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[quote=Anonymous]The question here rests upon some specific assumptions: first, that full pay is equivalent to 85k in all cases (which in itself is indicative of the fact that to most posters on this site, attending college means attending a comparatively small subset of U.S. schools and quibbling over the relatively minor differences between them); and second, that the in-state option is a public institution in VA or MD (which given the site is perfectly reasonable and to be expected).

First, there are some "schools" for which I would not contribute a single dime of spending money even if my student were to matriculate at one of them on an otherwise full ride scholarship: these institutions include Liberty, Hillsdale, High Point.

Second, except in the case of extenuating circumstances (e.g. the need to attend a school in close proximity because of health issues or professional ambitions that require a specialized program available only on an otherwise undistinguished campus), I would not be willing to pay full freight over the cost of in-state tuition for a school whose undergrad student body is academically weaker than those of the in-state schools to which my student had gained admission (and to be clear, when I say "weaker," I am not referring to, say, a mere 30 point difference between one school's 75th percentile and another's. The higher the scores are, the less meaningful difference there is between them; in addition, measuring the academic strength of a given school also involves consideration of qualitative factors such as intellectual curiosity).

Assuming that the student bodies of the OOS/private colleges under consideration are on par with or academically stronger than those of the in-state schools, however, my student would have to weigh pros and cons specific to his/her/their priorities and tolerance for the long-term consequences of tradeoffs. One poster here, for example, said s/he would not pay for UCLA over, I think, in-state UVA. If, say, my student were in-state for UVA but hell-bent on a career in film and had already shown sustained, demonstrated interest in the subject, I'd be wiling to shell out for UCLA. But if, say, that same student wanted to major in English and then go to grad school in the same subject, well, I happen to know that both schools offer very strong undergrad and grad programs in English, so I'd encourage him/her/them to consider what s/he/they could do with the extra 529 savings if it weren't spent on undergraduate tuition alone, although as someone who really values diversity--including and especially economic diversity--I think that spending four years at a school where a third of one's classmates qualify for Pell grants yet are still amongst the most academically competitive students in the U.S. is well worth the difference between in-state UVA tuition and out-of-state CA tuition. If, say, my student wanted English, were choosing between Michigan and in-state UVA and decided on the former, I'd be less enthusiastic but remind myself that college, if one has the luxury of being able to do so, is an excellent opportunity to live where one has never previously lived. [/quote]

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