<p>ontocollege, my daughter attended an overnight program at RIT for rising seniors during the summer. We weren’t inclined toward a tech school (she wants to major in bio to do research; not premed) but were in the middle of a college trip and it worked out to pass a Friday night :). We were both extremely impressed with the school and it is way up on our list. They have several one-day open houses scheduled for the fall:
[On</a> Campus Events](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/visit/on-campus]On”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/visit/on-campus)
If it is anything like the overnight program, the all-day open house will tell you and your daughter a lot about the school. </p>
<p>Also, SUNY schools may work for your daughter. Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook all have undergraduate engineering programs.</p>
<p>Mamaduck, thanks for your comments about RIT. My daughter goes to a high school in NYC with 60-40 boys to girls, and we have both observed the relative lack of dramarama for the girls there. She prefers a college without a huge gender disparity toward women.</p>
<p>*Quote:
I ran the NPC at Rochester Institute of Technology … With your D’s GPA and an income of 85000, it estimates you would get a $19000 grant</p>
<p>RIT does not meet full financial need. It only met 85% of my D’s need (without work-study).*</p>
<p>A $19k grant may seem generous, but at a school that costs probably $55k+, that still leaves a lot to pay for that income.</p>
<p>the average of need met means nothing unless it’s 100%. That just means that for some students with low need, they meet 100%… and for those with high need, they meet a low %. and, at some schools, prefential pkging for high stats.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to hijack this into a thread regarding RIT, but RIT’s tuition, room, board, and fees are $45602 (not 55000), so $19000 (from RIT’s NPC, not a general EFC calculator) + $5500 in loans would be pretty close to $21000. We were a bit different, since my daughter earned a tuition exchange award and we only pay room and board. I do know that many of my friends report that private schools (with aid) ended up cheaper than publics where they did not qualify for any aid. YMMV based on your specifics.</p>
<p>“but RIT’s tuition, room, board, and fees are $45602 (not 55000)”</p>
<p>I was just guessing the COA based on similar schools. That said, according to Collegeboard, RIT has underestimated travel and personal expenses. I think $730 per year for personal expenses and $300 for travel is far too low.</p>
<p>Unless the mom plans to return to work or they have “college savings,” I think they may find paying $20k per year too difficult. That’s just too much per month. Most families with that income would be hard pressed to come up with an extra $600 a month, much less $1650 per month for four years</p>
<p>Since you asked about people whose kids go to OOS schools, thought I’d chime in. My son goes to OOS public school. We live in MA but his top choice was UCONN. We just moved him in about 10 days ago :-(.</p>
<p>My hubby earns about $100K and I earn about 10-15K. We have been saving since they (we also have a D15) were young and saved about 44K for him as he starts school. My DS got a $8400 grant from UCONN, we are paying $25k/yr ($11k from savings and $14k from current income). He will be covering the rest using loans and savings from summer jobs. ($5500 Stafford loan and $1600 Perkins Loan. He is budgeting about $3600 for books and spending money for the year).</p>
<p>^^^
The above is a good example of one way people pay to go OOS.</p>
<p>*My hubby earns about $100K and I earn about 10-15K. We have been saving since they (we also have a D15) were young and saved about 44K for him as he starts school. </p>
<p>My DS got a $8400 grant from UCONN, we are paying $25k/yr ($11k from savings and $14k from current income)*</p>
<p>With an income of about $110-115k per year, this family is spending $14k per year out of current income…which sounds like the max that they can reasonably pay. The rest is coming from savings ($11k per year), loans ($7100), a small grant, and summer earnings.</p>
<p>The OP and her H really need to look over their budget to see how much they really can contribute out of current income (of $85k per year).</p>
<p>Be sure to remember the plan is for at least four years–five is sometimes more realistic. It’s good that you’re working on this now. If you do get a job and can bring in income, it will give your family and students more options.</p>
<p>Another thing to think of is cutting expenses. Of course, we’re not paying for D’s music lessons any more ($100/mo), dual enrollment fees ($500/yr), or tutoring ($100/mo). She’s now an occasional driver, so our car insurance dropped $200/yr, and we’re not putting gas in a car for her to drive. We’re hoping to see our food bill drop by $200+ month. As a family, we dropped satellite radio and a gym membership (total: $100/mo). We were prepared to drop directv, but when we called they halved the cost, so we kept it (but saving $47/mo). We took a less expensive summer vacation (not that they were extravagant before, but we rented a VRBO townhouse and cooked our own meals instead of staying in a hotel and eating out). No more SAT and ACT fees! All that adds up!</p>
<p>Hello and thanks to you all for the advice and insights! Very helpful…D would prefer first choice to have a campus that is tree lined with rolling hills ala Vanderbilt…2nd she would be interested in a rah rah school like Clemson and is also comfortable with campuses in a city, especially if there is a med school connected somehow…she wants to study bioengineering and also s wants to do undergrad research. Found she doesn’t like the rural settings or schools just stuck in the middle of fields. We can probably cover the 20k with savings and hopefully cover the rest like Confused mom…that was a very helpful illustration. she surely is looking to up her scores this Fall. Will expand search into tech schools. When we can get the list of prospective colleges somewhat squared away, will then spend time looking for a job…don’t want to go back to my previous industry or career so going to have to figure something else out…that is another project…</p>
