Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the previous poster with kid with 7 acceptances who won't be going to Maryland. How do you get seven acceptances so early in the year ? Must be schools with rolling admissions. My son hasn't heard from any of his schools except the one Ivy he applied EA and UMCP. Most colleges allow only one early decision private school plus publics. Most publics don't have much merit aid.

Early action.

I won't disclose the names of the schools so as not to out my DD or myself. Most are in the Midwest.

Not that I doubt you, but I'm genuinely curious. Six SLACs in the midwest gave your DD $37K or more? That's quite surprising to me. My DD got into Dennison, which gave her $25K. They said that was the maximum merit aid they offered, except for a few free rides offered to very top students. DD did not get more than $25K from any school that accepted her. (Her stats were good, but not tippy top.) I'm thinking College of Wooster might be one of the schools?? But $37 in merit $$ seems like a lot, more than I've heard most SLACS offer.

^ for EA schools, you received scholarship letters already?

Anonymous wrote:To the previous poster with kid with 7 acceptances who won't be going to Maryland. How do you get seven acceptances so early in the year ? Must be schools with rolling admissions. My son hasn't heard from any of his schools except the one Ivy he applied EA and UMCP. Most colleges allow only one early decision private school plus publics. Most publics don't have much merit aid.

Early action.

I won't disclose the names of the schools so as not to out my DD or myself. Most are in the Midwest.

Well if Tufts is top tier, then I don't see why UMD isn't as well. Personally, I vote neither, but depends on how many tiers you envision.

To the previous poster with kid with 7 acceptances who won't be going to Maryland. How do you get seven acceptances so early in the year ? Must be schools with rolling admissions. My son hasn't heard from any of his schools except the one Ivy he applied EA and UMCP. Most colleges allow only one early decision private school plus publics. Most publics don't have much merit aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to school out of state is a luxury that most people cannot afford. I have seen no difference between the successes of adults who went to school in-state vs. out-of-state. The only difference I noticed was the out-of-state folks complain a lot about paying off their student loans.

I will add that we are very lucky to live near so many high quality schools and to have so many employment opportunities in this area of the country. In other places, relocating for school and work are the only options.

PP here with the DD who holds seven acceptances. She will not be taking out loans. She'd like to see where else she might want to live and work.

Because her parents are wealthy. Even if you think you're middle class, you are wealthy compared to most people. And who is paying the extra $15k to house your child on campus? Most people can't afford that and it isn't a requirement for success. I'm glad you can afford to show your daughter the world. It's nice, but hardly necessary.

I agree, with a household income of $200K, we are wealthy.

The point is, we will pay about $3K/year more than we would have had she chosen to attend UMD. She got in, but doesn't want to attend. And she doesn't have to.

That is great - congrats to your daughter for lining up so many acceptances that were affordable. I have started looking into merit based aid for ds and I don't see a lot of top tier schools offering significant merit based aid. Schools like Johns Hopkins and Tufts give very few merit based scholarships and these are frequently very small. How did you find 7 colleges that were comparable to UMD CP that offered merit based aid?TIA

U.MD is not a top tier school. It is a good school but not top tier. Certainly not in the same league as Johns Hopkins or Tufts.

DD got merit aid at OOS SLACs. Apples and oranges, different experience from U. Maryland.

May I ask which OOS SLACS you found offered good merit based aid? It sounds like you felt like these schools were at the same level as UMD ("good") but offered a different experience from UMD - presumably smaller class sizes and a more intimate experience. Thanks again.

NP - To bring cost down to UMD level, PP's DD received 35/40k per year of MERIT scholarship. Unless those schools are one or two tiers down from UMD, I find it hard to believe. Maybe PP was talking about FA?

I agree something is not adding up. Without knowing the names of the SLACs it is difficult to know whether it is possible to have a "good" SLAC offering enough merit aid to make the cost comparable to UMD. Most good SLACS cost around $60K a year while UMD costs around $23K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to school out of state is a luxury that most people cannot afford. I have seen no difference between the successes of adults who went to school in-state vs. out-of-state. The only difference I noticed was the out-of-state folks complain a lot about paying off their student loans.

I will add that we are very lucky to live near so many high quality schools and to have so many employment opportunities in this area of the country. In other places, relocating for school and work are the only options.

PP here with the DD who holds seven acceptances. She will not be taking out loans. She'd like to see where else she might want to live and work.

Because her parents are wealthy. Even if you think you're middle class, you are wealthy compared to most people. And who is paying the extra $15k to house your child on campus? Most people can't afford that and it isn't a requirement for success. I'm glad you can afford to show your daughter the world. It's nice, but hardly necessary.

