<p>By the way pricier schools are not just made up of wealthy students. In fact, many private schools have good need based aid. Also merit aid. My own children are middle class and went to expensive privates for college and grad school (Brown, MIT, NYU/Tisch) and have received significant aid, enough to bring the price down. And I would have paid for them to attend schools in between those very selective schools and say, Lyndon State here in Vermont, because Lyndon State would not have met their learning needs. I have nothing against public schools, mind you, and my kids attended no name public high schools that many here likely would never consider sending their kids.</p>
<p>I cross posted with you, m-3 as I am doing more than one thing at a time.
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<p>But here’s the thing…the “worth” of the expense in your post #219 is tied to your D not making the most or achieving to your level of satisfaction at her school, which is more about what is worth the money for YOUR particular child, but not what schools are worth the money overall. That’s the difference. A highly motivated achiever type student might find the educational experience more appropriate and enriching at say, Muhlenberg, Skidmore, Clark, or St.Lawrence, than say at Fitchburg State, Salem State, Castleton State, Ramapo, or Kean and thus worth the expense to his/her parents.</p>
<p>No doubt blossom. There are highly motivated kids everywhere and that is my point. If someone were to ask me if there very bright high stat, high GPA kid should settle for a state U vs a much better school than I would say “if it is’nt going to take food off your table” than go for the better school. The very motivated kid is being short changed simply by the students he/she is surrounded by and attending class with. The critical thinker needs to be in an environment with like peers. Many kids will do very well at state schools and as I said there are exceptions to state schools and two that cross my mind are UVA and Chapel Hill. There are others …but for the most part my state U has left us disappointed when I know my daughter worked harder at her CC than she is now. This is a new semester and I am hoping to see the work pile on or at least the need to study. Achieving a high GPA is not the most important thing to me…I value the kid who can think.</p>
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<p>No, you have not named any schools. I believe you have made sweeping generalizations about types of schools…non-elite privates and other lesser known privates and then state universities. I gave schools as examples of the generalizations you made in making my own points. I did not tie you to any of those schools specifically.</p>
<p>I believe that list price is beginning to flatten: CMU, once the pricing leader, has two consecutive years of <3.% increases.</p>
<p>DS freshman year 2002, Tuition, R & B: $32,000. USNWR was then two years behind (3 years at time of 2002 announcemnt. I had budgeted $28,000.)
DS graduation yr 2006, Tuition, R & B; $41,000, returning student. Tuition alone > total 2002.
CMU’s advertised 2010, tuition, R & B: $52,000. Entering freshman.</p>
<p>I know that we can’t do it today, even though we were then full pay, The busts of the financial markets 2000, 2002, and 2008, have not been kind. We barely recovered by 2006 and only with high loan hedging and above average risk management.</p>
<p>momma-three- I don’t buy the “friend’s son attended Scranton.” Come on. We aren’t that dumb. My money is on your daughter at Scranton and then, let’s just take a wild guess and mine would be one of the lesser NJ state schools mentioned in Soozie’s post.</p>
<p>I have never stated the stats of any of my kids on this forum. I learned way back that a test is a test and not a benchmark of who a kid is. I am far more interested in highschool GPA’s especially coupled with AP scores and SAT2’s. The SAT could swing any way if a kid is sick on a particular day. For that reason alone I know I never would have posted their scores. They have all done well on these exams but the real clincher was how they performed on SAT II’s and AP exams. Kids attending selective highschools do not do better because the instruction is worlds better, it is because they are surrounded by like minded peers who together make the learning environment a richer more satisfying place. The exception of course would be the elite privates where grade 12 is similar to freshman year of college.</p>
<p>Momof WildChild…I have nothing to hide. I have discussed my feelings about Scranton on the Scranton thread because my dearest friends son (my Godchild) attended. My friend was very supportive of me during my ordeal with my daughter and I often took rides with her to see her son at Scranton. I had liked the school initially and would have thought it a good place for my daughter but no it was not one of our schools. My daughter visited because it was the half way point to Cornell but she thought it was too small. </p>
<p>MomOfWildChild…You have an ax to grind so grind it elsewhere. Does your kid go to Scranton? You are over paying and that my dear would be my friend telling you that.</p>
