UVA vs Cornell, Georgetown, etc. for in-state

[Anonymous]

If you make $300k+ and can’t afford an Ivy if your smart kid gets in it’s because you spent 18 years trying to keep up with the Jone’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recent HYP financial aid posts are so ill-informed as to seem intentionally wrong. They are FREE for people with HHI of under $65k and capped at 10% of HHI up to $150k. Then there’s a sliding scale of aid all the way up to about $250k b

No, it stops for all intents at purposes for SOME Aid (a pittance, like $3K) once you go over $150K. Trust me. File with FAFSA and say you make 300K and they will mail you back a laugh track. Full ride for those under 65K as stated above - peanuts above until $150K. Even with the peanuts UVA is a MUCH better financial and sound decision. Strange how all of those universities have the same cut=off numbers. Might be time for another antitrust suit aimed at the Ivies. What frustrates me is that the recruiters won't tell the students the cut offs so they get all wound up thinking mommy and daddy can afford 80K to go to NYU, "But the counselor said they meet ALL NEEDS". Well, that's "NEEDS" as determined by the federal government in the form of FAFSA.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

No aid for a HHI of $300k isn’t exactly a sob story. Our HHI is about $170k and we pay $25k with no student loans at a non-HYP Ivy. I think that’s very reasonable

[Anonymous]

LOL. Maybe you believe Harvard knows what it’s talking about:
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/fact-sheet

Think about it this way - if you make $150k, your Harvard tuition is $15k. You’re left with $135k. If you make 170k and they gave a pittance of aid - say 5k - then you’d have to pay $65k and be left with 105k. If that were true, families would take a pay cut to get their income under $150k and come out way ahead!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL. Maybe you believe Harvard knows what it’s talking about:
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/fact-sheet

Think about it this way - if you make $150k, your Harvard tuition is $15k. You’re left with $135k. If you make 170k and they gave a pittance of aid - say 5k - then you’d have to pay $65k and be left with 105k. If that were true, families would take a pay cut to get their income under $150k and come out way ahead!

We make $175K and get way more than $5K/year. I’m not sure where you’re getting that from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recent HYP financial aid posts are so ill-informed as to seem intentionally wrong. They are FREE for people with HHI of under $65k and capped at 10% of HHI up to $150k. Then there’s a sliding scale of aid all the way up to about $250k b

No, it stops for all intents at purposes for SOME Aid (a pittance, like $3K) once you go over $150K. Trust me. File with FAFSA and say you make 300K and they will mail you back a laugh track. Full ride for those under 65K as stated above - peanuts above until $150K. Even with the peanuts UVA is a MUCH better financial and sound decision. Strange how all of those universities have the same cut=off numbers. Might be time for another antitrust suit aimed at the Ivies. What frustrates me is that the recruiters won't tell the students the cut offs so they get all wound up thinking mommy and daddy can afford 80K to go to NYU, "But the counselor said they meet ALL NEEDS". Well, that's "NEEDS" as determined by the federal government in the form of FAFSA.

Do you have significant assets in addition to salaried income?

[Anonymous]

This is quite the amusing thread. When I see people type, "There's no way you'd take U.Va. over Cornell unless you couldn't afford Cornell" I am really surprised.

Is your child preparing to go to grad or professional school? If so, are there hard stats that show that Cornell grads have a statistically significant advantage over U.Va. grads in terms of grad/professional school admissions? If not, couldn't the in-state tuition difference b/w U.Va. and Cornell be applied to their grad/professional school costs? Wouldn't that make the child's life a little easier?


I went to William & Mary for undergrad and Duke for law school. Honestly, you'd have a really difficult time convincing me to spend $30-$35K more a year to send a daughter or son to Duke over W&M at in-state prices.

I'd close with this observation: there is a difference between the Ivies and Stanford/Vandy/Duke/Rice kids and kids from U.Va./UNC/Texas/Berkeley/Texas/W&M/UCLA/GT (the "public Ivies").

