real cost of private college?

[Anonymous]

It is staggering how much it has increased. It really makes me want to vote with my wallet and refuse to pay it and tell DC that he is going to trade school. I looked at it the other night and if I were to send DC where I went my entire undergraduate education costs about what it will take to send him for 1 year. I'm only 40 too so it wasn't THAT long ago. *sigh*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When face with the same question, we moved to Virginia for the in state tuition.

That backfired for us. First child went out of state and second child is headed there too. If you child is really good in math/physics, they will want to go out of state. If your child is really good in engineering, they will want to go out of state.

Then my child can get a solar ship or just deal with tech or uva.

Anyone with half a brain isn't taking out loans for such nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks, all, for the practical tips and helpful insights. I learned a lot here (for instance, I'd never heard of College Confidential).
I just want my kid to have options. I'm not sold on a private - DH went to a state school and did fine. But it was disheartening to realize that I wouldn't be able to afford to send my kid to the college I attended or many other private schools, based on the rising sticker prices and the lack of financial aid. It's nice to hear that there are solutions and that some private schools do offer some merit aid.

Stop living vicariously through your child. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

One final thought: SAT prep is money well spent. People might balk at spending 1000 per child for SAT prep, but it boosted our kid's scores by 300 points and got them much better positioned for merit aid. 1000 dollar investment with an 80,000 dollar payoff. Good odds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One final thought: SAT prep is money well spent. People might balk at spending 1000 per child for SAT prep, but it boosted our kid's scores by 300 points and got them much better positioned for merit aid. 1000 dollar investment with an 80,000 dollar payoff. Good odds.

There is a ton of research showing that SAT prep really doesn't help that much. Most kids improve by 60-90 points from the first to the second test. I'd guess that your kid just had a really bad day the first time and the second score was a much better representation of what they know than the first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One final thought: SAT prep is money well spent. People might balk at spending 1000 per child for SAT prep, but it boosted our kid's scores by 300 points and got them much better positioned for merit aid. 1000 dollar investment with an 80,000 dollar payoff. Good odds.

There is a ton of research showing that SAT prep really doesn't help that much. Most kids improve by 60-90 points from the first to the second test. I'd guess that your kid just had a really bad day the first time and the second score was a much better representation of what they know than the first.

Not PP but mine improved by 450 points with tutoring, although it cost more than $1000. The first test was probably low, but I am confident that he would have been 300+ points lower without the tutoring based on previous standardized testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When face with the same question, we moved to Virginia for the in state tuition.

That backfired for us. First child went out of state and second child is headed there too. If you child is really good in math/physics, they will want to go out of state. If your child is really good in engineering, they will want to go out of state.

Then my child can get a solar ship or just deal with tech or uva.

Anyone with half a brain isn't taking out loans for such nonsense.

Haha - my DC with high grades and high scores would have been delighted to "just deal with UVA" but unfortunately they did not feel the same way. You might want to have a back up plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter was admitted to several of the private women's colleges in VA and with merit aid, they all turned out to be cheaper for us than a state school. College Confidential has lots of forums about which schools give merit aid based on SAT"s, etc.

I have two kids at private colleges (second tier LAC's) and we are paying less than we would pay for state schools. You need to do your research, don't be scared by the sticker price and ask LOTS Of questions. Call the admissions offices and ask "how many students generally get this level of aid and what is the average SAT, GPA, etc. to receive that award?" BY the way, the college cost estimators on the FAFSA, etc. all suggested we had 60K per kid per year stashed somewhere (in our money vault in our home, I guess) but the offers from the colleges were much more realistic.

My kids are young still but I have heard this same story from sooo many people.

[Anonymous]

We're just resigned to paying $250,000 per child out of our investments.

[Anonymous]

Yup. It'll be very costly even for instate. So we are keeping dh's first apartment as an investment property and sell of if the kid gets into somewhere that needs $250k for the four years. My parents paid for my school (I did get more than 70% merit scholarship aid) and dh's paid for his private college so we will do the same for our kids. Such a leg up getting out of school with no debt. Let's you pursue more interesting opportunities without worrying about paying off loans etc. I think that'll be and already is the big divide in this country. More college graduates yes, but so many with staggering and crippling amounts of debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter was admitted to several of the private women's colleges in VA and with merit aid, they all turned out to be cheaper for us than a state school. College Confidential has lots of forums about which schools give merit aid based on SAT"s, etc.

I have two kids at private colleges (second tier LAC's) and we are paying less than we would pay for state schools. You need to do your research, don't be scared by the sticker price and ask LOTS Of questions. Call the admissions offices and ask "how many students generally get this level of aid and what is the average SAT, GPA, etc. to receive that award?" BY the way, the college cost estimators on the FAFSA, etc. all suggested we had 60K per kid per year stashed somewhere (in our money vault in our home, I guess) but the offers from the colleges were much more realistic.

My kids are young still but I have heard this same story from sooo many people.

Knowledge is power. Read everything you can lay your hands on, run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for each school, look at the Common Data Set to see where your DC sits relative to the peer group, look at the school's endowments. Estimate your EFC at FAFSA.

Don't create a schools list until you have done all of that. Any school that doesn't make the financial cut gets kicked off.

It amazes me that people create colleges lists without first doing this. Then ~surprise~ in March, April, the student is accepted but the family cannot afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One final thought: SAT prep is money well spent. People might balk at spending 1000 per child for SAT prep, but it boosted our kid's scores by 300 points and got them much better positioned for merit aid. 1000 dollar investment with an 80,000 dollar payoff. Good odds.

There is a ton of research showing that SAT prep really doesn't help that much. Most kids improve by 60-90 points from the first to the second test. I'd guess that your kid just had a really bad day the first time and the second score was a much better representation of what they know than the first.

Not PP but mine improved by 450 points with tutoring, although it cost more than $1000. The first test was probably low, but I am confident that he would have been 300+ points lower without the tutoring based on previous standardized testing.

Is there a particular test prep program that you would recommend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When face with the same question, we moved to Virginia for the in state tuition.

That backfired for us. First child went out of state and second child is headed there too. If you child is really good in math/physics, they will want to go out of state. If your child is really good in engineering, they will want to go out of state.

Then my child can get a solar ship or just deal with tech or uva.

Anyone with half a brain isn't taking out loans for such nonsense.

Haha - my DC with high grades and high scores would have been delighted to "just deal with UVA" but unfortunately they did not feel the same way. You might want to have a back up plan.

DC didn't apply to other VA schools?

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is 300K. Our 3 kids are super bright and have been/are in magnet MS/HS STEM programs in MD. One graduated last year, and we did not qualify for financial aid.

We know that our kids will go to school for more than 4 years (Law, Med school, MBA, MSc.), since just an undergrad degree is not enough to have a good career nowadays. We also do not want our kids to take out loans at all, if they can help it. So, our aim is to spend the big bucks for grad school. We have prepaid MD tuition for them for undergrad, and our eldest also got a full tuition merit scholarship from the state school.

You can go the state school route, get merit scholarships and maximize the return on your education dollars.

[Anonymous]

Great info here! Thanks.