Why pay $90K for a less competitive private vs. far less $$ for a less competitive public?

[Anonymous]

*If we weren't lucky enough, probably would've gone with Williams adding 5 years to our retirements.

[Anonymous]

Agree that it's about fit of the program, reputation of the program, regional connections and brand. All subtleties. But UMC and MC people can be very brand-sensitive. That's the emotional side of the college purchase experience. Most people only get one chance to pick an undergrad institution. So it ideally would be a desired choice not a "have to do" situation.

Think about the price difference and whether that would be material for your child over their working lifetime. And where the school might set you up to work.

I went to Pitt and Michigan. Happy with my choices. My sibling went to Cornell and Michigan. We earn about the same. Sibling's college cost 200% more than mine but it's had no impact on our lives. My cousin went to Bucknell. Her life is similar to mine. You might consider that the saved college costs are part of our wealth at this point but that's not even true because we were all fully-paid-for kids. My spouse turned down Bucknell for Pitt due to high cost and I think he was not hurt by the decision and probably ended up better off since Pitt was a stronger school in his major.

I would consider Syracuse over Pitt if looking to get a job in NY state. I find the schools similar in many ways.

These are very individualized decisions. I particularly encourage kids to reflect on where they want to live and work after college. And for parents, if a less-expensive school would allow you to fund other things later, like a house downpayment, it might be useful to be transparent about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're considering this, can you help me understand your thinking?
Rising senior twins here and we're trying to hammer out lists.

Why pay $90K for Syracuse or Bucknell vs. paying half this for Pitt or Penn State?

You still don’t know this?

Some rich people (not all) send their kids to expensive private schools so that they won’t have to deal with poor kids as often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because the $45k is not significant to them, and it doesn’t come into play when making the decision. Kind of obvious, no?

I’m someone who may make a choice like this - more like choosing between Towson and Wooster or something. Our HHI is $225k, so the difference is significant. But also…you can’t take it with you, you know? I’d rather spend the money on my kid’s college of choice than on house repairs, a new car, or vacations. Our retirement is planned with 4 years at an expensive college baked in. We’ll be able to retire in our late 60’s with enough. We’ve decided “more than enough” isn’t important to us.

Wooster doesn't seem that much nicer than Townson to make the transaction. Townson isn't that large and will likely net your kid more opportunities.

It’s Towson, not Townson. But absolutely, both really good schools for my kid! They are super different feels, though. Wooster is a small liberal arts college in a pretty college town in another state. Towson is a fairly large public school in a dense, urban-ish area 30 minutes from home. Life outcomes aren’t the point - my point is that I’m willing to pay for my kid’s CHOICE. Because having choice will mean he owns it, and when things get hard it is easier to get through them when your situation was your choice. This kind of choice is a total luxury, but the kind of luxury we’ll pay for. We don’t pay for luxury anything else, really.

That said, if he chooses public over private and we save a boatload of money we’ll sweeten the pot by officially giving him the family car he is now allowed to drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're considering this, can you help me understand your thinking?
Rising senior twins here and we're trying to hammer out lists.

Why pay $90K for Syracuse or Bucknell vs. paying half this for Pitt or Penn State?

I said no to $90K Williams and to full merit to a state flagship. Its about personal preference, money matters to us as donut holes but we are in for a good value not freebies nor prestige driven hardship. Instead went for a top 20 at half merit, making it best value for us.

Oh wow.
No to Williams?!?!
What T20? I hope a private…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell is competitive and sends a ton of grads to The Street -- way more than Pitt or Penn State on a parentage basis. Syracuse also has some competitive programs like Newhouse (though I'm not sure I'd recommend journalism as a career in 2024).

So you're saying the purpose of going to college is to end up on Wall Street. That must be news to the 99% of college students who have zero interest in ever working there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like anything else, this depends, in part, on your personal financial situation.

This.

[Anonymous]

OP, if parents went to a private college, it's almost useless to convince them otherwise. I would say this is mostly true, also if both parents went to and enjoyed their large public university experience. If you and your spouse agree, just accept that you have a preference and have it as a likely criteria.

I have gone decades with good, life-long friends having one or the other experience and none of us will ever appreciate the others' view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if parents went to a private college, it's almost useless to convince them otherwise. I would say this is mostly true, also if both parents went to and enjoyed their large public university experience. If you and your spouse agree, just accept that you have a preference and have it as a likely criteria.

I have gone decades with good, life-long friends having one or the other experience and none of us will ever appreciate the others' view.

Oh, I don’t know. I went to a fancy pants private, as did parents for generations past. I married a guy who went to a decidedly non-prestigious public university. He’s awesome, educated, and smarter than I am. It opened my eyes. I was a snob, and ignorant to boot. I’m happy for our kids to go to any school they can get into and we can afford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bucknell is competitive and sends a ton of grads to The Street -- way more than Pitt or Penn State on a parentage basis. Syracuse also has some competitive programs like Newhouse (though I'm not sure I'd recommend journalism as a career in 2024).

