it somehow, you really shouldn’t go into that much debt for undergrad.</p>
It’s true a Bachelor’s degree is common, but a Harvard degree isn’t - so that’s why people shell out big $ for these schools. Every schmuck has a BA from State U, very few have one from MIT and the like. </p>
<p>Personally I think debt should be minimized as much as possible. I attend an expensive private university on a scholarship, and wouldn’t have attended otherwise. I had to turn down more elite schools that didn’t offer me scholarships - this is pretty common from what I’ve read on CC. Expensive colleges can often afford to give out scholarships that public ones don’t have the means for.</p>
<p>What I will never understand are the people who go into serious debt for a college that isn’t even well-ranked or well known for academics.</p>
<p>Public schools also get tons of support from their states. That’s why the UC system is having such issues right now; the state of California is having some massive issues with its finances.</p>
<p>I figure I should add my two cents because I’m also from MA and was considering UMass. I ended up going to a mid-tier private school that costs me a tiny tiny tiny bit more with merit scholarships than UMass would have cost me. UMass is definitely a good school with some great programs that have been elevated right up there with highly ranked private college programs (i.e. computer science, engineering, etc.). Several people in my high school’s top ten kids went there. </p>
<p>However, I thought it was best for me to go to a smaller university with small class sizes, and all that…I feel like I might have felt a little lost at Amherst. The price would be about the same in my situation. Plus, there is a lot more money available for graduate school merit scholarships if you work at it - debt free.</p>
<p>If UMass had given me a full ride scholarship (if they even give those) then there would be no decision :p.</p>
<p>I’m sure he can find some stats for you, but I thought it was pretty common knowledge now that there’s a saturation of bachelors degrees. Whereas 50 years ago, only the smartest go to college, most kids nowadays go no matter their intelligence level, which is both a good and bad thing. The bad thing is, is that with an abundant supply of bachelor’s degrees, they become worth less, and thus since so many people can get them now, it’s like having just a high school degree 50 years ago. Basic economics really.</p>
<p>It’s something like 20-25% of Americans have a bachelors, I think. I can’t be arsed to find the stats right now, just going off what I remember.</p>
<p>Case in point: there are lots of jobs like being a receptionist for a company that require a degree. You can’t major in Reception Science. Maybe the closest thing is Business Management but you’re not managing anything. You can learn everything on-the-job. They simply use a bachelor’s as a filter, because they don’t want to look through 1,500 applications.</p>
<p>Actually, I wrote “every schmuck has a BA from State U, very few have one from MIT” implying all are schmucks. I think you’re being oversensitive, to be blunt.</p>
<p>People often need a Bachelor’s for entry-level jobs that require no knowledge beyond 8th grade.
The receptionist where I work has a BA in English Lit from Amherst (prestigious New England LAC). I get paid more than her to babysit. Economy really sucks, I guess.</p>
<p>What do you mean you actually wrote? I posted exactly what you stated. </p>
<p>I’m being oversensitive? You’re calling people schmucks who go to state universities.</p>
<p>You say 67% of HS grads are going to college? Do 100% finish? I don’t think so. So what that more kids are going to college. It certaintly doesn’t mean that they will all finish.</p>
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