I agree, with a household income of $200K, we are wealthy.

The point is, we will pay about $3K/year more than we would have had she chosen to attend UMD. She got in, but doesn't want to attend. And she doesn't have to.

That is great - congrats to your daughter for lining up so many acceptances that were affordable. I have started looking into merit based aid for ds and I don't see a lot of top tier schools offering significant merit based aid. Schools like Johns Hopkins and Tufts give very few merit based scholarships and these are frequently very small. How did you find 7 colleges that were comparable to UMD CP that offered merit based aid?TIA

U.MD is not a top tier school. It is a good school but not top tier. Certainly not in the same league as Johns Hopkins or Tufts.

DD got merit aid at OOS SLACs. Apples and oranges, different experience from U. Maryland.

According to : http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/bachelors, recent graduates from MD make $53k, from Tufts make $54K, and Hopkins make $57.5K. From that they seem about the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to school out of state is a luxury that most people cannot afford. I have seen no difference between the successes of adults who went to school in-state vs. out-of-state. The only difference I noticed was the out-of-state folks complain a lot about paying off their student loans.

I will add that we are very lucky to live near so many high quality schools and to have so many employment opportunities in this area of the country. In other places, relocating for school and work are the only options.

PP here with the DD who holds seven acceptances. She will not be taking out loans. She'd like to see where else she might want to live and work.

Because her parents are wealthy. Even if you think you're middle class, you are wealthy compared to most people. And who is paying the extra $15k to house your child on campus? Most people can't afford that and it isn't a requirement for success. I'm glad you can afford to show your daughter the world. It's nice, but hardly necessary.

I agree, with a household income of $200K, we are wealthy.

The point is, we will pay about $3K/year more than we would have had she chosen to attend UMD. She got in, but doesn't want to attend. And she doesn't have to.

That is great - congrats to your daughter for lining up so many acceptances that were affordable. I have started looking into merit based aid for ds and I don't see a lot of top tier schools offering significant merit based aid. Schools like Johns Hopkins and Tufts give very few merit based scholarships and these are frequently very small. How did you find 7 colleges that were comparable to UMD CP that offered merit based aid?TIA

U.MD is not a top tier school. It is a good school but not top tier. Certainly not in the same league as Johns Hopkins or Tufts.

DD got merit aid at OOS SLACs. Apples and oranges, different experience from U. Maryland.

May I ask which OOS SLACS you found offered good merit based aid? It sounds like you felt like these schools were at the same level as UMD ("good") but offered a different experience from UMD - presumably smaller class sizes and a more intimate experience. Thanks again.

NP - To bring cost down to UMD level, PP's DD received 35/40k per year of MERIT scholarship. Unless those schools are one or two tiers down from UMD, I find it hard to believe. Maybe PP was talking about FA?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to school out of state is a luxury that most people cannot afford. I have seen no difference between the successes of adults who went to school in-state vs. out-of-state. The only difference I noticed was the out-of-state folks complain a lot about paying off their student loans.

I will add that we are very lucky to live near so many high quality schools and to have so many employment opportunities in this area of the country. In other places, relocating for school and work are the only options.

PP here with the DD who holds seven acceptances. She will not be taking out loans. She'd like to see where else she might want to live and work.

Because her parents are wealthy. Even if you think you're middle class, you are wealthy compared to most people. And who is paying the extra $15k to house your child on campus? Most people can't afford that and it isn't a requirement for success. I'm glad you can afford to show your daughter the world. It's nice, but hardly necessary.

I agree, with a household income of $200K, we are wealthy.

The point is, we will pay about $3K/year more than we would have had she chosen to attend UMD. She got in, but doesn't want to attend. And she doesn't have to.

That is great - congrats to your daughter for lining up so many acceptances that were affordable. I have started looking into merit based aid for ds and I don't see a lot of top tier schools offering significant merit based aid. Schools like Johns Hopkins and Tufts give very few merit based scholarships and these are frequently very small. How did you find 7 colleges that were comparable to UMD CP that offered merit based aid?TIA

U.MD is not a top tier school. It is a good school but not top tier. Certainly not in the same league as Johns Hopkins or Tufts.

DD got merit aid at OOS SLACs. Apples and oranges, different experience from U. Maryland.

May I ask which OOS SLACS you found offered good merit based aid? It sounds like you felt like these schools were at the same level as UMD ("good") but offered a different experience from UMD - presumably smaller class sizes and a more intimate experience. Thanks again.

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is top tier in computer science, physics and math. Hopkins is one of the 8 national indispensable institutions with Harvard , MIT , Princeton , Annapolis , West Point , Yale and Stanford .

