Is there a tipping point , full pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 kids and 400K hhi. We will discourage but not prohibit full pay for anything outside of an Ivy or equivalent. We hope to have 4 years of private tuition in each of their 529s, but then there is also room&board plus potential grad school to consider, and we would want to be able to help with that to some extent. We are in the midwest, so fortunately the kids are not caught up in college prestige / rankings, and I don't think any of my kids would be upset not to go Middlebury, say, over Denison with merit aid.

Both Midd and Denison are prestigious and have low admit rates. So, yes, they/you are concerned concerned with college prestige. Now if you had said Midd and Denison v. U. of Toledo or Akron, that may have made your point w/o being a hypocrite.

+1 I'd be thrilled if my kid got into Denison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Unlike you he’s intelligent and understands what it takes to get into med school and understands that 300k is better spent on med school than undergrad that doesn’t mean shit for med school applications.

You have the money to send him to Colgate or Vandy AND pay for medical school no problem. You’ll be very lucky if your kid doesn’t resent you for making him go to VCU.

that would be really bizarre since he chose VCU and loves it. however i guess he could have some sort of mental break with reality 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daughter got instate UVa and W&M but is full pay at Georgetown. She absolutely loves it. Only three miles away but a totally different world.

+1

[Anonymous]

there has to be a point when this (private) isn't worth it for anyone but the super wealthy.

is it 100k a year? 125k a year so it's 500k per kid?

things have been .. okay .. because the market is up and our accounts are higher than they've ever been.

but I have two kids who want to study history (etc) and maybe work for the government or teach. we can't pay for college and help with an apartment (I know some people can)

I just dont get the math. Go to college, find a job, work and scrimp and save for 20 years, save for that downpayment, and save save save. then spend it on college and then set the kid on the same journey ..

I mean, obviously we could just skip a lot of the struggle by, say, sending them to Europe for college or go to state school. Start them on their journey with 200k+ in the bank. What a game changer.

[Anonymous]

this is what Jeff Selingo talks about in his email this morning

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there has to be a point when this (private) isn't worth it for anyone but the super wealthy.

is it 100k a year? 125k a year so it's 500k per kid?

things have been .. okay .. because the market is up and our accounts are higher than they've ever been.

but I have two kids who want to study history (etc) and maybe work for the government or teach. we can't pay for college and help with an apartment (I know some people can)

I just dont get the math. Go to college, find a job, work and scrimp and save for 20 years, save for that downpayment, and save save save. then spend it on college and then set the kid on the same journey ..

I mean, obviously we could just skip a lot of the struggle by, say, sending them to Europe for college or go to state school. Start them on their journey with 200k+ in the bank. What a game changer.

If the kids know that they will not be pursuing high-level, high-paying careers, I think doing an ROI calculation is right. The jobs you mention, even if they move up the levels in government or move into administration in education, will never earn 200K+ and if they do, it will take a looooong time.

[Anonymous]

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)

Well, money is the consideration. Even it you are wealthy. Multiple kids. Someone might want to go to med school. Another grad school. Another law school.

That's easily a million plus.

Do you really want to throw $500,000 at your stoner party boy to be mediocre at Miami? Is that doing him any favors? Is that going to make him a good man? Do you want to throw $400,000 so that your girl gets into the popular sorority at Tulane? Is that going to make her a good person and succeed at life?

We gave our kids choices. There's the public flagships. Totally good schools. They have duel citizenship - so there are those schools. Also very good. And there are about forty schools in the US that are extremely good. From MIT to Bowdoin. We will cover all of that.

But we are not dropping a gazillion dollars on Franklin and Marshall or Pepperdine or Landmark College.

Choose how you want to go about things. We will take care of things. But it's their initiative.

Our DD killed it at UMiami. She literally needed “sunshine and happy people”. It was the best money we could have ever spent for her. So really you don’t know every circumstance. Just worry about your own public flagships and choices and let others worry about how to spend their $$$$$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Unlike you he’s intelligent and understands what it takes to get into med school and understands that 300k is better spent on med school than undergrad that doesn’t mean shit for med school applications.

You have the money to send him to Colgate or Vandy AND pay for medical school no problem. You’ll be very lucky if your kid doesn’t resent you for making him go to VCU.

that would be really bizarre since he chose VCU and loves it. however i guess he could have some sort of mental break with reality 🤷🏻‍♀️

Great for him. I have to admit though...my sample size is small...but of the 5 kids I knew that went to VCU, 4 transferred and the 5th hates it.

I don't know much about it and these are kids from DC proper vs. VA residents (so while using DC TAG not getting in-state tuition).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there has to be a point when this (private) isn't worth it for anyone but the super wealthy.

is it 100k a year? 125k a year so it's 500k per kid?

things have been .. okay .. because the market is up and our accounts are higher than they've ever been.

but I have two kids who want to study history (etc) and maybe work for the government or teach. we can't pay for college and help with an apartment (I know some people can)

I just dont get the math. Go to college, find a job, work and scrimp and save for 20 years, save for that downpayment, and save save save. then spend it on college and then set the kid on the same journey ..

I mean, obviously we could just skip a lot of the struggle by, say, sending them to Europe for college or go to state school. Start them on their journey with 200k+ in the bank. What a game changer.

I look way down my nose at adults still getting handouts from mom and dad. It's pretty darn prevalent in the DMV, and we are talking folks now that are in their 40s and 50s.

This idea that you now have to pay for everything your kid wants to do in life is just out-of-hand. I mean, my kid is going to college with no loans and has numerous high-paid job offers. I feel like we have set our kid very well and they can easily afford whatever they want.