So you're saying the purpose of going to college is to end up on Wall Street. That must be news to the 99% of college students who have zero interest in ever working there.[/quote

I know, so laughable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I fell in love with Sewanee at the same time as DC. Basically signed the check as quick as possible and have no regrets. It's a beautiful place and small environment for learning that my child will thrive in. I'd prefer that for her than a large place she feels she'll drown in.

Paying full price for it though?

Nice campus and it’s on our list but there has to be a big reduction in sticker price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fell in love with Sewanee at the same time as DC. Basically signed the check as quick as possible and have no regrets. It's a beautiful place and small environment for learning that my child will thrive in. I'd prefer that for her than a large place she feels she'll drown in.

Paying full price for it though?

Nice campus and it’s on our list but there has to be a big reduction in sticker price.

It's expensive, but I know my child will thrive there compared to their other options, and that means the world to me. I am in a fortunate position to where this isn't a big dip for my family, but I also understand that it is outrageously expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fell in love with Sewanee at the same time as DC. Basically signed the check as quick as possible and have no regrets. It's a beautiful place and small environment for learning that my child will thrive in. I'd prefer that for her than a large place she feels she'll drown in.

Paying full price for it though?

Nice campus and it’s on our list but there has to be a big reduction in sticker price.

It's expensive, but I know my child will thrive there compared to their other options, and that means the world to me. I am in a fortunate position to where this isn't a big dip for my family, but I also understand that it is outrageously expensive.

First, reality is reality. If people in the donut hole can’t afford to send their chuldren to Williams or Tufts, that’s life. The door to Williams and Tufts isn’t opening.

And I don’t think that whether a school is public or private necessarily has much to do with the characteristics of the school or the net cost of the school for a given family.

Example: If my child had gotten into Princeton, the EFC might have only been $22,000. Princeton might have been cheaper than the third-tier state university down the road.

For many great students, not-so-selective schools like Seton Hall or Temple will offer enough merit aid that the full net cost is comparable to the full net cost of the state flagship.

But, if you have a lot of money, and the only question is value, then one question is whether you think that financial ROI, based on current conditions, should be the main factor you use to pick a college for your kid.

This might be a good strategy for kids who aren’t too interested in college, don’t have any strong preferences or simply love the idea of maximizing educational ROI.

But I think it’s a bad strategy right now for a bright kid who loves learning, or who seems likely to be much happier at one type of school than another type of school, because:

- Having a bright, lively, reasonably healthy kid who enjoys learning is one of the greatest privileges a person can have, and it seems like a desecration to make a decision about what could be a fun, important, soul-enriching experience for a great kid based solely on financial ROI. I might have been barren. I might have miscarried. My child and I could have died when I started to have HELLP. My child could have died before turning 18. My child could have had trouble learning or lacked an interest in learning. I could be too poor to have any choice about where to send my kid to college. If I get to this stage and I have the ability to send my kid to the preferred college, how dare I repay the universe for all the kindness bestowed on me by nickel and diming my kid over something as wholesome as college tuition?

- Most of the people talking about college ROI don’t know anything about economics and have no idea how to calculate ROI. Because of their ignorance, they just take some magazine’s ROI figures and run with that. If they have a little more sense than God gave a turnip, maybe they use the ROi figures for specific majors.

But most of those folks don’t make a serious effort to personalize the ROI calculations.

The real ROI projections include:

- Grave uncertainty over what majors will make money. When I was in college, pre-law liberal arts majors were hot and engineering was stone cold. I told people I might consider going into engineering, and they asked, “How can you get a job in that?” All they knew was that the end of the Cold War had killed aerospace jobs.

- The odds the kid will get a degree in a particular major within four years. Kids who go to the wrong school or pick an unsuitable major have to build two or three extra years of tuition and underemployment into their lifetime financial performance stats. They may also run the risk of getting no degree and no good career prep of any kind. You have to build the risk of bad outcomes into the ROI projections, and the bad-outcome adjustment will strongly favor even moderately selective private schools over public universities that take big freshman classes and focus on weeding kids out.

- The impact of educational choices on cost of living. People who follow certain education paths tend to live more standard, suburb-oriented lifestyles and probably have higher lifetime living costs than siblings who take other routes and have an inner city or inner suburb kind of life. In other words: Business majors at big state schools may make more than music history professors majors who come out of SLACs, but suits, big cars and lawn service might eat up a lot of the difference without having a big impact on happiness.

- The nature of the kid. A kid who has a strong urge to major in music or comparative literature rather than business may not be a high-starting-income business major. Simple tables that give earnings by major don’t really show how much of the income difference is due to major and how much to people’s abilities and personalities.

- The kid’s projected lifetime earnings trajectory. A kid with a liberal arts major or social sciences major from a T30 through T150 school might have flatter but steadier earnings level and earn at around the peak level for a lot longer than a typical CS major from comparable school s.

[Anonymous]

Very much agree with the above post. The opportunity to learn freely in an environment that suits you well is an amazing opportunity, and I'm thrilled to give that choice to my child. There's always a cheaper option, but fit can change a child's life.

[Anonymous]

What does your kid want? I appreciate the fact that some parents don't have the resources for OOS tuition.

Does your kid have a say of where they want to attend college?

I wish you all the best!