<p>I’ve been having alot of discussions with my 14 yr. old about schools which prompted this question. Devil’s advocate, I guess. Anyone thought that it wasn’t worth the tuition and could have done just as well at State? Was it worth it to you in the long run?</p>
<p>I think it depends on where you live, how good your state university is, and-- connected to that-- how much your state actually supports its university, or university system. If you happen to live in a state with a top-ranked university (and all that this implies), then I think the academics, the peer group, the offerings (including recruitment and networking) will be on a par with private universities, with the possible exceptions of HYP. I also think people tend to forget that no matter where a student attends, to get the most out of the university experience is ultimately the student’s responsibility-- makes no difference whether the school is public or private. My 2 cents.</p>
<p>It’s tough for people who have already graduated, from either public or private, to think they might have made a mistake. This is especially true if you have gone on to graduate or professional school, or already have a thriving career. Who really knows how your life might have taken a different turn, if you had gone to a different school?</p>
<p>What about people’s own experiences? Was it worth it to them?</p>
<p>I can’t second guess my own life, but I turned down my state college honors program for an Ivy and I know many people in my profession who graduated from that same state college and would be considered more successful financially than I am. </p>
<p>I worry about kids taking on too much debt. Because I am not expecting my kids to get much financial aid, if any, I am encouraging them to go instate public, although I’m trying to stay open minded about possible advantages for private or OOS public schools that they might want to attend.</p>
<p>A lot depends. There are a number of variables, all not necessarily related to costs. Oft times a high achieving or specifically talented kid may receive scholarships, merit aid that bring private school costs in line (or less than) public schools.</p>
<p>Size of the school, strength of the major/departments, quality of peers all play a part. Most state schools do any number of programs extremely well, (like music, special, general education for teachers, nursing, many liberal arts and sciences). Some have great reps in specialized fields, UMich and Indiana/Jacobs in music performance for example.</p>
<p>From a personal experience, ours is not the norm. Both s & d had pretty narrow majors, son was music performance/mus ed, d a concentration in small animal care (not vet,pre-vet, or vet tech).</p>
<p>We looked at state schools for both. While music ed at our flagship was a very good program, (as well as at a smaller state college), his performance aspect dictated that the quality of instruction, performing organizations, and peer level were far below what was available at many privates.</p>
<p>Our state school (s) did not even offer d’s program, and we examined another NE state flagship that did have it. It was a great program, and we could have gotten a reciprocal out of state reduction in costs because it was not offered within our own state’s curriculum. We found a nationally recognized program at a small private college that better suited my d’s needs.</p>
<p>Scholarship and talent awards for each kid made costs equal to or slightly less than our costs would have been at state u.</p>
<p>Again, our situation was somewhat unique, and if either kid had different plans, (if s was straight music ed, d prevet or vet sciences), we/they probably would have strongly considered our public.</p>
<p>I think alot will depend on how your’s and son’s specific needs situation develops over the next few years.</p>
<p>I attended Ohio State as an undergrad and Cornell as a grad student in engineering, both large universities. To be very honest, I did not find them to be significantly different. And like most people who have graduate degrees, I have greater fondness for OSU, my undergrad alma mater.</p>
<p>Academically they were quite similar as far as I can tell, both in terms of the material covered, instructor expectations and class size in my Civil Engineering major. The major difference was the quality of the student body. By junior year the top half of the OSU class was probably similar to the overall Cornell class. And of course far more students at OSU failed to return during frosh and, to a lesser extent, soph year. It was always a bit sad to return from term break and find that one of our dorm mates had not returned.</p>
<p>Socially, the Greek system was somewhat more promanent at Cornell due to the fact that a greater %age of students were in frats or sororities. And of course nothing can compare to OSU on a football weekend, both on campus and in the surrounding community. Word on the street was that the libraries were very quiet on those 5 Saturday afternoons. I was in Ohio Stadium on those days.</p>
<p>So to take a reverse take on the OP question, I was fortunate to attend a public university as an undergrad given the state of my family’s financial resources. If I had had to load up on student loans to attend a private undergrad university it is doubtful that I would have been able to attend grad school right away and it is difficult to imagine how my life would have changed. After all I met my wife during my grad school days!!!</p>
<p>I’m going to Sonoma State University next fall, which is a very small Cal State U (it used to be a LAC before CSU took it on, and has only ~8,000 students). I think that for me, the choice was easy because Sonoma had everything I wanted (small, far enough away that I’d have to move out but close enough that I could jump on a plane and be home in an hour or two, nice weather, etc.) plus their reputation for having a wonderful Psychology department (my major).</p>
