<p>I try to make a value based assessment about each school my son is considering. We take into account many subjective variables such as ranking, prestige, reputation, quailty of program, amenities as well as more tangible data such as graduation rates, retention, access to internships. Son must then also take stock of how much he likes the school, the “fit” of the school, and his desire to attend there. The question then becomes, “Is the school worth the total out of pocket costs that would be needed to attend there?” While my son could certainly attend UConn, I do not believe 40K a year out of pocket is a good value for attending there. Nothing about UConn adds enough additional value for us to overcome the resistance to that price tag.</p>
<p>Of course if we could remove the cost differential between in-state tuition (11K) and out-of-state tuition (29K) then I would be wearing a Husky sweatshirt right now. </p>
<p>The same thing happened to us at the University of New Haven. Great (19K annually) merit aid but only $500 in financial aid. Out of pocket was still close to 28K annually. It is doable (even more so than UConn) but it is not a good value for attending that particular school.</p>