College Costs - ridiculously high

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

Not it is not. It’s about $35k a year all in with room and board. I am paying under $30k on the prepaid program ($14,000 for tuition and another $10,000 for off campus housing, meal plan and books).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some OOS publics offer generous aid that will bring the costs down to in-state. Check out Miami U in OH.

I graduated from Miami. Had my 4.66 GPA 1460 SAT kid apply there last year. It still came in much more expensive than UVA. They don’t give as much merit aid as you think they do. They actually came well under what they said they guaranteed for high-stats kids on their web site (and then that page disappeared).

This is obviously kid dependent. DS applied to both last cycle as well. Miami would have been 19K per year (getting 25K in merit), UVA 42K. We are OOS for both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not necessarily

we are in VA and have basically narrowed down to 2 schools here. they will PROBABLY come out cheapest in the end, but not by much.

Also looking at:
-a PA state school in that large system that has very reasonable tuition even for OOS and even better if your kid has a 3.0 or above. they come within $5K per year of VA schools
-a NJ state school that offers a tuition break to OOS students with a 3.0 or above. Same as above price wise
-a couple privates with merit awards that will bring the price to within a few thousand per year of the VA publics.

Some schools aren't as transparent with the costs and scholarships available. So, I also have a RI state school, a NC state school, an IL state school, a NY state school, a NC private and a VA private on our list that aren't CRAZY expensive to start, but we'd definitely need scholarship money and the info isn't 100% clear at the moment. Based on what I've HEARD about these schools, I think they will be similar to the above.

I have looked very closely at all of these schools for the specific program offered AND the costs.

There are a couple other schools I have recently removed from the list for various reasons that were state schools in other states (MA, OH, WI and NM) offering discounts to OOS students with a certain GPA level.

Would you be willing to share the schools you're looking at? It sounds like many of us are in the same boat!

OK, I will share, but remember, I am looking for a dance program for a kid who is NOT the best student:

VA in state options: Radford and ODU
PA public: Slippery Rock
NJ public: Stockton
Privates with good aid listed on website: Rider (NJ) and Springfield (MA)

RI public: Rhode island College
NC public: UNC-Greensboro
NC private: Meredith (women's college)
NY public: SUNY-Fredonia
IL public: Illinois State
VA private: Shenandoah

Forgot about a random NH public that is a possibility: Plymouth State

Schools I have removed for various reasons: Akron (OH), Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Univ of New Mexico and Bridgewater State (MA).

If you want to look west, a couple of the Cal State campuses are pretty reasonable. There was a very random one that I ran the numbers past a CA friend of mine and she was very surprised at how "cheap" it was. It was what used to be Humboldt State (just changed to a CalPoly campus). There was a CO public that has breaks for oos students above 2.5 - CO Mesa (I am not going to pursue that one because it is VERY remote and also has a reputation for being crazy conservative and has problems with LGBTQ and minority hate speech)

Frostburg and Salisbury in MD both have tuition discount programs within a certain mileage radius

I am fully aware this list is very, very strange to most.

These are not schools my kid would be interested in but I’m impressed with your research.

+1 You're doing a great job of making sure you know all the options!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh Op ... Ttere are a zillion threads here on DCUM and College Confidential about Merit Aid. Learn something.

Don't be rude.

OP, merit aid is worthless unless you can pay a minimum of $40K. If you've got a bright student, they are not going to want to go to many of the schools mentioned on this thread. They just won't.

And yet, at the end they do, if there are no other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

Not it is not. It’s about $35k a year all in with room and board. I am paying under $30k on the prepaid program ($14,000 for tuition and another $10,000 for off campus housing, meal plan and books).

Your kid must be in the College as a first- or second-year. It’s more expensive for Eng or Comm and the price goes up for everyone once they’re third- or fourth-years.

