UMCP tuition (not including room and board)is under $11,000. How or where can you beat that price?

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no reason to go to any of the schools mentioned here over UMD, which has an excellent engineering program. And I say this as a Cornell undergrad and PhD. It's baffling to me how much money people are willing to throw away on name brand when the education is identical. If your kid were majoring in something corny like germanic studies then yes it's ivy league or lifetime barista, but engineering will have access to most of the same jobs so you're just flushing your tuition dollars down the toilet

+1000 UMD has a top 20 engineering school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no reason to go to any of the schools mentioned here over UMD, which has an excellent engineering program. And I say this as a Cornell undergrad and PhD. It's baffling to me how much money people are willing to throw away on name brand when the education is identical. If your kid were majoring in something corny like germanic studies then yes it's ivy league or lifetime barista, but engineering will have access to most of the same jobs so you're just flushing your tuition dollars down the toilet

Standard engineering douchebag attitude. Emotional intelligence of a gnat.

I wasn't aware it required emotional intelligence to waste money. You learn something new each day. Thanks for your amazing perspective

It’s required it to avoid insulting people without realizing it. Or you’re just a douche. Seems like a little of both. Also funny that you don’t know what corny means. Moron.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no reason to go to any of the schools mentioned here over UMD, which has an excellent engineering program. And I say this as a Cornell undergrad and PhD. It's baffling to me how much money people are willing to throw away on name brand when the education is identical. If your kid were majoring in something corny like germanic studies then yes it's ivy league or lifetime barista, but engineering will have access to most of the same jobs so you're just flushing your tuition dollars down the toilet

Standard engineering douchebag attitude. Emotional intelligence of a gnat.

I wasn't aware it required emotional intelligence to waste money. You learn something new each day. Thanks for your amazing perspective

Purdue is a bargain

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no reason to go to any of the schools mentioned here over UMD, which has an excellent engineering program. And I say this as a Cornell undergrad and PhD. It's baffling to me how much money people are willing to throw away on name brand when the education is identical. If your kid were majoring in something corny like germanic studies then yes it's ivy league or lifetime barista, but engineering will have access to most of the same jobs so you're just flushing your tuition dollars down the toilet

Standard engineering douchebag attitude. Emotional intelligence of a gnat.

There is absolutely no reason to go to any of the schools mentioned here over UMD, which has an excellent engineering program. And I say this as a Cornell undergrad and PhD. It's baffling to me how much money people are willing to throw away on name brand when the education is identical. If your kid were majoring in something corny like germanic studies then yes it's ivy league or lifetime barista, but engineering will have access to most of the same jobs so you're just flushing your tuition dollars down the toilet

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a rising 10th grader and I am starting to freak out about affording college. I expect we will have $100k saved by 2024 and can cover another $50k with cashflow. While that is not enough for the expensive top ten schools like Cornell, I am hoping it will cover most of the cost at other good schools that are more within reach of average UMC families. So my question: how much are you spending right now on tuition and board for your 4.0 GPA engineering undergrad kid?

Purdue is a top 10 engineering program and is about $42,000 out of state. Several of the University of California campuses are great for engineering and are around $45000 per year.

Other schools are just a little reach. Illinois is a top 10 engineering school and is around $53,000 out of state. Michigan is around $54000 out of state. University of Washington is around $53,000.

But you are thinking about this wrong. Prestige is less important in engineering than in other career paths. Employers are more interested in what you can do than where you went. I went to Missouri Science and Technology, which is a respectable engineering program, but not prestige, and my peers and I are doing just fine. It's not like law. No one gives a crap where you went to school after your first job, and it's not that important even for a first job.

Go to the program that you can afford, that is appealing to her. Engineering school is hard. Picking a school that you will enjoy helps a little.

Try $60k+/yr for UC campuses. Are you only counting tuition?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a rising 10th grader and I am starting to freak out about affording college. I expect we will have $100k saved by 2024 and can cover another $50k with cashflow. While that is not enough for the expensive top ten schools like Cornell, I am hoping it will cover most of the cost at other good schools that are more within reach of average UMC families. So my question: how much are you spending right now on tuition and board for your 4.0 GPA engineering undergrad kid?

