@homerdog Since you are looking at selective schools what about William and Mary in Williamsburg? They are definitely attempting to draw OOS males.
Itās my understanding that regional tuition exchange programs only cover majors and programs not available in your home state , not just because you want to attend an OOS school. Please correct me if Iām incorrect.
I canāt find anything online about tuition reciprocity involving PA and other states; everything I find indicates PA is one of the few states that do not participate. Becauseā¦ why would this #*&!@ state make anything about higher ed. cheaper.
Yeah, the WVU program involves specific majors and seems to be a compact with Ohio, mainly. Itās a lot of majors, though.
Wow, this a lot to think about! We are more focused on in state (Engineering) for now. We are planning to visit some of them during Thanksgiving/Christmas breaks next year when we will know if D19 qualifies for any scholarships. We will not qualify for need based aid but cannot really pay beyond 25-30k. I donāt want to get her hopes high if she does not get admission or gets the admission to a college we cannāt really pay for.
She has been to many universities nearby for various reasons. She has some idea about those ones.
@Gatormama, many universities exclude reciprocity for undergrads though they consider it for PG and beyond. States like NJ, NY are not the part of such agreements either. It is not easy to say the leastā¦
Edit: On a lighter note, during scholarship discussion, the first question D19 asked. " Will you share the saved up money if I qualify for a full ride?" I said to myself, "They grow up so fast 
"
@dfbdfb I completely agree. We are big fans of the hidden gems. Which generally get little airplay on CC but thatās ok!
@mommdc and @Gatormama yes, if you combine aid and merit some of those schools can come in lower although Iām not so sure about under 25 unless youāve a high stats kid and have semi high need. My mid tier kid has been accepted at Ursinus and Allegheny and interestingly enough, both are the 24K offers I mentioned earlier. Which brings one school into the 40ās and one into the mid 30ās. As a general rule we are full pay however the privates do calculate differently and thanks to 2 kids in school the higher of the 2 may come down for the years kids overlap. Personally Iād rather have merit as itās a known amount each year (assuming itās renewable) versus the variable of need calculated on 2 kids in school. That way anything extra is āgravyā lol. U of Maine does a flagship tuition match for all states so that is one to consider. I think the max anyone pays there is 28ā¦Wyoming is much the same, though theirs can go lower I think, similar to Bama. The schools Iāve seen come in at or under 30 for full pay families are in the midwest. Beloit. Wooster. Bradley. Westminster maybe in Salt Lake City. College of Charleston, Lawrence and San Diego State are some on S19ās early listā¦based on his early criteria (majors, location) and mine (cost) though they wonāt get under 30 unless his stats go somewhere I am not seeing at the moment . No reach schools for us, they donāt pay plus many of the ones he will look at will offer honors colleges which may be perfect for him. Frankly though, if he didnāt have a homework assignment that had him looking at this stuff in process as I type, he wouldnāt have an early list at all yet. The good news is he is a research hound and he may well find his own hidden gemā¦that is affordable. I can hope anyway. Of course he has a long way to go. He was reading the NPC today for one of the schools for his homework and assumed the EFC is what we can pay. Noā¦itās what the school thinks we can pay. Not what the budget is.
@homerdog personally I do think sophomore year is too early for college visits given how dramatically kids can change their mind, and I think they get much more out of the tours at a later date but there are certainly plenty of families that do it. As a general rule weāve either reserved breaks for true family vacation time or my kids have had other commitments which makes those kinds of trips rather burdensome either financially or due to schedule conflicts. Iāve also kept those visits specific to the kid the school was being looked at for. I know others do it differently but the last thing any of our kids wanted was a sibling tagging along on tours. It was their college visit, not their siblings. We did do one spring break trip for my now senior during his junior year, as it happened to coincide with a family visit so we killed 2 birds with one stone, had free lodging and found great flights (and he didnāt end up applying to any of those schools!). It depends on the kid. But for my money, and these college visit trips can add up to be a serious chunk of change, it made no sense to visit schools 2-3 times and spend thousands to do so. If it happened to tie in with another trip of some sort then that was fine and certainly anything that was drivable was fine. Beyond that weāve saved visits till after acceptance. There are many ways to show interest, and itās a lot easier and cheaper to drive an hour for a local interview then spend 2 grand to head to the east coast at peak travel season. I think kids can get a very good idea of the kind of school they want to be at, touring locally and tied in with other planned trips. Versus the college trip itself being the primary reason for a āvacationā. Most kids will not think of that as a vacation at all.
We almost did a trip over the summer for the now senior and I am very glad we did not. His final application list compared to where he wanted to maybe visit, shaped up quite a bit differently and he will get a lot out of in depth visits where he has a true vested interest at the schools he is accepted at and work for us financially. Spares him the pain of falling in love with a school we cannot (or chose not to) afford.
We plan the same approach with S19. Depending on where his band trip is next year, we might take a few days before or after to see some schools but other than that they will be all drivable or near visiting family in a couple of states if we are visiting for other reasons. I do hope for a CA visit for either band or family to get a few of those done but anything else will be after acceptance and merit offer reviews.
