If a student is accepted by both of a very expensive top private university and very cheap state university with the same major, are you willing to pay for the expensive top university instead of very cheap state university and why?
Are you willing to pay or loan for the expensive ivy or top 20 schools instead of cheap state Univ.?
I wouldnât take out a lot of loans for the top private college however I might pay more for the private college experience if I had planned for and saved for the high cost of college.
This is a complex question where: type of major, what colleges (public/private) are we talking about (e.g. Middle Tennessee State vs. UPenn); best fit, internships, job prospoects, etc is an important part of the equation? I donât think the low cost option is always the best nor is the most expensive the best option, the devil is in the details.
There are far too many variables to consider with such a generic question. There are many (huge understatement!) threads on CC where people pose questions regarding prestige, value, overpaying, etc.
Two of the largest factors that affect the decision are the familiyâs financial situation and the individual student. With the first factor, family financial situation, realize there are different degrees of affordability. With the second factor, the student, thereâs so much to considerâŠstudent ability, their wants versus needs, degree of resiliency, expectations, self-awareness, etc. Having said that, cost is not the indicator I would use when determining the quality of the educational and personal experience.
Yes, if I was a pre-med student. You want to leave your undergrad with a small possible amount of debt.
Answer is it depends. On a number of factors. Many of which have already been identified above. Kids that are accepted at an Ivy are likely to have gotten accepted at a lower cost school (safety if nothing else). It wont be uncommon for at least one of those other schools to offer merit scholarships making that school âcheapâ (and certainly if you are looking full pay at an Ivy). So the decision isnât uncommon. And those decisions go both ways. Again, depends on a number of factors.
We were willing- and we did.
YMMV. In our case, we had two professional incomes throughout our marriage, were in good health, had life insurance, health insurance, had saved aggressively for both retirement and education, bought a more modest house than the formulas said we could âaffordâ and lived beneath our income in order to pay for college. If any of these things hadnât happened, weâd have had a different plan.
Never regretted it- even when we went from two incomes to one at one point while the kids were in college. We tightened our belts and made it work until the parent found another job. We were very lucky- being in a stable marriage helps a lot- divorce is a wealth destroyer even with the most amicable parting. We were healthy-- more luck- weâve got family members who are disabled or havenât been able to work at the jobs they trained for, and that sucks the income potential right out of the air.
I think money talks here really loud - with our family of 4 kids. If one got into an IVY, Iâm guessing that kid would have some cheap options elsewhere. As parents, we canât take out huge loans for one kid and not the others; thatâs not right. If the total difference between the two colleges was say $50K or less, then weâd probably think about it! but if it were a lot more than that, nope. Thankfully we are in the midwest where the culture isnât elite-driven.
kid around the corner turned down an Ivy a few years ago cuz of costs. Heâs at a small local unranked private college and happy as heck.
I agree with @blossom, concerning luck and the benefit of a stable marriage and good health. We feel fortunate in those areas. We also have no regrets about our childrenâs education.
But in our case, while we could âaffordâ any university, we chose the cheaper state universityâŠsaving ~$120K per child. Both DD17 (Big 3 Consulting) and DS19 (financial consulting) attended our flagship, UIUC and majored in Business. Both have found employment and work/will work beside graduates from Ivy and top 20 schoolsâŠbut as blossom stated, YMMV.
As parents we do the best we can for our kids. We make decisions based on our values. We neednât conform to the standards of others. In my opinion, a parent doesnât have to prove âtheir loveââŠor prove that they âvalue educationâ. Doing the âbest we can for our kidsâ can take many different forms. Talking with our childrenâŠearly and often, can pay dividends. For us we saved close to a quarter of a million dollars (mind boggling to me!) and our kids donât feel deprived at all - lucky indeedâŠand very grateful.
I think I would have paid $15K more a year for an Ivy compared to a state university that meets my studentâs needs. I know people here will say there are too many variables to answer that question to me most just donât want to say. It is a what if question. If you donât have general idea of what you might do if your student did get accepted then to me you might have to scramble to make a decision. I believe in being somewhat ready for the question if it does come up.
We discussed college costs with our two kids before they sent their applications. We also discussed their application choicesâŠwhich really were not an issue at all.
We agreed to fund the college of their choice from the places to which they applied. No restrictions. In other words, they were very free to choose the lowest ranking school on their application list as well as the most costly. Because we had the conversation about money and college choices before the applications were sent.
SoâŠnoâŠwe did not say we would fund only high flying colleges at a higher cost.
And we also did not say our kids had to matriculate to the lowest costing school.
And a quick comment- we didnât find state colleges âCheapâ. Cheaper, for sure. But our own state flagship did not have the major one kid wanted, so the âcheaperâ option was another stateâs flagship-transportation costs, out of state fees, etc. didnât make this a âcheapâ option- just a less expensive one. And I know a lot of kids who end up at the âcheapâ option on the five or six year program- six years of tuition and room/board at the âcheapâ option vs. four years at a place which has a significant commitment to getting kids in and out in four years with a degree- thatâs a consideration as well.
Letâs specific. If the ivy school or top 20 university costs at least $30k more than the local college with the same major for 4 years, are you willing to pay for the expensive top school? If you are pretty rich, please ignore the question. Thanks for sharing.
@compiler I am sorry to say but you are not going to get a ton of answers to your question. People here just donât want to say. I asked a very similar question about 1-2 months ago and really got no one to bite. I was given all the reasons with all the variables and rankings for specific majors, etc. I got the feeling people just donât want to say. Like I said earlier I would have gone up $15K per year and that would have mainly been loans for my D19 if the situation had come up.
You might want to review this thread I started back in April that has lots of opinions on this subject:
This may well be the most discussed topic on this board. Plenty of people answer it. Repeatedly actually.
You can ignore my response (yes we were full freight, and yes, our kids had cheaper state school options) since itâs clearly not giving you the answer you want. But you asked and I answered. We are not rich, but we planned ahead; I did not leave the workforce on a 15 year maternity leave like many of my friends and peers; we did not send the kids to fancy camps or give them private sports lessons or get them involved in expensive ECâs like many people I know who canât afford college but didnât hesitate to write the check to the gymnastics or tennis coach.
To each his or her own. We werenât rich but saving for college was a priority, and when the time came, we kicked the tires on a wide range of options (public, merit award, full pay) and chose to be full pay and donât regret it.
Paying 20-25k year for a state university is not very cheap.
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Iâll bite. I wasnât willing to take out any educational loans for my D or for her to graduate with any student loans. I also wasnât willing to pay the going freight for an Ivy/elite school. She took a full ride and will graduate having made money on the deal and gotten a high quality education. I donât fawn over elite schools. I attended 2 of them and got a great education. But there is no mystique there for me to justify huge loans or $70-$80k per year price tags.
But would they have gotten admitted to the colleges with high four year graduation rates? The main reason that colleges with high four year graduation rates have high four year graduation rates is that they are more selective and therefore have stronger students who are academically capable of carrying full course loads that lead to four year graduation (plus more likely to have some AP/IB credit to make up minor shortfalls).
Also, many students end up at âcheapâ options because that is all that they can (barely) afford, so graduation may be delayed because they have to take reduced course loads or gap semesters to accommodate working to earn money to pay for college.
At the end of the day it is what the family can afford and what value means to them, but i donât think there are many cases where taking out significant loans can be justified.
There is also wide variability between âcheap state universitiesâ. Flagships like UIUC, Cal/UCLA, Michigan, UNC-CH etc are a very different âcheap universityâ than many non flagships or say Nebraska, Tennessee etc.