Purdue is a top 10 engineering program and is about $42,000 out of state. Several of the University of California campuses are great for engineering and are around $45000 per year.

Other schools are just a little reach. Illinois is a top 10 engineering school and is around $53,000 out of state. Michigan is around $54000 out of state. University of Washington is around $53,000.

But you are thinking about this wrong. Prestige is less important in engineering than in other career paths. Employers are more interested in what you can do than where you went. I went to Missouri Science and Technology, which is a respectable engineering program, but not prestige, and my peers and I are doing just fine. It's not like law. No one gives a crap where you went to school after your first job, and it's not that important even for a first job.

Go to the program that you can afford, that is appealing to her. Engineering school is hard. Picking a school that you will enjoy helps a little.

+1. (PP whose kid picked the mid-size private. Enjoying a little is one of the hopes. Class size is another. He will cross the recruiting bridge when he comes to it. Right now, he's got to focus on his first semester and getting good, or at least non-bad, grades.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you make enough to pay 50k through cash flow, the sticker minus token merit is what you pay

If you must insist on a top 50 school, that is.

Maybe OP can clarify - I thought OP meant cash-flowing 50k total over four years? (12.5/yr) I agree that if OP can cash flow 50k/yr, there will be no need-based aid.

Cash flow $50,000 over four years. (We will have two kids in college at the same time so cashflow will actually be $12,000 per year per kid.)

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a rising 10th grader and I am starting to freak out about affording college. I expect we will have $100k saved by 2024 and can cover another $50k with cashflow. While that is not enough for the expensive top ten schools like Cornell, I am hoping it will cover most of the cost at other good schools that are more within reach of average UMC families. So my question: how much are you spending right now on tuition and board for your 4.0 GPA engineering undergrad kid?

Purdue is a top 10 engineering program and is about $42,000 out of state. Several of the University of California campuses are great for engineering and are around $45000 per year.

Other schools are just a little reach. Illinois is a top 10 engineering school and is around $53,000 out of state. Michigan is around $54000 out of state. University of Washington is around $53,000.

But you are thinking about this wrong. Prestige is less important in engineering than in other career paths. Employers are more interested in what you can do than where you went. I went to Missouri Science and Technology, which is a respectable engineering program, but not prestige, and my peers and I are doing just fine. It's not like law. No one gives a crap where you went to school after your first job, and it's not that important even for a first job.

Go to the program that you can afford, that is appealing to her. Engineering school is hard. Picking a school that you will enjoy helps a little.

In today's dollar:
for private schools, I'd say minimum $300k for 4 years.
for oos public: 200k-250k

Schools like RPI or RIT will offer merit if stats are high.

They have great engineering programs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you make enough to pay 50k through cash flow, the sticker minus token merit is what you pay

If you must insist on a top 50 school, that is.

Maybe OP can clarify - I thought OP meant cash-flowing 50k total over four years? (12.5/yr) I agree that if OP can cash flow 50k/yr, there will be no need-based aid.

OP, to be clear, private universities (like Cornell) might give need-based aid. Use the Net Price Calculator to find out how much. You can find it on the financial aid website for each college. No one here can guess whether you would get enough in need-based grants from a private to meet your budget.

For publics, you would need to look at in-state options, as well as the out of state publics that offer merit (which you may find are not top 50).

Consider whether you are asking about top 50 overall or top 50 for engineering and what you think that actually does for your student's future career. Engineering is a different kettle of fish from, say, investment banking. Prestige may matter for certain jobs from certain schools, but once you get outside the top ten, whether it really matters for your kid will depend on some specifics.

Consider your annual budget. If you will have 150 saved for this kid, and kid kicks in summer earnings or the small federal student loans, then let's say the total cost needs to be around 40k/yr.

Our family is not eligible for need-based aid. For my college freshman planning to study ECE, the only schools that came in at or under that price were two in-state publics and a mid-size private in the Northwest that is not in the top 50 either overall or for engineering. The private offered nice merit money that brought down the price and that is where he chose to attend. It is not a school that pops up in this forum often, but it is ABET-accredited. The rest will be up to him when he interviews.