What was your strategy for making college more affordable? Live in VA vs. MD?

[Anonymous]

Also live in MD with 2 kids that will overlap college by two years. My DH went to UMD and would be excited if our kids also went there. We’ve saved for public college with 529’s. Beyond that our kids will need to qualify for merit aid if they want to go elsewhere. Having gone through applications for high schools for one child, I realize the areas for me are to start test prep with the kids earlier and make sure there is a plan for essays to be completed sooner rather than later. The rest of it, keeping on top of grades, taking challenging courses, deep involvement with a few ECs they enjoy, we’ve been encouraging all along. The guidance counselor should be able to help with finding good schools where DC would be a contender for merit aid and there are articles and message boards that more generically have lists of potential schools with strong merit aid.

I get the VA versus MD but there are so many unknowns that it’s hard to plan 10 years out. We live in a top rated public school cluster and our kids don’t go to public school - we for certain didn’t foresee that. We tried out local school and it wasn’t a good fit for one. My parents up and moved my junior year of high school to a state with great public colleges and university. There was a lot of turmoil and only one of the three of us ended up completed a degree at a public university in that state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like that U.Md is the strongest STEM school from the Pennsylvania line to the florida keys. I think it's cool that the STEM school dominates preppy lacrosse and has more impactful alumni than any school in Md or Va. The impactful alum are mostly because U.Md is the best in all the difficult subjects .

I think Georgia Tech is probably a bit stronger.

Just a bit?
I was laughing out loud about UMDCP as strongest STEM school.
Please list specialties were UMDCP is top 10 in the county. I know only one - Aerospace Engineering. Did I miss something?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both kids went to U.Md.

Loved it.

It's the best STEM school from Pa to the Florida Keys.

Many kids are not interested in STEM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The options of UVA and William and Mary are superior to any state’s college options other than CA. I can’t think of any other states with two excellent state school options. I view it as an easy choice to live in MD over VA. My wife and I can’t understand why anyone here would choose MD.

Yes, it's a known fact that UVA and W&M accept 100% of applicants from VA. 10% of the Class of 2017 at my DC's school enrolled at these two schools. About half of the class of 500 went OOS.

We moved from MD to VA when older DC was starting K - mainly for a shorter commute, but I remember thinking at the time that the kids would have great choices for college. Fast forward 12 years and older DC applied to zero in-state schools and moved out west. Younger DC has mostly As and high test scores but still isn't very competitive for UVA or W&M. Based on his interests, he wouldn't want to go to either school anyway. He just visited UMD-CP and is looking at other OOS publics (focusing on ones that offer merit), along with VA Tech and a couple of private schools..

Surely this was a typo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like that U.Md is the strongest STEM school from the Pennsylvania line to the florida keys. I think it's cool that the STEM school dominates preppy lacrosse and has more impactful alumni than any school in Md or Va. The impactful alum are mostly because U.Md is the best in all the difficult subjects .

PP, you are hilarious. And repetitive.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, OP, that you are getting more snark than serious replies.

You're not crazy to be thinking now about how to afford good colleges. College prices are insane. And if you're willing to contemplate moving for better in-state options, I'm guessing that you don't feel so rooted in your current community that starting over feels like an impossible hardship.

FWIW, when DH and I moved to DC pre-kids, we started out in a DC apartment, then had to choose VA or MD when we bought a house. We looked in both, ultimately settled on VA. A lot of it was chance -- a co-worker recommended an affordable, close-in neighborhood -- but now that we have kids I am really glad that we will have excellent in state options for them.