<p>And, based on your post from last year in your thread about brining your daughter home from a catholic school because of difficulty with the required core philosophy and theology classes (IIRC) <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063533828-post163.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063533828-post163.html</a>
You mentioned the schools Soozie referenced above. You have also mentioned in your recent thread about your daughter that she was signed up for a short January winter term, but unfortunately had difficulty getting up in time for her classes. A quick look at the academic calendars of Rutgers, TCNJ, Montclair and Ramapo shows no winter term-- just that Spring semester began the Tues after MLK day. Kean, however, had a Winter term from Jan 3-14. Kean is not THE flagship U. It is a lower level state U with a large commuter component (only 15% live in campus housing). I could continue to look for NJ schools with a winter term, but I don’t really think it’s necessary…</p>
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<p>momma-three, in due respect, I feel a need to reply to your post addressing me because it sounds like I made up something. I only know what YOU have posted. And you don’t owe me ANY explanations. I will simply admit my OWN confusion from reading your posts and that is why I mentioned your D’s stats in relation to the conversation here, based on reading your body of posts over the years on CC.</p>
<p>You have said you have four children…a son who graduated MIT this past May, class of 2010, two sons who are seniors at Cornell, and a D who is now a junior at a state college who transferred from a private university after her freshmen year to a CC last year and then to a non-flagship state university this past fall semester. </p>
<p>However, my confusion and where I read about “stats” in relation to your youngest child, the daughter, now a junior in college who was in the HS class of 2008 is this from your posts in May of 2007 in a thread you began in asking for help in finding colleges for a student with low SATs:</p>
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<p>Hence, my confusion as this appears to be about your daughter, as she was a rising senior at the time, and you mention having two older achieving sons, and you provided her stats. </p>
<p>As well, you posted her GPA stats after her freshmen year at her private university. </p>
<p>I AM ONLY MENTIONING THIS BECAUSE you appear to be saying I made it up or something and I felt a need to respond to you that I am just reading your OWN posts. This is where I got the information, since you asked me above.</p>
<p>(you also posted when D was in CC about not applying to Rutgers (too big) and that she was not apt to be admitted to TCNJ…if you want, I can find the posts but I just don’t want to be accused of making it up and I do get confused in following your posts, but am basing my responses ONLY on what YOU POSTED ON CC)</p>
<p>I would not have quoted your previous CC posts normally but only did so because you asked where I got such information. I had paraphrased it but now quoted it to set the record straight as I did not want to appear as if I fabricated the information.</p>
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<p>I really have nothing of value to add, but my dander is up. Please tell me you are not saying your daughter’s sub par education is because she is surrounded by the common folk?</p>
<p>I sincerely hope your daughter is unaware of your less than stellar opinion of her school.</p>
<p>My earliest posts were few and far between and I did not want my kids highschool friend parents to know who we were. I never thought I would become a regular on the board. The low stat kid was not my child however I would need to see the dates of the posts to know who I might have been asking about. I also never mentioned my oldest when I first came on CC because I did’nt know about CC at the time of his admissions. I figured it was better not to mention him because he was already in and I did’nt need to know anything…the only thing that mentioning him has done has been to identify me to two friends that also come on CC. </p>
<p>Dear Jym…Rutgers has a winter term!!! Your eye spy game is disgusting.</p>
<p>From the number of posts M-3 posted about Scranton, I would guess that it is indeed the college her daughter started at back in Fall 2008. I’m with MOWC on this one.</p>
<p>And regarding stats, M-3 also mentioned the 3.0 GPA “son” back in 2007 as having SATs in the 1500 range for all three parts, as well as mentioning that her Cornell sons had SATs around 2100 and 4.0 GPAs. So she has indeed posted stats for her children.</p>
<p>Also, M-3 posted that her daughter would be matriculating at TCNJ at one point.</p>
<p>I did not see the several posts before mine when I posted as I have gone back and forth to the screen while writing my post. </p>
<p>I still am not able to reconcile the notion that you don’t think non-elite privates are worth the money and yet are dissatisfied with non-flagship state U and the level of students it seems to attract (your words). Based on that, it might be worth the money to attend a more selective private (non-elite) to get the kind of student body you seek. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I think it is more tied to the particular kid in terms of what he or she actually achieves.</p>
