Is it worth it to pay out-of-state tuition for Berkeley?
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Anonymous
that wasn't PP's point but given you probably went to UVa, it's understandable. |
Anonymous
| Berkeley is an international brand. UVA, on the other hand, is very LOCAL at best. |
Anonymous
what's your definition of financial hardship? |
Anonymous
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It depends on your kid, OP. Going away to college is huge for some kids. Many cannot handle the pressures of living away from home for the first time. So, take that into consideration. It is a lot easier to see mom and dad when you are at UVA than on the west coast.
Secondly, what does your son plan to major in? I think that is a really important consideration. Does one school have a better program than the other? They are both good schools. I am not someone who believes that a “prestigious” university makes any difference with most job prospects. Most employers will not care whether your kid graduated from Berkley or from UVA. For our family - no way would I go into debt to send my kid to Berkley. |
Anonymous
Wrong. |
Anonymous
| For anything other than eecs, no |
Anonymous
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It looks like OOS tuition at Berkeley is around $40K/year. Maybe you can afford that, but I would balk. Berkeley's reputation comes primarily from its grad programs. You can get the equivalent undergrad education somewhere else for much less.
If you can get into Berkeley and UVA, you can probably get into another good school for free, or with a significant scholarship. If you plan to live overseas, it might be worth the extra money for Berkeley. It's one of the handful of non-Ivy's that are internationally famous. |
Anonymous
Whatever it's worth, this is true. I grew up in a different country and along with Harvard, Yale, Caltech, and MIT, everyone knew about Berkeley. It gets a lot more respect internationally than here in US. |
Anonymous
| Berkeley is a far more interesting experience. We tuck away a lot in the college fund to give our kids the chance to go out of state. I loved college but still think about how exciting it would have been to go to a totally new place across the country. We will nudge our kids to get out of Virginia. |
Anonymous
Not Cal. Stanford, maybe (depends on magnitude of hardship and the kid), but not Cal. If the alternative were a much lower ranked state school or coming from a much less diverse area than DC-area, maybe. I'm saying this as a Stanford alum from Michigan who actually would, at the time, have preferred to go to Berkeley. My dad was adamant that he would not pay out-of-state tuition for a public school when we had the option of in-state tuition at UofM. At the time, Berkeley was still better ranked than UofM, but in retrospect he was absolutely right. Depending on the major and your kid, there is a very high probability that you will be paying for five years of tuition at Berkeley, given some of the vagaries of how difficult it is to get into classes. And while many schools offer excellent education, there are non-educational benefits to the elite privates that even the highest ranked publics don't offer. If money is no object, send your kid wherever you think they will thrive. If it is not, like my dad I would not endure financial hardship or even financial inconvenience to pay out-of-state tuition at a public school if I had UVa as an option. |
Anonymous
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If you can afford it, yes. If she has to borrow it all, no.
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Anonymous
Us, too. None of us really love Virginia. We are willing to pay to send our child to a place we think is a better fit. OP, congrats to your daughter. |
Anonymous
Complete with hoods and protests. Everything I ever wanted. ? |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Yes, and non violent too. Oh, wait..... |