<p>*.if this student has no financial need…his merit scholarships will be the only kind of aid he will be eligible for. We always tell kids with low need to go for the merit aid to help reduce the out of pocket costs. I’m not sure what you are telling this OP. If his kiddo doesn’t get need based aid but gets a merit scholarship,that WILL reduce their out of pocket costs. *</p>
<p>Since we have “no need” and our kids got merit scholarships I completely understand this concept that those with little or no need can use merit to reduce family costs. :)</p>
<p>Maybe I misunderstood the OP, but it sounded like she “ran the calculators” and came up with an EFC that she thought they “might” be able to afford but was looking for outside merit scholarships to reduce that EFC to an amount that they knew that they could afford. It doesn’t sound like their EFC equals COA since she ran the calculators and came up with a number that she thought they might be able to afford…that doesn’t sound like a number that is equal or close to COA.</p>
<p>BTW…if the EFC is within $10k of COA, the family might not expect much free money unless WashU doesn’t put loans in their FA packages. Often a near-$10k-need is filled with student loans and work study.</p>
<p>So, if their EFC is $35k which they can barely afford (and the H may not be happy with) and they have $20k of need, then cobbling together $10k in outside merit isn’t going to reduce their EFC one bit.</p>
<p>So true. My daughter’s major is a strange sounding derivative of something to do with some sort of vaguely related idea which sort of borders on her originally intended major. Suffice it to say I have no idea of what she is talking about half the time, but job prospects are good. ;)</p>
<p>I find this highly ironic, since these boards are FULL of advice for pre-meds to go to the cheapest, least competitive schools in order to cover the pre-med curriculum and get the best possible grades at the lowest possible cost.</p>
<p>In fact, it is the humanities major who benefits the most from going to the best possible school and being in small discussion classes with the most dedicated, intelligent, and articulate peers. Doctors can go anywhere as long as they can get a good score on the MCAT.</p>
<p>Your H needs to stop listening to ill-informed, obnoxious people.</p>
<p>I believe that name of UG is not important. Future success depends more on student, what they get out of it, not UG college name. If any name is of any importance, then it would be Grad. school, not UG. College senior D. has chosen tuition free UG (numerous Merit scholarships) vs expansive elite college and has done just fine. We will support her financially thru Grad. School, since she saved us so much $$ in UG. Definitely winning strategy in her case. She had many more great experiences and awesome opportunities at her UG than we originally invisioned, including academically, outside of academia, financially, living conditions…and many more. She is afraid that no Grad. School will match her pretty UG campus.</p>
<p>^^ People keep saying “the name of the undergrad is not important” but there are circumstances where this is simply not true. I have had my vitae reviewed frequently, been in depositions and testified in court as an “expert witness” on many occasions. I also frequently get a request from potential clients (typically in the forensic arena or as a consultant) to see a copy of my vitae before they retain me. A summary of my background/educations is also printed when I give presentations. It is on my website as well. I happen to have attended grad school at a neighboring state’s flagship that is a rival of the state flagship where I currently live. We usually make light of that in these circumstances, but almost without fail I get positive comments/impressions about my undergrad LAC, which has name recognition, even in my current locale, far from the LAC. So, in circumstances where your vitae/resume is likely be to be looked at frequently, or clients are going to look at the diplomas on your wall, it can make a difference… even 35 years down the road.</p>
<p>I went to #1 LAC. In 40 years, working on the east coast, west coast, and in the middle, I have never had a single employer who’d ever heard of it (except one who told be about the wonderful trip he and his wife took to Williamsburg.)</p>
<p>If your kid goes to Washington U., you can rest assured that the vast majority of employers will either think UWashington or George Washington. Most of the rest will question why anyone would choose to go to school in St. Louis.</p>
<p>The name of UG may not be important, but the education you get there is. Students coming out of better UG programs are more likely to get into fully funded grad programs (this is especially true for humanities and social sciences).
Going into med school, all that counts is GPA + MCAT. So it may make more sense to choose UG based solely on the cost for a premed, than for English major.