There is very little academic or cultural separation b/w the kids in the top 3rd of those schools and the Ivies/Stanford/Duke/Vandy. It's the middle and bottom thirds where kids at a UT-Austin or U.Va. or GT aren't as academically gifted or culturally aware as the kids at Cornell or Rice. That's where the "state school" vibe kicks in at a school like Texas or Cal (frats, athletic events, etc.) I think you'd find that grad schools and HR departments follow this as well...If you're in the top 3d at any of those public schools, you're going to have the exact same doors opened for you in grad school an in the job market that you'd have with a degree from Cornell or Brown.

If you think your child is going to be in the top third of one of the "public Ivies", I'd think long and hard about paying an extra $100-150K just for the "prestige" of saying, "I went to an Ivy League school." There are plenty of kids at the law firm I work at who probably wouldn't have minded if mom or dad had "made" them go to Cal or UNC and gave them the savings to apply to law school tuition. If you don't deal with a lot of recent law school grads, you'd be surprised at the kids I see with $200K+ in debt right out of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is quite the amusing thread. When I see people type, "There's no way you'd take U.Va. over Cornell unless you couldn't afford Cornell" I am really surprised.

Is your child preparing to go to grad or professional school? If so, are there hard stats that show that Cornell grads have a statistically significant advantage over U.Va. grads in terms of grad/professional school admissions? If not, couldn't the in-state tuition difference b/w U.Va. and Cornell be applied to their grad/professional school costs? Wouldn't that make the child's life a little easier?


I went to William & Mary for undergrad and Duke for law school. Honestly, you'd have a really difficult time convincing me to spend $30-$35K more a year to send a daughter or son to Duke over W&M at in-state prices.

I'd close with this observation: there is a difference between the Ivies and Stanford/Vandy/Duke/Rice kids and kids from U.Va./UNC/Texas/Berkeley/Texas/W&M/UCLA/GT (the "public Ivies").

There is very little academic or cultural separation b/w the kids in the top 3rd of those schools and the Ivies/Stanford/Duke/Vandy. It's the middle and bottom thirds where kids at a UT-Austin or U.Va. or GT aren't as academically gifted or culturally aware as the kids at Cornell or Rice. That's where the "state school" vibe kicks in at a school like Texas or Cal (frats, athletic events, etc.) I think you'd find that grad schools and HR departments follow this as well...If you're in the top 3d at any of those public schools, you're going to have the exact same doors opened for you in grad school an in the job market that you'd have with a degree from Cornell or Brown.

If you think your child is going to be in the top third of one of the "public Ivies", I'd think long and hard about paying an extra $100-150K just for the "prestige" of saying, "I went to an Ivy League school." There are plenty of kids at the law firm I work at who probably wouldn't have minded if mom or dad had "made" them go to Cal or UNC and gave them the savings to apply to law school tuition. If you don't deal with a lot of recent law school grads, you'd be surprised at the kids I see with $200K+ in debt right out of school.

Thank you for saying that, although it is now $300K to attend law school (or will be shortly -Harvard Law is $93,435 per year not including travel). We have three students in undergrad universities in Virginia. Because we are a donut hole family, we are financing everything except for the $5,500 FAFSA loan, which our children will carry. They will each have approx. $20-$25K in debt only from undergrad years from FAFSA. We are saving for the grad school expenses. Each child is expected to work. All of our focus is now on saving for grad school opportunities. We feel blessed to have the UVA system in our state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL. Maybe you believe Harvard knows what it’s talking about:
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/fact-sheet

Think about it this way - if you make $150k, your Harvard tuition is $15k. You’re left with $135k. If you make 170k and they gave a pittance of aid - say 5k - then you’d have to pay $65k and be left with 105k. If that were true, families would take a pay cut to get their income under $150k and come out way ahead!

