Finances were important but fit was the top consideration. If we lived in CA, you bet we would have been thrilled with the better state publics. No so, where we do live. Not even her major at the flagship here. Barely, in the multi-state public education group. She’d have had to make some severe compromises. She found privates where her major was strong and other factors that mattered to her. Sure, good FA there, too.
My D applied to 3 in state publics as well as several privates. It looks like she will end up at one of the privates because of the special program it offers. However, I would have been delighted for her to go to any of the privates. On the other hand, we decided against applying to any OOS publics. Somehow, it just didn’t seem to make sense to pay nearly private tuition for someone else’s public university. None that interested her seemed any better than our own in state offerings.
We have had 2 go public (one IS, the other OOS) and 1 go private. The OOS and private school both gave nice merit scholarships which brought the price tags down considerably and within $5K of the average IS public.
Most desirable and smaller colleges are private.
First tier privates are generous with need based aid, second tier with merit scholarships.
For high achievers (of any financial level), there is no financial restriction to attend large public schools if they don’t want to.
A student with uncooperative divorced parents is likely to find that most of the private schools with good need-based financial aid will be inaccessible.
"First tier privates are generous with need based aid, second tier with merit scholarships.
For high achievers (of any financial level), there is no financial restriction to attend large public schools if they don’t want to."
That depends on your state. It’s pretty hard for a high achieving upper middle class Californian kid to find a better financial deal than UCB or UCLA at a comparably ranked private school. And many less highly ranked (“second tier”) private schools will give you half tuition merit scholarships but still be significantly more expensive for a full pay family.
We ruled out many of the need only schools as too expensive and when it came down to it, there was no comparison between GWU, CWRU and Macalester at ~$50K per year vs UCB and UCLA at ~$30K per year.
My D was only seriously interested in 1 private. Given our plan to chase big merit, her intended majors, and her desire for school spirit comparable to her high school experience, publics were a much better fit. So we focused on state flagships with strong honors programs. She’s having the experience she wanted and getting a great education.
Both applied to a mix of schools but since neither was interested in a large university the only publics they applied to were in-state (as academic and financial safeties), one or two ivies with the bulk of their apps to LAC. As it turned out, in both cases the in state public was not the lowest cost; each one had significant merit offers from at least one LAC. The very best financial aid came from the Ivy one attended. Strangely, that same kiddo was WL at top tier LACs and offered no aid at the very good LACs she was accepted to. We are not low income, so I advise anyone who is applying for financial aid to cast a wide net paying attention to what the school says it is looking for in an applicant.
My DD also applied to a mix. The most merit came from an in state public, followed by a small private. She’s at an OOS public flagship that has kept their tuition frozen for 8 years.
IMO, the key for finding merit when there isn’t financial need, is to apply to schools where a student’s stats put them above the 75th percentile. That’s true for both public and private schools.
My kids were not interested in small LACs. There were mostly interested in large private unies, like NU, Duke, Cornell. I don’t think when it comes to privates it always mean (small) LACs.
Older D applied to 1 private and 7 public. She attended an instate public because it was the best fit for her. It was small, has an excellent reputation in her major, and easily allowed her to play sports for fun ( many were more competitive).
Younger D applied to a mix of private, OOS public, and 1 instate public. 13 total. She attends an OOS public because it has everything she was looking for and is an excellent fit. She applied to schools that meet full need and/or give merit ( excluding our instate option).
With good stats private schools can often be less expensive than state. In our case, five private LACS in the top 50 came in with COA less than the instate flagship, UMassAmherst.
Most of our in-state schools are suitcase schools which my D does not want. Our state flagship is just way too big for her. She has some mobility issues and there is no way she can navigate the campus. Most of the OOS smaller public’s seem to have very little geographical diversity so we feel like they would be tough socially. For example, we were looking at St Mary’s of Maryland but 90% of the kids there come from MD. We’re afraid it would be culture shock for our D as we are from the Northeast. And I know at our smaller public’s, tons of kids go in knowing each other so it can be tough for the kids from out of state. We will be chasing some merit money but luckily my D is not looking for a tippy top school and we saved a lot when she was a baby so that we can afford to send her where she wants to go.
Our S19 applied to all privates. For him it was all size based - just not interested in a large school. Our in state flagship is pretty expensive and is renowned for being stingy with merit. Also extremely competitive honors college that he wouldn’t have got into. He briefly looked at OOS state public’s with merit opportunities and honors colleges, but the size was still a factor.
My D chose her colleges based on the best fit for her intended major and her preferences (no big cities, no more than 4-5 hour drive, no flying, etc). She had 3 private and three state uni on her list. All are medium or large. Got accepted to a large private u., her best fit, fortunately.
One definitely shouldn’t believe the myth that in state public is always cheaper. Run the NPCs. That may be true for some states. It definitely isn’t for higher achieving students in mine (PA). Private isn’t always cheaper either. It depends upon the school and whether the student is looking for merit aid or need based aid. Need based aid students still need to be reasonably high achievers to get into schools that offer a bit, but they don’t always need to be super high. Not long ago a lad I knew really well (as in, wrote one of his recommendation letters) had roughly a 1200 SAT and still got a full ride at a nice private (not tippy top) LAC.
It’s very worth it to do homework on schools if finances are a factor - and they are for most folks I come across IRL. Finances also mean a lot to those I know who can be full pay. I know a lass who turned down her dream school (Stanford) for a full ride at Wake Forest a few years back. She had other full ride options - very accomplished lass. Last I heard she doesn’t regret a thing. That said, one lad took a full ride at a regional (private) U way under his capability and wishes he had not done so due to lack of opportunity at the school (compared to his peers at other schools), so again, one should do their homework on schools for both finances and other fit reasons.
I agree with a pp who feels that public vs private - in itself - is pretty meaningless. One gets all calibers of schools within both categories.
It’s true with my friend that state public u is not cheaper. She was accepted to UMass and WPI. WPI offfered a better financial package. She chose WPI, of course.
@Riversider Our high achieving son didn’t get any need based aid due to our income, so the private schools were all very expensive, even when they offered merit scholarships. Many of the merit scholarships also had a need component. The top private schools don’t even offer merit. The public schools were far more affordable.
There are many people in my community where the only option is community college, even for high stat kids.
In analyzing the name of the thread: “Any PARENTS encouraging their kids ONLY to apply to private colleges” (emphasis mine), I am extremely uncomfortable. This sounds as though there are parents out there who believe that the only acceptable options are private colleges and to h*** what the student thinks.
Yes, most of our top colleges are private. But, there are also many top public universities, especially in selected fields (Georgia Tech for engineering, anyone?). Discounting many terrific options just because they’re public is doing a great disservice to the student. I’d put a degree from UCLA, Virginia, Michigan, Texas, etc. up against any private, including Ivies, regardless of the field of study. Also, keep in mind that the “Old Boys Network” still exists, and in many states, the connections you will make at a public will be more valuable than the name of an elite private college.
We encouraged our kids to apply to the colleges that were right for them. In the case of the first two kids that meant almost all private LACs with a single out of state public. In the case of our third child it meant almost all large publics, with only one private on the list.