Paying for a second or third tier college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know where the line was drawn for “tiers” so I looked them up.

An example of a group of 2nd Tier colleges are Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, USC, NYU, Emory, Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon

Tier 3 Colleges are mostly state colleges like UCSD, UCI, University of Rochester. UW-Wisconsin

I don’t know what’s wrong with these colleges.

This is nowhere close to an accurate list. JHU and NU are below HYPSM, but a tier above the other schools listed by a mile (and many that were omitted like Cornell and Brown). Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know where the line was drawn for “tiers” so I looked them up.

An example of a group of 2nd Tier colleges are Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, USC, NYU, Emory, Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon

Tier 3 Colleges are mostly state colleges like UCSD, UCI, University of Rochester. UW-Wisconsin

I don’t know what’s wrong with these colleges.

This is nowhere close to an accurate list. JHU and NU are below HYPSM, but a tier above the other schools listed by a mile (and many that were omitted like Cornell and Brown). Try again.

Not to mention it’s completely idiotic and doesn’t take into account majors, or so many other important factors.

SFS Walsh school at Georgetown is best for international relations. JHU in biomedical engineering, etc.

People ranking schools on this board have their heads so far up there @sses it’s ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know where the line was drawn for “tiers” so I looked them up.

An example of a group of 2nd Tier colleges are Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, USC, NYU, Emory, Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon

Tier 3 Colleges are mostly state colleges like UCSD, UCI, University of Rochester. UW-Wisconsin
I don’t know what’s wrong with these colleges.

This is nowhere close to an accurate list. JHU and NU are below HYPSM, but a tier above the other schools listed by a mile (and many that were omitted like Cornell and Brown). Try again.

First, this was a sample, not every college. Second, the OP has no idea what Tier 2 even means or she wouldn’t write something so ridiculous.

People are misusing the term Tier 2 College. According to IvyScholars … These Tier 2 schools are still highly competitive, but less so than tier 1. They generally have acceptance rates below 20%.

Tier 2 schools include: USC, Washington University in St Louis, Tufts, Tulane, NYU, Boston University, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Notre Dame, Emory, University of Virginia, Wake Forest, UT Austin College of Natural Sciences, Boston College, Georgia Tech, William and Mary, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Rochester.


Tier 3. These are still good schools, but are not as competitive for admissions, as they have more spaces offered, and fewer applicants overall.

Tier 3 schools include: UT Austin College of Liberal Arts, Villanova, Northeastern, Brandeis, Case Western Reserve, Occidental, Washington and Lee, Babson College, Virginia Tech, UC San Diego, Lafayette College, UIUC, University of Florida, and DePauw.


Not everyone would agree with the listing but facts are very few students are going to Tier 1 schools. Tier 2 and Tier 3 have excellent colleges and they are where the majority of your kids will go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know where the line was drawn for “tiers” so I looked them up.

An example of a group of 2nd Tier colleges are Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, USC, NYU, Emory, Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon

Tier 3 Colleges are mostly state colleges like UCSD, UCI, University of Rochester. UW-Wisconsin

I don’t know what’s wrong with these colleges.

This is nowhere close to an accurate list. JHU and NU are below HYPSM, but a tier above the other schools listed by a mile (and many that were omitted like Cornell and Brown). Try again.

Not to mention it’s completely idiotic and doesn’t take into account majors, or so many other important factors.

SFS Walsh school at Georgetown is best for international relations. JHU in biomedical engineering, etc.

People ranking schools on this board have their heads so far up there @sses it’s ridiculous.

It’s completely idiotic for people to claim they won’t pay for Tier 2 or Tier 3 colleges when it is highly unlikely their kid will be at a Tier 1 school. And these lists were created by sites that take into account admission rates and others but not everything. These top 10
lists people mention don’t separate different majors either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know where the line was drawn for “tiers” so I looked them up.

An example of a group of 2nd Tier colleges are Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, USC, NYU, Emory, Washington University in St. Louis, Tulane, Boston College, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon

Tier 3 Colleges are mostly state colleges like UCSD, UCI, University of Rochester. UW-Wisconsin
I don’t know what’s wrong with these colleges.

This is nowhere close to an accurate list. JHU and NU are below HYPSM, but a tier above the other schools listed by a mile (and many that were omitted like Cornell and Brown). Try again.

First, this was a sample, not every college. Second, the OP has no idea what Tier 2 even means or she wouldn’t write something so ridiculous.

People are misusing the term Tier 2 College. According to IvyScholars … These Tier 2 schools are still highly competitive, but less so than tier 1. They generally have acceptance rates below 20%.

Tier 2 schools include: USC, Washington University in St Louis, Tufts, Tulane, NYU, Boston University, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Notre Dame, Emory, University of Virginia, Wake Forest, UT Austin College of Natural Sciences, Boston College, Georgia Tech, William and Mary, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Rochester.


Tier 3. These are still good schools, but are not as competitive for admissions, as they have more spaces offered, and fewer applicants overall.

Tier 3 schools include: UT Austin College of Liberal Arts, Villanova, Northeastern, Brandeis, Case Western Reserve, Occidental, Washington and Lee, Babson College, Virginia Tech, UC San Diego, Lafayette College, UIUC, University of Florida, and DePauw.


Not everyone would agree with the listing but facts are very few students are going to Tier 1 schools. Tier 2 and Tier 3 have excellent colleges and they are where the majority of your kids will go to.

