Is Duke worth the cost over resident tuition at UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How rich do you have to be for this not to matter? Because there are thousands of VA, NC, SC, FL, GA residents at Duke that turned down damn good flagships.

I think it depends on if there is something you are not going to be shoe to just to pay the diff.
If you re going into debt or can't pay for grad school or not able to give your kid something more meaningful in the future, then it may not be worth it. For us the money is there for that. We either pay $350k for college or add that to the kids $MM inheritance they get when they're 60yo. ( the hope is that they'll have their own $MM by then)

[Anonymous]

I would have figured this out - how I felt - before my kid applied

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of Duke (#8) are residents who turned down:

UVA #24
UNC #30
Clemson #66
Georgia #56
Florida #50

I went to one of these instead of Duke.

It's one of the biggest regrets of my life.

Audible laughter. I'm sorry, why? They're all respected and if you finish in the top quartile you're destined for a solid job and/or good grad program.

Nope, sorry--only UVA and UNC are respected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have figured this out - how I felt - before my kid applied

That's a silly hypothetical to have. Only what, 1 in 12 chance they get in?

[Anonymous]

If it wasn't worth it, Duke wouldn't exist. Domestic students at Duke not only turned down their in-state flagship, they turned down generous (if not full) scholarships from the in-state to attend Duke. The connections, competitiveness, resources, beauty, faculty are unmatched.

[Anonymous]

Not impressed. Duke was built on tobacco money and it's only highly impactful alumnus was Richard Nixon . Not good.

[Anonymous]

My child is going to turn down a prestigious school to go to a state flagship. DH and I went to Ivies both undergrad and graduate school, but we are not wealthy, and can't see any reason to pay $70K for eight months of college when a much more affordable, very good option is available for a fraction of that price.

Private colleges, even the most selective ones, have set their prices too high. They are getting the wealthy and the poor, who get FA, but the middle class like us are choosing state colleges. We're paying full freight, but it's so much cheaper in-state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it wasn't worth it, Duke wouldn't exist. Domestic students at Duke not only turned down their in-state flagship, they turned down generous (if not full) scholarships from the in-state to attend Duke. The connections, competitiveness, resources, beauty, faculty are unmatched.

Lots of extremely successful people have undergraduate degrees from no-name colleges and state U's. It's ridiculous to claim that schools like Duke offer that much more to an undergraduate. We're saving our $$ to send DCs to grad school. A highly motivated kid who does well at almost any undergrad school will get into the best, most prestigious graduate programs and will have a highly successful career. I can't see it's really worth wasting all that money on Duke. HYPS, maybe, but not Duke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is going to turn down a prestigious school to go to a state flagship. DH and I went to Ivies both undergrad and graduate school, but we are not wealthy, and can't see any reason to pay $70K for eight months of college when a much more affordable, very good option is available for a fraction of that price.

Private colleges, even the most selective ones, have set their prices too high. They are getting the wealthy and the poor, who get FA, but the middle class like us are choosing state colleges. We're paying full freight, but it's so much cheaper in-state.

I assume you meant 8 semesters not months right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it wasn't worth it, Duke wouldn't exist. Domestic students at Duke not only turned down their in-state flagship, they turned down generous (if not full) scholarships from the in-state to attend Duke. The connections, competitiveness, resources, beauty, faculty are unmatched.

+1 My Duke resume opened so many doors for me that I'm not sure would have been available if I'd gone to a state school, no matter how highly ranked it was. It is just not the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm paying it, so yes.

You might be paying it, but it's still not worth it.

I went to UVA. Duke is worth it.

[Anonymous]

Why do the OPs of these kinds of threads never specify whether they have the money saved or not? It's an easy answer when you have this information.

If the student will have to take out over 100k in loans, the answer is NO.

[Anonymous]

depends on how much money you have

if it means being saddled with more than 50k or so debt, probably not worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do the OPs of these kinds of threads never specify whether they have the money saved or not? It's an easy answer when you have this information.

If the student will have to take out over 100k in loans, the answer is NO.

+ 1

People need to include some brief description of their financial sitch in the OP if they want to get good advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:depends on how much money you have

if it means being saddled with more than 50k or so debt, probably not worth it

What does debt even mean. People could have a house nearly paid off, fat retirement accounts, fat investments they'd have to tap, etc.