Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We approached the cost of college similarly to another major life purchase: the cost of a home. We chose a home inside the beltway, with access to great public schools, in a safe neighborhood, close to kids’ ECs, jobs, and our friends - and we paid a premium for it. Was it worth it to us? Absolutely. Similarly, we could have paid less in-state for a college that wouldn’t deliver nearly the same experience or quality of education. We have the money, so our question was whether it was worth the additional expense to send our kid to the school she loved, with the right programs and supports (she has LDs), in a smaller environment where she would thrive. Absolutely.

the difference is that your home value almost certainly appreciated while you raised your kids.

You didn't even mention whether that more expensive school would allow for higher income after graduation

We absolutely considered ROI so far as anyone can without a crystal ball. The OOS option is MUCH higher ranked than the IS option in both USNWR and Forbes, with 30% higher salaries 10 years after graduation, top 10 for internships and career placement in the field she wants now (and others she may consider in the future), and a stronger alumni network.

But are the salaries "really higher"? Or is it because the graduates live in a differing cost of living areas? Because graduates in Boston make more than even those in the Chicago area, as Boston is a higher COLA. So you need to actually be comparing apples to apples

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, only UMich, UVA, UCLA, and UCB are worth it.

IMO, none of those schools are worth an OOS price tag.

+1

DP: but IMO, no school is worth that much, unless it's a mid size or smaller school. So under 8-9K students. But I'm not paying $75K/year for my kid to sit in classes with 200+ students and have to fight to get the courses they need. for that price I expect 30-50 as class size or smaller, I expect the true opportunity for an undergrad to do research (if they want).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We approached the cost of college similarly to another major life purchase: the cost of a home. We chose a home inside the beltway, with access to great public schools, in a safe neighborhood, close to kids’ ECs, jobs, and our friends - and we paid a premium for it. Was it worth it to us? Absolutely. Similarly, we could have paid less in-state for a college that wouldn’t deliver nearly the same experience or quality of education. We have the money, so our question was whether it was worth the additional expense to send our kid to the school she loved, with the right programs and supports (she has LDs), in a smaller environment where she would thrive. Absolutely.

the difference is that your home value almost certainly appreciated while you raised your kids.

You didn't even mention whether that more expensive school would allow for higher income after graduation

We absolutely considered ROI so far as anyone can without a crystal ball. The OOS option is MUCH higher ranked than the IS option in both USNWR and Forbes, with 30% higher salaries 10 years after graduation, top 10 for internships and career placement in the field she wants now (and others she may consider in the future), and a stronger alumni network.

No regret. Son didn't get in to state flagship. Other in state publics were commuter/suitcase schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reputation of major is what matters.

I am paying for GW's Elliott School of International Affairs because it's ranked in the top 10 worldwide. Kid was accepted at UMD Honors (it was his safety), but there's just no comparison for that specific major.

Isn’t GW private? I’m confused

It is. I pay 65K for it (merit aid) instead of 30K instate, which is why I thought it merited inclusion in this discussion. The broader question isn’t OOS vs in state. It’s what are parents prepared to pay for if not the instate option, and why?

I say, major quality is an important factor.

Hmmm, I think that’s a different topic. The in-state v OOS public is more hotly debated because you’re paying $70k-$80k for a public university with large classes, potential underfunding, lots of red tape and bureaucracy, facilities that may need TLC, and so on.

Other than MICH, Cal system, UVA and WM, think you are overestimating the cost of OOS public. Most run $40-60k full pay.

W&M is about $60k instate ($62k). Not sure why it is $20k less than UVA when it the most expensive school for instate residents. Supply and demand, I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No regrets sending mine OOS to William and Mary. Wanted a smaller campus with smart peers, low Greek presence. Very beautiful place to spend four years. Didn't have a similar school in NC. Mine didn't like the size or feel of Chapel Hill.

+ My kid had a similar decision with OOS William and Mary (ultimately chose somewhere else but it was a hard decision!). Our state doesn’t have an equivalent of W & M

+1. W&M is a fantastic fit for my OOS DD in IR and she loves it there. Zero regrets (except living in MD, instead of VA: $$$j. But W&M OOS cost is about $60k (vs $80k for UVA and $90k+ for SLACs). Guess UVA is charging what the market will bear?

We felt strongly that our kids should attended a smaller, undergrad focused, SLAC type school. We didn’t force it (and both kids, and we, also Pitt). We are full pay, and many SLACs on her initial list didn’t offer merit. The Midwestern SLAC generally do, but tend to spread the merit around, with some for each kids vs. fewer full tuition scholarships. Therefore, those that do get merit generally don’t go much above $30k-$35k/year.

In the end, we had one kid at a well respected SLAC w/merit and one at WM. Different vibes from the schools and different kids— my DS applied to W&M, was admitted, did not click with the college, and chose a SLAC with some merit. Now graduated, had a good outcome, and loved his SLAC. DD looked at DS’s SLAC, spent the weekend with him on campus and went to classes with him— and had no interest in applying. Different stokes.