<p>I did look at some private colleges, but most of the ones that would have suited me were either too expensive or too far away for both my and my parents’ comfort (I’m a first-gen student and the only of the three kids in the family to go straight to a university, so they want to keep me close).</p>
<p>I think State Us get too much of a bad rap from CC…I think if you’re going to a good program, there’s nothing wrong with it so long as the student is happy. That’s what’s important, after all.</p>
<p>Your question is very timely for me as my eldest S who will be graduating from a most selective LAC this spring and I just had this conversation on Friday. Although he has a choice of job offers at this moment, he feels that had he gone to a state u he would have stood out more in his graduating class.</p>
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<p>I really question anyone who would say this. Your son’s statement reveals both an ignorance about public universities and those who attend them, and, I suspect, an over-inflated sense of himself, his own LAC, and his peers. </p>
<p>The quality of state universities vary, certainly; without exception, however-- they all have one thing in common-- they’re much bigger than any LAC. Consequently, many more extremely bright, capable, intellectually curious, and hard-working students will be attending the state university than your “most selective LAC.” If your son thinks he would have “stood out more in his graduating class” at a state university, he is kidding himself. He seriously needs to re-think that one.</p>
<p>Nevermind.</p>
<p>For my d., the private college has cost less than half what the state university would have. Was the school at least half as good as the state u? You bet. ;)</p>
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<p>I find this statement by janieblue to be harsh and unnecessarily critical. As a mom of a kid attending a state U, I was not offended by worrywart’s comment above.</p>
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<p>IMO, “Could you have done just as well at State?” and “Was it worth it to you in the long run?” are very different, somewhat unrelated questions. </p>
<p>I made my final choice between two privates (one university, one LAC) and an in-state public (Berkeley), and I ultimately chose the LAC. I certainly could have gotten a top-notch education, made wonderful friends, and worked with exceptional faculty at any of the three schools. Berkeley would not have been a poor choice for me. In fact, there were many reasons that I was drawn to the school (incidentally, I chose it over privates for grad study). So, believing that I could have excelled elsewhere, do I feel that my private LAC was worth its price tag? Absolutely (and thankfully, my parents agree). </p>
<p>I definitely wouldn’t say that any private would be a better choice than any state school, from the perspective of any student. I don’t think there’s any general, inherent reason that publics are better or worse than privates, or more or less worth their costs. For one thing, there’s just too much variation between schools…one public school might actually be more similar to many privates than to a particular other public! But overall, variation between students is the big issue. Where he’ll excel, what’s “worth” what, etc. depends on an individual’s personality and interests, finances, goals, and probably a hundred other factors. </p>
<p>I’ve met state school students who think that anyone choosing a private must be prestige-conscious and money-wasting, and I’ve met private school students who think that their $200K education makes them better than other people. Of course, neither of these things is anything close to true, and the vast majority of students seem to realize it. There are plenty of stereotypes and generalizations about public/private schools, but that distinction in itself really doesn’t say much about a place. IMO, it’s a far less important consideration than Uni/LAC, big/small, or expensive/affordable–not to even mention other “fit” factors–none of which fall exclusively along public/private lines.</p>
<p>Encourage your son to look at a wide variety of schools. If finances will be a limiting factor, be frank about the fact, but do know your options (privates that offer merit-aid, public LAC’s, etc.). In the end, if your son has the luxury of choice, I recommend counseling him on any stakes (such as debt), and then allowing him to trust his gut. It’s not necessary to shell out $$$ for a private education (whether because the private school is actually low-cost or because State U offers equally excellent opportunities), but to me, this doesn’t mean that the right private school can’t still be worth a high price-tag. I can’t say that my private college was worth $X more than State U would have been. Who knows, and how could you quantify that? But I can say, subjectively, that my school was worth what we paid for it.</p>
<p>OP: If you want a more specific, personalized story re: how my private college benefited me, I’m happy to elaborate through PM. But of course, I don’t have the experience to say that I wouldn’t have benefited equally (though differently) at any other school, state schools included.</p>
<p>Just talked about this with a long-time friend. We’ve known each other for decades, went through jr. and senior high together. Then we moved onto parallel tracks for both undergrad and grad: he at in-state, single-initial, private universities, me at (very highly regarded) state schools. We got our degrees in very similar fields…and now both work at the same place, doing very similar types of work. </p>
<p>I asked him a few weeks ago if he was to have a child, would he feel that the education and life experience he got at his undergrad institution was worth paying twice as much as what I got at the public equivalent? He’s still mulling it over! He loved his time in undergrad, he’d be happy to have a hypothetical kid of his have the same experience, but he wasn’t convinced it would be worth **him<a href=“as%20opposed%20to%20his%20parents”>/b</a> paying that extra $100k. </p>
<p>Then again, maybe he was just being polite. 
