Our state’s state schools are not a great option for us for various reasons that I don’t want to debate. My child is mostly looking at liberal arts colleges, but a few out-of-state state schools. He is likely to major in humanities, or possibly biology. Nothing exotic. He doesn’t really care about big school/game culture and is not interested in frats etc.
Out-of-state state schools like the ones he is looking at will likely come in MAYBE 10k/cheaper per year than the estimated COA at the private schools he is looking at. Obviously this is not nothing, but we can likely swing it, although it would of course be nice to pay les. So…is this savings worth it in your opinion for a kid like mine? It feels like it is SO popular to apply to out-of-state state schools and I am honestly trying to understand why this is.
Pros I see:
More fields of study
Broader course topics
Bigger labs and more of a research focus
More diverse student body that is more like “real life”
Potentially lower costs
”Name” may be more recognizable to some people
Others I am not thinking of?
Cons:
Lower teaching quality–big lectures, TAs
Bureaucracy harder to deal with
Housing not guaranteed and can be very expensive
Party culture
If all of the schools on the list fall within budget, I would let the student decide. I assume that if the student applied, the parents were ok with the list.
I think not all your cons are universal (some guarantee housing at least to freshmen for example, and expense of off campus housing will vary according to where it is). Or are these the cases at the specific publics you are looking at?
Regardless, “is it worth it” is so subjective. To me, it is 2 factors: (1) can you afford it /comfortable paying that (2) does it feel like a fit for your child? If either is no, it is not worth it.
I think it’s really hard to make generalizations. In my experience state schools can be very very different from each other. The only thing they for sure share in common is that they are public and get state funding.
My daughter had all kinds of schools on her final college list, private, public, big and small. Final cost of attendance ranged from $0 - $75K (that school is now close to $90K but this was in '18). D was really trying to drill down on fit which for her ended up being an out of state public at $40K. She graduated in '23 and I can tell you that undoubtedly it was the right choice for her.
If you can afford the difference in cost, let your child decide.
And in our experience with D’s public the teaching quality was outstanding, she had plenty of small classes (including some with less than 10 students), she had no trouble getting her classes or housing. A family member is at a private at twice the cost and has had much more trouble with bureaucracy.
Bottom line, not all publics are created equal and visit if you can!
Large university vs. LAC is mostly a matter of personal preference. Some students (like my kids) prefer large schools to small ones. What does your son prefer?
I agree that these are big generalizations. Which ones do you think don’t always apply? We are LAC grads here, although my husband TA’ed at two big state schools when in grad school.
One of my kids attended a large OOS public. I agree that there could be more bureaucracy at these schools, but my daughter was offered housing for 4 years if she wanted, the quality of teaching was excellent, and she never attended a party.
Ok. Look… every fanily’s finances are different so I can’t comment on the specific “value” of $10k to your family, or how that compares to “could probably fit fine”. But some students are just much better at some types of schools than others. Neither of my kids, for completely different reasons, would be good at a small LAC type school, but other than that they were looking for very different things. My older went to a large private. My younger is looking at publics.
Maybe I’m reading between the lines too much but it sounds like a cost vs fit issue. Is there a way you can come to a middle ground to let your son go where he’d prefer? Maybe use his earnings from a summer job? Ultimately he’s going to be somewhere for 4 years. It’s a long time to feel like you don’t fit somewhere, but there are also ways of making large schools small (honors college for example) if the budget just doesn’t work.
Sort of cost vs fit, but really this post is more about “Is there something we’re missing about this choice, and if so, what?”, since applying to OOS state schools is very popular.
Also, his OOS state schools of interest are easier to get into.
I agree with others that you can’t make such sweeping generalizations about public universities. Both of my kids chose out of state public schools. Those two schools, like my children, couldn’t be more different from one another. My oldest was in the honors college at Auburn. My youngest is at William and Mary. In both cases, they had/have the benefit of smaller classes and engaged professors.
I will say in many ways the honors college at the large public was the best of both worlds. Priority registration enabled my son to always get the course sections with the better professors and the honors housing was great. Honors colleges and living learning communities can make a big school feel smaller. On the other hand, you can’t make a small school feel bigger. If you feel comfortable sharing which public universities your S is considering, you might get some more meaningful feedback. My William & Mary student was leaning towards LACs but applied to a few mid size and large schools as well. In the end, a mid size public liberal arts university turned out to be the right fit for him. I don’t see why your son needs to figure out his preference now. Apply to both types of schools and you can weigh your options once he has acceptances in hand.
Class sizes and use of TAs can vary greatly by major or courses chosen. For example, some humanities subjects have small classes because they are small majors, while biology often has large classes because it is a popular major (and non-major pre-meds take many of the same courses).
However, if the department is too small, it may not have enough capacity to offer as much breadth and depth in the subject as a larger department.
What you described happens at public schools and at private schools. Cost is always a personal thing.
You can swing the extra $ but will it strain you, alter your lifestyle ? To me that’s a hard no. There are small publics, not much different than privates. At the same time, privates may have exactly those same things that you mentioned for publics.
As for bureaucracy, I have to admit - I was beyond impressed with how smoothly my kids large and mid size state schools operated. They were very efficiently run, far better than the private I attended (but that was many years ago).
I think you need to look school by school and not generalize.