What Schools are Worth Paying For Over UVA In-State Tuition?

[Anonymous]

As a UMC family we can fortunately afford to send our son to whatever college he likes the most, but from a practical standpoint if he was to get an offer from UVA what schools might be worth to pay for over the in-state discount?

[Anonymous]

An Ivy or equivalent - Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley. That’s it. Full stop.

I am from CA and even when I was going to college my parents were pretty adamant that it was Ivy or UC or bust. If you pay into an excellent state college system, use it. Save the money for grad school, down payment, etc.

[Anonymous]

The school your child wants to go to.

Mine wants Georgetown School of Foreign Service. He knows what he wants to study and in which fields he wants to work in. He's been deferred and might not get in, since it's very selective, but if he does, it's 80K+ a year we'd be happy to pay for. He's in at various safeties, but none of them have the same kind of focus on what he wants to do.

[Anonymous]

Lots of factors come into play: how many kids do you have (and can you afford tuition for all of them), what type of career is your son aiming for (and on the same note does your son plan on going to grad school), what type of college experience is your son hoping for (and does UVA have a much different vibe/experience than what your son wants) etc. From a pure job prospects, potential connections, and general recognition perspective your safest bets would probably be Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Duke, UPenn, Yale, Columbia, and Caltech. After that I think it becomes a much more difficult discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of factors come into play: how many kids do you have (and can you afford tuition for all of them), what type of career is your son aiming for (and on the same note does your son plan on going to grad school), what type of college experience is your son hoping for (and does UVA have a much different vibe/experience than what your son wants) etc. From a pure job prospects, potential connections, and general recognition perspective your safest bets would probably be Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Duke, UPenn, Yale, Columbia, and Caltech. After that I think it becomes a much more difficult discussion.

+1 There are maybe ~10 schools in the entire country that should really be considered over UVA for middle class and upper-middle class families. Otherwise the difference just isn't worth it given how strong UVA already is. If you have money to blow that's different, then it's really the whole "luxury good" argument and you can spend your discretionary money how you wish; but if you do that, don't kid yourself into thinking that it's objectively much better for your DS. UVA has top departments and a great alumni network already. Even for those top of the totem pole colleges that PP mentioned, I get that it might "sound better" for your DS to say the went to Harvard or Duke, but he can get wherever he wants from UVA as well. Good luck and I hope your son gets into UVA OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a UMC family we can fortunately afford to send our son to whatever college he likes the most, but from a practical standpoint if he was to get an offer from UVA what schools might be worth to pay for over the in-state discount?

I think the answer to this is program/major specific

[Anonymous]

If your child wants to pursue engineering, UVA is not a great choice. I can think of tons of schools - GA Tech, UIUC, Michigan, Purdue, UT, Wisconsin, northwestern. UVA is not even a top 25 program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of factors come into play: how many kids do you have (and can you afford tuition for all of them), what type of career is your son aiming for (and on the same note does your son plan on going to grad school), what type of college experience is your son hoping for (and does UVA have a much different vibe/experience than what your son wants) etc. From a pure job prospects, potential connections, and general recognition perspective your safest bets would probably be Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Duke, UPenn, Yale, Columbia, and Caltech. After that I think it becomes a much more difficult discussion.

+1 There are maybe ~10 schools in the entire country that should really be considered over UVA for middle class and upper-middle class families. Otherwise the difference just isn't worth it given how strong UVA already is. If you have money to blow that's different, then it's really the whole "luxury good" argument and you can spend your discretionary money how you wish; but if you do that, don't kid yourself into thinking that it's objectively much better for your DS. UVA has top departments and a great alumni network already. Even for those top of the totem pole colleges that PP mentioned, I get that it might "sound better" for your DS to say the went to Harvard or Duke, but he can get wherever he wants from UVA as well. Good luck and I hope your son gets into UVA OP!

SiL's DCs both got into Duke and both ended up at UVA, which ended up being financially wise based on their careers.

[Anonymous]

Your child may want what a small liberal arts college has to offer.

Very different than a large state school, even a great one.

There are many posts on this, if you want to find out why many families prefer them.

[Anonymous]

If they want engineering, Purdue out of state is about the same as instate UVA.

[Anonymous]

A recent transfer student to UVA told us that it is like High School 2.0. For a student that wants a different more diverse more evolved experience there are a LOT of schools that are worth it. Especially if money isn’t a factor.

[Anonymous]

Ivies or geographically preferable/desirable schools like Georgetown or Northeastern

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A recent transfer student to UVA told us that it is like High School 2.0. For a student that wants a different more diverse more evolved experience there are a LOT of schools that are worth it. Especially if money isn’t a factor.

And here come the predictable UVA naysayers. OP there are many here on this board who hate UVA for some reason. Ignore them.

My kid is at UVA from NOVA and never sees any of the 10 kids from his class that go to UVA. It’s far from HS 2.0 but I suppose if a kid makes it so and doesn’t branch out from who they already know, that’s on them.

To answer your question though I think it’s totally program/major dependent and if the kid hates UVA for whatever reason, don’t force them.

[Anonymous]

If it were me, probably just HYPSM. I’m fond of Mr Jefferson’s university though and look at it from an out of state perspective which makes it seem more unattainable

[Anonymous]

The question is:

If they were all the same price, which university would your kid go to?

An then go from there.

(Because you said you were UMC - no loans, retirement funded, any college possible for all kids, etc.)