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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were shocked to find out, during our tufts tour, that the institution has surpassed $91,000. Tufts is a good school ,a great school even, but $91k is way overselling what it actually provides and its mediocre alumni network and few career resources. I understand that the purpose of a college isn't job training, but, at some point, when you're charging such obscene prices, you have to guarantee a return on the investment beyond being a "whole, educated person." For you, what institutions are worth $90k+, if any?

Depends on what the child wants to do. To me, by far the most value proposition with the highest expected return is HYPSM. We are full pay and HYPSM's prices at around $90k per year are a steal. The best deal there is in all of higher education anywhere in the world.

[Anonymous]

The ivies add in Duke, Stanford ,MIT, Caltech maybe Rice, UChicago Northwestern and Notre Dame. For LAC’s Williams, Bowdoin
Davidson(if want to work in South) and maybe as a safety Holy Cross because of their strong outcomes in corporate America. Excluded Amherst Swarthmore and Wash u because their grads usually don’t up on Wall Street or board roles in corporate US. Same maybe said for UChicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I drew the line at BC when we toured.

Tufts is that same level.

This was us exactly. We would not pay $90K for BC, BU, Tufts, etc.

Other families will. It's obviously a very personal decision.

[Anonymous]

Not one. None of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drew the line at BC when we toured.

Tufts is that same level.

This was us exactly. We would not pay $90K for BC, BU, Tufts, etc.

Other families will. It's obviously a very personal decision.

+ another 1

[Anonymous]

Here is the problem...

if you go in state it's about $30K/year so the real question isn't who will pay $90K/year... the question who will pay $60K more than they are already going to pay... but in reality most people are going out of state anyway, so the math becomes OOS UVA/UMD is $60K... so who is willing to pay $30K more or $2K/mth...

the answer is people who are too snobby to go in state and think $2K/mth isn't that much money, they are already going to pay $60K no matter what.

[Anonymous]

Very few top 50+ privates have a total cost of attendance below the high 80s. Inflation has hit room and board too.

Some version of this question is asked often. Whether a full pay family would pay $x for which schools depends entirely on the alternatives and their family resources.

We will full pay for any school. It's all in 529s. This would be a completely different question if our financial situation were different.

[Anonymous]

Hard to measure any school’s “worth”, because it all depends on the kid. $90,000 at a HYPSM or any other place is worthless if a kid goes there, is miserable and has nothing but regrets about their college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you pay half of that, you can save $180,000 over 4 years.

If you put that in S&P500 assuming 9% yield, you get 1 million in 20 years.

You'll be a millionaire at 45 years old.

This 1000%. We are being sensible about college. We have nothing to prove to anyone. We will also pay for grad school and significant home down payments, as well as future annual gifts to adult children. I just do not see the value of spending more than necessary on a good college. I am willing to pay for a good OOS public if my children don't get into one of the top in-state publics (we live in VA, so if they don't go to UVA or W&M they will likely go OOS.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not one. None of them.

+1. Absolutely not paying full price. I told my kids to work hard and get tons of merit, or no college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem...

if you go in state it's about $30K/year so the real question isn't who will pay $90K/year... the question who will pay $60K more than they are already going to pay... but in reality most people are going out of state anyway, so the math becomes OOS UVA/UMD is $60K... so who is willing to pay $30K more or $2K/mth...

the answer is people who are too snobby to go in state and think $2K/mth isn't that much money, they are already going to pay $60K no matter what.

$40K/year for UVA instate.
$75K/year for UVA OOS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were shocked to find out, during our tufts tour, that the institution has surpassed $91,000. Tufts is a good school ,a great school even, but $91k is way overselling what it actually provides and its mediocre alumni network and few career resources. I understand that the purpose of a college isn't job training, but, at some point, when you're charging such obscene prices, you have to guarantee a return on the investment beyond being a "whole, educated person." For you, what institutions are worth $90k+, if any?

I agree with you, OP. Wish more people had your sense so the price hikes would stop. I also think, with all the taxpayer money these institutions receive, citizens and legal residents should get priority.

For 91K+/year (with increases every year), I’d want a guaranteed career.

That’s a pipe dream of course, so why not go to a cheaper school and throw some money in an ETF or other investment vehicle for the child. I hope to do that.

+1
This is what I'm encouraging for my kid. I went to a no name state school and earn in the top 1%. What they don't tell you at these schools is that kids come in with their network that makes them successful. You don't get the full network there, just a minor sliver. So if that same kid goes to No Name State U they bring that network there and are successful. The only difference is at No Name State U there are fewer of these kids and that is what you see in the stats. Basically the charge is a tax for already connected people. It would be insane for an unconnected person to go and pay full price, but people do it. If you got more than half the tuition paid, i.e. only paid 20k/yr, maybe it's worth it.

My kid will go to No Name State U and we have some connections. She will be successful no matter what university she attends, but not because of the university - it's a tick box exercise. If anyone thinks otherwise, that's fine, but a costly misunderstanding.

[Anonymous]

Would add Northeastern to the list of Tufts, BC, and BU but might look at Babson which Wall St journal believe ranked 1 for outcomes. At 90k a year need a school with great alumni networks and proven outcomes schools come to mind HYP, Dartmouth, Duke, Notre Dame, Williams for investment jobs and like Babson a school like Holy Cross with strong alumni connections and phenomenal placement in C suite and corporate jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stanford, Penn, WashU, and MIT.

Happy to see this. One kid goes to one of these and we agree. If we didn’t have the funds however, the choice would have been different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you pay half of that, you can save $180,000 over 4 years.

If you put that in S&P500 assuming 9% yield, you get 1 million in 20 years.

You'll be a millionaire at 45 years old.

This 1000%. We are being sensible about college. We have nothing to prove to anyone. We will also pay for grad school and significant home down payments, as well as future annual gifts to adult children. I just do not see the value of spending more than necessary on a good college. I am willing to pay for a good OOS public if my children don't get into one of the top in-state publics (we live in VA, so if they don't go to UVA or W&M they will likely go OOS.)

There's also merit aid options at private schools.