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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've always thought that I'd pay for a top tier school or state school, nothing in between. My first got into and attends a top tier school but my second will almost certainly not get into one, yet is interested in a number of second tier schools that have the same hefty price tag. Would you force your kid to attend a state school if they didn't get into a top tier school? With great sacrifice, we can afford to pay the second or third tier price tag but I can't help but think my kid would be better off at a state school and with ~200k (the likely cost difference) in a long-term investment.[/quote]

This is hard as you invested X in first kid who had the advantage of an easier admission cycle. Do you just want to spend less on the second kid if it’s not top 10? Is your state school in the top 10 or 20?

Would you make the investments equal? Ie put the 200 K immediately into a trust or 529 for graduate school for your second? Or would you redo your kitchen or give it to your first kid for a house down payment?[/quote]

I understand your point. We did not offer kid #1 the state school+200k option. I doubt he would have taken it but we didn't offer that, so I can see how that could create bad feelings, in addition to the bad feelings kid #2 could have if we went through with this scenario because kid #1 got their choice of school. I just think most non-top tier colleges are a terrible investment (and arguably so are some of the top tier ones) when you can get a good education at state schools but I do understand what you are saying.[/quote]

If your youngest can get a good education at a state school, so could your oldest, yet you didn't insist on that.

It's not that some schools offer a better or worse education (assuming a minimum level of competence), it's that different schools offer different types of experience. And you let your oldest choose his type of experience.[/quote]

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