1/4 of US unreplaceable institutions are in MD , cool!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle 50 percent average incoming scores

SAT. ACT

UMD 1340. 32
Ucla. Not rep. 31
Unc. 1315. 32
Wisc. 1255. 29
Ill. 1345. 29

All other Big ten schools are lower than UMD ,Wisconsin and Ill except NW and Mich.

Crap.. If my kid gets into a school with higher incoming scores than ucla , Unc and every Big Ten school except Michigan or Northwestern, sign me up . Matched with the unparalleled internships and DC job market/internships it's a no brainier.

Looks like the big ten was a good move .

Maryland is top tier in computer science, physics and math. Hopkins is one of the 8 national indispensable institutions with Harvard , MIT , Princeton , Annapolis , West Point , Yale and Stanford .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to school out of state is a luxury that most people cannot afford. I have seen no difference between the successes of adults who went to school in-state vs. out-of-state. The only difference I noticed was the out-of-state folks complain a lot about paying off their student loans.

I will add that we are very lucky to live near so many high quality schools and to have so many employment opportunities in this area of the country. In other places, relocating for school and work are the only options.

PP here with the DD who holds seven acceptances. She will not be taking out loans. She'd like to see where else she might want to live and work.

Because her parents are wealthy. Even if you think you're middle class, you are wealthy compared to most people. And who is paying the extra $15k to house your child on campus? Most people can't afford that and it isn't a requirement for success. I'm glad you can afford to show your daughter the world. It's nice, but hardly necessary.

I agree, with a household income of $200K, we are wealthy.

The point is, we will pay about $3K/year more than we would have had she chosen to attend UMD. She got in, but doesn't want to attend. And she doesn't have to.

That is great - congrats to your daughter for lining up so many acceptances that were affordable. I have started looking into merit based aid for ds and I don't see a lot of top tier schools offering significant merit based aid. Schools like Johns Hopkins and Tufts give very few merit based scholarships and these are frequently very small. How did you find 7 colleges that were comparable to UMD CP that offered merit based aid?TIA

U.MD is not a top tier school. It is a good school but not top tier. Certainly not in the same league as Johns Hopkins or Tufts.

DD got merit aid at OOS SLACs. Apples and oranges, different experience from U. Maryland.

Anonymous wrote:Middle 50 percent average incoming scores

SAT. ACT

UMD 1340. 32
Ucla. Not rep. 31
Unc. 1315. 32
Wisc. 1255. 29
Ill. 1345. 29

All other Big ten schools are lower than UMD ,Wisconsin and Ill except NW and Mich.

Crap.. If my kid gets into a school with higher incoming scores than ucla , Unc and every Big Ten school except Michigan or Northwestern, sign me up . Matched with the unparalleled internships and DC job market/internships it's a no brainier.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going to school out of state is a luxury that most people cannot afford. I have seen no difference between the successes of adults who went to school in-state vs. out-of-state. The only difference I noticed was the out-of-state folks complain a lot about paying off their student loans.

I will add that we are very lucky to live near so many high quality schools and to have so many employment opportunities in this area of the country. In other places, relocating for school and work are the only options.

PP here with the DD who holds seven acceptances. She will not be taking out loans. She'd like to see where else she might want to live and work.

Because her parents are wealthy. Even if you think you're middle class, you are wealthy compared to most people. And who is paying the extra $15k to house your child on campus? Most people can't afford that and it isn't a requirement for success. I'm glad you can afford to show your daughter the world. It's nice, but hardly necessary.

I agree, with a household income of $200K, we are wealthy.

The point is, we will pay about $3K/year more than we would have had she chosen to attend UMD. She got in, but doesn't want to attend. And she doesn't have to.

That is great - congrats to your daughter for lining up so many acceptances that were affordable. I have started looking into merit based aid for ds and I don't see a lot of top tier schools offering significant merit based aid. Schools like Johns Hopkins and Tufts give very few merit based scholarships and these are frequently very small. How did you find 7 colleges that were comparable to UMD CP that offered merit based aid?TIA

Not PP but you are looking at apples and oranges. UMD is not top tier. If you look at comparably ranked schools to UMD you will find more merit aid.

It sounds like there is a divide here between people who want their kids to get a good college education at a reasonable price - in which case going to UMD and living at home is a good choice (assuming you live close enough and can provide a car for the commute), and those who are less constrained financially and are looking for a residential college experience. We chose the latter for our kids and don't regret it at all. One is OOS at another Big 10 school (one of those mentioned up thread as more selective than UMD) and there is no question that it is a very different experience than DCs high school friends are having at UMD. But different things work for different people, most of DCs friends at UMD are there because of price and it's hard to argue with that.