Would such an approach make either school reasonably affordable? If so, then you can freely choose between them based on other aspects.
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Congratulations on acceptances to two great schools!
I’m still a bit confused/concerned about the financial part.
If you take $6500 from your 529, then you will have $16k remaining for Tulane or $13k for Wake Forest. Is that correct?
Do you have at least $26,000 in your 529 (i.e. $6500/year for 4 years)? If not, how will you pay for years 2-4?
Has your mom looked into payment plans, including what the additional fees/interest will be? Very few places offer no interest/no fee payment plans. Are those costs affordable for her, when combined with the principal that she will be paying?
Also, how much will you need to contribute annually from your summer job toward tuition? Is there a plan for you to have any spending money (i.e. will you need to work extra for that)?
Lastly, is one of them less expensive in terms of travel costs to your home? Even if it’s start of school, winter break, and the end of the school year, those costs can add up.
I hate to keep harping on the financial aspects of this, but it sounds as though either Tulane or Wake Forest are either just affordable or potentially a bit beyond affordable. A big cause of college disruption is not lack of academic preparation but financial difficulties. I just want to make sure that you and your family are taking into account the various financial aspects that are very common to make sure that you’ll be able to afford the school of your choice for all four years.
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Currently she is paying 17K a year for private high school so my Mom says if we stay under that budget it will be do-able. We have 529 funds to cover all years with this budget. My summer goals are to earn enough to cover the 5500 loans so I can pay those off while in school so I can graduate without debt.
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Are these realistic numbers for you in terms of summer earnings? Are you in a place where summer jobs are available and lucrative? And you understand that every paycheck will first deduct your social security taxes plus other things before you see a penny, right? You need to earn a lot of more than $5500 to NET $5500.
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I hope to, I currently have a summer job as a nanny that will go to cover that plus I make money writing grant proposals and media releases for a local non profit that I will continue to do remotely when at school.
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Have you visited both schools? Hearsay can be helpful in alerting you to things to be attentive to, but ultimately your firsthand impressions would be a much better basis for a decision.
These two schools are far more alike than different. They are similar reputationally, socially/culturally, and in the prominence of Greek life.
The cost difference isn’t huge, but given that neither school is measurably “better” than the other in any dimension that you have cited, I’d tend to go with the less expensive one and reduce financial strain as much as possible.
But if you visit both and one resonates far more than the other, and finances permit you to choose that one, go for it!
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Congrats on your acceptances and having great options! Someone else already asked but I’ll repeat - have you visited? The environments are very different. Tulane is in the middle of a city and Wake is…not. My kids liked visits at both but they feel very different. Although Greek life is big at both schools, my sense from visitng and from speaking to my kids’ friends who attend (5 friends at Wake, 3 friends at Tulane) is that Greek Life is more “important” at Wake. People often point out that nearly half the women and most of the men are NOT Greek, but my childrens’ friends who are at Wake say that Greek life truly dominates the social scene. Of course you can be happy without joining, but they all report that it really is the social focus of the school. It may be because there isn’t much else going on nearby. Their friends at Tulane also feel like Greek Life is an important part of the social scene but they also say there is a lot more going on…maybe because it’s a bigger school and in a city. IDK. One of the things my kids’ friends like about Wake is that it feels more “Southern” and somewhat “traditional”. YMMV. Good luck!
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Tulane is consistently ranked among the top 3 party schools in the nation; Wake Forest’s nickname is Work Forest.
If you are Jewish, then Tulane is the easy choice according to the Hillel Guide To Colleges based on enrolled percentage. WFU leans conservative (Baptist roots); Tulane is much more liberal.
Both are solid academically, but otherwise very different.
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If she is able to continue these payments to cover the cost of college, I think it could be doable (if costs remain the same).
I also think you should be realistic about what you can earn working. Keep in mind that you already have to work in order to make the money you were offered through work study. Adding additional hours may be difficult.
Will the cost of Tulane (16k) and Wake Forest (13k) stay the same over all 4 years?
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These sites make it convenient to compare the levels of Greek participation at your choices in the context of the levels at other schools:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-sororities
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I guess an important questions about greek life is how hard is it to get in. Looks like both wake and tulane have a majority in sororities, but how many girls get dropped or drop? Is there enough space if the girls want a sorority? At my dd’s school (mid size west coast) there are enough spots so about 1/2 the class gets dropped. It can make for a very tough transition for those that don’t get in. It is also a fall rush, which I think can be worse.
At every school the number of spots available for PNMs (quota) is set the same way and is based on the number of girls who sign the MRABA after pref round. There is no pre-set limit before that. This process is required by the National Panhellenic Conference and does not vary by school. The less popular sororities are actually able to make far more offers in each round than the more popular ones. Very few girls actually get released by all. But at many schools girls a lot of girls choose to drop out because they don’t like the invitations they get back at the early rounds so they choose to leave the process. Of course it feels like they’ve been cut because they have been cut by the sororities they actually were hoping to get.
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Interesting. So that means some houses are given more spots to offer than others?
Not in the end…or at least mostly not in the end. Quota is the same for every house, with the exception that if a house started under quota they may get a few more spots.
But in the earlier rounds (sisterhood, philanthropy) the less popular houses can make way more offers. This is because girls can only go to a reduced number of houses in those rounds and some girls get more offers than they can accept. So…let’s say there are 15 houses total. And in sisterhood a girl may be able to visit up to 9 houses…but she gets more offers than that (this is not common but definitely happens for some.m) She will pick the ones she wants to go back to up to the limit. Some girls get way fewer than the max number of invites back for the next round and they may not like what they get. It’s very rare to get zero invites back because the least popular sororities invite back so many at this round. Then in the philanthropy round maybe she is limited to 5 and if she gets more offers than that she drops some. And in Pref everyone can only go to two max. So…less popular sororities get to offer more invites to Sisterhood and Philanthropy (and sometimes pref) because they know they will not yield as many acceptances. Very popular houses can offer far fewer invites because they know most girls will accept.
In the final, final round (pref)…girls know who their final two are. THey could end up at either. If they sign the MRABA and rank BOTH houses, they are guaranteed to get one of them. All houses have the same quota which is the number of signed MRABA divided by the number of houses. And then houses that are under quota with their existing members may get to add a few more.
ETA - at my child’s school about 650 start rush, about 400 complete it. So a lot drop out. But, according to the schools office of Greek life only 4 girls were actually dropped - ie received no invitations back to any sorority at some point in the process.
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Thank you for that explanation.
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Thank you
Thank you that is very helpful