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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just so short-sighted and weird. Your goal is to send your kids as far away as possible for college just to save some money, and down the road you'll never even see them. Have a lonely old age face timing with your grandkids who you'll barely know.

My kid goes to college within 50 miles but is probably taking a job 3000 miles away.

That said…who gives a shit. We make a ton of $$$ and are fully remote. We will just move to our kid once they are settled and grandkids come along.

Seems like y’all are just without means and stuck wherever you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Thank you for taking the time. This is very helpful.

[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.

+1. Parents need to drive this … it’s their money

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

In our experience, this is most definitely true.
DP

it is true. Even UCLA and Cal OOS are less expensive than private which is now approaching $100k a year. Sure, if you want to drop down to T50-100 and chase merit you might find some, but that’s not guaranteed and some families don’t have the time to chase merit via multiple applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

In our experience, this is most definitely true.
DP

it is true. Even UCLA and Cal OOS are less expensive than private which is now approaching $100k a year. Sure, if you want to drop down to T50-100 and chase merit you might find some, but that’s not guaranteed and some families don’t have the time to chase merit via multiple applications

That's not true; if an applicant can fill out one college application,then that applicant can apply to hundreds of colleges and universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been considering England or Wales schools bc the tuition/room/board is similar to our flagship price bc it’s 3yrs vs 4. My child has hyperfocus & absolutely loathes the idea of gen eds & Eng/Wales schools at least don’t have them.

I’ve found that many courses/majors have the option on “year in industry”. So you’re at uni for years 1-2, then are placed in an internship for a year, then back on campus final year. The tuition for internship year is like 3k gbp.

I’d like to hear others perspective on if a year long internship would help mitigate the “I’ve never heard of that school” factor. For even some of the “lesser” universities with Mech E degrees, they’re placing kids at Rolls Royce & other places I have heard of

I hired a 3rd year for a year. It’s like a year long coop. In that it gives them experience but also removes them from their cohort, as some friends will choose to do just the three years and graduate. The school doesn’t ‘place’ you. You have to find the job yourself though I’m sure the school has resources for the search. I never dealt with the uni, only the employee/student. Be mindful that the placement can be in another area of the country entirely so you’ll need to find local housing transportation etc. Not too dissimilar to US kids needing housing and logistics near NYC or near Seattle for an internship. Any experience will help with future employment. But realize that some multi national employers have global recognition while Vodaphone for example does not. If a large multinational is important to your kid, start that search early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been considering England or Wales schools bc the tuition/room/board is similar to our flagship price bc it’s 3yrs vs 4. My child has hyperfocus & absolutely loathes the idea of gen eds & Eng/Wales schools at least don’t have them.

I’ve found that many courses/majors have the option on “year in industry”. So you’re at uni for years 1-2, then are placed in an internship for a year, then back on campus final year. The tuition for internship year is like 3k gbp.

I’d like to hear others perspective on if a year long internship would help mitigate the “I’ve never heard of that school” factor. For even some of the “lesser” universities with Mech E degrees, they’re placing kids at Rolls Royce & other places I have heard of

We have cousins in England, and one nephew is taking a year off his history degree to do a placement with an international accounting firm. Apparently, people don't need to do an accounting degree to become an accountant. Kid loves history, but he never thought he'd be an academic historian. Seems like a great system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

And international policy/economics-Im not picking the Clemson kid like the other poster. I’m picking the kid that had the European internship/study abroad and fluency in more than one language.

Study abroad and language fluency contributes nothing to macroeconomics, except as dinner party conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1. Parents need to drive this … it’s their money

+1

You as a parent set the limit for what you can afford. They cannot take more than $5.5K/year (~$27K for the 4 year total) without a parental/adult co-signer. And you set these expectations early, as in by sophmore/junior year so they don't fall in love with schools you will never be able to afford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1. Parents need to drive this … it’s their money

+1

You as a parent set the limit for what you can afford. They cannot take more than $5.5K/year (~$27K for the 4 year total) without a parental/adult co-signer. And you set these expectations early, as in by sophmore/junior year so they don't fall in love with schools you will never be able to afford

Oh my god. Are you people BLIND???? Or just pretending to be..OP posted twice already that MONEY IS NOT THE ISSUE, only a variable to consider. They never said they don’t have money do this. You people need to find other things to do…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just so short-sighted and weird. Your goal is to send your kids as far away as possible for college just to save some money, and down the road you'll never even see them. Have a lonely old age face timing with your grandkids who you'll barely know.

My kid goes to college within 50 miles but is probably taking a job 3000 miles away.

That said…who gives a shit. We make a ton of $$$ and are fully remote. We will just move to our kid once they are settled and grandkids come along.

Seems like y’all are just without means and stuck wherever you are.

We have three kids. We can’t move near each of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just so short-sighted and weird. Your goal is to send your kids as far away as possible for college just to save some money, and down the road you'll never even see them. Have a lonely old age face timing with your grandkids who you'll barely know.

My kid goes to college within 50 miles but is probably taking a job 3000 miles away.

That said…who gives a shit. We make a ton of $$$ and are fully remote. We will just move to our kid once they are settled and grandkids come along.

Seems like y’all are just without means and stuck wherever you are.

We have three kids. We can’t move near each of them.

You also don’t expect all three to live near you, correct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all are just so short-sighted and weird. Your goal is to send your kids as far away as possible for college just to save some money, and down the road you'll never even see them. Have a lonely old age face timing with your grandkids who you'll barely know.

My kid goes to college within 50 miles but is probably taking a job 3000 miles away.

That said…who gives a shit. We make a ton of $$$ and are fully remote. We will just move to our kid once they are settled and grandkids come along.

Seems like y’all are just without means and stuck wherever you are.

We have three kids. We can’t move near each of them.

You also don’t expect all three to live near you, correct?

If there were space in our trailer park, then yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1. Parents need to drive this … it’s their money

+1

You as a parent set the limit for what you can afford. They cannot take more than $5.5K/year (~$27K for the 4 year total) without a parental/adult co-signer. And you set these expectations early, as in by sophmore/junior year so they don't fall in love with schools you will never be able to afford

Oh my god. Are you people BLIND???? Or just pretending to be..OP posted twice already that MONEY IS NOT THE ISSUE, only a variable to consider. They never said they don’t have money do this. You people need to find other things to do…

Why are you in a rage over how people are responding? Maybe YOU need something else to do? Or take your meds? Money IS the issue. Just read her subject line. It doesn’t mean she can’t pay for alternative options. But it IS the topic of the conversation.

[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.

I dont get this board's fixable/hatred of St Andrews when again and again, it's top 5 in UK, in a dreamy little corner with sky high student satisfaction numbers. You dont begrudge Oxbridge because "that's legit". St Andrew's is legit and so is LSE.

MY kids are in the US, but cmon...