All state schools are under attack, and the vast majority are in decline. One cannot judge a state school by its past accomplishments.
There are many reasons some of which are: 1) With merit aid there are times when private colleges turn out to be less expensive than state schools. I’ve heard of this happening on many occasions. Don’t always assume the state choice will be the least expensive one. 2) Some students feel that they not will thrive in the huge environments in the state flagships and prefer a smaller school with smaller classes etc. 3) A number of large state schools are having funding issues which leads to class shortages and some students having to stay on an extra semester or year to graduate which can increase the cost of the state school (in both time and money) 4) not every family has to include finances as a consideration for school selection.
Because a quirky kid may need a LAC environment to succeed. Our flagship’s undergrad experience involves minimal faculty contact and lots of concert-sized anonymous lecture halls. For $10,000 more per year, our oldest gets lots of one-on-one attention and two Sophomore year internships w/professors. That’s worth it to us.
@HappyAlumnus, (OP) why did you go to Davidson rather than UNC? And why start a post, then not bother to respond to all the many helpful answers to your question?
Bwahahahahahaaaaaaa!!! The Onion weights in with this timely report =)) :
Going to a lower tier school may have a better chance for merit scholarship. Also, the whole school ranking may be different for a specific major. For instance, UMN-TC has a much stronger ChemE program than UMich. If you are a NMF, you may get sufficient merit aid there that makes it cheaper than many in state flagship schools.
Merit aid made LAC cheaper than a state school, and it was a better match. It also provided more leadership opportunities for a kid interested in such activities. I also felt it was an education in and of itself to get out of California and the West Coast. One of the first calls home: “Mom, there’s Republicans here, and they’re my age!” Yup.
Even U of Wisconsin- Madison has Republicans- not sure why that kid chose that party as his parents are Democrats (my kid spent some time sitting in the Capitol building before the unsuccessful Walker recall- GO KID!).
- The state school has to have specific programs your student is interested in.
- The state school program may be too hard or too easy for your kid to be comfortable. One of my two prefers a school where she will be in the upper part of the class. The other one hate to be a the top. She wants to be with peers. Each kid is different.
I often see people stating that they could only afford the state school - this is a big assumption that can be wrong. We are spending about $5,000 less a year to send our S to a private school (lots for merit and grants) and they offered him work study, which the state school did not. He has many more opportunities (Model UN, internship in the mayor’s office, etc.) which he would not have had in the state school. We will be spending about the same to send our D to a private school as we would have to send her to a state school - she also has work study (was not offered in the state school award.)
Something else to consider; access to the career center after graduation. I know of two state schools which grant access to their career center for ONE year after graduation. (One has another alumni job board access after the one year - the other, no help at all if needed.) My son’s college, and the one where my D will be going, have lifetime access to career services.