<p>Not considering overall costs, etc. what is your opinion of $ cut-off in difference to go to a better school?</p>
<p>ie - a ranked (but maybe not even top 50-100) national university vs a regional tier 3/4 school or a top ranked LAC vs a small unranked private, etc.</p>
<p>Is $5,000 per year more your cut off, $10,000, zero?</p>
<p>or is it not that simple…depends on actual schools, opportunities within major, fit, etc???</p>
<p>Was discussing with some other parents and just curious what the CC community thought.</p>
<p>“not that simple…depends on actual schools, opportunities within major, fit, etc”</p>
<p>We can’t afford our EFC without taking on serious amounts of debt. I can only think of a handful of colleges or universities where I would have considered doing that had Happykid had the stats for admission and the drive and desire to attend. Think Swarthmore, Wellesley, and the like. Anything below that, if the aid package hadn’t brought our expenses down to what we can actually afford, the college would have been off the table.</p>
<p>As it happens, Happykid’s stats were never in the range for that category of institution, and she never had an interest in them. The expensive institutions for her major field (theater tech.) are equally expensive but not famed for providing the kind of aid she would need. Fortunately her community college has an excellent program, and the in-state public universities offer good transfer options.</p>
<p>In the end we will almost certainly take on some debt, but it is almost certain to be no more than the equivalent of one year’s full EFC.</p>
<p>Let me put it this way. I got accepted into grad school at Georgia Tech with no funding, which would have cost me $25,000 per year tuition. I didn’t choose it, even though it is the nation’s fourth-ranked Mechanical Engineering school.</p>
<p>I guess I wasn’t clear in what I was asking…I’m not really thinking about overall costs, just the difference in cost. Meaning is it worth $5k/year to you to go to a “better” school - here are some examples based on comments from other parents:</p>
<p>one family is not sending child to a national U because it’s $10k a year over the regional U. they said, if it was more like $5k/year they might consider it.</p>
<p>one family is not sending one child to a high-ranked private LAC, but to a low ranked national U because of a $20k/year difference, yet their other child gave up a free-ride at a tier 3 to attend national U at $20k/year.</p>
<p>one family choose lower-ranked national U over a tier 3 regional U even though it was $8k/year more</p>
<p>I guess my question is, how much MORE is it worth to go to a better school? Would you pay $5k/yr more to attend a national U over a regional U or $10k, or is no amount worth it.</p>
<p>Again, it’s hard to answer and depends on the school. I got into Wake Forest (ranked 25) and it’ll cost $30k more for me. That’s too much for that school. $20k, maybe. </p>
<p>But if I got into my dream (Notre Dame) I wouldn’t have blinked about paying the $35k more than my local state U.</p>
<p>^^^^Unless the dream school is HYPSM, and even then, I would NEVER shell out an additional 140K to attend a private school over a very good public school for undergraduate. Now if you are not blessed to live in a state with a very good public school, that is a different story.</p>
<p>Not considering overall costs, etc. what is your opinion of $ cut-off in difference to go to a better school?</p>
<p>MUCH depends on how that extra cost would be funded. If it is rather easily paid for with family funds (without big loans or jeopardizing retirement, etc), then there isn’t a set amount.</p>
<p>however, if the difference is paid for with big loans or other bad/risky ideas, then it’s a bad idea.</p>
<p>To meet the cost of an institution of the level of Swat/Wellesley/etc., that met full federal need, yes I’d consider borrowing the other 15k for four years, and letting the kid borrow the max Staffords. But for anything below that level, no. The aid would have to bring our cost down to what is available from current income. This is why the kid is at the community college and won’t even look at any of the state Us until it’s time to make the transfer list.</p>
<p>If there were any college savings, the formula would be Current Income + 1/4 of college savings per year as our maximum limit.</p>
<p>“But if I got into my dream (Notre Dame) I wouldn’t have blinked about paying the $35k more than my local state U.”</p>
<p>Your local state school must be very weak to want to pay 140K more over four years to attend.</p>
<p>My state school is U of Florida. Not UVa or UCB, but not U of North Dakota…</p>
<p>And Kerrbo, I say those numbers bc I am NOT paying for my education but my parents are, and we make a good living (~200k). I thin every family is different.</p>