If you could live anywhere

Parent Cafe
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Hi guys! Finely saw the thread!!

Yes, I moved my family of 5 kiddos here, North Carolina from northern CA. As a single mom I was looking at 5 undergraduate educations and possibly graduate work and found the cost of in-state publics rather daunting, including the CS system. Granted the cost of community college units was not very expensive at all, it was the 4-year universities tuition and fees that was worrisome.

The COL in the area was also making it difficult to exist no less thrive. I had originally moved the family there from San Diego which I adored for other reasons. So I did my research and packed up, Grapes of Wrath style, and moved 3000+ miles away in U-hauls and an older Suburban.

The UNC system has 17 campuses.
https://www.northcarolina.edu/content/our-17-campuses

Each has their own unique story, history, and mission. Many were started as private entities and over the years became absorbed into the UNC system. What is different from the UC system or SUNY is that each college campus has retained their own individual ethos and each has different tuitions respectively. There are some primarily small LAC (UNC Asheville), STEM (NC State, A & T, high school of science and mathematic, UNC Chapel Hill, ECU), fine arts ( UNC School of the Arts, UNC-CH), HBCU (A &T) and others. Seriously a great variety and selection.

Amongst those are amazing graduate programs including schools of medicine, law, business, education, public health (top-rated), vet school (top-rated)…

Some have joint programs such as the school of nano-engineering and nano science between UNC Greensboro and NC A & T, with a brand new campus.
http://jsnn.ncat.uncg.edu/

UNC Wilmington is on the beach and boasts a great marine biology program.
https://uncw.edu/bio/

Architecture programs at both NCSU and UNC Charlotte, with full accreditation (NAAB)
https://design.ncsu.edu/academics/architecture/#overview
https://coaa.uncc.edu/academics/school-of-architecture

Schools of engineering receiving ABET accreditation
https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/
http://www.ncat.edu/coe/index.html (offering the rare degree in architectural engineering, same as Cal Poly SLO) and through their school of agriculture a degree in animal science including all the re-requisites for vet school (DVM) that is located at NCSU

Environmental sciences and engineering in the School of Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill
https://sph.unc.edu/envr/environmental-sciences-and-engineering-home/

UNC Chapel Hills’ MPH program #2 in the US
https://sph.unc.edu/students/how-to-apply/
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/public-health-rankings

There are 2 med schools UNC Chapel Hill and ECU- ECU med school only accepts in-state students, and has 1 of, if not, the lowest tuition and fees in the US for med school
There are 2 dental schools UNC Chapel and ECU
The one vet school is at North Carolina State Uni…also top ranked, specific and required prerequisites can be completed through NCSU or NC A&T

The backing of the UNC system gives many of the departments life that might have disappeared at other universities. Such as Duke’s genetics degree which has been moved to NCSU. The classics major at UNC Chapel Hill.
https://classics.unc.edu/

All five of my children have attended classes either through the community college system which is extremely low cost or the 4 year universities. Three of my 5 have numerous degrees from the UNC system. One alone holds 3 BS in microbiology, biochemistry and genetics along with an MD/MBA. Another has his engineering degree and another has an animal science degree.

I know for a fact I would have not been able to afford all that has been accomplished had I remained in CA. NC not only provided the university system with a plethora of choices but at an incredibly affordable rate. COL here was such a small fraction of what we were paying and what the ROI turned out to be.

The MD/MBA had choices for obtaining his graduate degrees but he chose UNC has they made him an offer that could not be beat, even by some ivy’s. In a world of limited scholarships for MDs and even MBA’s he was awarded full scholarships and fellowships for his joint degree program. The UNC system has been more than generous to all my children, and not just financially.

All UNC schools are limited to no more than 18% out of state students. This is controlled by the state legislature. It is seen as an investment in the state.

Hope this helps, and if you need more info OP please ask.

Kat

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Thank you everyone. Especially @katwkittens ! That is wonderful information. Exactly what I was looking for. As a single parent , I have to agree it can be daunting. But its nice to know there are options out there outside of where I am now.

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The SUNYs are great!

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Kat has given a great breakdown of the NC system. I grew up in NC and returned to raise my kids here thinking about cheap college! We can live anywhere as well, as my husband works from home. So what does my daughter decide- that she hates NC and wants to go OOS for school! So she is going to school in FL. I have to say, that after checking out FL schools and with their Bright Futures scholarships, if I could do it over, I would be in Florida (actually, I have to have seasons, but you may not feel that way).

Plus her dorm is cheaper and so much nicer! All of her friends going to UNC are so jealous of her. They can’t believe how over priced their dorms are- and how horrible they are! They are kind of kicking themselves for not considering OOS. There is definitely the mentality of schools being so cheap in NC that you wouldn’t look OOS, I think that if you pick the right OOS that still gives merit it can be cheaper. All of her friends have been disappointed that they worked so hard and didn’t get honors or merit to UNC, they are still happy to be there, but it has been an eye opener.

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^^^^^ We also had some attend OOS as well. One was a D1 athletic recruit who was in an individualized sport where the coach (gold medalist) is crucial to performance so she had scholarships that made it more affordable than in-state options. Another went to a service academy (USNA) and another to princeton (p’ton didn’t allow double majors). However, they all came back to NC and added to their education through programs here in NC.

Son’s first year dorm/residential college building at p’ton was so awful they tore it down after his freshman year. So be mindful that college dorms can be awful anywhere! Other son at the academy had 3 other bunk mates, called so since they all slept in bunkbeds.

Kat

added note- we did in fact move during oldest son’s senior year, end of Sept/Oct. Sooo much fun!!! Not.

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@jeneric Thanks! I’m a seasons person too, but FL does have many advantages.

