True cost of college

[cardtrick]

So you are saying it's good to pay the high price for a name brand school? There is definitely value in being able to get a job, especially these days.

I think there is great value in a small private school, for my kids. I have one in college, one will be in college in a few years. If they are in a class of 200, they will fall in the category of "most people never ask questions". If they are in a class of 15 students, they will be active participants. I can't put a price on that.

Yes, the brand name is definitely worth it, if you have the money. It gets you in the door. Especially useful if you're in the "never asks questions" category. The odds in that case are that you're not very interested in the subject, which means you only really care about getting a good job after college.

Where's the value in a no-name super expensive private school? I just don't see it.

One of my big regrets in life is not having applied to the top schools for my undergrad. I didn't research them enough and didn't know about need based scholarships. I just went off the sticker price, picked 4 schools that I was barely able to afford. Got into all 4 and picked the one that offered the biggest scholarship.

The career fairs were definitely different. The state university vs UofC. All the big names came to UofC.

[007cupcake]

Thanks DisneySteve!

Thank you for the insight about private schools. I had wanted to attend a private school due to its location and small number of students in my day, but with its yearly tuition I didn't even try. I went to the huge universities instead. I will definitely look into private when my kids are of age, and will look at those scholarships!!

Thanks again!!!

[SeanH]

My brother attended Columbia in New York for undergrad. He was given generous "scholarships" for his first 3 years. He had excellent entry numbers and activities, which I suppose is the norm, so need was likely a contributor to some of the money he received. He had no issues with academics. When he applied for financial aid during his 4th year he received next to nothing. Our family financial situation had not improved (it had deteriorated!). He briefly considered transferring to another school, but recognized that there's no point going to an Ivy league for 3 years unless you complete the 4th year. Some would call that a bait and switch - I'm simply of the opinion that the word scholarship doesn't always mean what we think it means and that total cost always has to be considered. When I applied to graduate school 2 years ago I noticed a lot of schools using 1 year non-renewable scholarships as a marketing tactic. A 1-year non-renewable scholarship is simply a tuition-teaser-discount.

This post is obviously not really for Dsteve who I'm sure will do fine. Just a general "watch out" for anyone who hears the word scholarship. If it doesn't have the word "merit" in front of it then it may not mean anything. Watch out for total cost.

[disneysteve]

My brother attended Columbia in New York for undergrad. He was given generous "scholarships" for his first 3 years. He had excellent entry numbers and activities, which I suppose is the norm, so need was likely a contributor to some of the money he received. He had no issues with academics. When he applied for financial aid during his 4th year he received next to nothing. Our family financial situation had not improved (it had deteriorated!). He briefly considered transferring to another school, but recognized that there's no point going to an Ivy league for 3 years unless you complete the 4th year. Some would call that a bait and switch - I'm simply of the opinion that the word scholarship doesn't always mean what we think it means and that total cost always has to be considered. When I applied to graduate school 2 years ago I noticed a lot of schools using 1 year non-renewable scholarships as a marketing tactic. A 1-year non-renewable scholarship is simply a tuition-teaser-discount.

This post is obviously not really for Dsteve who I'm sure will do fine. Just a general "watch out" for anyone who hears the word scholarship. If it doesn't have the word "merit" in front of it then it may not mean anything. Watch out for total cost.

The merit scholarships that I'm talking about are 4-year deals but they do have academic requirements that the student must meet in order to keep the scholarship. For example, they may need to maintain a 3.2 GPA.

At one school, Fairleigh Dickinson, their deal is even better. If you stay on for a graduate program, they will continue the scholarship which is really unusual.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a 1-year scholarship as long as you know going in that it's only good for one year.

[bigdaddybus]

Thinking back, I should have opened a Roth IRA and made a contribution.

I have a few hundred contibutions I could make to the "What I would have done different in college thread" lol

[bigdaddybus]

lots of good info in here for this father of 4 kids. Thanks for the posts all!