100%

[Anonymous]

Well, if HYPSM are tier 1, then everything else is tier 2, tier 3, or 4, 5, 6. Tier 2 doesn't necessarily denote "low" tier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwestern is second tier? Damn

The (negative) distance between Northwestern and HYPSM is much smaller than the (positive) distance between Northwestern and Tulane/NYU.

[Anonymous]

The OP buried the lead by not making clear that she's posting from New Jersey which by and large has mediocre state colleges. Yes, Rutgers itself is pretty strong academically but it's large and almost everyone is in state and NJ is a small state so it can be a suitcase college and for many it doesn't provide all that great of a social experience. It's also not all that cheap. NJ exports more students out of state than any other state for a reason.

This is why I hate non-DMV posters who post without making where they're from clear. We assume a context that's not there. It's annoying.

I was responding from the context of a Virginia resident. I had two kids go to UVA over top 20 privates and another go to VCU over mediocre privates. Another one of my kids turned down William & Mary for a strong LAC but only because they were awarded substantial merit aid and the price difference was not significant. (Kid was also admitted to Carleton but there was no way we were going to pay full tuition for Carleton over W&M).

But here's the thing. None of our kids whined about this or had any regrets. They're reasonable and understood it made sense. They didn't approach the process like a marriage, as so many of you do. That's what you all mean when you talk about "fit," and it's bullshit. There's way more than one or two schools that are perfectly fine for any normal kid, and when you talk about "fit" the concept should also include financial considerations and common sense. And before anyone says "sorry you couldn't afford private" just let me add that nope, that wasn't the issue at all.

One final note. I'm betting that many of you are fairly new to the process and only have recent or soon to be high school or college grads. You really should be thinking long term and not short term here. Unless you're truly poor and/or from an underprivileged background, study after study shows it really doesn't matter where you go to college as long as you just go. A few years down the road you won't even remember who were the high school academic stars and who went to a fancy college; there will be little correlation between the professional success (or lack thereof) and happiness (or lack thereof) of your kid and their high school classmates and the college they attended. The first could very well be last and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

My DS is at a 2nd/3rd tier private school. It cost maybe $3k more than the state school. Unless your kid goes to UMCP, the MD state schools are pretty mid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never in a million years pay anywhere near full price for a second or third tier private school, especially being Virginia residents, and would only pay for first tier if we were talking top ten or better. No Vanderbilts, Northwesterns, Notre Dames, Wash Us or Emorys over UVA—no way no how—no bullshit liberal arts college over William & Mary, no middling private over JMU, etc.

If I were OP I’d offer exactly what she’s proposing and hope the kid accepts. And I wouldn’t think twice about the first kid. As she said, he wouldn’t have gone for it anyway.

Agree 100 percent!

[Anonymous]

Many Georgia parents of high stats kids are wrestling with this and normally it’s been a no-brainer. UGA or GA Tech with the Zell Miller scholarship (full tuition) wins over paying for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 privates a lot of the time (even in full pay families).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many Georgia parents of high stats kids are wrestling with this and normally it’s been a no-brainer. UGA or GA Tech with the Zell Miller scholarship (full tuition) wins over paying for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 privates a lot of the time (even in full pay families).

I just looked up. It seems that they award many such scholarships each year. No wonder GA Tech is able to maintain such a high standard. For those who are not STEM inclined though, it’s a tough choice, as UGA is such a downgrade!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many Georgia parents of high stats kids are wrestling with this and normally it’s been a no-brainer. UGA or GA Tech with the Zell Miller scholarship (full tuition) wins over paying for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 privates a lot of the time (even in full pay families).

I just looked up. It seems that they award many such scholarships each year. No wonder GA Tech is able to maintain such a high standard. For those who are not STEM inclined though, it’s a tough choice, as UGA is such a downgrade!

Were I a GA resident and could send me kid to either of these schools practically free I'd do it in a heartbeat over just about any school. One of my kids' UVA roommate was a GA resident who turned down GA Tech for engineering and paid OOS tuition to UVA instead and that never made sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That works only if the state school has a good reputation for that specific major, OP. My kid is in International Affairs. At UMD, where he was accepted, he would have had to cobble together the classes he wanted. He went to GWU instead, which is known for IA. We can afford it.

? why? the school may be large, but students are able to get classes.

But agree about major and school.

-parent of UMD CS major grad 2026

Because there is no dedicated major for IA at UMD, given the competition from GU, GWU and AU, all nearby. That's what I mean by "cobble together". It's a lot harder to convince employers that you're actually well-versed in that field if the school you graduated from doesn't offer that field! There are history classes, political science classes, economics classes... but nothing specially made for an IA diploma. Whereas GWU has the Elliott School of International Affairs, and GU has the School for Foreign Service.

that's a different situation. I do agree that going to your state school if they don't have your major doesn't make that much sense.

My other kid is going oos public because our flagship doesn't have their major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many Georgia parents of high stats kids are wrestling with this and normally it’s been a no-brainer. UGA or GA Tech with the Zell Miller scholarship (full tuition) wins over paying for both Tier 1 and Tier 2 privates a lot of the time (even in full pay families).

I just looked up. It seems that they award many such scholarships each year. No wonder GA Tech is able to maintain such a high standard. For those who are not STEM inclined though, it’s a tough choice, as UGA is such a downgrade!

Were I a GA resident and could send me kid to either of these schools practically free I'd do it in a heartbeat over just about any school. One of my kids' UVA roommate was a GA resident who turned down GA Tech for engineering and paid OOS tuition to UVA instead and that never made sense to me.

GA Tech is miles better than UVA for engineering. This is a no brainer.