Odd man out here. We made the decisions about college applications before they were sent. Our family agreed that any school applied to was on the table IF the student got accepted. @Alexa_Lauren did you do that with your student?
Our kid got a very large and surprise scholarship to University of South Carolina…a school she liked quite a lot (or she wouldn’t have applied at all). It would have cost us $10,000 a year all in to send her there. But she also had three other acceptances, and at that point, the decision was hers.
She did not choose South Carolina…but it wasn’t because of the academics. She chose another college that cost us 4 times the cost. But we had already agreed we could afford that BEFORE applications were sent.
We let out kids make the decisions about where to matriculate…because we never told them they had to go to the least net cost school…and because we all agreed on the applications at the beginning.
If finances are an issue, you need to have a serious discussion with your student. If not…well…it’s your family decision whether to pay the cost for a more expensive college. We did, and we don’t regret it one bit.
Some people chase the lowest or lower net cost for college and some don’t.