<p>New to the forum. Apart from the IVYs and NESCACs are the private colleges worth the tution they charge?</p>
<p>Do you mean LAC’s like Swarthmore etc. If so, I would say they are.</p>
<p>What’s a “designer” college?</p>
<p>Depends on the student and depends on the amount of tuition.</p>
<p>And how much tuition the student actually has to pay vs. list price. And how good the designer is of course.</p>
<p>Our daughter attends Santa Clara University. We feel it’s worth every penny we’re paying. She’s an engineering major. I can’t say enough good things about the school. Yes, it’s expensive, but for our daughter it was a terrific choice.</p>
<p>^don’t mean to sidetrack too much but thumper1, what are the special qualities you like in Santa Clara?</p>
<p>I’ll send you a PM. Not wishing to highjack the thread.</p>
<p>What the heck are NESCACs???</p>
<p>New England Small College Athletic Conference: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamiton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan and Williams.</p>
<p>You mean like RISD?</p>
<p>If a student is sufficiently talented to get in, yeah RISD is worth the price!</p>
<p>It depends on a lot of factors. My son chose an expensive liberal arts college that is not well known, and far away from home over a full ride+. Had our circumstances been different he would not have had the choice even with the merit money, outside scholarship and his own earnings, savings and loan. However, we could see the attraction and benefit of this school. He truly could not get what he could get there at many schools, and this school was tops in that style. He had good reason for wanting to go there. Though H (and I to a lesser degree) had other ideas, we could see that this was not just some whim. We think this will be worth the price.</p>
<p>My second son chose our state school after looking at all of his alternatives. He could have cost 3 times the amount going to a school with more “name” than he chose. BUt the state school really had what he wanted, actually he like certain aspects of it more, and to him the cost would not have been worth it. Had he been accepted to programs at his first choice schools, he would have wanted to pay the much higher cost and gone there, but given his choices, he went with the less expensive one because he did not feel it made a difference. He had no cost pressure from us in making that decision, and I would have preferred that he picked the private school. But it was his choice, and I think he was right now that he is in his 4th year there.</p>
<p>My first son did pick a designer name school, though not the top name of his choices. It was not a cost issue to him or a name issue. He liked that school the best. However, he told me that he would have been fine at our state school and several much less costly choices and in retrospect they would have been better matches for him. It was a mistake to choose as he did. But these things do happen. </p>
<p>One thing that I am proud about my kids despite a lot of their issues is their abilities to look beyond peer pressure and prestige in picking their schools and other things. Not to say, they were right in their choices; my oldest did not pick well. But they did pick according to things that were dear to them, not perception. That it did not work out was just one of those things, not because the thought did not go into it. SOme kids just pick the school with the best name regardless of fit, cost or if that is what they really want.</p>
<p>As with any purchase, if the buyer is well-informed, the purchase of an expensive college education is “worth it.” If you wanted a DVD of “The Big Lebowski,” would it be “worth it” to you to buy the commemorative edition in a case shaped like a bowling ball? It might be. You might think that case is cool, or that edition might have extras that you want so you can study the movie more closely. But if all you want to do is watch the movie a couple of times, you would be just as happy buying a used DVD at Blockbuster.
A college education is not just one thing; it’s a collection of things, some of which matter to some people more than others. What’s important is (1) knowing what you want; (2) finding out what schools provide what you want; and (3) figuring out if you have the money to pay for it.</p>
<p>I want to understand “designer” college? Is any private college not located in the Northeast (NESCAC and Ivies) a designer college? </p>
<p>And my S would LOVE a bowling-ball shaped, special edition “Big Lebowski”! Does such a thing exist?</p>
<p>It certainly does. Behold:
[Amazon.com:</a> The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary Limited Edition: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, Philip Moon, Mark Pellegrino, Peter Stormare, Flea, Torsten Voges, Ethan](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Big-Lebowski-10th-Anniversary-Limited/dp/B001AEF6CW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1227135276&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Big-Lebowski-10th-Anniversary-Limited/dp/B001AEF6CW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1227135276&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>For the boy who has everything! Thanks</p>
<p>Hunt, in 10 years I will expect you to steer us toward a commemorative edition of Twilight in the shape of a Vampire Fang</p>
<p>I’d add the Patriot League schools (Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, etc) to the designer list, along with a couple of Centennial schools like F&M and Dickinson…I think it depends. These schools have great alumni networks - someone had another thread on that that was very revealing. D is applying to some of these - if she gets accepted at the same ‘price tag’ as some of the lower tiered schools that have already guaranteed her merit money, it is a no-brainer. But if we had to pay full-freight that is another story…</p>
<p>Maybe there’s a designer list, and a shorter couture list.</p>