[Anonymous]

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, there's typically an option to attend community college and transfer to an in-state university while living at home. That's rivalry going to be the cheapest option. 2nd cheapest is going to in-state university while living at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

Not it is not. It’s about $35k a year all in with room and board. I am paying under $30k on the prepaid program ($14,000 for tuition and another $10,000 for off campus housing, meal plan and books).

https://sfs.virginia.edu/estimated-undergraduate-cost-attendance-2021-2022

UVA School of Commerce (McIntire) = $45246
Engineering is also over $40K

My kid got much better financial aid package, and attending a better private school, Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

Not it is not. It’s about $35k a year all in with room and board. I am paying under $30k on the prepaid program ($14,000 for tuition and another $10,000 for off campus housing, meal plan and books).

https://sfs.virginia.edu/estimated-undergraduate-cost-attendance-2021-2022

UVA School of Commerce (McIntire) = $45246
Engineering is also over $40K

My kid got much better financial aid package, and attending a better private school, Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business.

you're talking about specific schools at UVA, including one that you cannot even begin until third year and have no guarantee of acceptance to even as a UVA student. SO no, the normal cost for College of Arts & Sciences in state is actually right around $30K. I just paid my bill so I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some OOS publics offer generous aid that will bring the costs down to in-state. Check out Miami U in OH.

I graduated from Miami. Had my 4.66 GPA 1460 SAT kid apply there last year. It still came in much more expensive than UVA. They don’t give as much merit aid as you think they do. They actually came well under what they said they guaranteed for high-stats kids on their web site (and then that page disappeared).

This is obviously kid dependent. DS applied to both last cycle as well. Miami would have been 19K per year (getting 25K in merit), UVA 42K. We are OOS for both.

Tuition at Miami of Ohio is $38K for OOS. If you subtract $25K in merit, that leaves $13K for tuition. A very good deal, no doubt, but how are you only paying $6K for room and board (since your total cost is $19K) when the school website estimates over $15K for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA in-state is already close to $50K

Not it is not. It’s about $35k a year all in with room and board. I am paying under $30k on the prepaid program ($14,000 for tuition and another $10,000 for off campus housing, meal plan and books).

https://sfs.virginia.edu/estimated-undergraduate-cost-attendance-2021-2022

UVA School of Commerce (McIntire) = $45246
Engineering is also over $40K

My kid got much better financial aid package, and attending a better private school, Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business.

you're talking about specific schools at UVA, including one that you cannot even begin until third year and have no guarantee of acceptance to even as a UVA student. SO no, the normal cost for College of Arts & Sciences in state is actually right around $30K. I just paid my bill so I know.

A&S is still over $35K
https://sfs.virginia.edu/estimated-undergraduate-cost-attendance-2021-2022

My kid didn't get any aid, but got aid from Notre Dame for business major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some OOS publics offer generous aid that will bring the costs down to in-state. Check out Miami U in OH.

I graduated from Miami. Had my 4.66 GPA 1460 SAT kid apply there last year. It still came in much more expensive than UVA. They don’t give as much merit aid as you think they do. They actually came well under what they said they guaranteed for high-stats kids on their web site (and then that page disappeared).

This is obviously kid dependent. DS applied to both last cycle as well. Miami would have been 19K per year (getting 25K in merit), UVA 42K. We are OOS for both.

Tuition at Miami of Ohio is $38K for OOS. If you subtract $25K in merit, that leaves $13K for tuition. A very good deal, no doubt, but how are you only paying $6K for room and board (since your total cost is $19K) when the school website estimates over $15K for that?

Mine got into JMU and CNU without any aid, and Miami Ohio with $5000 in merit aid, so $48,000 total. JMU was $25,000 in state and CNU $28,000 in state. CNU gives more about 1/3 of the students an honors or leadership scholarship, which probably brings the cost down to JMU costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh Op ... Ttere are a zillion threads here on DCUM and College Confidential about Merit Aid. Learn something.

Don't be rude.

OP, merit aid is worthless unless you can pay a minimum of $40K. If you've got a bright student, they are not going to want to go to many of the schools mentioned on this thread. They just won't.

And yet, at the end they do, if there are no other options.

Right. If they are really that bright and come from a family that cannot afford full pay, they would do exactly that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some OOS publics offer generous aid that will bring the costs down to in-state. Check out Miami U in OH.

