UMC How Do I get a Good Deal Tuition?
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Anonymous
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My husband and I make 250k per year and have 3M in assets...so we won't get any aid. We recently obtained a Forbes college ranking guide and only about 10 colleges of the top hundred have sticker prices of 40k ish per year. Most schools are charging close to 60k.
My concern is that the model is that "wealthier" people subsidize the poor/ Middle Class at these colleges. I'm looking for a school that I'll really get the right bang for the buck. My DD has 3.8 unweighted and a 1250 on the SAT. |
Anonymous
| Where do you live (county)? What is the weighted GPA? What are her ECs? In what is she interested in majoring? What APs has she taken, how has she done? Is she a URM? |
Anonymous
So you don't like helping out? |
Anonymous
| PP- The cost of college is insane. Though not PC, I'd much rather pay money for my DDs education than for someone else's. I recently read an article about how the UMC is getting screwed by this model. If the true cost of educating my DD was 40k per year rather than 60k... $80k hypothetically is too much. |
Anonymous
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So, are you looking to vent, or are you looking for a school for your kid?
If the biggest issue you have is subsidizing someone else, find a school a notch below where she could get in, and she'll get merit aid. The 1250 might make that a problem, though. At least if you want to stay in the top 100. Don't even look at the top 25 or so. |
Anonymous
| Thank you PP. The whole college admission process seems like a maze. We are considering Flagship state school but wanted other options. |
Anonymous
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NP here. Interesting, and expected response about "helping out".
The issue is that many colleges have raised the cost so high and yet their "net tuition" is far from that amount. That's the subsidy part. For every full price pay in a NESCAC school there is someone who pays nothing. You can confirm that on the colleges common data set, where the net tuition paid is roughly 50% of the gross sticker price. So in other words for a full pay person 50% of the amount paid is a subsidy, or "helping out". Many of the Forbes top 100 have similar net tuition revenues of about 50% of full pay. Many might consider 50% a lot of "helping out". I don't know of many people in this area who voluntarily donate 50% of their earnings to charitable causes. It's just a lot for folks to stomach. I understand in the college context your participation is capped at the total tuition cost, which for super high earners may amount to a rounding error and not a material amount. For the rest of us it's still a lot. To get to some place where a full price payer pays somewhere near an average net price you need to be at one of the schools offering "merit" or otherwise known as cash pay discount. But the cost here is that your applicant's statistics need to be at the top of the college's band in order to get there. If you are truly talking "bang for your buck" your state's schools will likely high because of the reduced tuition for everyone. Other states' schools would also likely present cost opportunities for strong stats again because of the lowered tuition point. Anyone have options of highly ranked schools where full pay tuition is 130% or less of net tuition collected? That seems to me like still a lot of "helping out" from the full pays. But most schools seem to request more. |
Anonymous
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I think your only hope is state schools. State schools are lower cost, and therefore less affluent people do not need as much aid to go there. And that aid is partially spread out over the entire tax paying population, while at private schools, the cost for the less affluent is put all onto the small number of wealthier students, income from the endowment, and alumni donations.
I frankly do not understand why schools with huge endowments like Princeton still insist on punishing the wealthy by charging high tuition. They have plenty of money from endowment interest to subsidize the poorer students without this. I think it just makes them feel righteous to be able to punish people who have saved their entire lives. |
Anonymous
| Is there a guide (i.e. Listing of common data set in one place) where you can find the net tuition as a percentage of gross tuition? I'd be more than happy to pay more for my DD to get better instruction and smaller classes etc. So I'd probably start with schools where students pay closest to sticker at least for the ones that are good for my DDs stats? |
Anonymous
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This might be a useful list?
http://www.bestvalueschools.com/25-best-value-universities/ |
Anonymous
| Why don't you just see where you/your child want to apply and see if the tuition is worth it to you? You might end up at a state school and you might not. |
Anonymous
The "net tuition" thing isn't going to apply to you with those financial numbers. You're going to be full pay. |
Anonymous
| what a stupid way to pick schools... |
Anonymous
| Not sure that best value list is applicable here. Methodology is Net earnings divided by average debt at graduation. If OP is paying cash for costs then debt value is zero, but there is no consideration of cash paid. Truly don't understand any calculation that doesn't take into account funds paid during the college term unless all subjects are paying nothing during the time on campus. |
Anonymous
| I tried to do a google search on this, but all it suggested was that I sent my kid to Princeton or Brown. Ha! like that is a practical suggestion! |