Is any undergrad college/university worth $55,000+?

[Anonymous]

two things about Legacy: 1 they assume that legacy children might be more likely to finish. 20 legacy more likely to full pay. 3) they work with legacy and have to say yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VERY few reasonably good students pay full list price for college. Sure, save what you can to help out but the reality is when they are in college there are scholarships to be had (academic and otherwise), your current income can be used to help pay for school, kids can earn money over the summers, and then add in savings.

If you have a student that is a B student or better with reasonable ACT/SAT scores, you can expect to pay 1/2 of the list price or less at private schools--state schools give very little in academic money and usually end up costing more for better students for the most part. Sending kids to community college to start can actually end up costing more in the end if kids qualify for scholarships at a 4 year college because transfer students just don't get the same money as freshmen.

Really? How do you define decent scores? My DC has a 4.0 GPA unweighted and SAT score between 2000-2100, and I have been led to believe we should not expect any merit aid from any top 25-30 universities or colleges. We will not qualify for financial aid but sure don't want to be one of the only families paying full freight. Please convince me I am wrong and you are right!!

No, you are right and she is wrong. And it's more like top 50, not 25.
Honors college in a state flagship is a much better deal for your DC.

+1. DC got extremely generous offers of merit aid at 2nd and 3rd tier safeties, but zip from the highly selective school DC is now attending. We decided to let DC go to the highly selective college with no aid only because DC is planning for a major where the degree counts. If DC had been looking at a major where the degree is irrelevant, or one of the fine arts where paying off even a small amount of student loans would have been in doubt, we would have insisted on the 2nd tier school with generous aid.

[Anonymous]

No. Grad school, maybe. But for grad school, if you are a top candidate you should be getting a fellowship or something. If you're not a top candidate, you ought to rethink going to grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Grad school, maybe. But for grad school, if you are a top candidate you should be getting a fellowship or something. If you're not a top candidate, you ought to rethink going to grad school.

Wow, what a stupid generalization. Totally depends on the grad program as to whether or not fellowships are common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am PP who said that very few schools would be worth $55K and to save $ for grad school. But I would modify my comment and agree with PPs who say that it depends on the child. Of course, if you have a child with special needs - or one that you do not have confidence would thrive in a large state school environment, then the $55K cost *might* be worth it. However, I'd wonder if it's seriously true for a non-special needs child that only a $55K school would do. I'm venturing a guess that perhaps a smaller state school might also work.

No school is worth $55K per year. Much of that cost is buildings and high priced faculty. Some of the buildings will be used by your school, but the high priced faculty are hidden away in their labs in buildings where your child will never see or interact with them. Princeton spend $50 million for a football stadium used six times a year. That's paid in party by the $60K it costs to go to Princeton.

I went to an Ivy when it cost $8k per year. Yes, that's right, and I'm not 100 years old. Outrageous that we've let the price of college outpace inflation at such an enormous rate. Colleges with enormous endowments ought to be taxed as for-profit corporations. Look at Northwestern U. A few years ago it had a 7 billion dollar endowment, yet it was burdening its students and their families with huge loans and building out its campus as fast as the money was going in. That's just one egregious example, but there are many more. Look all around you: Where did you see all the buildings going up all through the recession? That's right, at colleges and universities. The money kept flowing in, and the building when on even when all other building projects in the for-profit world ground to a halt.

Just because you can afford it doesn't mean it's worth it. I wouldn't pay $600 for a pair of shoes because I can get decent shoes for $100, and give the other $500 to charity, to needy people who can't afford $30 shoes. Crazy the way our system of higher education works now. It will end when people like us refuse to pay this outrageous amount of money, and lawmakers wake up and tax the big moneymaking universities who are not giving out sufficient financial aid.

[Anonymous]

It's what the market will bear ~

OP, suggest you educate yourself on some basic economics. It's not about worth, unless you are talking about perceived worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am PP who said that very few schools would be worth $55K and to save $ for grad school. But I would modify my comment and agree with PPs who say that it depends on the child. Of course, if you have a child with special needs - or one that you do not have confidence would thrive in a large state school environment, then the $55K cost *might* be worth it. However, I'd wonder if it's seriously true for a non-special needs child that only a $55K school would do. I'm venturing a guess that perhaps a smaller state school might also work.

No school is worth $55K per year. Much of that cost is buildings and high priced faculty. Some of the buildings will be used by your school, but the high priced faculty are hidden away in their labs in buildings where your child will never see or interact with them. Princeton spend $50 million for a football stadium used six times a year. That's paid in party by the $60K it costs to go to Princeton.

I went to an Ivy when it cost $8k per year. Yes, that's right, and I'm not 100 years old. Outrageous that we've let the price of college outpace inflation at such an enormous rate. Colleges with enormous endowments ought to be taxed as for-profit corporations. Look at Northwestern U. A few years ago it had a 7 billion dollar endowment, yet it was burdening its students and their families with huge loans and building out its campus as fast as the money was going in. That's just one egregious example, but there are many more. Look all around you: Where did you see all the buildings going up all through the recession? That's right, at colleges and universities. The money kept flowing in, and the building when on even when all other building projects in the for-profit world ground to a halt.

Just because you can afford it doesn't mean it's worth it. I wouldn't pay $600 for a pair of shoes because I can get decent shoes for $100, and give the other $500 to charity, to needy people who can't afford $30 shoes. Crazy the way our system of higher education works now. It will end when people like us refuse to pay this outrageous amount of money, and lawmakers wake up and tax the big moneymaking universities who are not giving out sufficient financial aid.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:37 I honestly cannot take your graph as real. Berkely was banned many years ago from considering racial status in admittance. If you have Berkely wrong, what else do you have wrong.

Not this PP, but there are definitely preferences given to underrepresented minorities. See this all the time. We just went through the college app/admin process last year and I was amazed at the kids with non-white backgrounds getting into Penn, W&M, UVa, that had they been white, no chance.

Unless you are Asians. Then you are worse than Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and Others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing this 28 year old Princeton grad thinks it was worthwhile

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/eugene-gokhvat-28/

Yawn........

+2. Probably a relative of the poster since this was the only one singled out.

LOL - Lots of white people and Jews.

But surprise, surprise - 5 Indians too! Good job guys!

[Anonymous]

My alma mater is Harvard and yes, it's definitely worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My alma mater is Harvard and yes, it's definitely worth it.

Did you pay $55,000 a year for your degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My alma mater is Harvard and yes, it's definitely worth it.

Depends on what your undergraduate degree was in?

[Anonymous]

I had a friend who's worked with getting kids into college for years tell me that you should never pay full price for tuition - always ask for a discount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a friend who's worked with getting kids into college for years tell me that you should never pay full price for tuition - always ask for a discount.

Well yes. But unless you've got great bargaining chips, just asking isn't necessarily going to work. First, they make the merit aid offers. Then, if you can tell them another college offered more, or you're really in doubt about being able to finance their school, they may be willing to up their offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:two things about Legacy: 1 they assume that legacy children might be more likely to finish. 20 legacy more likely to full pay. 3) they work with legacy and have to say yes.

that's 3