We live in a state where we have tuition-free college for residents. We also live in the same city as the state flagship university, an R1 university with ABET-accredited engineering programs (that is kiddo’s intended major). That should mean that my kiddo (h.s. class of '25) should be able to attend college for nearly free by living at home.
I feel like that is a HUGE pro. HOWEVER, I have these concerns:
The hometown university is nationally ranked, but not nearly as high as some of the schools my kiddo is considering (UCSD, Texas A&M, Colorado School of Mines). Those schools seem to be top 50 (or higher) and our hometown university just squeaks into the top 100.
Kiddo might miss out on the college experience living at home.
We have some money squirreled away, but assuming no merit aid is coming, we can expect that OOS schools to cost $150k more over the course of 4 years. Anything above $25k a year (tuition + room and board), we will probably have to take out loans.
Is it worth it to pursue OOS schools? We are in the midst of touring places now, but I am starting to wonder if it even makes sense? And if it does make sense, what is a reasonable cap for the expense?
Can your student attend the college near home tuition free, and you pay for her to live in the dorm? That would give her the college experience for far less money than an OOS college.
Really, if the state flagship in your state has abet accredited programs, that’s what matters.
ABET accredited programs differ at the margins. They aren’t all the same, as different schools have different philosophies on how to produce engineers. Caltech for example uses a pace no other school uses. Cal Poly and WPI expose students to a lot of hands on projects. There isn’t a lot of evidence though that any specific method has a lock on what’s “best.” I say that because elite engineering teams all over the world are made up of people educated everywhere. No school prints a golden ticket. That magic is in the hands of the individual.
The financial piece is a question only you can answer. If the student is carrying the debt, my answer would be no. Being saddled with debt is a MAJOR drag on wealth building, and engineers make comparable salaries no matter where they were educated.
If you post the specific schools and major, we can look up salaries and employers to fortify that notion.
You’re asking the right question. Good luck!
EDIT: all that said, there is real value in not living at home, even if it is the home school.
Yes, that is a possibility. I have thought about this, as I know a few people whose children have done this. I guess the reasons I am still hesitant knowing that is a possibility (aside from all that I put above) is because kiddo has only lived here all their life (we have traveled some, but this city has always been home) and I wonder if they wouldn’t benefit from living/learning somewhere else. Also, I worry that the school may not provide as many networking opportunities as more prominent/highly-ranked institutions.
Does your state have only one public university? Is there another that has accredited engineering programs that isn’t in your home town?
Does your state belong to any academic common market (colleges that reduce costs for other states), or would you qualify for the flagship match cost at a place like University of Maine?
And again…does this kid have a GPA and SAT/ACT score? That might help us direct you to colleges where auto merit could being the cost down to your price point.
They would. The net price calculator for schools is what I am basing my numbers on. That calculator includes likely merit aid (it says - but it doesn’t ask for stats of course, I don’t know how accurate).
Kiddo is really interested in hands-on programs - which is why they are so interested in Mines. That school ticked a lot of our boxes and we LOVED the tour and it seems to have a pretty good ROI for graduates, but at a net price of $43k/yr, I am still not sure it’s worth it.
Yes. If Michigan is $60k and my in state is free - even if it’s low rated (but ABET), it’s a no brainer. You stay in state if money is a concern.
The second part - where to live - should be done separately. Just because the child lives close doesn’t mean they need to be home often. So if the child wants a campus experience and you can afford it, then do it.
If you are looking OOS at Mines, UCSD, A&M and all are affordable, then you can afford the in state dorm.
My kid went to Bama. He works as a Meche for an aero company. His cohort includes Michigan, CWRU, Purdue, Ohio State, Washington etc and Auburn, W Michigan, Akron, Utah etc. they all make the same.
As an intern at an auto company, he lived with two Ga Tech kids who interned at the same company. He was invited back to the company a second summer (and permanently). He said the other two did not get an invite back.
For Meche, short of a few names and you haven’t mentioned them, the name matters less.
So if you’re a value shopper and you clearly are, take the free money. If you want OOS and cheap, it the automerit schools and friending on stats, you can get the price down, not free but a good ways.
S23 goes to CSU. He loves it, but our flagship wasn’t an option (didn’t have his major). For engineering, I don’t think it would put you at any advantage. Especially not for the price(and certainly not if the other option is free). Few get out fo CSU paying what they think they will pay. There is differential tuition after 60 credits, prices go up each year and there always seems to be an extra semester needed. I don’t see any of the options listed as worth “not free” over your flagship.
These are all fine but of varying budgets. The kids can end up in the same roles and the same salaries from each. So much today is done online - if your kid hustles, they win. Mine interviewed with 20 companies in fall and had 5 offers by xmas and the 6th from his intern company was coming in Feb but he told them he was done.
Getting an internship - not easy - is what matters most. It requires hustle. From there it gets easier as experience begets experience.
Schools use their rep and ranking to their marketing advantage but it’s not necessarily true in real life. Btw mine turned down Purdue so it wasn’t a case if all he could get into.
He told me from day one that I and other parents who feed into that are wrong - and after seeing his and his friends outcomes, I have to say he’s not wrong. He chose his school because he got his own room. And shared a bathroom with one other. At Purdue, he may have been housed off campus as they over enrolled- back then.
If your kid hustles, they’ll be great anywhere. And if they don’t - then they’ll be last second, taking the dregs avail, like everywhere.
Sorry…I didn’t see the requests before for other stats. Kiddo is slated to take their first official SAT in March (they are a junior). They had a 1380 PSAT and have scored 1420 and 1480 on the official practice tests. 4.17 weighted GPA/4.0 unweighted - 3 APs thus far (APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Comp Gov), with 1, maybe 2 to be taken next year (AP Phys C for sure, maybe AP Comp Sci A, there’s no AP multivar. calc).
We are part of WUE - but I have looked at those schools (granted I haven’t dug super deep into them) many of them do not extend the WUE discounts to the campus or the major that they are interested in.
I was not aware of flagship match costs! I need to google those!
UCSD as an OOS student will cost around $74K/year so not sure how this will be affordable based on budget. No need based financial aid for OOS students and very little highly competitive merit aid which barely makes a dent in the overall costs.
So the way ROI is usually defined, it is basically impossible to beat “free” in terms of ROI, not with a solid ABET program at least.
I don’t think this has to be the end of the inquiry, but I think it is clarifying. The way I think of it, every year of your life matters as much as any other, and further the long-term rewards of our experiences go beyond things that can be monetized. So, if you want to pay for different experiences, potentially experiences that will have long-term non-monetary benefits, then that is not inherently a bad idea.
But like with anything like that, you have to be able to comfortably afford that, and it specifically usually does not make sense to go into a lot of debt for something like that. Because you need monetary rewards to pay back debts.
So I think this is a very personal question, but I do think it makes sense to set a budget for whatever you are comfortable paying for such non-monetary benefits over your free option. And then like anything else, you can see what is available in that budget and make a choice. And if it is only that free option, OK. But if there are other options where you think the non-monetary benefits would be worth the cost and you can comfortably afford it, that is OK too.