Or not–our undergrad schools have a fierce athletic rivalry, and we have a long tradition of insulting each other’s alma maters at the drop of a hat.</p>
<p>momof2inca…you took the words out of my mouth. I thought worrywart’s post was not offensive at all, and passed along personal perspective that the OP asked for. I agree with those who say that most people probably wouldn’t necessarily say that their choices oh-so-long ago were all wrong. I will admit that H and I both graduated from 2 different public universities in the same state (but neither of us were at the state-flagship)…we tend to be in the pro-public corner…but it all depends on the situation and the student(s) involved. </p>
<p>Dke, when it came to decision time for D1, it was very, very difficult because it became an apples and oranges comparison. I think it’s important to look at lots of options, and in the end, it frequently becomes a question of what “feels” right.</p>
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<p>I don’t think my comment was at all harsh. For anyone who will be graduating this spring from a “most selective LAC” (and let me add, that description might be relative), and who already has several job offers in his pocket-- to look back and say that, “had he gone to a public university, he knows he would have stood out more” is offensive on so many levels, I honestly don’t know where to begin to point out the reasons why. But I’ll try.</p>
<p>Of course, public universities and their strengths vary greatly (as do LACs). To make a statement like that, though, he has to believe that (1) he and his fellow students are brilliant and outstanding, with no peers-- certainly not at publics; (2) Since he obviously didn’t attend a public university, he either doesn’t know, or won’t admit, that at a public-- like Berkeley-- or any of the top 5 publics-- as examples-- there will be many more top, high achieving students, than the number who attend his entire LAC. So, how is it again, that he would have stood out more? (3) For most students at publics, they learn early on how to navigate a large school and how to make the most of their time there. How does he know, since he went to a LAC, that he might have actually done very poorly at a large school-- that, in fact, he needed a smaller school to get the most out of his experience? </p>
<p>There are many and varied reasons why someone would choose a LAC, or a mid-sized private university, or a mid-sized or larger public. Can anyone truly say how he or she might have fared if the choice had been made differently? He doesn’t know what connections he may have made at a public, or what class or professor might have turned him on to a completely different major, or because publics have so many more majors and outstanding research opportunities-- how that might have changed his life plans-- just so many variables to consider.</p>
<p>So, again, the statement her son made can <em>only</em> be made from ignorance. He simply doesn’t have the necessary information, or knowledge, to make a blanket statement like that. He also makes unsubstantiated and wild assumptions about the type of students who might attend publics-- all of which I actually did find offensive.</p>
<p>To the OP: I will just add that if the CC common viewpoint about publics, and those who attend, is any indication of what your son might encounter in the real world-- then, definitely go with a private. Of course, just like publics, privates vary greatly, and by the time your 14 year old is ready to go, they may be up to ~$60K+ a year, but one thing is for sure-- he won’t have to deal with the whole public school bias.</p>
<p>Can I speak for my husband? I wish he hadn’t gone private so we’d have less debt and we could pay for my daughter to go to private. Of course I’m just kidding. It’s all good!</p>
<p>I must admit, until I come to CC, it would have been fine with me if my D considered nothing but UC’s.</p>
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Of course people can do just as well at ‘State’. How well one does will typically come down to the individual. If the same individual decides to go to a state school they think can meet their needs well versus a private that can meet those same needs, then it probably won’t make much, if any, difference. If it’s a high-achieving individual they’ll end up doing well in either place.</p>
<p>I don’t know why some people think that privates somehow inherently will provide a better education than any state school. There’s a large variation in the state schools as well as the private schools. There’s even a variation within a particular school depending on the major one takes and even more, what one makes of it.</p>
<p>I think it’s best not to generalize on the point of ‘public versus private’ and instead, look at what the individual student hopes to achieve and what the individual school has to offer. </p>
<p>And the student who thinks they would have stood out more at the public, maybe they would have but maybe they wouldn’t have. I can tell you that at both UCSD and UCLA (and other top state publics) there are thousands of extremely well qualified students with top stats entering those schools and when you look at some of the difficult engineering and science programs the stats are even higher.</p>
<p>I understand your points, jainieblue, but I think to call a CC mom’s son ignorant is harsh and to assume that her son, and by silent consent she, was judging students in state schools as inferior is, well, a pretty big assumption on your part. I will leave it to her to clarify what her son meant, if she chooses, or to agree or disagree, but coming from a family where literally everyone attended state schools from grandparents to parents to kids, and now our D will likely be the first in both family lines to go to a private, I was not offended in the least. And still am not. I just don’t see her kid’s statement as a slam, perhaps a little naive… and that’s the word I might suggest for you as a more nuanced substitute. Otherwise it seems like you are pouncing.</p>