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Really? Not according to their academic calendar they don’t m-3 [Rutgers:</a> Scheduling, Space Management & Enhanced Classroom Support (University Academic Calendar)](<a href=“http://scheduling.rutgers.edu/calendar.shtml]Rutgers:”>Academic Calendar | Academic Scheduling and Instructional Space) <a href=“http://scheduling.rutgers.edu/calendar.shtml[/url]”>http://scheduling.rutgers.edu/calendar.shtml</a>
Maybe there is a confusion between “rutgers” University and “rotgut” university 
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<p>You sure are on the defensive for someone who has “nothing to hide”. It is not a “spy game”. It is a matter of trying to make sense out of what is becoming increasingly non-sensical. Really, what is the point of all the inconsistencies? According to Soozies posts above, there are at one point 2 other (older) sons and a 3rd younger son? Then there are 3 older sons and a younger daughter? Please understand that it not only makes it difficult to follow, it makes posters question the veracity of all this.</p>
<p>Soozie and Jym You guys are fierce. I guess no one could disagree with either of you or they are in for a rehash of all prior posts you have ever written. I find your post offensive and if you can’t understand that way back when I was posting I was the only one in my community who had two sons at Cornell and one son at MIT. Do you not realize that my identity was easy to figure out. Somewhere along the line one of my friends knew that it was me posting and the secret was out. But what you have done here today is nothing short of disgusting. My daughter did not attend Scranton and is in fact at the state flagship. So does it make you feel any better to do what you have done? Did it give you great pleasure in trying to accomplish something where you obviously have little understanding. This is a public forum and if you want to out me than use my name because by now I am sure you must have figured that out to. You can say what you want but nobody is allowed to disagree with you. I stated a simple statement that I do not believe it is worth it to pay big bucks for a no name private school when the same education can be had at state schools. You had to know if I meant directional schools or flagship schools. What the heck is wrong with the two of you? Than you go back to read prior posts like two snooping dogs and think that I would actually put my daughters school on this sight. You must be kidding me…you are a sorry bunch.</p>
<p>Yes Jym and you win the price for the most tenacious ghost buster.</p>
<p>Momma-three,
Many of us have spend countless hours trying to help you and posters like you with ideas, suggestions, etc. As we have said above - we are increasingly puzzled and confused. It is difficult to follow the bouncing ball when the stories continuously change. You can get as defensive and as angry as you want, and do as much name-calling as you feel will make you feel better, but if anyone has a right to be angry, it is the posters here who have been trying to be helpful and then find they have been lied to. Are we now going to be told to go f ourselves too?</p>
<p>How do I say this nicely, but in plain English?</p>
<p>A group of you are descending upon momma-three like a pack of wolves. It sounds personal. I think many of us reading would appreciate it if you would all lighten up.</p>
<p>I understand exactly what she is saying. It is her opinion, and her experience. Not all of us have many millions to spend on whatever we want, yet we will have to pay full price for college, painfully. If we are going to pay 200K for our children, it had better be an incredible education. It needs to have great job prospects after graduation (hence the desire to have a well known institution, and be an education that our children will rise to the challenge of. Otherwise, it’s just not worth spending the money. Sure, maybe if the kid gets plenty of financial/merit aid for attending a small private college, that is a factor. There is no way I would have paid full price for many of the available colleges for our older son, when the local university offers a great education for 8K/year. These decisions are not made in a vacuum. Everyone has a different opinion on such a huge investment and it is hard to criticize anyone else’s experience.</p>
<p>m-3, sorry to upset you. I am only responsible for my OWN posts, not those of any other member. I responded to you because you addressed ME in saying you didn’t know where I got information about your D’s “stats” and I have been following your story on CC as I have been a regular member for years. I have tried to reach out and help on some of your threads. I felt a need to respond with showing you where I got those ideas from your own posts. Otherwise, I would have said nothing. I felt you had insinuated I made it up.I have not named any schools your D may have attended or currently attends as you have not named them. I have ONLY quoted or paraphrased your own posts on CC and NOTHING more.</p>