College Costs - ridiculously high

[Anonymous]

Eliminating the core classes would go a long way towards out of control costs. There is no reason a four year HS students needs college algebra or trig. No need for PE or a diversity class. It is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Supply and demand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eliminating the core classes would go a long way towards out of control costs. There is no reason a four year HS students needs college algebra or trig. No need for PE or a diversity class. It is ridiculous.

those are the classes for community college, then you transfer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not necessarily

we are in VA and have basically narrowed down to 2 schools here. they will PROBABLY come out cheapest in the end, but not by much.

Also looking at:
-a PA state school in that large system that has very reasonable tuition even for OOS and even better if your kid has a 3.0 or above. they come within $5K per year of VA schools
-a NJ state school that offers a tuition break to OOS students with a 3.0 or above. Same as above price wise
-a couple privates with merit awards that will bring the price to within a few thousand per year of the VA publics.

Some schools aren't as transparent with the costs and scholarships available. So, I also have a RI state school, a NC state school, an IL state school, a NY state school, a NC private and a VA private on our list that aren't CRAZY expensive to start, but we'd definitely need scholarship money and the info isn't 100% clear at the moment. Based on what I've HEARD about these schools, I think they will be similar to the above.

I have looked very closely at all of these schools for the specific program offered AND the costs.

There are a couple other schools I have recently removed from the list for various reasons that were state schools in other states (MA, OH, WI and NM) offering discounts to OOS students with a certain GPA level.

Would you be willing to share the schools you're looking at? It sounds like many of us are in the same boat!

OK, I will share, but remember, I am looking for a dance program for a kid who is NOT the best student:

VA in state options: Radford and ODU
PA public: Slippery Rock
NJ public: Stockton
Privates with good aid listed on website: Rider (NJ) and Springfield (MA)

RI public: Rhode island College
NC public: UNC-Greensboro
NC private: Meredith (women's college)
NY public: SUNY-Fredonia
IL public: Illinois State
VA private: Shenandoah

Forgot about a random NH public that is a possibility: Plymouth State

Schools I have removed for various reasons: Akron (OH), Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Univ of New Mexico and Bridgewater State (MA).

If you want to look west, a couple of the Cal State campuses are pretty reasonable. There was a very random one that I ran the numbers past a CA friend of mine and she was very surprised at how "cheap" it was. It was what used to be Humboldt State (just changed to a CalPoly campus). There was a CO public that has breaks for oos students above 2.5 - CO Mesa (I am not going to pursue that one because it is VERY remote and also has a reputation for being crazy conservative and has problems with LGBTQ and minority hate speech)

Frostburg and Salisbury in MD both have tuition discount programs within a certain mileage radius

I am fully aware this list is very, very strange to most.

These are not schools my kid would be interested in but I’m impressed with your research.

[Anonymous]

UVA in-state is already close to $50K

[Anonymous]

My kid is going to a Big Ten school next year for less than in-state VA schools would have been.

[Anonymous]

Middlebury next year is slightly over $80K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

What costs are you including in that figure? Tuition and fees for 2022 at UVA is roughly $19,600 and room & board is about $16,000. If you add a few thousand for books, etc., that still only gets you to $40K. Not saying that's cheap by any means, but it's not close to $50K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some OOS publics offer generous aid that will bring the costs down to in-state. Check out Miami U in OH.

There are also specific scholarships at certain universities like National Merit scholarships or for students with equivalent standardized test scores and/or GPAs that may bring tuition down to in-state, cover tuition, or cover tuition + room & board. In past years, schools like Alabama and ASU had programs like this, though this may have changed somewhat.

The OP made clear that she/he was talking about "an average student." Such a student would most definitely NOT qualify for a National Merit scholarship or any other kind of scholarship that requires high academic achievement/test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

What costs are you including in that figure? Tuition and fees for 2022 at UVA is roughly $19,600 and room & board is about $16,000. If you add a few thousand for books, etc., that still only gets you to $40K. Not saying that's cheap by any means, but it's not close to $50K.

UVA tacks on for "School of" fees for each class taken in that school. Think for business it is about $1,500-$2,000 a semester. Those fees cannot be paid with 529. Other colleges pull the same trick. UVA's did seem higher than other

[Anonymous]

Why not VCU ...it's big on the arts?

And a 3.0 student gets in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm late to the party ... I'm now finding college costs for the average student is pretty much the advertised price, particularly for OOS publics. The SLACs do offer merit but even if they offer $20K, then final price tags is still > $50K.

Is in-state pretty much the only option for those that don't qualify for the free money part of financial aid?

If you’re being charged that, you probably have a decent income and some savings.

You pay $18,000 out of pocket, have your kid borrow $7,500, tell your kid to earn $10,000, pay $10,000 out of savings and try to save about $5,000 by having your kid graduate a semester early.

If private schools are all charging you more than $50,000, they aren’t that amazed by your kid. Unless your kid has special needs or your state has terrible public colleges, it probably doesn’t make sense to impoverish yourself to send your kid to a private or out-of-state school. An in-state school will probably meet your kid’s educational, degree and partying needs.

If your kid is serious and responsible, but not a merit aid magnet, and wants to go to a bachelor’s degree program out of state, possible options for cutting costs:

- ROTC.

- Lower-tier private schools. Schools no one here has ever heard of unless we lived next to the schools.

- Out-of-state public universities that charge the same rates for in-state and out-of-state students. (Typically in places like the Dakotas or Arkansas.)

- English-language bachelor’s programs in places like Greece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... my kid is going to college for less than $30k per year (full pay, including room/board); VA, small liberal arts public university.

If her HS grades had been better, it would be even less... could have been closer to $20k including everything.

I'd say that's reasonable.

Longwood, CNU or Mary Washington?

Yes. In fact, one semester is about $12k, all in. So, we're looking at $24k per year including room and board. And that does include $3k merit scholarship for having a 3.0+ gpa (but not a 3.5 --- that would have been a bigger scholarship).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

What costs are you including in that figure? Tuition and fees for 2022 at UVA is roughly $19,600 and room & board is about $16,000. If you add a few thousand for books, etc., that still only gets you to $40K. Not saying that's cheap by any means, but it's not close to $50K.

https://sfs.virginia.edu/estimated-undergraduate-cost-attendance-2021-2022

Click Engineering and Commerce

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

What costs are you including in that figure? Tuition and fees for 2022 at UVA is roughly $19,600 and room & board is about $16,000. If you add a few thousand for books, etc., that still only gets you to $40K. Not saying that's cheap by any means, but it's not close to $50K.

UVA tacks on for "School of" fees for each class taken in that school. Think for business it is about $1,500-$2,000 a semester. Those fees cannot be paid with 529. Other colleges pull the same trick. UVA's did seem higher than other

My DS will start his first year at UVA in a few weeks in School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and here is the cost:

Tuition: roughly 25K/yr
Fee: around 3.4K/yr
R&B: around 18K/yr

Total is almost 46K/yr.