Are We Crazy for Questioning a $250k US Degree and looking abroad?
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Anonymous
Please you have too much common sense. Typically not found on these boards…. 
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Anonymous
| No we are seriously considering UofT (Toronto St. George campus) for DD. As dual Canadian-US citizens, tuition will be around $10K US atu UofT versus $45K US for a similar oos public uni. |
Anonymous
Yeah, get with the program, buddy, or you & all your fancy-schmancy logical reasoning can just get the heck out of here! |
Anonymous
No brainer. Our kid trying to decide between Edi and StA, both over USC which was his best admit in the US, but no merit. |
Anonymous
Both good choices. Very different environments. Edi is very urban and a bit inland with much better transport options. StA is in a small college town along the North Sea. Suggest visiting both before deciding. Look at the various UK university guides (Guardian, Times, etc) for the specific degree that DC is pursuing. In some cases, one university will have a clearly stronger offering. In other cases, the offerings will be very similar. In both cases, one likely would fly in/out via EDI airport. |
Anonymous
Are you taking financial aid in consideration, did you run a net price calculator? A lot of the “savings” are coming from the undergraduate degree being 3 years instead of 4, but you’re getting education for only three years. You need to have taken many advanced courses, equivalent to APs that also get US college credit and potentially shorten the time to graduate. If you’re not well prepared, I’m not sure a three year degree is advisable. Look at the tuition alone, 25k ponds is $35k. Sticker price tuition in US for OOS and privates is about $70k, but if you run a cost estimate for a family making $200k a year with $2M in assets, tuition is roughly $40k. Not sure Durham is that great of a deal if you take this into consideration. The issue is people in this thread massage the numbers to make it seem that UK colleges are so much cheaper when that’s simply not the case. Even then, taking a riskier, less beaten path to save $50k in college cost is not wise in my view. Consider the internship opportunities, name recognition, what you want to do after graduation etc. Again if cost is the main driver, then go in state. If you’re counting every dollar you’re not looking at privates and out of state. Guaranteed that in state tuition is far less than $35k a year, and likely has a better name recognition than Durham or Exeter for US employers. |
Anonymous
No financial aid at USC? Average yearly cost of attendance is $41k. https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/colleges/university-of-southern-california/tuition-and-costs I get that most of these examples are made up, but either you have the money and it doesn’t make sense to scrape the barrel for good deals overseas, or you need financial aid and US universities will give you some. Also 8 APs will be enough for one year of general education credits, if you need to graduate early. |
Anonymous
No, USC is one of the most expensive SLACs in the U.S. at $99,918 a year but purposefully allows in that figure only $414 for travel so it won’t go over the critical $100k mark. DCUM readers will all go over $100k a year to attend. Here’s the actual admissions site: https://financialaid.usc.edu/undergraduate-financial-aid/cost-of-attendance/ |
Anonymous
You seem uneducated about college cost in US. That’s the cost of attendance with full tuition price. Not everyone pays that, at USC 66% of the students get financial aid and 20% get merit aid. As I said, you’re probably lying about your kids USC admission, or you have a lot of money and you don’t need financial aid. In that case it’s sort of dumb to go for Durham instead of USC. |
Anonymous
this is a really old way of thinking. plenty of people have a couple million dollars and don't get FA -- but paying 800k for two kids seems ridic. St Andrews and Kings were on the table for my kid. Would have taken those over a lot of other 90k options, like Georgetown or BC. Got into HYP so decided it was worth it. 60k is a lot cheaper than 90k. I was just talking about this last night with some mom friends - taking Wisconsin over Michigan bcs the price is a lot different. This feels like the same thing. Is MI a "better" school? I guess. Will your outcomes be actually different, probably not. And, say, giving the kid a paid off car at college graduation, 2k a month for rent for 3 years, and moving that 35k from 529 to Roth in early 20s would both meaningfully make a kids life better. OR paying for grad school. |
Anonymous
Everyone has their own financial priorities. If $60k is your budget run a net price calculator and don’t apply to USC, and BC if they are over that line. Quoting the sticker price tuition to compare is silly when so many students get a discount, but it will be dependent on family finances. What people consistently say here is that a US Public College is similarly priced if not cheaper that a UK Public University. I’d take UVA, UMD, MI, Wisconsin, Delaware, Florida, U Texas, UNC, Georgia, UMass, UDub, SUNY, UIUC, UCs, UC Boulder, Minnesota, etc over Durham any day if I’m in state. Most states, especially the populous ones, have a flagship that’s decent, and cover more than 80% of the US population. Save the money for grad school if that’s your thing. |