Harrisonburg has some great student housing for cheap! I was amazed what younger S got for $550ish a month. And his was on the expensive side! We were also lucky that tuition was held flat for almost our whole time there.
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Tuition isnât set for 2024/2025 yet, but the increase will fall between $0 and $368 for the entire year for out of state students.
Our son has become a very good cook, and makes primarily healthy dishes. He food preps on Sunday for the week. Weâre saving money in relation to meal plans.
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Ah I see. I think it also depends on the parents. In my affluent community and at the private school I work at, I do see some parents who want their kids to be as or more successful than them. I have seen plenty of kids whoâve been pushed to be lawyers, doctors, investment bankers when it really wasnât the right thing for them. But Dad is a lawyer so my kid should be tooâŠ
That said, I do know parents who are wealthy and sucessful and their kids are doing well. Yes, monetarily they may not be as sucessful as their parents, but theyâre still doing well and their parents donât seem to care that they are in a lower paying career. Dâs friend is an elementary school teacher and her dad is the CEO of a company. Sheâs doing well and her parents are happy for her. Then again, this family is very down to earth and laidback and even though the parents are wealthy, theyâve never been the kind to push their kids into certain careers. They want their kids to be in careers where they can be happy and be in careers that suit them.
Our S got his BEE but after a decade in his field decided he prefers being an entrepreneur and has been doing that and making more and is happier with his work/life balance. His wife has dabbled at multiple sequential jobs and is currently looking for another one.
They are happy and healthy and paying their own bills so we are happy.
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Can it really cost $90K? Who gets the money? My kid graduated from Tufts in 2005 and tuition was around $38K!! Almost 300% increase in 19 years??
Tuition has increased about 180% (to $68,678). Still a lot! But the $90k is total cost of attendance, not just tuition.
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A better way to view is Tuftâs tuition CAGR since 2005 is 4%, which admittedly is higher than the average 2.4% inflation in the same time period, and not out of line in comparison with its peers.
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I agree, when we were looking at historical private tuition increases last year, it seemed like 4% was typical and we figured it would be best to budget for 4-5% increases so that we wouldnât have unwelcome surprises. (Didnât end up going private, but that was our thought process.)
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USC is $95,225 a year. Someone is willing to pay that, Iâm not sure who, but there are plenty of takers every year. One of my sonâs 2023 friends from high school is at USC now. They thought we were so lucky to be spending 40 something at Berkeley and we agreed!
Our Cal Poly SLO cost is under $30K. What a fabulous deal.
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Cal poly is such a steal! My D17 is an alumnus.
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Well, plenty of Singerâs clients were like Lori Loughlin. Plus they paid the bribes to Singer and the âdonationâ to the athletic department. There are plenty for whom it is isnât even a pinch, others who have saved for it, and many others who are getting financial aid or merit aid.
The rest of us send our kids to much cheaper schools.
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This article helps explain why costs have increased.
Here is a list of Vanderbiltâs undergraduate majors. Which ones would you pay over $90,000 for?
I wouldnât spend money buying a kid a new jeep for his 17th birthday. I wouldnât spend 100K on a fancy kitchen for a 400K home. I wouldnât spend 20K taking all the kids and grandchildren to Disney. I wouldnât spend $1500 on a handbag. I wouldnât spend tens of thousands of dollars on a decorator to redo my perfectly adequate if not inspiring living room.
And yet people do these things every single day. I donât get to tell them how to spend their money and they donât get to tell ME how to spend my money. I majored in something most folks consider useless and have had a fantastic career.
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I paid far less for my D to graduate with one of those majors. It has served her well. Would I have paid list price? I couldnât tell you whether or not I would ⊠I didnât have that much money to pay to ANY school, and I still donât.
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Any majors that someone with $400K to spend over four years would be comfortable spending on.
Me - no majors at Vandy but everyone is different and some might and if theyâre willing, good for them - even majors that donât seem directly employable - which is many.
We know some local kids that go there. They all love it. Not sure what theyâre paying though. One is now an actor/playwright doing small, local stuff - Iâm sure having a wonderful time. Whether Vandy made that happen or somewhere else could have - I canât say.
In the end, arenât people paying for outcomes? Yes, experience, etc. etc. but I think most parents are paying, in reality, for outcomes.
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There might be one or two but those that have sufficient wealth to pay $90K+/year for their child to attend Vanderbilt (or other) are not likely spending their afternoons on CC. 
Itâs definitely school dependent but Iâm guessing an annual income of $300-400K/year (or substantial assets) would be needed to make someone full pay at one of those institutions. Everyone has their priorities and clearly the schools are finding enough butts to fill those seats.
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I mean, I read about kids doing pre-law or pre-med at these high priced schools. Why - I mean, look at the schools people get into the top law schools from. Look at #8 UVA last year - top schools UGA and Alabama.
But these âbrandsâ are strongly built and they have believers - and the cash registers continue to ring for them!!
And they achieve great outcomes as well in many cases. Just like people drive nice cars or have nice homes, they want âniceâ colleges. Why live in Torrance if you can afford to live in Beverly Hills?
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Iâve got a work acquaintance whose strategy for her kids was âcheapest possibleâ. They own three homes (two vacation homes in different climates plus their primary home), are constantly renovating/redecorating, travel a lot, and the newest insanity is Business Class only because âlife is too shortâ.
Different strokes.
I will say that commuting to the local non-flagship state college seems to have been a good decision for one of her kids. He was not a serious student in HS, was not a serious student in college, and the notion that he was going to show up at Full Freight U and start reading Kant and Hegel in his spare time would have been absurd. He had a bunch of withdrawals, time outs, etc. in college and so paying for the âcredits as you goâ for a commuter experience was probably the right decision.
The other kids? Who knows. Not my kids, not my money. Itâs just easier to criticize someoneâs educational choices than to ponder the meaning of their consumer choices.
But I freely admit that as a first Gen American (with a refugee parent) the idea that ones education is the ONLY thing you can take with you if/when you get kicked out of your country of origin is pretty much baked into me. Folks whose parents arrived with a suitcase and $20-- even leaving successful businesses, beautiful homes and property, factories, using jewelry to bribe their way to the USA⊠usually have a different perspective on paying for education than people who have been here for generations.
So 90K per year is a lot of money for sure. But interpreting what that means- culture and heritage likely change the calculus for some.
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