SuzyQ7 – Actually, your statement regarding the parents needing to take out loans for year three and four assumes that she’ll continue to attend that school.
I’m confused… why wouldn’t she continue to attend? I’m not sure why she’d/you’d go in with the intention to pay for 2 years of an elite and later transfer out. That doesn’t make sense.
Purple Titan — I agree with you completely. My daughter does not have free reign on how I spend my money. She knows what we can afford, and she can make the decision. She has a scholarship opportunity that will pay for everything; however, she cannot apply until after her first year of college is complete. She may choice to use the money we have to pay for the elite school for the first year and then if she gets the scholarship she is fine for the rest. We have told her we can do two years at an “expensive” place (and she knows how that is defined). If she takes the risk and hopes for this scholarship (or any of the others that she has identified) that is her risk. Worse case scenario she spends two years at an elite school, and then comes home and finishes at our local college. People seem to think it is fine to start at a community college and then transfer to an elite, she may want to do it the other way.
No final decision is made yet, but likely my D will bypass schools with really high financial support. It’s a dilemma. Both my spouse and I are college professors. So the schools we work at will allow our D to go for free or close to free. But she doesn’t want to go to the same school her parent works at. Each of our colleges is also part of a consortium so D can get a steep discount (75% off) for probably another 10+ schools. She only liked one of them (which she applied to and got in) but she really really wants to leave the state. Leaving the state means we pay full tuition, unless she gets merit scholarships. Sadly we saved too much money for college. Not anywhere near enough to cover 4 years at a private school and we have modest middle-class incomes. But we are ineligible for financial aid. That said, we can make it work, we only have one kid, and if her dream school isn’t in our state part of our consortia, I don’t want to hold her to that - given that we are privileged enough to make it work. We do recognize the privilege we have.
I see. It may indeed be a good risk to take. That makes more sense now, thanks.
Suzy Q – there are two reasons to take the risk of attending an elite school when your unsure of how you’ll afford the last two years. The first reason is for the experience. Yes, you don’t get the degree but you do get the experience. The second reasons is that things can change. Right now I don’t know how I’d pay for the later two years of her undergraduate education, that does not mean that I won’t know how to pay for them two years from now when the bill comes due. In addition, as I mentioned she has a lead on a scholarship which might make this all work out.
I have a friend who’s son got a full ride all four years to NYU. His freshman year Hurricane Sandy hit. He got really sick, it turned out to be from some mold he was exposed to. He had to drop out for health reasons. He lost the scholarship. He attended two other colleges and ended up graduating one semester later than his high school graduating class from the College of William and Mary. His brother went to Harvard and ended up with no debt and graduated in four years. The Harvard grad makes less money now, but they are both comfortable and responsible guys. However, I think the one who went to NYU learned a whole lot more about himself and commitment.
My point is that it might work out. I just don’t know how right now. She’ll have to decide if she wants to take that risk. The fact of the matter is anyone who attends a “need-based aid only school” is taking a risk. Just because they decided your need is “x” freshman year doesn’t mean they’ll continue to see if that way for the next four years. It depends on the wording of the offer.
Plus, it seems to me that everyone is assuming the purpose of undergrad is the degree. For some people, it is the experience. That is what I heard in the opening response to this thread by grey something — sorry I forget his handle now.
I totally understand why people want to go in with a fully mapped out plan of how to get from the beginning to graduation. However, a lot can happen in the process. I have become comfortable with her knowing that she might not finish where she starts. I know she is committed to finishing, and that’s what really matters I think.
@NinaBlue, I personally don’t think W&M is a worse school than NYU.
As for the experience, again, it’s my view, but I think the degree is very important.
You can get much of the experience just by hanging around a campus. Or, for instance, living around Harvard and attending HES. You can even generally even sneak in to large lecture classes. And if you want rigor, schools like MIT have a ton online now that you can learn from and test yourself against.