Quick question, I’ll provide some backstory first.
My brother, a top academic student at a local public school, is currently a senior about to go to college. His options are either UNC-Chapel Hill where he is guaranteed acceptance. Or UT-Austin, an OOS school with high tuition. We don’t know if he’ll get into UT-Austin.
The concern is that we won’t get enough financial aid because we don’t know if he’ll be paying 15k per year for college, or 75k a year. Because we may not know until potentially mid-March, would we not get enough FA because of our uncertainty? Would they force me into full pay and reevaluate me if I got into a BS?
I don’t really understand this question with the way it’s worded. But I think there’s a bigger issue here: why go to UT Austin when you have a better and cheaper undergrad program at UNC? Unless there’s some program at UT Austin (for instance engineering) that is significantly better than UNC and/or doesn’t exist at UNC, you’re better off saving the money.
Also, nobody is guaranteed acceptance to UNC, even in-state students with top academics
If finances are an issue at all, to me it would seem obvious for your brother to stay in-state, and for you to attend a public high school.
If you look at the freshman class at the very top ranked universities, or at any university, there are a lot of students who attended public high schools.
I just looked at the relative ranking of UT Austin and UNC-CH. As @Tarheel2020 mentioned UNC-CH is indeed higher ranked. I do not think that this matters since both are very good universities. However, I do see the reason to go out of state unless finances do not matter at all, which apparently is not the case here. If you were from Texas, I still would not see the reason to go out of state.
Perhaps I agree with @Tarheel2020 and I too am somewhat confused by the question.
I would put a note in the BS FA application next to your sib’s college costs noting it will be his first year and he does not yet have decisions and FA awards in hand. You may want to put the higher cost # for him and tell the BS you’ll need less if he gets scholarships . AND you should follow up with exact costs when you have them.
It’s always a challenge to weigh every kid’s needs and wants within a family, and it is possible that someone will have to compromise, so you should be thinking about how to manage that as well.
Are you asking if boarding schools will give you a discount if your parents choose an expensive college for your brother? I think it depends on the school. Did the boarding school applications ask if you have siblings in college and how much your parents pay for them? If not, they probably don’t consider college costs when considering financial aid.
Only an issue if we have to spend about 150k a year on tuition. Their combined income is over 300k and they can’t spend half of their pre-tax income on tuition. Plus all local public high schools around us are either very low ranked, or are too far for a bus. We’d have to pay at least 30k for my tuition no matter if I go to a boarding school or a private high school near me.
Not for the business program, UT Austin is higher ranked. Also, Austin is a much more desirable place to live rather than Chapel Hill. My brother wants to get away from NC very badly and live near our family in Austin.
We’ve emailed all of them and they said that college for another sibling is a large factor, we just don’t know how it would work for us because our payments could be ranging from 15k to 75k and we won’t know until after the Parent Financial Statement is due.
UNC-Chapel Hill is ranked #7 and UT- Austin is ranked #5 for undergraduate business. There is no appreciable difference.
Of course, this is a matter for your family to decide. I would assume that the university your sibling attends would not make a difference in the BS financial aid. BS decisions won’t be due until after your sibling gets their university acceptances, so there will be time for your parents to make a cost-benefit analysis.
Many students choose to go to boarding school for reasons other than college admissions. High school can be its own experience, not just a gateway to college.
Thank you! Most kids at elite boarding schools honestly have a disadvantage in admissions unless they’re at the top 10% of their class. I want to go so I can get away from what I’m used to, be surrounded by academically high-achieving students all day, and for their academics that I just can’t get in my state.
Austin has a better business school for what he would like to go into, Accounting, coming in ranked #1 by US World News & Report. UNC doesn’t offer this program undergrad. Even if he did regular business, it would be smarter to go to UT to take more focused courses in accounting rather than waiting until getting a master of accounting to learn about accounting more in-depth.
The financial aid application for boarding school that I filled out specifically asked about educational costs for siblings. So yeah, not an unreasonable question.
How prep schools award financial aid is a little different from the college process.
Because most prep school students are minors, there is little to no expectation that they pay for their education (and kids can’t take out loans) - the parents’ ability to pay is all that is taken into account. (There may be some exceptions, but aren’t there always?)
I understand. You want to know how much fin aid you might get from the boarding school, depending upon whether or not your sibling’s college tuition is high or low.
So if your parents make 300K, they’re not going to qualify for fin aid for the child in college. Let’s assume they’re full pay for UT Austin, at 55K/yr total cost. Now you’re looking at boarding school tuition. another 55K/yr or more. I suspect that when you apply, you will explain to them the financial situation of the family, and they will look at whether or not to give you aid, with the award modified if your brother decides to attend UT Austin. You could contact the school assuming you get in, and ask if they will modify their fin aid offer based upon what your brother’s college expense is, as soon as he decides where he will go.
One caveat: remember that, unlike college admissions, most prep schools are NOT need blind.
Therefore, if you do not fall into the “awesome-we-gotta-admit” applicant pile, you might be wait-listed if they allocate away the financial aid before getting to you. A prep school will wait list a qualified applicant they like if the applicant qualifies for financial aid, but the prep school has already allocated all their financial aid to higher priority applicants.
@jackb192 what you can do is explain the situation to the AOs and ask for their advice… but I’d be tempted to apply for FA using the more expensive school #'s. If you get wait listed and your brother goes to the less expensive school (or needs less $), your subsequent reduced need for FA might help get you off the wait list.
I have an MBA from an elite institution. Accounting is virtually the same wherever you go. It’s a collection of functional knowledge one can learn with merely competent teachers and even enhance on one’s own. Much better to acquire a broader business degree or major in something else as an undergrad, unless your brother just wants to run numbers for the real decision makers all his life. Obviously not your call, but UNC would be better for your family, including your brother, although he doesn’t realize that at this point.
Yep. I only have one need-blind school on my list. The problem is that it’s also the most selective school.
I’ll probably ask my Exeter AO because we’ve gotten pretty close since my interview. I just don’t know how long it’ll take her to respond and the PFS is due sort of soon.
My dad has a master’s of accounting from an elite institution and now he’s a CFO at a medium-sized company. He says that his company would be much more likely to hire someone if they’ve studied under amazing professors in accounting classes for much longer than the 1-2 years the master’s of accounting would take. The same goes for people who intern at his company. They’d be much more likely an accounting major from UT than a BA major from UNC if they had similar stats and qualifications.
He’s a UNC undergrad alum that eventually went to UPenn Wharton for his masters and says that he regrets not going to a school with an undergrad degree in accounting.
I think your Dad’s probably right that if a company wanted a young person mainly for his functional accounting skills in the here and now, it would hire the pure accounting grad. But one’s career shouldn’t be measured with a snap shot of one place and time. For his entire career and life, a young person ideally should study something broader in order to employ skills and knowledge across the various functions of an organization. Your Dad himself, even though he says he regrets not specializing sooner, may prove my point by virtue of his success.
He’s done 2 accounting internships, a finance internship, and a virtual banking internship already. He preferred his time in accounting which is why he wants the major which UNC doesn’t provide. So even if he was full-pay, it would be the smarter move. As for me, the education I’d get from boarding school is much different than what I’d get at the private school my brother went to. Everyone in my family has agreed that boarding school would be the best education I could get