@collegeandi smart kid. S19 is well aware that if he stays in or under budget for undergrad, there may be some help with grad school and that motivates him.
@carolinamom2boys we have a Western Exchange here, which is multiple states. In theory it means you could end up with a tuition reduction where you may āonlyā have to pay 150% of of the OOS tuition versus full OOS prices at participating schools in participating states. In reality the list of schools that participate is limited, not any flagships, very few in certain states and in some the award of the full exchange is very competitive and limited. There are some good schools on the list so if those work for your child it can be a good deal (though not a 25K deal at mostā¦maybe a 30 deal at some) relatively speaking. To date none have worked for our kids (3 out of 4) but never say never I guess. One almost made the list and then they dropped the WUE but it turned out they only awarded a couple a year anyway! What my child would have gotten at that school would have meant a COA equal to a OOS flagship that he likes much better after a much larger merit award. So for the same overpriced OOS option, the preferred school was applied to. But itās still more than I want to pay.
For those experienced in the HS foreign language ārecommended vs. requiredā designation ā
D19 is meeting with the school counselor in 10 days to complete the Junior year course request form. (This is the āyou cannot make any changes after thisā request form.) So this has forced some research not only on possible college majors (!) but also trimmed down the colleges-interested-in list.
D19 is absolutely sick of taking Latin and does not want to go past the Latin 3 class she is currently enrolled in. She has no interest in another language. All on her colleges-interested-in list have at a maximum 3 years required. One of the reach schools has a 4 years recommended and nothing listed as required.
Can she safely say No More Latin for her Junior year?
@OrangeFish do any of the colleges require her to take a test to pass out of their foreign language requirement? Thereās a difference between a school wanting to see a certain number of years of foreign language in high school and the collegeās graduation requirements. We are going through this with our S19 (but in French, not Latin) and almost all of his schools would require (A) get a 4 or a 5 on the French AP or (B) pass the collegeās French test at a certain level. Some schools even require that he take a foreign language semester or two even if he got a 5 on the AP.
You raise a good point, @homerdog ā I have not checked the foreign language placement for all of the schools, but most of the schools do not offer Latin, so she would have to take a new language in college anyway. (No placement for Latin if they donāt offer it.)
@OrangeFish personally yes, I think she can safely say no more. If you are going for uber competitive schools 4 years might be helpful but 3 years is enough for admission at most. Our kids have taken 2, 3, 3 and 4 years respectively and no one has had an issue with acceptances. So it kind of depends on your college list but to me if she has 2 years while in HS and 3 years total that will be enough for most schools.
Taking the 4th year could help pass a placement exam if offered but unless the student is going to do the AP test (which can replace a placement test) the 4th year alone may not be enough for that. As a general rule most of the the publicās donāt seem to require a FL for most majors, as mentioned already many many of the privates will and taking 3 versus 4 wonāt change that. Which doesnāt mean she has to take latin as that class in college, many encourage a new language.
Thank you @eandsmom ā she is not looking at any uber competitive schools and we are focusing on in-state options (Virginia). I think she needs a break from foreign language in general.
Speaking of foreign languages, D is signing up for Elementary Spanish 2 at the local CC this summer to get in a 3rd year since she does not have room in her schedule next year at school. Does anyone have any thoughts/experience with CC languages taught as a web-based class instead of standard classroom? The convenience of not having to take her to class 2x/week combined with her not losing a day of work (her employer is home-based and only works in the afternoon which is when the class is held) is certainly a plus. However, I donāt know how a web-based class in a FL that really should be used on a daily basis is helpful in learning? Thoughts?
@orangefish If your D is strongly resistant to another year of Latin chances are it will do her college admissions more benefit for her to take a different class that interests her more. I would point out to her that this choice probably does mean she will have to take either more Latin or a new language in college depending on the school she ends up at but if she does take on a new language at that point she will find those three years of Latin a huge help in learning the new one so it wasnāt a waste.
I remember choosing not to take Spanish 4 when I was in high school since only 3 years were needed for admission but then being really frustrated when I went to a college where 4 years of a language in high school would have been an automatic waiver of the language requirement. But if her eyes are open to that as a possibility and she still wants to quit itās probably a really good idea. High school shouldnāt be all about getting in to college anyway.
And, FWIW, my oldest is at UVA and despite 4 years of high school Spanish still had to take more Spanish there to meet the language requirement.
Thank you, @mom23travelers ā she has so many other interests and took two courses over the past summers to help clear her schedule out for more interesting electives. When it comes to more Latin, she goes off on a rant about the fire of a thousand suns, etc. Maybe sheāll love Spanish.
@OrangeFish, D19 is not the biggest fan of 4th year of Spanish either. I emailed the target colleges for confirmation. Most mentioned that they would be ok with 2 years in HS and 3 years in all for FL. In some UCs, students need to take 1 semester or an year of FL. I hope D will grow up and bite it up by then.