In terms of cost, first year was about the same cost for both kids (and several offers from Midwestern SLACs used the price down to about the cost of W&M. It felt like they knew about the W&M admit or knew what other schools were offering. SLAC tuition rose faster than WM and we probably will send approx $20k more all in for the SLAC vs WM. It would be hard to swallow full pay at SLAC w/ mo merit ($90k+), vs full pay W&M OOS. Although W&M and DS’s SLAC did not attract the same type of students, their academics were on par (or W &M get the edge on rigor), both kids had similar research opportunities, connection with professors, registration issues (both made if hard/impossible for students to get exactly what they wanted the first couple of years, but they did get what they needed to stay on track. But, electives that fulfilled general college requirements sometime came down to their 3rd choice), class size, responsiveness of administration, etc. WM had about 400 kids per class, but I didn’t know W&M public, I would have assumed it was private.

So yes, W&M was worth it OOS. But we thought comparing it to a large state flagship when looking at cost was apples and oranges. W&M is a unicorn in terms of public, size, selectivity and academic rigor. Comparing it to an OOS flagship in terms of cost misses the fact it’s more the size of Wake Forest than any flagship or T100 national U. I do think WM should be ranked by USNWR as a SLAC, not a national U, even with the R1 distinction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of states where going OOS is a big upgrade over the in-state schools. It just depends what your options are.

Is that perception or reality?

For some states it is perception, but for some it is absolutely reality. There are plenty of states with middling flagships and plenty of other states with great ones which would be an upgrade.

Well most of us posting here are probably from coastal states which arguably all have good publics

I’m not sure how I would ‘absolutely’ know that UVA or U Michigan, lets say bc those are trendy OOS schools where I live, would be so much better than UMD or Rutgers in NJ.

Is that ‘absolutely reality’? On what basis?

+1. THIS. Kid got into “ better ranked” OOS schools but went to our instate UMD. Difficult to justify the additional cost.

Of course, but it’s harder to get into UMD than many other flagships. The question for many Marylanders is not UMD versus UVA or Michigan but Towson or UMBC versus a MUCH better ranked OOS.

+1. As per the old saying, location, location, location.

We are in VA and our child chose UVA over U Mich. Equal no brainers are VT, W&M over OOS publics. Even JMU/GMU/VCU are very attractive when compared to OOS publics or higher ranked in-state privates like W&L or U Richmond.

However, in MD the in-state choices fall off dramatically after UMDCP, so the apprehension regarding Towson or UMBC is completely understandable. The extra cost of OOS publics is the surcharge for getting the higher ranking/prestige. Given this perceived value gap, and the face that some OOS publics are better propositions than privates (Pitt or Loyola MD? W&M or St. John's Annapolis? Penn State or Syracuse? YMMV) and in most cases have more available slots, it is understandable why some families tighten their belts and pay for the OOS publics.

Anonymous wrote:We had one kid do oos and the other in state. The oos had to live with roommates and the instate got his own apartment. Cost were about equal when housing was factored in.

I have a hard time believing that, unless you live in an extremely expensive state like CA and your kid went to UCSD or something, and other kid went out of state in a cheap college town.

DS chose UMD ~$35k/yr over OOS publics (with merit COA ranged from $35k/yr to $50k/yr) and small privates which were about $40k with merit.

If he had really wanted a smaller school experience, I would have been ok with the extra money for the smaller private since it was not THAT much more and the experience is quite different.

Reality is his major will most likely require grad school so spending a lot on undergrad does not make sense. Also, the economy is not looking good so grad school might be more likely for some who are not even considering it now.

We had one kid do oos and the other in state. The oos had to live with roommates and the instate got his own apartment. Cost were about equal when housing was factored in.

Anonymous wrote:We approached the cost of college similarly to another major life purchase: the cost of a home. We chose a home inside the beltway, with access to great public schools, in a safe neighborhood, close to kids’ ECs, jobs, and our friends - and we paid a premium for it. Was it worth it to us? Absolutely. Similarly, we could have paid less in-state for a college that wouldn’t deliver nearly the same experience or quality of education. We have the money, so our question was whether it was worth the additional expense to send our kid to the school she loved, with the right programs and supports (she has LDs), in a smaller environment where she would thrive. Absolutely.

the difference is that your home value almost certainly appreciated while you raised your kids.

You didn't even mention whether that more expensive school would allow for higher income after graduation

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We only have UMD, good school but not great so not much of a choice.

So you’d choose a state school OOS over UMD?

My three kids and I live in Maryland, all three did not want to go to UMD as wanted to "go away to school" I only live 21 miles from UMD so not really going away to school. There is deep drop to number two in Maryland so not an option.

They all went OOS Flagships in other states.

Anyone here think about offering their kids a choice

1) pay out the nose for OOS Flagship or private

2) pay for in-state flagship or otherwise, save the difference with interest and give them when they graduate to buy a house

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, only UMich, UVA, UCLA, and UCB are worth it.

IMO, none of those schools are worth an OOS price tag.

Then don’t send your kids to those schools. I would pay for those schools and many others OOS. It’s only money and you can always make more of it. Right?

No, not really. Not when you are 60+ and forced into retirement, and no one wants to hire you.

FYI this forum is full of opinions, including mine and yours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO, only UMich, UVA, UCLA, and UCB are worth it.

IMO, none of those schools are worth an OOS price tag.

Then don’t send your kids to those schools. I would pay for those schools and many others OOS. It’s only money and you can always make more of it. Right?

Anonymous wrote:IMO, only UMich, UVA, UCLA, and UCB are worth it.

IMO, none of those schools are worth an OOS price tag.