What's the Cutoff For Schools That Are Worth the Money?

[Anonymous]

I think increasingly schools full pay at schools like Brandeis, BU, Pepperdine, Syracuse, etc. are not worth it for $200k income households. Just too expensive for the return.

[Anonymous]

I will give you our very real scenario.


We are in DC, so no in-state options.

DC has some good acceptances at targets/hard targets that will cost about $60/year (OOS with DCTAG/private with merit). DC has one lower cost OOS option that would cost us $35/K year.

We can pay $60K/year relatively painlessly through savings and cashflow.

We are still waiting on decisions from several schools, including Duke, Yale and Emory. Setting aside any debate about the odds of getting in, we know we would be willing to pay full price for Yale or Duke. We would have to think hard about Emory. HHI about 425K, two kids to put through college.

DH graduated from a top 10, I graduated from a strong public university.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T25 + Tufts

Tufts has really shitty outcome

Worth one of the least.

- Boston College: Average Annual Cost $37k, Median Earnings $93k
- Northeastern: Average Annual Cost $30k, Median Earnings $80k
- Boston University: Average Annual Cost $30k, Median Earnings $76k
- Brandeis: Average Annual Cost $34k, Median Earnings $70k
- Tufts: Average Annual Cost $37k, Median Earnings $67k

WTF? not for donut hole families with now aid. Those numbers are waaaay low.

It will cost you upwards of $80k+ year for any school on that list.

Probably just including tuition after aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worth the money depends on how much money you have. If you're UMC making seven figures, then anywhere is worth the money because everywhere is just a blip in your finances. If you're UMC making 200k a year, the list is a lot shorter because your' talking about the equivalent of more than half of your take home pay

Umc don’t make seven figures. That is wealthy. None are worth it for us and we’ve saved since birth. It is not supposed Bo be fully out of income.

[Anonymous]

To be safe, since your kid seems to be somewhat competitive, if they can snag one of the following it’s almost never a bad investment: Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Caltech, Duke, Yale, UPenn, Columbia. Those are top schools recognized throughout the nation with good undergrad resources and extremely low levels of financial insolvency for students after graduating. If your kid is looking for a smaller environment with more individual attention, you can make the case for Dartmouth, Rice, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore. After that each school gets increasingly more difficult to justify. In most cases schools like Brown, Vanderbilt, WashU, etc. are mostly worth it but the previous grouping is safer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, assume ~200k where we can pay but it does cause a significant dent in savings. Only 2 kids though so we're prepared to spend for their education.

Not enough information. What do your kids want to study ? Any career goals ? Graduate or professional school ?

If your kids want medical school, then go to UMD at resident rates.

Are your kids undecided ? Are their interests in humanities or tech/quantitative oriented ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:T25 + Tufts

Tufts has really shitty outcome

Worth one of the least.

- Boston College: Average Annual Cost $37k, Median Earnings $93k
- Northeastern: Average Annual Cost $30k, Median Earnings $80k
- Boston University: Average Annual Cost $30k, Median Earnings $76k
- Brandeis: Average Annual Cost $34k, Median Earnings $70k
- Tufts: Average Annual Cost $37k, Median Earnings $67k

WTF? not for donut hole families with now aid. Those numbers are waaaay low.

It will cost you upwards of $80k+ year for any school on that list.

Just received $56 COA for BU with son's acceptance. $25k merit and $7k need.

Would you mind sharing your son's GPA, test scores (or if you went test optional, types of ECs? I'm wondering what types of applicants receive that level of merit aid from BU. My daughter really likes the school, and I'm trying to get a rough sense for what is needed to receive a merit award so if we should keep it on the list or not.

[Anonymous]

If your kid wants to major in a “standardized” major like nursing, education, accounting, be a speech language pathologist or a dietician, you could say it barely matters where you go.

The real benefit to schools that are more expensive & selective, if they offer such majors, is social. Different dating pool and better alumni networking if you decide to do a 180 career change later in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid wants to major in a “standardized” major like nursing, education, accounting, be a speech language pathologist or a dietician, you could say it barely matters where you go.

The real benefit to schools that are more expensive & selective, if they offer such majors, is social. Different dating pool and better alumni networking if you decide to do a 180 career change later in life.

"career change later in life" = that is what MBA programs are for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think increasingly schools full pay at schools like Brandeis, BU, Pepperdine, Syracuse, etc. are not worth it for $200k income households. Just too expensive for the return.

I think that OP meant that they could budget $200,000 of college costs for each of their two children, not a reference to annual HHI.

[Anonymous]

OP: At elite National Private Universities and at elite LACs, the annual total cost-of-attendance exceeds $80,000--and this figure rises slightly each year. A true full pay family at an elite private college or university should budget about $350,000 per student over the course of the next 4 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worth the money depends on how much money you have. If you're UMC making seven figures, then anywhere is worth the money because everywhere is just a blip in your finances. If you're UMC making 200k a year, the list is a lot shorter because your' talking about the equivalent of more than half of your take home pay

?? In no universe is an annual income of $1,000,000 "UMC."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worth the money depends on how much money you have. If you're UMC making seven figures, then anywhere is worth the money because everywhere is just a blip in your finances. If you're UMC making 200k a year, the list is a lot shorter because your' talking about the equivalent of more than half of your take home pay

?? In no universe is an annual income of $1,000,000 "UMC."

This is DCUM. On another thread someone said that a $7M NW is UMC not rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Worth the money depends on how much money you have. If you're UMC making seven figures, then anywhere is worth the money because everywhere is just a blip in your finances. If you're UMC making 200k a year, the list is a lot shorter because your' talking about the equivalent of more than half of your take home pay

?? In no universe is an annual income of $1,000,000 "UMC."

Maybe the poster you quotedtouht that the "M" in "UMC" means "millionaire" ?

[Anonymous]

My child was admitted to a school that costs 80k a year.
10k merit aid

We are actually UMC and make 300k HHI

Major is Psychology.

Other college choice is 40k a year with 20k merit aid. It's not a T50 and not a well known name.

It's hard to turn down bragging rights, but being saddled with a mortgage level amount of debt at 22 (or if we take it on, 62) seems like a terrible decision for a name on your resume.