Yes, it's "need based free" ONLY if you make less than the $65K (and that's gross by the way, not after taxes). A family making $300 spends almost half in state, federal and property taxes. That takes you to $150. Let's say you spend 75 (70K to be realistic for airfare) for HYP for one year, you are now down to living on 75K. You have another child in college or in private school, subtract that. Then sibtract the mortgage, the life insurance, the utilities, the food, the cars, car insurance, care for elderly parents, retirement savings, etc. You are now in the hole. That's why some students who got in to HYP went to UVA. It's much better to save what you can to put aside for grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you make $300k+ and can’t afford an Ivy if your smart kid gets in it’s because you spent 18 years trying to keep up with the Jone’s.

You're not taking federal, state and property taxes into account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you make $300k+ and can’t afford an Ivy if your smart kid gets in it’s because you spent 18 years trying to keep up with the Jone’s.

You're not taking federal, state and property taxes into account.

BS and you know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL. Maybe you believe Harvard knows what it’s talking about:
https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/fact-sheet

Think about it this way - if you make $150k, your Harvard tuition is $15k. You’re left with $135k. If you make 170k and they gave a pittance of aid - say 5k - then you’d have to pay $65k and be left with 105k. If that were true, families would take a pay cut to get their income under $150k and come out way ahead!

gosh, how nice you don't have to pay state, federal or property taxes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You turn down UVA in state for HYP, Stanford, Cal Tech, or MIT. You turn down UVA for Wharton undergrad, I suppose. Turn it down for Duke? Tough one.

Nonsense. You turn down UVA for all ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Duke, UChicago if you can afford them or if you need very small loans to afford them. If you cannot afford them, you will likely qualify for need-based aid at these elites so you turn down UVA in this case as well.

The notion that you wouldn't turn down UVA in state for places like Columbia, non-Wharton Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, UChicago etc is beyond laughable. And why would you not turn down Duke but turn down the aforementioned schools? Complete nonsense.

Nope. I fully stand by my statement.

Your statement has nothing to do with reality though.

Again: You do NOT turn UVA down except in the circumstances I mentioned. UChicago does not provide a well rounded experience.

This is patently false but if you want to keep living in fantasy lang fell free to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The recent HYP financial aid posts are so ill-informed as to seem intentionally wrong. They are FREE for people with HHI of under $65k and capped at 10% of HHI up to $150k. Then there’s a sliding scale of aid all the way up to about $250k b

No, it stops for all intents at purposes for SOME Aid (a pittance, like $3K) once you go over $150K. Trust me. File with FAFSA and say you make 300K and they will mail you back a laugh track. Full ride for those under 65K as stated above - peanuts above until $150K. Even with the peanuts UVA is a MUCH better financial and sound decision. Strange how all of those universities have the same cut=off numbers. Might be time for another antitrust suit aimed at the Ivies. What frustrates me is that the recruiters won't tell the students the cut offs so they get all wound up thinking mommy and daddy can afford 80K to go to NYU, "But the counselor said they meet ALL NEEDS". Well, that's "NEEDS" as determined by the federal government in the form of FAFSA.

this is really wrong. You have seriously misunderstood how need-based financial aid works at ivies and comparably rich elites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You turn down UVA in state for HYP, Stanford, Cal Tech, or MIT. You turn down UVA for Wharton undergrad, I suppose. Turn it down for Duke? Tough one.

Nonsense. You turn down UVA for all ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Duke, UChicago if you can afford them or if you need very small loans to afford them. If you cannot afford them, you will likely qualify for need-based aid at these elites so you turn down UVA in this case as well.

The notion that you wouldn't turn down UVA in state for places like Columbia, non-Wharton Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, UChicago etc is beyond laughable. And why would you not turn down Duke but turn down the aforementioned schools? Complete nonsense.

Nope. I fully stand by my statement.

Your statement has nothing to do with reality though.

Again: You do NOT turn UVA down except in the circumstances I mentioned. UChicago does not provide a well rounded experience.

This is patently false but if you want to keep living in fantasy land feel free to. Only in your mind do most people choose UVA over a place like Columbia or Penn or Brown.