Is there a tipping point , full pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Because he is pre-med and that would be a colossal waste of money. He also got into a bunch of other schools, but all were similar in price to VCU (before the provost scolarship). My examples were real life comparisons as the poster was asking about private/expensive schools.

Tons of kids decide to switch out of pre-med…I just think that is an incredibly myopic view.

Again, why did you let him apply to schools where you knew you weren’t getting merit aid. Considering the work it takes to apply to those school…at the least tell your kid to save the effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse works at a school in the Tuition Exchange, which tend to be a step (or more) down in the rankings from the top tier. So I guess in my head, the TE colleges (and others like them) are the ones I would not want to go full-pay for.

https://telo.tuitionexchange.org/schools.cfm

Most of the schools (at least the 25 I'm familiar with from a quick glance) in the Tuitionexchange offer excellent merit to students. So if you are at/above the 50% for stats your kid would get excellent merit. Most kids are not actually full pay at those schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full pay family

We will pay for all in state schools for four years or OOS/private with partial merit aid. Not for fancy private schools without merit aid.

Why dictate which schools? Why not set a limit per kid that you can afford/are willing to pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

That is the smart way to do it!!! VCU has an excellent premed program, he will be well prepared and most importantly, debt free after both undergrad and grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are full pay, Would you pay full price for
Emory
BC
UMiami
Villanova
GWU
….going down the rankings list, LMU?
Is there a cutoff for private colleges? Where you tell your kid to just take merit elsewhere, or go in state? What is your cutoff, or are you full pay so you will full pay anyplace ?

(If you are not full pay, and need FA, instate, or merit, please don’t respond, your considerations are different)

I'm just going to say it: none of those schools impress me. They're fine schools, but aside from accepting a lot of ivy cast-offs, I don't see the appeal.

I would full-pay for Williams, Pomona, Amherst. Possibly Wesleyan, Haverford, Vassar, etc. It may just be that I expect different things from an undergraduate education.

You're entitled to your opinion but I'm not sure many would agree that Vassar and Haverford are substantially more impressive than Emory.

Depends on your values. We don't all want to be finance bros.

Vassar has a 20% acceptance rate, Wesleyan 19%, Haverford 18%. Emory is 10%. Emory being a permanent t25 (has never been ranked lower than this) means it's the same level as top5 LACs.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Vandy and Colgate are all ~$80K+, and Austin OOSis 70K+. PP stated he got $16K scholarship--so tuition free for IN-state. Pretty smart to take that and run to the bank. VCU has an excellent premed program---he will be well prepared. Chem 101/102, Org Chem 201/202 and Biology 101/102 all cover the material at every university. To get into Med school you need a high gpa, research, great recommendation letters and a High MCAT. Much easier to get a high GPA at VCU than at any of those with all the weed out courses and high competition. He will easily get a 3.8+ at VCU. Not to mention he will likely get to do research, be more involved with professors as the big fish in the pond at VCU vs everywhere else. It's a win-win.
Financially, it's a no-brainer. His ultimately goal is medical school. He will get that debt free, not many people can say that. And the $64K he saves from undergrad will pay for a good portion of one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Because he is pre-med and that would be a colossal waste of money. He also got into a bunch of other schools, but all were similar in price to VCU (before the provost scolarship). My examples were real life comparisons as the poster was asking about private/expensive schools.

Don't let them DCUM Shame you. What your kid is doing is the smart choice!
Even if he decides not to do Medical school (as someone stated), he will be debt free, likely have a very high gpa and the ability to go to an excellent grad program in whatever he wants to do, all that you can afford to pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

What if he decides he doesn't want to go to med school...which a ton of kids do? Why would you have him apply to a school like Vandy or UT Austin or Colgate, knowing they give almost zero merit aid?

I don't undestand? Then he does not go to med school, what do all those kids do? They do someting else LOL! I think his chances are high. His dad is a doctor, his grandfather is a doctor, his uncle is a doctor, he knows exactly what he is getting into.

we did not dictate where he applied, or where he chose to go. He does know exactly how much money he has for undergrad and med school and made his decision accordingly. He also knows that his GPA and MCAT and ECs/research are absoultly critical to getting into a good med school.

