Are We Crazy for Questioning a $250k US Degree and looking abroad?

[Anonymous]

I have 3 kids. My oldest just started uni in UK. Frankly, I hope the next one (current junior) also goes abroad. I don’t want them in the US under the current circumstances. My third is only in MS, so let’s see how things go. Part of it is I’m also not sure a degree is worth full pay in US (which we are). My kids are T30 / top SLAC but not T10 candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I told my kids to work hard and get huge merit scholarships, or look into other options. Armed forces, merchant marine, etc.
college tuition isn’t worth the price tag.

Merchant marines? Good grief.

What’s wrong with that? Free education and guaranteed a job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, curious why you aren’t considering your instate universities? $250k is absurd.

Not OP but you do realize that many of posters on DC Urban Mom actually live in DC, right?

Sure, but state schools anywhere will always cost less than privates.

Not true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes sense if one of the reasons for doing it is to broaden the kid’s experience by living abroad or some other similar reason (e.g., learning a foreign language).

It makes very little sense if it’s purely to save money. Yes, these foreign schools have a sticker price that’s a fraction of the sticker price of an American private school. But dig deeper & you will find the foreign schools have expensive transportation costs, crappy living conditions (most foreign universities think undergrads should live in hovels), pressure-filled degree programs (everything’s based on a few major exams), & isolated social lives (often not a lot of locals are eager to be buddies with Americans). (None of these drawbacks really apply to Canadian universities, which aren’t all that different from schools in the US.)

If the goal is just to save money, I’d recommend your in-state publics or a solid American public university in another state that has a low sticker price & gives good merit aid to bring the net price down significantly (Arizona, Kansas, Florida State, Nebraska etc).

—American who attended universities in US, Canada, & Scotland

kids want to go abroad for a variety of reasons. None of it is related to being cheaper. My husband doesnt care. I’m the one who brought up cost being an additional factor (for my little brain) to consider.

Other than my husband, my only other reference point here is son of a colleague who went to Bocconi for undergrad. Yes, they saved a TON of money for a pretty decent degree. He did not have expensive transportation costs or crappy living conditions. His dorm was actually amazing and his social life was great. So not sure where you went to school, but my point is that it is tough to generalize (American is amazing, everything else is terrible). My kids do not want to stay in-state. Our in-state options are not great (we dont live in DC).

OP, you are going to find a lot of naysayers here. yes there are pro’s and cons to everything. If your kids are independent, then this could be a great option. if they need a lot of handholding, US schools are the leaders on handholding.

I’m a hiring manager at a Fortune 20. I have come across resumes from people all over the world for a variety of positions. We typically only hire at top 30-40 US schools. And yet, we have hired a lot of kids with foreign degrees. As for the schools, what your counselor said is probably a good way to look at it. We know all the top 20 or so UK unis. We have hired people from several of them (not Oxbridge/LSE/Imperial). Every large company is American knows these schools. So there is no drop-for there. Again, we focus on US top-40 and have hired from UK top 20.

We have also hired people with degrees from Italian, Dutch and German schools. We see these top 15-20 UK schools and another dozen or so EU schools at the same level as t30 US schools.

[Anonymous]

Frankly I don’t understand the logic. If you don’t want to spend 250k on a US college you don’t have to. Go in state (UTA UVA Michigan UNC are all great schools for prime students) or Get merit at a T100 school.

The majority of the people I see posting on DCUM with kids going abroad are prestige hunters whose kids didn’t have the grades and stats to get into the T20/30. So off to St Andrews they go. So mommy can drop a name.

From what I see it’s not about quality of education at all. If it was y’all would be hyping up Durham and Warwick. But instead it’s the same 3 UK schools (I don’t begrudge Oxbridge btw that’s legit). But LSE as a psych major? Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, curious why you aren’t considering your instate universities? $250k is absurd.

Not OP but you do realize that many of posters on DC Urban Mom actually live in DC, right?

Sure, but state schools anywhere will always cost less than privates.

No, no. Privates are much cheaper. State school was far more, even with my 75% employee discount and scholarship - so I have two kids at different privates with massive merit and we pay almost nothing.

[Anonymous]

My son just started at a UK top 10 university to study History its going to cost us $72k total over 3 yrs and then he will do a 1 year law conversion which will cost us local rates because we are also UK citizens,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son just started at a UK top 10 university to study History its going to cost us $72k total over 3 yrs and then he will do a 1 year law conversion which will cost us local rates because we are also UK citizens,

You are UK citizens…that’s not the case for OP…but thanks for stopping by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a small LAC that didn't really have a good alum network or funnel people to certain companies, or even have a good job center / counseling center. I think because everyone was wealthy and had connections already!

