Anonymous wrote:

Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.

VCU is not slightly lesser than Vanderbilt or Colgate or Austin.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are full pay, Would you pay full price for
Emory
BC
UMiami
Villanova
GWU
….going down the rankings list, LMU?
Is there a cutoff for private colleges? Where you tell your kid to just take merit elsewhere, or go in state? What is your cutoff, or are you full pay so you will full pay anyplace ?

(If you are not full pay, and need FA, instate, or merit, please don’t respond, your considerations are different)

We were full pay and actually kinda rich but we live in VA and there was no way in hell we’d full pay for any of those school after a UVA admit. It’s better than all of them. Decisions like that is how we stay rich.

UVA out of state vs Emory? Emory wins. Comparing instate prices to a private is not fair.

Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Vandy and Colgate are all ~$80K+, and Austin OOSis 70K+. PP stated he got $16K scholarship--so tuition free for IN-state. Pretty smart to take that and run to the bank. VCU has an excellent premed program---he will be well prepared. Chem 101/102, Org Chem 201/202 and Biology 101/102 all cover the material at every university. To get into Med school you need a high gpa, research, great recommendation letters and a High MCAT. Much easier to get a high GPA at VCU than at any of those with all the weed out courses and high competition. He will easily get a 3.8+ at VCU. Not to mention he will likely get to do research, be more involved with professors as the big fish in the pond at VCU vs everywhere else. It's a win-win.
Financially, it's a no-brainer. His ultimately goal is medical school. He will get that debt free, not many people can say that. And the $64K he saves from undergrad will pay for a good portion of one year.

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

What if he decides he doesn't want to go to med school...which a ton of kids do? Why would you have him apply to a school like Vandy or UT Austin or Colgate, knowing they give almost zero merit aid?

I don't undestand? Then he does not go to med school, what do all those kids do? They do someting else LOL! I think his chances are high. His dad is a doctor, his grandfather is a doctor, his uncle is a doctor, he knows exactly what he is getting into.

we did not dictate where he applied, or where he chose to go. He does know exactly how much money he has for undergrad and med school and made his decision accordingly. He also knows that his GPA and MCAT and ECs/research are absoultly critical to getting into a good med school.

DP: And it's much easier to have a near 4.0 and have time to study for the MCATs if you are at a school like VCU (when you got into T25 schools as well). Yes it will be challenging but nowhere on the same level as doing premed at Vandy or Colgate or UT Austin. And you are correct---he will have the ability to do research as an undergrad at VCU and volunteer at the hospital,etc. He will have an easy time building the full resume for Med School applications. People somehow think going to the tippy top schools is always the best. If your intent is med school, law school, any type of medical graduate school, it's often not the best. Going to "a slightly lesser school" where you can shine and will have an easier path to success is the smarter path.
Either way, he gets his undergrad degree for virtually no cost to you (just R&B).

If only more people thought this way

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Because he is pre-med and that would be a colossal waste of money. He also got into a bunch of other schools, but all were similar in price to VCU (before the provost scolarship). My examples were real life comparisons as the poster was asking about private/expensive schools.

Don't let them DCUM Shame you. What your kid is doing is the smart choice!
Even if he decides not to do Medical school (as someone stated), he will be debt free, likely have a very high gpa and the ability to go to an excellent grad program in whatever he wants to do, all that you can afford to pay for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

What if he decides he doesn't want to go to med school...which a ton of kids do? Why would you have him apply to a school like Vandy or UT Austin or Colgate, knowing they give almost zero merit aid?

I don't undestand? Then he does not go to med school, what do all those kids do? They do someting else LOL! I think his chances are high. His dad is a doctor, his grandfather is a doctor, his uncle is a doctor, he knows exactly what he is getting into.

we did not dictate where he applied, or where he chose to go. He does know exactly how much money he has for undergrad and med school and made his decision accordingly. He also knows that his GPA and MCAT and ECs/research are absoultly critical to getting into a good med school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Because he is pre-med and that would be a colossal waste of money. He also got into a bunch of other schools, but all were similar in price to VCU (before the provost scolarship). My examples were real life comparisons as the poster was asking about private/expensive schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are full pay, Would you pay full price for
Emory
BC
UMiami
Villanova
GWU
….going down the rankings list, LMU?
Is there a cutoff for private colleges? Where you tell your kid to just take merit elsewhere, or go in state? What is your cutoff, or are you full pay so you will full pay anyplace ?

(If you are not full pay, and need FA, instate, or merit, please don’t respond, your considerations are different)

I'm just going to say it: none of those schools impress me. They're fine schools, but aside from accepting a lot of ivy cast-offs, I don't see the appeal.

I would full-pay for Williams, Pomona, Amherst. Possibly Wesleyan, Haverford, Vassar, etc. It may just be that I expect different things from an undergraduate education.

You're entitled to your opinion but I'm not sure many would agree that Vassar and Haverford are substantially more impressive than Emory.

Depends on your values. We don't all want to be finance bros.

Vassar has a 20% acceptance rate, Wesleyan 19%, Haverford 18%. Emory is 10%. Emory being a permanent t25 (has never been ranked lower than this) means it's the same level as top5 LACs.

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin. He didn’t get merit from any of them. He did get the provost scholarship at VCU for 16k/yr so that 64k goes towards med school. He will not need to take out any loads for med school.

Anonymous wrote:Full pay family

We will pay for all in state schools for four years or OOS/private with partial merit aid. Not for fancy private schools without merit aid.

Anonymous wrote:My spouse works at a school in the Tuition Exchange, which tend to be a step (or more) down in the rankings from the top tier. So I guess in my head, the TE colleges (and others like them) are the ones I would not want to go full-pay for.

https://telo.tuitionexchange.org/schools.cfm

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are full pay with a HHI around 650k. we would only have paid slightly above in state, so merit is critical for private or OOS. our kid also is pre med and we plan on paying for medical school. He is at his first year at VCU. he also got in Vandy, Colgate, and UT Austin.

Got into Vandy, Colgate, Austin, went to VCU? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Because he is pre-med and that would be a colossal waste of money. He also got into a bunch of other schools, but all were similar in price to VCU (before the provost scolarship). My examples were real life comparisons as the poster was asking about private/expensive schools.