<p>obsessed mom, I read and completely empathize with your dilemma of using the money now for undergrad or using it later for grad/prof school. We had the same choice three years ago (well, maybe we don’t have enough to cover all of grad/prof school, but a lot of it). </p>
<p>Maybe it depends upon course of study, but the quality difference between studying engineering at son’s first choice expensive school and the much more affordable state school was not that great. They are both ABET accredited, use many of the same text books, have nearly identical salary data for graduates, etc. He went to the state school and now can go wherever he wants for grad school. Perhaps there is more return on investment in the liberal arts areas? </p>
<p>Would it be possible for a person who valued the broad subject background of a core curriculum to duplicate that by careful course selection at a different college?</p>
<p>I just noticed anxiousmom’s post, which pretty much contradicts my opinion on same texts = same material. H and I also want our kids to have prospects for good and interesting jobs and the freedom to choose them (after all, college is just a few years, but you will work for decades). So, I guess it’s good that there is a college for everybody’s tastes. :)</p>