[As for that surgeon… I think an internist would have given you better advice :)]</p>
<p>I was teasing ya, mini (it was a reference to your authorship). I guess the lesson to be learned is if you are gonna go to a high-priced school, make it one with name recognition?? My older s went to a top 20 U that has terrible name recognition (ie most people have never heard of it).</p>
<p>To be clear, I don’t believe that (I don’t ascribe to the “lesson learned” I mentioned above). I believe that a student should, if he/she can, got to the most affordable and best fit school. It is an added plus if people happen to have heard of it, but if not… well that shows their limited repertoire, I guess.</p>
<p>**** ooh, you edited your post, mini-- so now mine sorta doesn’t make a lotta sense (and I liked your previous/ unedited post-- it was funny!)</p>
<p>Depends where you are, of course. Here in the midwest, people haven’t heard of George Washington University for the most part (“did you screw up the name of Georgetown somehow?”), nor do they have any impression of U of Washington other than “oh, well, that must be the state university for people in Washington State”) and a WashU degree will serve someone very, very well. </p>
<p>Rest assured they’ll know exactly what WashU is. It’s George Washington U and U of Washington that will make them scratch their heads. </p>
<p>This whole “no one will have ever heard of / they’ll confuse it with X” is SOOOOO regional.</p>
<p>Re rankings of English Departments: this is pretty subjective even on the PhD level–UVA, where I teach, has been rated #3 and #15 in different surveys–and often includes factors that don’t necessarily matter a whole lot to undergraduate majors (for instance, the depth and quality of the rare book collection). Some schools, like UPenn, are tops in the nation in some historical periods but don’t even have specialists in others. Small programs often get downgraded because their facilities and course offerings don’t seem as generous, but on the other hand fewer people are using them, so there isn’t a true difference in quality, just an apparent one. Johns Hopkins, for instance, often suffers in these ratings because its department is small and its library is pretty mediocre, but the faculty is excellent, and serious students there just use the Library of Congress or the Folger Library.</p>
<p>Another reason it’s hard to rank English Departments is that jobs have been scarce in humanities academia for the past 40 years, so that top faculty are scattered all over the place. </p>
<p>IMO a student can do an excellent English major at any of the Ivies, top LACs, other elite schools like WashU, Emory, etc., or any of the better state flagships. There are probably about 75 schools that are going to be giving a student essentially the same quality of undergraduate English education. You do, however, want to be going to school with other excellent students, because a lot of classes are taught in seminar/discussion format. It’s crucial for your education to have intelligent, ambitious peers (English majors or not) who are doing the reading carefully and who participate eagerly. </p>
<p>OP, my engineer father was horrified back in the day when I switched my major from biochemistry to English. Despite his concerns, I have had a successful career in which I make a more than comfortable six-figure salary. It IS trickier for English BAs than, say, computer science majors to transition to the workplace but it’s not true that they all end up stocking shelves at Walmart or serving coffee at Starbucks.</p>
<p>On the contrary, he’d better go to a highly-regarded school if he’s “just” taking English, because the lesser the school that granted one’s English degree, the scarcer the jobs and/or grad school admissions will be. There’s practically no demand for English majors from that perennial also-ran, Directional State University.</p>
<p>He’s not making the wrong choice. WashU is an excellent school, and English is an excellent subject. If it’s his passion, he’ll make it work. And there’s a good chance he’ll change his mind once he’s there, anyway.</p>
<p>I never cared what school my MD graduated from, do you? Impressive or not, I judge my MD on his personal merit, not his school. In fact, most places would not have MD’s from Harvard and they might not be the best ones any way. Meidcal Schools do not care about name of your UG if you happen to have great GPA and decent MCAT, and if not, forget it, Ivy will not save you. Very few proffessions will differentiate based on college name. Good writer is a good writer, the same for artist, actor, musician. Engineers are mostly hired locally by engineering firms.<br>
Maybe law? I do not know any other. “Harvard trained lawer” sounds good. I know one who actually has not been a lawer at all, but she gets introduced like that. And then after follow up inquiries about her job, nobody is impressed any more.
However, if one wants to have prestigious name attached to his for the rest of his life and has money to accomplish this, why not? For others, it is not worth it. It is a matter of personal preference, no right or wrong decision, should not listen to anybody, do what is important to you.</p>
<p>This thread illustrates some of the key issues I see facing parents and children as they face the college admissions process. People have different opinions based on their philosophy and path in life and resources they have.</p>
<p>Issue 1: Is the purpose of college for self - discovery and exploration or for career preparation? </p>
<p>Issue 2: How much can/should parents/students pay for college? Should it vary by exploration versus career preparation and by expected income?</p>
<p>By the way, D’s UG state school was ranked #2 in UG teaching, beating Harvard. I believe she got more than expected out of her classes there and enjoyed it and was surrounded by very top caliber students in her Honors college. We? Well after not paying UG tuition, why would we complain?</p>
<p>When considering a specialist, in particular, I DO care where (and when) he or she trained, because it is an indication of a) how smart s/he is, and b) how rigorous (and current) his or her technical knowledge in the field may be. </p>
<p>If you have cancer, for example, there is reason to prefer a doctor who trained at Harvard and in one of the great teaching/cancer hospitals of Boston. Or Sloan Kettering. Or Hopkins. Just to name a few.</p>
<p>This is all for naught if the doctor is an arrogant SOB who treats you like an idiot, of course, but it does indeed matter.</p>
<p>BTW, I have found that the doctors I’ve had who were educated at Ivies and top LACs were in general more articulate, and to outward appearances at least, more intelligent than the others. And yeah, that matters to me in my relationship with them as a patient.</p>