To you, what schools are truly worth 90k/year

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This begs the question: what would make a half million dollar investment in your child's college education worth it to you? What is the ROI you're seeking?
Status label? Job prospects? Social connections?
If I were in a position to spend that much, I'd be looking at prestigious British universities too. Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews. I have both attended and taught at international schools. I taught in Switzerland (future international bankers) and my sister in law has lectured at Cambridge. You can't beat that prestige and those connections. Well worth half a million and more.

Good fit. That's all we need. The $$ is already set aside in a 529 account.

If good fit is all you need, you are lucky. All you need and to do is spend the time and money to do the deep dives into the culture, ethos, etc. of all the schools you want to consider. What a fun excursion - and you can afford it!

Agreed we are very fortunate. But this seems to really upset the pp.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.

That is so very profound, thanks for posting your wisdom.

But I think this is meant to be a larger comment about the expense of education in the US.

But the thread is what schools are truly worth 90k to you.

Yes, and thank god for your wisdom or else I wouldn’t have had my answer!

What always shocks me about the posters on Colleges is how dumb many of them seem as they are obsessing about elite colleges for their dc. The irony.

Wrong. It's the pps with the $400,000 to spare who are looking for best fit and are not ones listing elite colleges.

[Anonymous]

No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

I couldn't agree more. But sometimes, you pay for things that aren't worth it, because you want the experience, or because the alternative is really subpar.

[Anonymous]

There is only one school in that price range that we would consider as a “shoot your shot” school. Outside of that the list is built on fit/program and cost. NPCs confirm we’re full pay across the many I’ve run.

[Anonymous]

Is it worth it to me to drop millions on a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce? Absolutely not- not even if I had the money and certainly not if I had to take out a loan for them.

But for someone who loves driving, loves cars, has the money, and would get enormous pleasure out of driving the car? They should just understand that they likely won’t reap a financial return…but it still might be worth it to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it to me to drop millions on a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce? Absolutely not- not even if I had the money and certainly not if I had to take out a loan for them.

But for someone who loves driving, loves cars, has the money, and would get enormous pleasure out of driving the car? They should just understand that they likely won’t reap a financial return…but it still might be worth it to them.

Bad example with the Ferrari…those cars actually have good financial returns because Ferrari dramatically curates its buyer list and limits production.

Most Ferrari’s actually appreciate in value because it’s so difficult to buy one new…even if you have the $$$s.

[Anonymous]

Same can be said about top schools, they are so hard to get into even if you are willing to pay the full sticker price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.

That is so very profound, thanks for posting your wisdom.

But I think this is meant to be a larger comment about the expense of education in the US.

But the thread is what schools are truly worth 90k to you.

Yes, and thank god for your wisdom or else I wouldn’t have had my answer!

What always shocks me about the posters on Colleges is how dumb many of them seem as they are obsessing about elite colleges for their dc. The irony.

I mean, yeah, the people on this forum are mostly clueless about college. Sometimes I think a person visiting this page would leave less informed rather than more informed from where they started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

These examples are terrible…I don’t understand why people throw them out as proof of anything.

Also…why would you include UVA or UNC in your list when of course a bunch of those folks likely were in state and didn’t pay the outrageous tuitions?

If you look at the 20 richest Americans…15 either graduated or dropped out of a top school 10 school. Warren Buffet would be counted in this group if he had not decided to transfer from Wharton.

You can’t win the anecdote fight…so don’t play it. The reason people decide to pay these amounts ironically are because of the anecdotes (that are verified vs the bullshit spewed on DCUM)…which also create unrealistic expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

I went to top schools and I have a decent but middle management job. I’m not sure where my boss’s boss went because they’ve scrubbed it from his bio. In fact that is the case for most of the executive level at my company.

I agree. College should be about 30k max.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

Not too many cars are worth $90k, but people buy them.

What you choose to spend your money in is relative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

These examples are terrible…I don’t understand why people throw them out as proof of anything.

Also…why would you include UVA or UNC in your list when of course a bunch of those folks likely were in state and didn’t pay the outrageous tuitions?

If you look at the 20 richest Americans…15 either graduated or dropped out of a top school 10 school. Warren Buffet would be counted in this group if he had not decided to transfer from Wharton.

You can’t win the anecdote fight…so don’t play it. The reason people decide to pay these amounts ironically are because of the anecdotes (that are verified vs the bullshit spewed on DCUM)…which also create unrealistic expectations.

Warren bufffet is in his 80s. Things are different now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No college is worth 90K.
I have a Stanford grad my age, 3 levels below me in my org.
I have countless UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, friends in my neighborhood who are in very middle tier jobs or stay at home wifes.
Tufts? Barely makes me think it might be a decent school.
Delusion aside college shoudl be aboout 30K these days. 60K and you know you are wasting money. 90K and you might as well call the police because you have been robbed. Causation and correlation are very different things.

I couldn't agree more. But sometimes, you pay for things that aren't worth it, because you want the experience, or because the alternative is really subpar.

Parent poster can say that college should be about $30k but that is unrealistic today. Like, UCLA and Berkeley in state are are $45k/yr. Would he tell his kid he's not paying for those even if he has the money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

+1 It is entirely dependent on finances.

Now that number is less than a months pay so the answer is any that they want to go to as long as the quality is high enough.

Ten years ago there would have been alot of soul searching on how much debt we could take on.

Why that definition of a donut hole - making 300K in this area with multiple kids doesn't mean 90K/year is at all doable, or?

It can most definately be doable. If you made education a top priority in your household and started saving when kids were younger. And then when your incomes began to increase (towards $300K), you put 50-75% of the increase into college savings and let it grow.
Whether that is the right choice is only something you can decide. But you definately had a choice to do that and still be on track fro retirement (in Most cases).