Three words, Net Price Calculators. If it was all about" Show Me The Money" they could have saved a lot of money in application fees and could have spared him a lot of time and emotional energy.
Having said this, none of us are aware of his families financial circumstances. There could be a very compelling reason for this decision even beyond what has been stated and it may be something that is quite recent.
I wish this young man the best! In the absence of any other information that has this makes sense I believe this young mans family could have planned much better and been much more strategic.
How will this decision be measured in the future?
If he graduates on time, and is admitted to medical school then, I suspect, that proponents of this decision will say that he saved a lot of money, thanks to UA.
If he does not graduate or does not get admitted to medical school, I suspect that they will blame the student. To me that is unfair.
With a 67% 6-year graduation rate at UA, this decision seems like a bit of a risky gamble to me. The thread is titled, in part, " Bama Wins", and for the moment, that is true. However, it is unclear to me whether this student wins. Probably so, but I think it is far from certain. Time will tell.
Aparently, this person decided to waste the time applying to Ivy/Elites. I do not know the reason. I know that many very top kids skip it, never apply to Ivy/Elites an happily attend their in-state publics on full tuiion/full ride Merit scholarships. This inclues my D. who gradated #1 in her class from #2 private HS in our state. She never applied to any of Ivy / Elites despite of pressure from GC. Instead she promted to attend in-state public on full tuition Merit where she was accepted to the program that ad only 10 spots. Happy go lucky kid had happy go lucky experience there that well exceeded our family expectatins. Many around us choose the same and I noticed prticularly kids with MD parents who did not want kids to go thru the same as they did repaying student loans. This kids are graduating from Grad. Schools (Med. Schools,…etc.) this year, next year. They are debt free! What a nice way to start a young career.
@partyof5 I don’t think it is scorn here, so much as genuine puzzlement. Why does one apply to 8 Ivies, 5 Ivy-levels, and then take Alabama because none of the others worked out? If he wanted a large, excellent state program, the choice could have been between Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas A&M, or Ole Miss, for example. Or, if he wanted top-notch Pre-Med from some highly regarded southern LACs, he might have received great scholarships from Rhodes, Sewanee or Furman with those stats.
Unless he applied to a dozen other schools that aren’t mentioned, it looks like he did not do the recommended safety/match/reach strategy. And in the end he was left with no choice at all. Seems a very odd route to take for a student with that level of ability.
There is no such thing as " top-notch Pre-Med", any program will be as top-notch Pre-Med as student makes it for himself at absolutely ANY place.
@redrose55, I have only the highest regard and admiration for this student - he’s obviously on his way to a successful future. No scorn for the student at all.
I was wondering how the child came up with his school list, because I’m running into similar parents who do not understand how many elite universities admit and fund undergraduate students. They are well to do parents who have saved some but nowhere near $240,000 per child for undergrad. I think they’ve been told over the years that the elite schools can be cheaper due to generous financial aid, but they have not been told their annual income places them in the “full pay” category.
It sounds like something is not getting across to many parents, not just the Nelsons. The media hypes the Ivies, the generous financial aid that helps lower the cost but maybe they don’t emphasize enough the full pay aspect or explain the donut hole of college costs.
The negative comments on here are laughable. If he does well at Alabama, he can attend an Ivy med school if he wants to.
Kudos to the family for making a logical decision rather than being saddled with debt.
The reason smart kids apply to those schools when they do not have any intention of going…to see if they could have made it. It is a brag point of sorts among their friends. ‘I got into such and such school, but I turned them down to come here’.
The really sad thing is that kids like him just help inflate the myth of the Ivy superiority. The schools all get more applicants that are just making their precious ‘selectivity’ sound great. Of course, it hurts the ‘yield’, but ultimately, they don’t care about that nearly as much as it is not as widely used as a benchmark.
For those who are criticizing their savings…we will continue to get overpriced higher education if people keep paying it. If more and more people made wise decisions with their money, the over-priced schools would eventually have to bring their costs in line with reality.
One may be able to quibble with ‘Bama versus some other full ride, but we came very close to having S1 choose Bama as well and his scores were the same as this kids’. The disdain for big state schools by some people is truly laughable. If you compare the honors programs with the ‘elite’ schools, you find similar results and frequently, similar sized institutions.
Why presume the parents have high incomes ? And what is high ? Even if they make 200K/yr. , I hardly think that makes an after-tax expenditure of 60K a trifle.
Maybe he didn’t want to venture too far from home?
Several years ago, a colleague of mine’s son (who is now finishing his Ph.D.) turned down Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth and Penn for the full ride Foundation Fellows scholarship at UGA. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114549432060630668 Seems like these are financial decisions, pure and simple. That said, there are many other schools where this current studnet would have been a strong candidate for top scholarships like the Stamps foundation scholarships (of which the UGA foundation Fellows is one)
I have been faculty and student at big state schools. I am underwhelmed, and even more so now that my older kid goes to a HPYS. HPYS is not all HYPE.
