What is the "average" normal amount paid for an undergrad degree per year?

Parents Forum
61

yes, you are naive. I live in New England and college kids who want to party go out in flipflops and a denim jacket even when it’s 20 degrees outside.

How many kids total does she know going to Georgia- 60? 80? Can you show her how diluted that number is when compared to the entirety of the university?

I’m not telling her to go somewhere she doesn’t want to go. But she needs more solid reasoning (imho) than just “I’m trying to avoid the kids from HS who drink beer and expect me to pay for a keg that I don’t want to drink”.

And yes- a big school with a vibrant literary scene, a performing arts center, a highly regarded social action/activist group, a wide range of orchestras and dance groups, and a broad range of religious organizations is more likely to get her a “tribe” than a small school, especially if that school is rural or suburban (the kids drink because there is nothing to do and nowhere to go- or so they say).

62

Back to your question about money. Your family needs to figure out what you can pay. If the finances are the driving force. You need to look at the schools that come in within your budget. Realize that large schools will have a HUGE variety of student students and subcultures. Even at UGA she won’t have to be with folks from her HS unless she wants to be.

Have her look a thing the activities and clubs at each school. Look at housing options. Look to,see what is inneach town beside the bars.

She has some good choices.

But really…as an Ohio girl (the one in Athens), we used to travel to OSU to party! Oh…and to hear their fabulous marching band!

63

@blossom

She has more solid reasoning - the campus isn’t walkable, is too spread out, and she won’t be taking a car. The bus system is also a disaster at UGA - very slow and inefficient. She isn’t in honors or a scholars group at UGA as she is at Alabama and OSU. She wants that “smaller group connection”. She wants to experience life in a different state so that she can learn the “culture” of another area. It’s also more difficult to keep her scholarship at UGA than it would be at OSU or Alabama. Along with disliking the environment of Athens and wanting to start college without the influence of past friends, I feel that is enough. I have zero desire to send my child to a place that she doesn’t want to be. I have no reason to think that doing so would end well.

HAHA about flip flops in 20 degrees. This is a girl who wears 3 layers and a blanket in Georgia when it hits the 30’s. At our OSU tour last week she wore 4 layers of clothing, a giant goose down jacket, 2 pairs of boot socks, uggs, a scarf, a head wrap for her ears, a hat, and gloves. And the low was 24 that day. :wink:

64

Make your financial plan so that you know what you can actually afford for all of the kids. You need to know your price limit in order to make an informed decision that will not compromise college funding for other kids or your retirement.

Be sure to consider the possibility that the Army intending kid changes his mind or is determined by the Army to be ineligible for some reason (70% of young Americans are ineligible for US military service) and may go to college instead.

65

I think the party/bar scene will be similar at all the big state schools. However, the size of the schools means that there are a lot of opportunities to get involved in activities/clubs that don’t involve drinking. I can understand your daughter’s desire to be away from some of the high school friends, but then why would she join a sorority at UGA? It seems like getting involved in other groups might be a better fit for her. In general, it seems that the students I know going to UGA have been much stronger academically (in high school) than those going to Alabama (but just an opinion and not including those who get the big scholarships at Bama) but I do agree that being a part of an honors program would be nice for the smaller classes and more serious students. It sounds like your D is a great student and will do well wherever she attends. Good luck with these tough decisions!

66

I missed the part of her wanting to join a sorority. At Alabama, that can add $5000 or more to the freshman year. Other southern schools can be expensive too, but Bama seems to be the most expensive.

The figure for joining a sorority should be on the spreadsheet as it can vary by thousands of dollars. One DD at a smaller school pays only a few hundred per year for the sorority and other daughter actually pays less than it would cost to live in a dorm. It can be a lot more expensive, though, like at Alabama. Each school should have at least the average cost of joining.

Another cost you might need on your cost comparison is travel. It’s going to cost more to travel to New Orleans or Ohio than to UGA.

67

@elena13
Not all sororities are into drinking and partying. Some are more focused on their philanthropy, community involvement, and sisterhood. That is what she would be looking for in a sorority. As I said, she is from a large family where there are always people around. For her to suddenly be in a dorm room away from home and not have a “group”, I fear that she would be at risk for falling back into depression (an issue she battled pretty hard with freshman-junior year of high school). There is a price I am willing to pay to ensure that she has a group of friends that care about where she is and what she’s doing. At the southern schools we are looking at, a large percentage of the female population is Greek. I don’t want her to feel left out, but more importantly, I want her to have that sense of family. She’s very involved with community service and fundraising for several organizations, so I feel that the right sorority would give her the opportunity to continue to make an impact and gain more leadership experience.

@twoinanddone
I do have the sorority costs on my spreadsheet. That’s why Ohio State isn’t that large of a spread when you look at the real numbers. Plus, I am sure that there are plenty of extra costs outside of just dues for the sororities (formal wear on occasion, activities/events/outings, etc). She wouldn’t be joining a sorority at Ohio State because she will be in the Scholars program if she goes there, and that achieves the same goal that we wanted to achieve via a sorority elsewhere. Scholars is a close knit group of high achieving students that have similar interests, live together, have some classes together, and are involved in extensive campus outreach and community service.

The total COA (accounting for the average cost of sororities where she would be in one):

UGA - $22444/yr
Alabama - $23832/yr
Ohio - $29284/yr

Plus, she really prefers the structure of the scholars program at Ohio State over sororities at the southern universities. And again, she doesn’t like UGA at all. Would you as parents force your child to attend a school she didn’t like? $29284 is a number that we can comfortably pay without any lifestyle adjustments or changes (and we are taking into account the cost of educating our other children).

