<p>I have 100k in the bank for savings, and my parents + assets bring about 150k a year before taxes.</p>
<p>However, I also have 1 sibling attending college soon.</p>
<p>What are the extents that would justify transferring from a top private college to a state school? I am really happy at my top private school, and would probably learn less and not be as happy at a state school (Umass amherst) , but I’m wondering whether happiness is worth 50k a year as opposed to 10k a year (room&board) at Umass. </p>
<p>I know there are a lot of variables involved, so perhaps if you could explain yours or a hypothetical situation that would justify going to a private school or state school, that would help put myself in perspective.</p>
No one has to pay $250K for their kid to attend college no matter how rich they are. The rich just have more choices than the rest of us. Do your parents want you to transfer? Why is this a consideration now, half way through your freshman year rather than a year ago when you were deciding where to go?</p>
<p>It depends on your values, or rather your parents’ values. Nothing is more important to me than my daughters’ education. My husband’s salary pays our household bills and almost my entire salary pays for tuition. It’s a decision I made when the girls were babies, and I’ve never regreted it. It’s a small enough sacrifice for four years, well eight in all, to give them the best start in life.</p>
<p>That said, the option of going to UMass is not bad at all. You will have access to classes at Amherst and the other colleges in the consortium. I don’t think you need to worry about learning less. If you have to do it, it won’t be so bad.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree. It IS true. People may CHOOSE to pay $250K for their child to attend college, but they are not REQUIRED to… it’s a choice. :)</p>
<p>Don’t assume that you will learn less and be unhappy. Today’s college marketing wants you to take this assumption as fact when it’s nothing more than an opinion.</p>
<p>Absolutely! And this is the kind of thinking they want to play on, and how they can come to charge what they do:</p>
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<p>Which parents out there with college bound or college kids can’t agree with this? Of course we believe nothing is more important than our kids’ education. It’s how most of us can justify any price tag that we can handle.</p>
<p>But which school you are willing to pay for says very little about how much you value your kids’ education. It only says what you believe about where the best education is found. </p>
<p>The adults in our family have 7 combined degrees, and we are both professors. It’s not as if we do not value education. But having taught at a range of universities- from very top to great public, we think we know where to invest for our kids’ undergrad degree and it isn’t paying full freight at a private (in our case we would have to, and we could afford ti). Other families come to different conclusions based on their kids’ needs, goals, and what the families think makes for a ‘best education’ and how schools are distinguishable…and how much they are willing (or can pay) for that perceived difference. And it is just that, a perceived difference.</p>
<p>The answer to “Acceptable income to have to support a kid going to Private College?” is it depends on the parents and the kid. One does not “have to” do it.</p>
<p>The answer to “What are the extents that would justify transferring from a top private college to a state school?” is, especially since you say you are happy now, is twofold. If you can no longer afford the private college, you may be forced to switch. And if you can continue your career goals or improve them with a switch, you would want to do that.</p>
<p>This is a very individual situation, and it depends on your parents’ assets, expenses, and priorities as well as your own finances.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about the impact that your sibling’s college expenses will have on the family and how that will affect you, it would be a good idea to have a conversation with your parents about it. They may be able to reassure you that you do not have to make any changes. Or, if they tell you that having two kids in college will indeed be a strain, this does not necessarily mean that transferring to UMass is your only option. It’s possible that the difficulties could be solved by taking out a loan in an amount that is not unreasonably high, for example. </p>
<p>Another possibility that works for some people is to tweak their college schedules so that they can graduate one semester early. Sometimes, people who do this find a permanent job that starts right after their winter graduation. In other instances, though, they have to wait until summer or fall to start a permanent job or a graduate program, and they may stay in the college community, with their friends, and get some sort of temporary job (with the university, perhaps, or some sort of casual work in a restaurant or store, for example). Or they may live with their parents during that semester and get a casual job in their parents’ community. However they work it out, they can often break even, financially, and even if they can’t quite achieve that, the small subsidy they would need from their families is a lot less than they would have paid for that eighth semester.</p>