For some folks, getting a “free ride” is more prestigious than getting in HYPS or the good local flagship. I have seen students, mostly minority athletes, who could go to Rutgers or Princeton for $8-10,000 / yr. but choose a school like Monmouth Univ. or Coastal Carolina for free. One African American girl we know from NJ who was a great athlete and solid A student in academic classes, chose Northern Illinois for the money. It was far away and very cold, so she didn’t last there despite the low cost and had to enroll in a low level private near home which was taking transfers. Not great decision-making in my opinion.
I love this story & I hope my #2 S lands himself in a similar situation in a couple years. #2 is incredibly studious, is either 1 or 2 in his class at a very demanding school & hopes to find a full ride somewhere so that we can swing med school down the road.
Congrats to this young man on his decision & I hope everything works out for him.
I seriously doubt that is a valid concern. Within UA’s freshman class, there is a a lot of diversity in the type of students accepted. Their admission stats last yr were* ACT scores 30 - 36: 36% / 24 - 29: 33% / 18 - 23: 31%*
With a freshman class of 6824, that means 2456 students scored 30 or greater on the ACT, but 2115 students had scores in the lowest range. Financial reasons could be another reason while students take longer to graduate.
A student with his academic abilities has no reason not to graduate on time. That graduation rate is not due to not being able to get required classes, etc. (As a matter of fact, UA will give credit for AP scores, DE classes, some CLEPS, etc.)
Many of the high achieving incoming students at UA come in with enough AP credits to be almost Juniors in their first semester. If he has the NMF scholarship, he has 10 semesters of full tuition scholarship, and could have his Masters completed by then.
It is unusual to be accepted at all 8 Ivy League schools partly because it is unusual (or should be unusual) to apply to all 8. However, students accepted at (and choosing to attend) the top scholarship / honors programs at public universities frequently turn down Ivies. For example, Foundation Fellows at UGA generally would be accepted at HYPS but choose the program for benefits like funded study abroad, summer at Oxford etc…
https://honors.uga.edu/c_s/scholarships/f_f/foundation_fellows.html
Here is info from Harvard’s financial aid site, which is easy to access before applying:
•20% of our parents have total incomes less than $65,000 and are not expected to contribute.
•Families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute from 0-10% of their income, and those with incomes above $150,000 will be asked to pay proportionately more than 10%, based on their individual circumstances.
While I understand this young man’s choice, it makes me kind of sad. Some of the Ivies offer incredible, broadening experiences, both academically and socially. I do wonder if this young man, or his family, had some preference for remaining in their familiar geographic area, or some desire for cultural continuity versus challenge.
It is always rewarding to get in to selective schools but once in, they are a lot of hard work. Perhaps the U of A honors program will be too. The expectations at Ivies, influenced by both faculty and peer students, can be intimidating.
Personality can also play a role. One of mine went to an Ivy against my wishes: his teachers in high school pushed for it. I felt and still feel he would have done better emotionally and socially at our state U. Another of mine went to a different Ivy and thrived in a way she would never have done at a state U. And one of mine was launched from a community college and is now at a 4 year that suits her. It really depends on the kid.
At any rate, he will no doubt excel and with zero debt, can go on to do whatever he wishes at the grad level. That’s great!
If he is planning to go to Med. School then there is no reason under the sky to attend expensive UG. Any UG will do, Med. School’s adcoms do not care, they care a LOT about college GPA / MCAT score / medical ECs / friendly personality - in this priortiy sequence. College GPA is better be at least 3.7 graduating from ANY place.
Also, one may negotiate with parents to pay for Med. School instead of UG and graduate debt free from Med. School (not very common, but about 25% medical students graduate debt free according to what I read here on CC)
@Rebecca1212 really? You hope that your #2 S applies and gets in to 12 or so schools that he is not likely to attend?
I would NEVER let my kid apply to all 8 Ivies, if only because I don’t want to shell out the app fees.
I really dislike this story as a college admissions feature piece. It really feels like he applied to all 8 to see if he could shoot the moon, and I wonder if he ever intended to enroll at an Ivy/Ivy equivalent. I do not buy the idea that his family was that naive about college financial aid- high income, sibling in college, high stats kid, and they don’t know how to run a NPC? Applying to UA indicates a certain level of knowledge about how scholarships work.
This story could have gone another way, and we see it on CC ALL THE TIME: “Shut out everywhere! Have to go to my safety school!!! What did I do wrong!!!”. Although the applicant profile is usually a little different.
quakerstate,
See post #49.