Middle class families - Are you willing to take on a ton of debt for a top college?

[Anonymous]

I don't see the point of sending my kid to some expensive private school for college especially undergrad. If she wants to pursue some kind of high-octane career that really requires a name brand school she would be better off doing that for her grad degree anyway.

[Anonymous]

Only Harvard , Princeton , Yale , Hopkins, Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Will be happy with VT, UVA or W&M. Very fortunate to have such outstanding in-state options.
DCs are aware that mom and dad are totally against student debt.

[Anonymous]

My poor child got accepted at some very selective colleges, but the sad, pathetic child is attending a state school that gave her a lot of money. She's very happy and doing great, but does not and will not bear the burden of having graduated from a "prestigious" college for the rest of her life. Alleluia!

OP, to answer your question: No!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only Harvard , Princeton , Yale , Hopkins, Stanford.

Hopkins? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only Harvard , Princeton , Yale , Hopkins, Stanford.

Hopkins? No.

Not even HYPYS. No school is worth a second mortgage! Period! Every financial planner will tell you that!

[Anonymous]

I would have made the same choice as the family. I would budge even for Harvard or Yale. I say this because I know more than one Harvard grad who regrets going there because the massive debt has driven them into career choices that are incompatible with the life they actually wanted to have. They could have gone to a respectable state school for free and then had the freedom to make choices with their lives. My discussions with these regretting-Harvard folks completely changed my view of what's "best".

[Anonymous]

never.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am really LOLing at all the VA boosters who think UVA is on par with Columbia.

Ask yourself this. If you had the money and the kid got into both schools, which would you recommend? Columbia is the kind of school that comes with a wealth of connections and opens doors to elite society in the Northeast.

UVA can't give you that except maybe in VA.

You have it backwards. People from elite backgrounds and a wealth of connections attend Columbia; they don't socialize with the kids on aid who have campus jobs and can't jet out to Killington every weekend or blow wads of money in NYC.

This. I went to Yale. The wealthy super-elite kids are most definitely not sharing their connections with strivers from Ohio. Go to the school you can afford!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not middle class. We make around 420-450k. I won't be spending a lot on any education unless it's a top tier college. I believe in public education and don't think for most people that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on education is worthwhile. I've had many peers attend private schools and not amount to much.

Instead of sending our child to private school we are saving a good 25k a year in a brokerage account for him. After doing this for 15 years (preK years through high school) he will have almost 400k, which should be a sizeable downpayment on a house. I'd much prefer to give my child a downpayment than private school.

It's true you are not middle class. You're the poors. FYI, its not a choice between pay for Private or put away $ in an ETF- it's both. And $2k a month is a meaningless amount of money in any event. I would never tell anyone that if I were you or I would add a zero on the end. But at least now the kid can buy a house Near you in Gainesville.

Says the single woman aged 50 bitter about the fact she has no kids and a degree from bumblefux university Arizona

Ha! If only you knew, bro. If only you knew.

Gotta be Mooch, KellyAnne, or Tiffany. Hi!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA would cost about 30K so we are looking at an extra 40K/year. $120K total. Would that be worth the added "doors" opened by Columbia? I think so.. I suppose this also depends on what the kid ends up getting a degree in - I'm guessing Finance or hard science vs something artsy/fartsy would make a big difference.

That would be $160K total. Guess you weren't a math major.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it would be insane to borrow

We sent DC to Columbia full pay, although it was a stretch for us. We live in MD and while UMD is great, it wasn't strong in DC's intended major. Other out-of-state publics would have been $55-60k, so not a huge leap. Our HHI is $250k. We had saved for college, plus we paid out of income on the 10-month plan, plus we had help from the grandparents. So DC finished with about $20k in debt.

Columbia isn't part of the the "HYPS" acronym, but fwiw, it's acceptance rate is lower than P or even Y some years. They're all around 5-6% (H and S are closer to 4-5%). Until maybe the middle of the last century, Columbia was ranked as high as the others in popular perception. Not sure what happened--maybe all the addicts in Morningside Heights during the 1970s and 1980s.

Columbia was great for DC, who entered afraid but emerged confident after competing with some of the brightest kids around. Now DC has a great job in a field that can be tough for recent grads.

Haven't had enough experience to know about the network yet. However, it's untrue that the kids with connections are all jetting off to Aspen on the weekends. Yes, they belong to that snobby frat (forgetting the name) but normal kids like mine do know kids in that frat and don't report being excluded from parties or other things.

[Anonymous]

I'd pay it for Columbia, definitely. Columbia offers a world class education, and actually does better on international rankings. What I don't understand is paying $60 for second- or third-tier private LACs

[Anonymous]

No.

My oldest is 12, so we could change our minds, but at this time it's not likely they would choose lucrative careers, so it would be foolish to go into debt. We are research scientists. My son would love to do research at a prestigious university! But he'll have to get there on his own merit.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not. We are a middle class family who are trying to send two kids through private high school, and only able to do so due to merit scholarships. While we have saved towards college, we have not saved enough and do not earn enough to pay for a $70K per year university for four years. We are very much against large student loans, and do not want DC beginning their adult journey saddled with a ton of debt.

We have always told our kids that if you wish to attend a pricy school, you will need to earn some merit aid or lower your expectations. My DH went to Hopkins, but only because he was able to get a full ride on merit. The whole high powered social connection world is very foreign to us, and going into debt to try and shoehorn your way into that world has no appeal for us. There are plenty of schools that we CAN afford that offer a fine education. For those that can afford or earn a place into an HYP type school, bravo. We simply will not incur years of debt to give our children that experience.