@Percent99 Does the 45k savings and the 25k from selling the second home wipe out ALL of your savings/future retirement income? Or do you still have additional money set aside for your retirement? If it does, then I would suggest you are still taking a very significant financial risk to send your daughter to a school that costs that much as you are truly leaving yourself vulnerable in the future.
Help – with the search of safeties… and the top heavy list of a stubborn daughter and her increasing
Exactly my way of thinking, especially the “smart” part, @inthegarden . I have ,what 4-5 months, to convince D and in far less extend wife. In the short run I would prefer to have at least 1-2 more choice (not only U of A)
You’re talking about depleting your entire life savings? Not good, imo. In another thread you said that you were more comfortable spending $9000 per year. And what if you find that you can’t sell your second home?
I do not think you need to convince your daughter of anything. You need to tell her that you can pay $17,000 a year for college and that she is free to take out the Stafford loans. This means that her first year she will have about $22,500. She can attend any school that falls within this price range- maybe a little higher if she adds summer earnings.
Could you take her to visit U of A? I hear it is a pretty and “hopping” campus. There will be smart students from all over the US there, now that the word is out about its merit aid…no longer just a provincial school. She might change her mind if she actually sees it…
If you become ill, disabled, unemployed, or pass away while your daughter’s in college, will your wife be able to live on what’s left after you deplete the $45k you currently have in savings?
Please check post #94 for concrete suggestions (different types of schools to add to UAlabama and that may be more palatable to your daughter) an RUN THE NPC on them, one by one since each college calculates differently.
Use a “parent pick” (one mother’s pick, one father’s pick) to make some mandatory on the list.
She may have to take a gap year, though.
@twogirls If he spends $17k a year I believe he is left with no savings whatsoever. Am I right OP? If not Alabama, does anyone know other schools that they will find more acceptable to give free tuition?
@inthegaden - yes that is a planed step. Have some relatively high hopes about the visit - both a ton of people seemed convinced to add to their list/attend after visits to UA, and she tends to like 90% of the schools she has visited so far 
@austinmshauri is right. Does this $17,000 a year that you have for college mean that you are depleting savings?
@citymama9 I believe you are right and this is a horrible plan. The OP needs to have UA on the list and/or consider a gap year and come up with a new, realistic list.
Frustrating thread!! OP selectively answers questions. Good luck OP!
I haven’t read the whole thread but there are better schools (and cheaper) for accounting. Most top schools don’t have undergrad business or accounting at all.
@compmom, could you suggest some of those better/cheaper schools? I think concrete info would be terribly helpful at this point, if you happen to have it (I don’t) …
OP: please tell your daughter that there are three options.
- See if Duke gives you an affordable FA package if accepted. This means that you can’t spend all your savings and leave yourself with nothing.
- Apply to UA ( deadlines?) and any other school on the list that gives significant merit.
- A gap year to revise the list
The UA deadline for scholarship consideration has past. Hope this student applied before that date.
The list can still be revised NOW. Like I said, if this student is not accepted to Duke ED, then the reach school list needs to be reconsidered. In addition, the list is too long. Who is paying for all these applications, and submissions of test scores and Profile forms? Those are really going to add up with the large number of schools on this list.
I may have missed it…but where is this student instate?
But most important…this student needs two safety schools…ones where admission is pretty much a sure thing…that is affordable…and where the student will attend if accepted. I’m not sure I saw two of those on that lengthy long list at the start of this thread.
Yes @MYOS1634 forgot to Thank you!!! for the list provided. Really appreciated !
D seem intrigued by the ESSEC Global BBA btw. I have not checked all your suggestion. I have heard recently from another sources and HAVE NOT researched Netherlands school at all. Will try to work on them in the upcoming days. Unfortunately her languages are Spanish and a bit of Italian (no French and unfortunately no German).
Regarding Ivies that have undergrad business:
UPenn has an undergrad business program https://accounting.wharton.upenn.edu/
Dartmouth has one too http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/undergradbiz/courses/financial_accounting.html
Cornell has business http://dyson.cornell.edu/undergraduate/
I believe an application to Wharton is separate, not sure about Tuck or Dyson. Worth checking out.
Her internship might help her get into a selective accounting program.
I would go through her list and see which ones have accounting or business and remove any that don’t. Unless her interests are actually more generalist.
Other ideas (sorry many are in Massachusetts so consider them examples if that is not a location desired)
Babson College http://www.babson.edu/Pages/default.aspx
Bentley University http://www.bentley.edu/
Northeastern http://catalog.northeastern.edu/undergraduate/business/accounting/
Northeastern Illinois also came up ! http://neiu.edu/academics/college-of-business-and-management/departments/accounting-business-law-and-finance/programs/accounting-bs
In general, public state universities and colleges, for instance, in our state
https://www.isenberg.umass.edu/programs/depts/accounting
You can google top colleges accounting. Brooklyn college, Ashworth, Columbia college, there are many.
Community colleges and NYC city colleges have associates degrees for instance
http://www.citycollege.edu/program/accounting/
Duke has MBA and PhD but no undergrad degree in accounting or business
https://areas.fuqua.duke.edu/accounting/
Boston College does have an undergrad major http://www.bc.edu/schools/csom/departments/accounting.html
I won’t go through your daughter’s entire list.
Just google the name of the school and “accounting” or “undergrad business”
Dartmouth offers a couple of courses at Tuck. Definitely not enough for s major as there is no undergrad Business major
I think we went too deep into this business and or accounting “only” thing.
First ,she is applying to also BS/A in Economics - something most schools have regardless of having a “business” school/collage.
2nd, And more importantly - You, me and She is aware that most people tend to change their Majors through Collage.
So, treat that as her intended major more or less matching her ECs, as opposed to true and unshakable dedication to study that and only that.
Take me for example. I wanted to finish law [It is a different system back and there. You must have “Masters in Law”, I will call it, in order to practice law. The program starts after HS like normal BS/BA, but you are in the law program/school for the full 6 years and you do not get any undergraduate degree]. After 1 semester, I felt my “other part of the brain” was going away - so I finished CS in the next 3.5 in parallel. Never worked in the field, but also never regretted studying something else that I loved.