<p>I am surprised no one else has mentioned the factor of you being a one-income family. Someone should correct me if I am wrong, but I have always heard that colleges look somewhat harshly on families in this situation because they consider having a stay-at-home parent to be a luxury. </p>
<p>I know when I enrolled at a very expensive private college back in the dark ages it made sense for my mom to re-enter the labor force, even though she made a fraction of what she might have had she worked throughout our childhoods. Even back then there were families, like ours, who were comfortable enough on one solid income (and had savings)…until the kids hit college age. </p>
<p>ETA: great minds think alike, I guess. Sounds like you have a good plan. Good luck!</p>
<p>That is so true, mama duck! All the fees we have been paying while she’s here will pretty much go away…she will also work again this summer…didn’t this past summer as she literally was booked pretty much everyday doing something college-related…sat classes etc. Thanks for the offer and I will check with my D to get questions to ask your D…much appreciated.</p>
<p>Sally 305, I wish I could say my stay at home status was my choice and a chosen luxury…until my daughter started high school I had been the typical, for the NY-NJ area anyway, workaholic supermom, balancing a very stressful, middle management job with life at home, and still able to attend kid school events etc. All this was also done with a hubby who was more than happy to pitch in while he worked at a very demanding stressful engineering job. Worked hard for a good salary, but after a pretty horrible experience at my last job that impacted my overall health status, coupled with working in an industry that had changed not for the better since I started in it, resulting in layoffs all over, I had to take a breather to regroup and it turned out to be the best timing as it was necessary for me to be around even more than when the kids were younger as they were even more active all around and had to be driven everywhere, so that is why we are currently a single income family. If I were still working as I had been it would have been nearly impossible to schedule everything and impose on my friends to help out for years…The next challenge is to go back to work that is intellectually stimulating and pays a decent wage without all the unnecessary drama and stress of my last career…We will see how that goes. Thank you. I would hope that colleges aren’t judgmental on that front…they couldn’t fathom how everyone’s situations come about.</p>
<p>That eliminates Clemson, they have one bar. Vanderbilt is going to be way out of your price range and its very unlikely you’ll get enough merit money to go there.</p>
<p>I understand, onto. I have been in your shoes several times in my career (albeit without the supportive hubby part :().</p>
<p>I would add that your daughter would be “geographically desirable” at a number private schools outside the Northeast–especially if she can bring her test scores up a bit. There are plenty of leafy campuses in the South and Midwest if she is willing to go a little out of the way.</p>
<p>Yes, 14k is the most we can pay per year. That is stretching it a bit as we are still saving for our DD to go to school in 2 years (and, oh yeah, plus saving for the elusive retirement!!). We currently have about $37,500 for her. We are putting $500/month away for her for the next 2 years (that puts her up to about $49,500 when she starts school) and then will continue that amount for her first 2 years. To come up with the $14k for our son we save $1150/month. (We are paying on the college’s payment plan ) Once he is done in 4 years and she has 2 more years to go we then add those 2 figures together so she will get $1650 for her last 2 years. </p>
<p>I feel like it is all very precarious and dependent on nothing awful happening in the next 6 years. Made me very nervous so we set up a Home Equity Line of Credit. Didn’t cost us anything to set it up and doesn’t cost us anything if we never use it, and the line stays open for 10 years. Makes me feel better just knowing it is there if we need it in an emergency situation.</p>
<p>*Found she doesn’t like the rural settings or schools just stuck in the middle of fields. *</p>
<p>That would be Clemson…in a rural setting, out in an agricultural area. Not much else around.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Her test scores would have to significantly increase to a 33+ to have a decent chance of being admitted. An ACT 31 and below is the lower 25% …which is where the special admits are (athletes, etc).</p>
<p>Have you been looking at the middle quartiles of various schools? That will give you a better idea of whether your D may have a chance at those schools to be admitted. </p>
<p>To get merit, her stats would need to be well-within the top 25% of the school.</p>
<p>Thanks Sally305…do you have any idea of what schools we should look into that might consider her “geographically desirable?” Yes, Mom, have started pulling all that data into an excel spreadsheet for easy reference. Confused, thanks for sharing your additional info…not a bad idea about the home equity line of credit as a fallback… We are pretty close to being done on our mortgage, yay, so if we needed to, we could do that credit line… You all are pretty awesome, sharing your thoughts and experiences…Thanks!</p>
<p>APPLY TO OHIO STATE!!! I am also from nj and in a similar situation even though I have higher standardized test scores. Ohio state starts at 35k including living expenses. They give a 12k scholarship to all OOS students with above a 1200 (cr+math) sat. Plus they have various other scholarships. In the end with financial aid you could get your d to a great engineering school for much less than rutgers. Rutgers is 24k in state and OSU will end up being less that 22k (Before you even get financial aid). Plus it has better rankings than rutgers and a nicer campus.</p>