I graduated from Miami. Had my 4.66 GPA 1460 SAT kid apply there last year. It still came in much more expensive than UVA. They don’t give as much merit aid as you think they do. They actually came well under what they said they guaranteed for high-stats kids on their web site (and then that page disappeared).

This is obviously kid dependent. DS applied to both last cycle as well. Miami would have been 19K per year (getting 25K in merit), UVA 42K. We are OOS for both.

Tuition at Miami of Ohio is $38K for OOS. If you subtract $25K in merit, that leaves $13K for tuition. A very good deal, no doubt, but how are you only paying $6K for room and board (since your total cost is $19K) when the school website estimates over $15K for that?

If you must know our exacts:

Tuition of 37976 + Fees of 200 + Room and Board of 15824 - 25000 merit - 10000 DCTAG = 19000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not necessarily

we are in VA and have basically narrowed down to 2 schools here. they will PROBABLY come out cheapest in the end, but not by much.

Also looking at:
-a PA state school in that large system that has very reasonable tuition even for OOS and even better if your kid has a 3.0 or above. they come within $5K per year of VA schools
-a NJ state school that offers a tuition break to OOS students with a 3.0 or above. Same as above price wise
-a couple privates with merit awards that will bring the price to within a few thousand per year of the VA publics.

Some schools aren't as transparent with the costs and scholarships available. So, I also have a RI state school, a NC state school, an IL state school, a NY state school, a NC private and a VA private on our list that aren't CRAZY expensive to start, but we'd definitely need scholarship money and the info isn't 100% clear at the moment. Based on what I've HEARD about these schools, I think they will be similar to the above.

I have looked very closely at all of these schools for the specific program offered AND the costs.

There are a couple other schools I have recently removed from the list for various reasons that were state schools in other states (MA, OH, WI and NM) offering discounts to OOS students with a certain GPA level.

Would you be willing to share the schools you're looking at? It sounds like many of us are in the same boat!

OK, I will share, but remember, I am looking for a dance program for a kid who is NOT the best student:

VA in state options: Radford and ODU
PA public: Slippery Rock
NJ public: Stockton
Privates with good aid listed on website: Rider (NJ) and Springfield (MA)

RI public: Rhode island College
NC public: UNC-Greensboro
NC private: Meredith (women's college)
NY public: SUNY-Fredonia
IL public: Illinois State
VA private: Shenandoah

Forgot about a random NH public that is a possibility: Plymouth State

Schools I have removed for various reasons: Akron (OH), Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Univ of New Mexico and Bridgewater State (MA).

If you want to look west, a couple of the Cal State campuses are pretty reasonable. There was a very random one that I ran the numbers past a CA friend of mine and she was very surprised at how "cheap" it was. It was what used to be Humboldt State (just changed to a CalPoly campus). There was a CO public that has breaks for oos students above 2.5 - CO Mesa (I am not going to pursue that one because it is VERY remote and also has a reputation for being crazy conservative and has problems with LGBTQ and minority hate speech)

Frostburg and Salisbury in MD both have tuition discount programs within a certain mileage radius

I am fully aware this list is very, very strange to most.

These are not schools my kid would be interested in but I’m impressed with your research.

+1 You're doing a great job of making sure you know all the options!

Thanks I still can't believe how much time I spent on this - I may have gotten a little obsessed /s. But short of looking overseas, I have now explored all viable options in North America. I keep hoping maybe WI, OH and MI might reverse their post-Roe idiocy, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the mom of the dance student … you’ve done your research and then some. I’m impressed!
I’m sure it will all work out.

Thank you for your kind words my mom is so amused as she noted I’ve done more work for my daughter than I ever did for myself. That said, our research options in the early 90s were much more limited than they are now. I basically got mailers (bags and bags full!) and had the best colleges book. I basically had my choice of just about anywhere. My child is not a great student and of course we aren’t made of money-hence, research

It sounds like you could be a college consultant yourself. You seem very organized and energetic.