stephenandrew
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- May 5, 2007
- Messages
- 148
Not really sure if this belongs here, but I thought I would share some recent expereinces my son has had with the college admissions process and offers of merit based finanical aid.
A bit of background--my son is a senior in high school, and is a good student (not great) with a 3.8 GPA in an honors/AP curriculum, 1290 SAT scores, and some pretty decent extra curricular activities (e.g. Eagle Scout, Captain of HS Swim Team). My son wants to study history, and then go onto Law School--no interest in engineering, acccounting, or anything remotely "vocational". My wife and I are professionally employed, and have high enough incomes and have saved enough that based on the calculations on FAFSA website, will not be elligible for any need-based aid.
My son has applied to two tiers of schools---some well known private universities with strong reputations (like Duke, Emory) and some smaller lesser known liberal arts colleges (like Rhodes, DePauw). In general, the total cost of tuition/room/board/etc. at the universities ranges from $45K to $52K; the total cost at the liberal arts schools ranges from about $40K to $42K.
He applied early action to many of the schools and he has gotten admission offers from both groups of schools. What I find interesting is that without exception, the smaller liberal arts schools have all offered him merit based aid that is worth about 40% of the total cost of an education. None of the larger schools that he has been admitted to have offered him any aid. So what it comes down to is that he can go to a decent, smaller liberal arts college for about $25,000 per year or go a larger, major university for about twice that price. Finally, he has also been admitted to a public university in the state which we reside---based on his grades, he would only have to pay for room/board/fees--no tuition expenses. Total cost to go to State U is about $11,000 per year.
Now, I think people can get a good education at pretty much any college--the student is far more important than the school attended, but I am willing to "consider" the idea that a school like Duke might in some way provide a "better" education than our state university or one of the smaller liberal arts schools where he has been accepted. But I don't for a minute believe that the value of the education is worth 2 to 5 times that of the state college or smaller liberal arts colleges.
I always wanted to provide my kids with the opportunity to go to school where they wanted, and we have sufficent income and savings to pay for the more expnsive schools, but its hard as hell for me to justify paying the prices for the more expensive schools. Its kind of a living below your means thing---I can drive a Chevy instead of a Cadillac. What I am amazed is that, there must apparently be a virtually infinite number of people willing to pay $50K+/year for a college education as there is no shortage of people applying to these schools.
My solution to ths issue has been to put the decision making into the kids hands. I have told my son that I am giving him $X once he graduates from HS. If he wants to spend it all at a high-priced school, that's fine--but don't expect any help with graduate school. On the other hand, if he chooses to go to a less expensive school, he can keep what he has leftover at the end of college to pay for law school, a first car, travel the world, whatever.
I am interested to see what my son does.
A bit of background--my son is a senior in high school, and is a good student (not great) with a 3.8 GPA in an honors/AP curriculum, 1290 SAT scores, and some pretty decent extra curricular activities (e.g. Eagle Scout, Captain of HS Swim Team). My son wants to study history, and then go onto Law School--no interest in engineering, acccounting, or anything remotely "vocational". My wife and I are professionally employed, and have high enough incomes and have saved enough that based on the calculations on FAFSA website, will not be elligible for any need-based aid.
My son has applied to two tiers of schools---some well known private universities with strong reputations (like Duke, Emory) and some smaller lesser known liberal arts colleges (like Rhodes, DePauw). In general, the total cost of tuition/room/board/etc. at the universities ranges from $45K to $52K; the total cost at the liberal arts schools ranges from about $40K to $42K.
He applied early action to many of the schools and he has gotten admission offers from both groups of schools. What I find interesting is that without exception, the smaller liberal arts schools have all offered him merit based aid that is worth about 40% of the total cost of an education. None of the larger schools that he has been admitted to have offered him any aid. So what it comes down to is that he can go to a decent, smaller liberal arts college for about $25,000 per year or go a larger, major university for about twice that price. Finally, he has also been admitted to a public university in the state which we reside---based on his grades, he would only have to pay for room/board/fees--no tuition expenses. Total cost to go to State U is about $11,000 per year.
Now, I think people can get a good education at pretty much any college--the student is far more important than the school attended, but I am willing to "consider" the idea that a school like Duke might in some way provide a "better" education than our state university or one of the smaller liberal arts schools where he has been accepted. But I don't for a minute believe that the value of the education is worth 2 to 5 times that of the state college or smaller liberal arts colleges.
I always wanted to provide my kids with the opportunity to go to school where they wanted, and we have sufficent income and savings to pay for the more expnsive schools, but its hard as hell for me to justify paying the prices for the more expensive schools. Its kind of a living below your means thing---I can drive a Chevy instead of a Cadillac. What I am amazed is that, there must apparently be a virtually infinite number of people willing to pay $50K+/year for a college education as there is no shortage of people applying to these schools.
My solution to ths issue has been to put the decision making into the kids hands. I have told my son that I am giving him $X once he graduates from HS. If he wants to spend it all at a high-priced school, that's fine--but don't expect any help with graduate school. On the other hand, if he chooses to go to a less expensive school, he can keep what he has leftover at the end of college to pay for law school, a first car, travel the world, whatever.
I am interested to see what my son does.