Negotiating Financial Aid Package at Duke -- HELP?!

illiniowl
Wed, 04 Apr 2018 20:08:53 +0000

Full COA at USC is $72K; free tuition ($53.5K) makes your family’s out of pocket cost $18.5K. Call it $75K for 4 years.

Full COA at Rice is $63K; half tuition ($22.5K) makes your family’s out of pocket cost $40.5K. Call it $165K for 4 years.

I’m a Rice grad and love the school but from a ROI standpoint I’m not even going to try to make a case for paying over twice the amount that USC is going to cost, even for Rice’s strengths (e.g. engineering).

I get that staying in your home area for college doesn’t seem appealing. But FWIW I can assure you that LA would suddenly become a lot more appealing after your first week in August in Houston!