My main question again was, is that an amount other families with EFCs too high for FA commonly pay for undergrad per year, or is it way out of line? Would it make more sense to pay $23832 at Alabama, or do you think the education, opportunities, (and her preference) of Ohio State are worth a $5452 premium per year?

I agree that the $43k-51k/yr schools just don’t seem realistic. Thank you all for helping me come to that conclusion. She liked Tulane and UF, but honestly not more than Ohio State. And UNC, though an amazing school, just isn’t wise to spend this much on for an undergrad degree.

68

You may want to look into the sorority situation at each campus. Some campus sorority systems have competitive or “harsh” rush/pledge practices, accentuated by a status hierarchy. This type of thing may be opposite of what your daughter is looking for in terms of the social scene.

Older discussion:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1886771-schools-with-harsh-fraternity-and-or-sorority-systems-or-those-with-disagreeable-practices.html

Not sure how much it matters to you and your daughter, but sorority systems at some schools are highly racially segregated (which can be noticed by looking at chapter photo albums).

69

You should could your blessings being in the GA area. Here in New England it is not unusual at all to have a new cost after scholarships in the $45-$50K/year range. Our flagship is like other states - about $30K/year.

70

@ucbalumnus
Thank you. This is honestly just another reason we feel like OSU Scholars is a better option than her attending a southern university and sorority. She is very much against racial segregation - it’s one of the major concerns she has about Alabama.

I think it would be good for her to get out of the south and experience life in a different part of the country.

71

@MassDaD68
So, do you feel that 30k/yr is reasonable to pay for an undergrad at Ohio State? (I realize that it’s mid-west so not exactly comparable to NE.)

72

(Self-)Segregation in sororities is not limited to the south.

You and she may want to look into OSU’s sororities to see whether within-chapter integration versus segregation is within what you consider desirable:
https://ohiounion.osu.edu/get_involved/sorority_fraternity/chapter_information
IFC = fraternities
MCGC = sororities and fraternities
NPHC = sororities and fraternities
PHA = sororities

73

Note also the varying percentages of women in sororities:

36% Alabama http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=469
25% Georgia http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=975
6% Ohio State http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1807

74

I wouldn’t and didn’t force my kids to go to college at all. I did set a budget and they had to live with that but could apply to any schools they wanted to as long as we could figure out a way to stay in the budget.

If you as a family can afford OSU, go for it. For my family, that would have been outside the budget but it sounds like you are fine with that cost and would prefer to pay more to avoid UGA.

75

@ucbalumnus
She wouldn’t be rushing a sorority at OSU. She would just be in the Scholars program

76

To add an interesting twist: In today’s mail she just received an additional 2k scholarship per year at Alabama. (1k per semester for 8 semesters, as stated in the letter.) I wonder if they honor it for 8 semesters including grad school if she graduates early (the same way that they handle the presidential scholarship)? I didn’t realize they were even still awarding scholarships at this point.

This brings Alabama’s COA including sorority down to $21832

77

Honestly sounds like Alabama is a winner. With a school that size, she can find the types of people she wants to hang with. Don’t discount the cost of having child at far off school without a car. Alabama is likely pretty accessible from GA compared to Ohio.

UGA doesn’t sound like a contender in your mind, but please don’t dismiss it because she might see too many kids she knows from HS. My youngest went to school in town to her university. She know of tons of kids from her school, church, etc that were going there also - and got there and seldom ran into any of them. Made great friends with other in-town kids from other high schools, some of who she kind of knew through other people that became close friends. Your D is going to make friends in a different way than in HS and even if one or two kids she knows show up in one class, they’re not likely to be in all or to figure prominently in her social life if she doesn’t want them to.

I hope wherever she goes she has open mind about sororities. There are other groups of people and she will have a smaller experience by virtue of Honors college.

Financially, our goal was equal or less that what our 2 Ds would spend to go to in-state school. In SC, that was right at 21k when they were applying. Both beat that number, allowing us to help with grad school. Youngest turned down some great schools because of cost.

78

Our S also went to a U where 15% of his HS went. It was a very large school that allowed him to find his “tribe.” There were 200 students who were in the 1st year engineering school
at that U vs 200 who graduated with his HS class.

It sounds like your D has several affordable options, congrats!

Since you mention your D had some serious depression issues, I’d look into mental health and disability services at her various schools. Our kids have chronic health issues and we made an appointment and met with the head of disabilities at the school they’d attend AFTER I spoke with each U about how they’d handle a prolonged absence caused by his chronic health issues. The one which said they’d ask him to withdraw was taken off the table. The one who asked us to come to campus early and meet some of their MDs so the kids would have a base and place to go if they needed more help than the student health center could offer.

It might be good if wherever your D goes, she could get there ahead of time and set up an appointment to meet one or two therapists she could have on hand to help her with inevitable tough times during college. That may be much more convenient than her trying to rush home to see a therapist when life is already very busy at college. It gave us great peace of mind to have found a team of docs for our kids. It turns out S didn’t need or use them, but D did and still uses one of them to this day 7 years later.

79

@GAcollegemom6 I think the $30K is a good rule of thumb meaning if you can get below that cost at a state flagship then you are doing fine. Some schools give better aid than others and some even try to offer in-state tuition rates to out of state’ers like UMaine. UofA as you know seems to give fantastic aid and if your DD is fine going there then your good to go.