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Even with in-state FA, which is better in CA than in many other states? (the UCs and CSUs get a lot of Pell grant students through with relatively low student loan debt levels)

However, other things in California (usually housing) tend to make living in California relatively expensive, especially if one does not find higher paid work in California than elsewhere. California is probably not a great choice for the OP looking primarily for lower overall cost for this reason.

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Virginia is a great state with excellent public and private high schools as well as many college choices. The downside is that everyone is catching on about the VA colleges, so OOS applicants are applying in droves. With public schools getting less money from the State, colleges are making up the difference with full pay out of staters. My son may actually wind up OOS with merit money, though we aren’t sure yet. He has 3 great choices: 1 in-state and 2 OOS flagships.

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Our moving UCBalum wasn’t just financial but also opportunities. I am sure you have been over to the pre-med forum and are aware of how difficult it is for CA pre-meds/vet/dental to gain admittance to CA med/dental/vet schools, not to mention their COA for those programs, all of which were a potential goal for my kiddos. As I stated in my other post it was for undergraduate and graduate education. As it turns out they did attend those professional programs here in NC.

And yes the COL in CA was such a burden to our family. We were Pell+SEOG eligible and SEOG funds are distributed by the schools themselves based on how many are eligible in each institution. The more students eligible the less each student will receive. So with the schools chosen by my children their SEOG’s were awarded for the full amount each year rather than just a small portion as their sister received at Cal Poly SLO.

Kat
NC has been a great choice for us. I stated in another thread that being here (relocated near the beach in NC) reminds me so much of of San Diego in the 70’s and 80’s, when I resided there.

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Yes, if medical school is a possibility, then that brings in different considerations. NC is among the states with relatively low cost medical schools for in-state residents, though TX and NM appear to be even lower cost. New physicians from those states graduating from their in-state medical schools get to start their careers with much lower debt burdens than most new physicians from US medical schools.

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Interesting comparison between NC and San Diego, @katwkittens. I’m in San Diego, and have friends here who are eager to move to NC or SC. They live more in a suburban, rural area here in the county, and have found much to like about NC/SC. I think San Diego has the most divine weather in the country, but I would never recommend someone moving here if they weren’t wealthy because the income to housing cost ratio is the worst in the country. People come because of the weather, but they can’t afford it. If we hadn’t bought our tiny house 25 years ago, we would not be able to afford to live hear.

@ucbalumnus, the big problem with Pell Grants for the CSUs is that they don’t begin to cover room and board. My son was accepted to 4 Cal States and 2 UCs and the UCs, by far, were way more affordable because of the Blue Gold program as well as Cal Grant/Pell Grant.

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We moved from Florida to NC ten years ago and at that time I was not thinking of colleges. I was just trying to make sure we were in a good public school system. Flip to 10 years later and now I have 2 kiddos away at college in state. While we don’t qualify for any financial aid, we are blessed with the low cost of colleges that are in the state. Watching the boards for a while and some say their state schools are $25.000 and above. UNC Chapel Hill is $18,500 which is a steal and the most expensive public school we have in NC.

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(To live here) Correcting the spelling from my previous post. :slight_smile:

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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The cost of Suny Binghamton for an instate student is 26,866 per year. Thats certainly less than a private, but not what I would call inexpensive. The excelsior scholarship can reduce the cost by about 6,000. BUT, the student has to remain in the state for four years after graduation or pay back the grants.

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@gallentjill the cost of attendance at UNC-CH is almost exactly the same as that for Bing. Just a tad less.

NC State is just over $23,000.

How much exactly do you want to pay?

That $23000-$25000 cost for an instate student is pretty modest compared to a lot.

Factor in your moving costs, and job situation.

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@thumper1 I’m not expecting to pay very little. I was struck by the difference between Binghamton and UNC-chapel hill that nurse001 stated. College is expensive in general. Over 100k for four years at a public university is not easy for most families. Its a bargain compared to private. But the expense of college in this country is a bit over the top.

I’m not looking to move right now. We are staying where we are until D2 is in college. I work from home so I could potentially live anywhere in the country. There are things to love about NY, but a lot of downsides as well. I was just musing about where I might go to maximize college choices for D3.

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I will say that UNC is very generous with different grants after the first year. My son received a grant for sophomore, junior and next year for senior year but the grant varies. When my son got accepted to NC State it was slightly higher cost than Chapel Hill but they included stuff for misc items like it had $2,000 transportation costs. Once you factor out those things it was about the same. But that was in 2015 and costs could have changed by now. My daughter goes to ECU and undergrad is $16,400 so if medical school is in the plan that might be a good way to go for in state students.

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Part of the equation is whether you may get financial aid in each state.

Low list price + good in-state financial aid is generally good for most people. High list price + poor in-state financial aid is generally bad for most people. But the common intermediate scenarios of low list price + poor in-state financial aid and high list price + good in-state financial aid may be good or bad depending on your situation.

You can try the net price calculators on the various states’ public schools to see what the prices are likely to be after financial aid.

Of course, then you also have to consider changes in your income and non-college-related expenses as well.

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“I’d go West for the WUE advantage”

@ski_racer – there’s a lot less to WUE than meets the eye.

Several of the western flagships don’t participate at all. Sometimes the number of WUE slots at a school is capped. Sometimes the WUE discount is only available for certain majors (typically ones that tend to be under-subscribed). So the reality is far from being able to pick any western school/any major and you get the deal.

NC and VA are the states to move to for college options. But the skiing isn’t very good in those places.

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@northwesty but the beaches are nice :).

Actually, I love living right between the beach and the mountains. Not a skiier but love the hiking, waterfalls, etc.