DP: And it's much easier to have a near 4.0 and have time to study for the MCATs if you are at a school like VCU (when you got into T25 schools as well). Yes it will be challenging but nowhere on the same level as doing premed at Vandy or Colgate or UT Austin. And you are correct---he will have the ability to do research as an undergrad at VCU and volunteer at the hospital,etc. He will have an easy time building the full resume for Med School applications. People somehow think going to the tippy top schools is always the best. If your intent is med school, law school, any type of medical graduate school, it's often not the best. Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.
Either way, he gets his undergrad degree for virtually no cost to you (just R&B).

If only more people thought this way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Because he is pre-med and that would be a colossal waste of money. He also got into a bunch of other schools, but all were similar in price to VCU (before the provost scolarship). My examples were real life comparisons as the poster was asking about private/expensive schools.

Don't let them DCUM Shame you. What your kid is doing is the smart choice!
Even if he decides not to do Medical school (as someone stated), he will be debt free, likely have a very high gpa and the ability to go to an excellent grad program in whatever he wants to do, all that you can afford to pay for.

The kid didn’t decide that…his dum a** parent let him apply to schools that don’t give merit aid and then told his kid he can’t go because….guess what…he didn’t get merit aid.

I mean don’t let him apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

What if he decides he doesn't want to go to med school...which a ton of kids do? Why would you have him apply to a school like Vandy or UT Austin or Colgate, knowing they give almost zero merit aid?

I don't undestand? Then he does not go to med school, what do all those kids do? They do someting else LOL! I think his chances are high. His dad is a doctor, his grandfather is a doctor, his uncle is a doctor, he knows exactly what he is getting into.

we did not dictate where he applied, or where he chose to go. He does know exactly how much money he has for undergrad and med school and made his decision accordingly. He also knows that his GPA and MCAT and ECs/research are absoultly critical to getting into a good med school.

DP: And it's much easier to have a near 4.0 and have time to study for the MCATs if you are at a school like VCU (when you got into T25 schools as well). Yes it will be challenging but nowhere on the same level as doing premed at Vandy or Colgate or UT Austin. And you are correct---he will have the ability to do research as an undergrad at VCU and volunteer at the hospital,etc. He will have an easy time building the full resume for Med School applications. People somehow think going to the tippy top schools is always the best. If your intent is med school, law school, any type of medical graduate school, it's often not the best. Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.
Either way, he gets his undergrad degree for virtually no cost to you (just R&B).

If only more people thought this way

DP: I'm a Vandy alum and can't really quibble with the VCU choice. Particularly if he did or will do the guaranteed admission program. https://honors.vcu.edu/admissions/guaranteed-admission/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

Just curious, how is your son liking VCU? It is so different from Colgate and Vandy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Vandy and Colgate are all ~$80K+, and Austin OOSis 70K+. PP stated he got $16K scholarship--so tuition free for IN-state. Pretty smart to take that and run to the bank. VCU has an excellent premed program---he will be well prepared. Chem 101/102, Org Chem 201/202 and Biology 101/102 all cover the material at every university. To get into Med school you need a high gpa, research, great recommendation letters and a High MCAT. Much easier to get a high GPA at VCU than at any of those with all the weed out courses and high competition. He will easily get a 3.8+ at VCU. Not to mention he will likely get to do research, be more involved with professors as the big fish in the pond at VCU vs everywhere else. It's a win-win.
Financially, it's a no-brainer. His ultimately goal is medical school. He will get that debt free, not many people can say that. And the $64K he saves from undergrad will pay for a good portion of one year.

Blah blah blah if I made $650k I would not GAF about that or be trying to nickel and dime undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.

VCU is not slightly lesser than Vanderbilt or Colgate or Austin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are full pay, Would you pay full price for
Emory
BC
UMiami
Villanova
GWU
….going down the rankings list, LMU?
Is there a cutoff for private colleges? Where you tell your kid to just take merit elsewhere, or go in state? What is your cutoff, or are you full pay so you will full pay anyplace ?

(If you are not full pay, and need FA, instate, or merit, please don’t respond, your considerations are different)

We were full pay and actually kinda rich but we live in VA and there was no way in hell we’d full pay for any of those school after a UVA admit. It’s better than all of them. Decisions like that is how we stay rich.

UVA out of state vs Emory? Emory wins. Comparing instate prices to a private is not fair.

Nope, UVA is just as good and out of state tuition is still lower than Emory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.

VCU is not slightly lesser than Vanderbilt or Colgate or Austin.

It’s a shitty commuter school.
Horrible collegiate exp - I’d hate my parents tbh