If my d19 hadnāt had a happier year in Spanish 3 this year than she did in Spanish 2H last year, I would have been glad for her to stop after 3. There comes a point when the misery and stress just are not worth it while our kids are happier challenging themselves more in other areas IMO. Iām pretty sure my first post in this thread mentioned her hating Spanish with the fire of a thousand suns, lol. A different teacher and a more relaxed pace have made a difference for this year.
Ugh!
S19 waited till the night before his college finance project was due to finish. And of course I was babysitting my 3 month old nephew all night and trying to deal with him back and forth via text!
Silly me helped him find a school we could afford now (or for my S17ās start year). But it wasnāt a bargain school, Jist one that came on under my cap. Like an idiot I didnāt think to factor in 3 years of inflation for his base price on top of it. Good thing he did. Bleh that was a depressing exercise.
Oh well, he learned a lot and had some interesting insights.
Ugh. No fun @eandesmom .
That is such a great project, regardless of the last-minute chaos, @eandesmom ā¦ I hope/wish my kidsā schools did something like this. I had skin in the game when I was in college, and while my kids will have a sense, and even skin, in the form of grants/loans/scholarships, it doesnāt compare to what I was able to do, which was work and self-finance the whole thing, combined with loans and scholarships. This exercise would go a bit toward meeting that gap of a vested interest and understanding the reality of all of it.
@carolinamom2boys no, not terribly lol. Iāve been so in the trenches with S17ās costs analysis that I wasnāt thinking of inflation on todayās tuition starting in 2019 and it created a gap. We figured it out though. My thought, with this kid, was that he needed to see a school that had a gap so a small one going into it was good but it was bigger than Iād expected. His is complicated by the fact that at some schools he will see some FA for years one and 2 but not for the remainder due to student in college overlap. I didnāt even go down that path with him but the reality is it requires running the NPC twice for all schools. A version with 1 in school and a version with 2. Then you can see the FA portion as on most NPCās, they lump.
The good news is his math was solid but as Iām texting him how we can close the gap (1K more a year in cash funding from me, plus I match his student direct loan total with a parent plus) he somehow wasnāt adding it right (that would have put us over actually) and kept insisting he was still short. Part of the homework though was to present to me the final project, not really what I wanted to hear at 11:30pm when we got home from babysitting (S17 was watching the 2 year old and āhelpingā with the newborn lol). And frankly, I didnāt do my homework well enough up front on this example school. Itās a PROFILE school (which I had forgotten I about since S17 cut it right away), which will give us less, and they donāt use IDOC and require copies of everything. Sounds like a total pita and unaffordable to boot. Which is a bit of a bummer as there are lots of lovely things about it but it is early days.
@Gatormama so very very true. I self funded all except for room & board and books between working 80 hours a week in summers and 20+ during the school year and small loans. That really isnāt possible for kids now. Ok the 2 job 80 hours a week would be but really, I have to admit I donāt want that for them (perfectly ok with 40 though and not playing the summer away!). It was interesting though we were talking about something along these lines at my dinner club (sorority sisters) and I donāt remember a bunch of stuff that the other gals do. And someone commented about how I was always off at work. Which was true. Made me feel better as I was starting to think Iād really killed a lot of brain cells back them. Most of them didnāt work at all in school. If not all actually, at least of the group in the dinner club. I found this project invaluable for S17. He was quite proactive in figuring out what he could earn to contribute and what loans he would qualify for. His math wasnāt nearly as good though, he way overestimated (double counted some expenses) and had similar end costs in some ways to S19 and the school he chose is half the price. Ok not quite but a ton less. LOL!
It was interesting though. For S19 the example the teacher had given showed that if the parents had started saving when the student was born, $333 a month would have covered the entire example. But of course his example had a total COA for all 4 years of 75k. To which I asked where in the world was he going to school as not one of our in state options is going to come in at 75k for all 4 years! In S19ās example, our combined loan payments ($54k in total combined loans) would mean a $538 month payment for 10 years, total of 10K in interest. Early payoff much more attractive of course. Versus the $981 that would have needed to be saved a month, every month since he was born. He thought the loan option looked far more attractive from a disposable income standpoint. Now granted thatās not apples to apples, the $981 would be to fully fund whereas the $538 a month for 10 years is to cover the shortfall but still. He was pretty intrigued by the whole thing. But seriously, 16 years ago heaven knows I didnāt have an extra 1k per month to save for college! Andā¦heaven knows he will be targeting schools that come in lower than this chosen example did. This one wants grad school so we need to really do some research and itās not going to be terribly fun. My PNW kids are very much location avoidant for some of the really big merit schools (or want a significantly smaller school) and itās going to be a challenge with S19 to be sure. Especially if those grades donāt come up by the end of the semester.
Our new dashboard system only shows % or letter grades and not running gpa. Which frankly, while I get the fact the kids are less stressed out as a result, they donāt bother to do the math and see where they are at (and the quarter report cards that should have come in the mail, never did). However I can do the math and am less than thrilled.
Wow, a thousand a month 15 years ago and weād be set. FOR ONE KID.
Who the heck has that kind of money.
Thatās very sobering, and makes me feel a lot better about having saved next to nothing.