I just hustled. So I wouldn't look to colleges to provide all that because it can be done without that spoonfeeding funnel.

Unrealistic post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly I don’t understand the logic. If you don’t want to spend 250k on a US college you don’t have to. Go in state (UTA UVA Michigan UNC are all great schools for prime students) or Get merit at a T100 school.

The majority of the people I see posting on DCUM with kids going abroad are prestige hunters whose kids didn’t have the grades and stats to get into the T20/30. So off to St Andrews they go. So mommy can drop a name.

From what I see it’s not about quality of education at all. If it was y’all would be hyping up Durham and Warwick. But instead it’s the same 3 UK schools (I don’t begrudge Oxbridge btw that’s legit). But LSE as a psych major? Please.

PP already said they live in a state where in-state is not great. They dont want in-state. You act like getting Merit at a T100 private is so easy.

Give you our story. DS is a 2nd yr at Durham. He applied to 8 US schools. We are in Texas. He had a 1490 SAT, 3.8/4 UW GPA, great ECs but he was just outside the top 10% by 1 position in his HS. So any decent In-state for us was gone (Not UT or A&M). He was accepted to 4 other privates T-30-T70 range. Had Merit offers to 2 of them. But even with the Merit Aid he received, Durham is still much much cheaper when comparing 3 vs 4 years. This is not the reason he selected Durham. They have an amazing program that when coupled with the cost, made the decision to forgo the expensive privates (with some merit) an easy decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my sophomore is on fall study abroad and absolutely loving it. We found out the university is free for citizens and international students. We are paying $90k/year (though this semester is less). We have really also thought about European schools for our 2nd child.

what school is this?

[Anonymous]

"Unfortunately neither kid wants to stay in-state."

I mean, you realize that most kids just have to get over this and go in state? Your kids sound spoiled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son just started at a UK top 10 university to study History its going to cost us $72k total over 3 yrs and then he will do a 1 year law conversion which will cost us local rates because we are also UK citizens,

You are UK citizens…that’s not the case for OP…but thanks for stopping by.

We are still paying international rates for undergrad, dummy.
We are also US citizens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Unfortunately neither kid wants to stay in-state."

I mean, you realize that most kids just have to get over this and go in state? Your kids sound spoiled.

Oh please. Drop the attitude. You dont even know where we live. I dont want to say it because I dont to disparage our Flagship State school.
I never said we needed to save money. All I commented on was the price disparity as an additional variable in my mind. I’m not going to force my kid to go to a T200 State School if they have better opportunities elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly I don’t understand the logic. If you don’t want to spend 250k on a US college you don’t have to. Go in state (UTA UVA Michigan UNC are all great schools for prime students) or Get merit at a T100 school.

The majority of the people I see posting on DCUM with kids going abroad are prestige hunters whose kids didn’t have the grades and stats to get into the T20/30. So off to St Andrews they go. So mommy can drop a name.

From what I see it’s not about quality of education at all. If it was y’all would be hyping up Durham and Warwick. But instead it’s the same 3 UK schools (I don’t begrudge Oxbridge btw that’s legit). But LSE as a psych major? Please.

PP already said they live in a state where in-state is not great. They dont want in-state. You act like getting Merit at a T100 private is so easy.

Give you our story. DS is a 2nd yr at Durham. He applied to 8 US schools. We are in Texas. He had a 1490 SAT, 3.8/4 UW GPA, great ECs but he was just outside the top 10% by 1 position in his HS. So any decent In-state for us was gone (Not UT or A&M). He was accepted to 4 other privates T-30-T70 range. Had Merit offers to 2 of them. But even with the Merit Aid he received, Durham is still much much cheaper when comparing 3 vs 4 years. This is not the reason he selected Durham. They have an amazing program that when coupled with the cost, made the decision to forgo the expensive privates (with some merit) an easy decision.

Similar story here.

We are in California. Kid wanted UCB or UCLA. Didn’t get in any of the 6 UCs he applied to. 1520 SAT, 3.9/4 UW GPA, very good ECs.
Got in USC and NYU with zero merit. Also got in U Wash. Had $20k or os merit at a couple of other privates.

He got in Edinburgh, UCL, Kings, St Andrews and Durham. He just started school in the UK. Not telling you which one he chose to attend to avoid the ridiculous DCUM condescending messages….