Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This begs the question: what would make a half million dollar investment in your child's college education worth it to you? What is the ROI you're seeking?
Status label? Job prospects? Social connections?
If I were in a position to spend that much, I'd be looking at prestigious British universities too. Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews. I have both attended and taught at international schools. I taught in Switzerland (future international bankers) and my sister in law has lectured at Cambridge. You can't beat that prestige and those connections. Well worth half a million and more.

Good fit. That's all we need. The $$ is already set aside in a 529 account.

If good fit is all you need, you are lucky. All you need and to do is spend the time and money to do the deep dives into the culture, ethos, etc. of all the schools you want to consider. What a fun excursion - and you can afford it!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.

That is so very profound, thanks for posting your wisdom.

But I think this is meant to be a larger comment about the expense of education in the US.

But the thread is what schools are truly worth 90k to you.

Yes, and thank god for your wisdom or else I wouldn’t have had my answer!

What always shocks me about the posters on Colleges is how dumb many of them seem as they are obsessing about elite colleges for their dc. The irony.

None. Not even TUOVA or TCOWAM which are my favorites.

Anonymous wrote:This begs the question: what would make a half million dollar investment in your child's college education worth it to you? What is the ROI you're seeking?
Status label? Job prospects? Social connections?
If I were in a position to spend that much, I'd be looking at prestigious British universities too. Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews. I have both attended and taught at international schools. I taught in Switzerland (future international bankers) and my sister in law has lectured at Cambridge. You can't beat that prestige and those connections. Well worth half a million and more.

Good fit. That's all we need. The $$ is already set aside in a 529 account.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were shocked to find out, during our tufts tour, that the institution has surpassed $91,000. Tufts is a good school ,a great school even, but $91k is way overselling what it actually provides and its mediocre alumni network and few career resources. I understand that the purpose of a college isn't job training, but, at some point, when you're charging such obscene prices, you have to guarantee a return on the investment beyond being a "whole, educated person." For you, what institutions are worth $90k+, if any?

Wharton, Berkeley MET, HYPSM, Georgetown SFS, BSMD programs at selective schools.

Not many BSMD’s at selective schools anymore. My niece went to Brown, didn’t get into PLME. They are full-pay. Got full-ride at Mayo and UChicago. Got into 2 others but forget which, one was a top school and other was mid. Worked out much better than PLME!

This begs the question: what would make a half million dollar investment in your child's college education worth it to you? What is the ROI you're seeking?
Status label? Job prospects? Social connections?
If I were in a position to spend that much, I'd be looking at prestigious British universities too. Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews. I have both attended and taught at international schools. I taught in Switzerland (future international bankers) and my sister in law has lectured at Cambridge. You can't beat that prestige and those connections. Well worth half a million and more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivies
MIT
Stanford
Duke
Rice
WashU
JHU
Vanderbilt
Bucknell
Caltech
UChicago
Northwestern

+90,000

Minus Rice and the ones below except Caltech. Not Dartmouth or Brown or Columbia unless you planned to stay in NYC.

Other exceptions- JHU for BME or writing seminars. Wash U for premed. Chicago for Econ.

I learned something new today when I ran a NPC for a northeastern LAC. Apparently, we are rich enough to pay 90k per year at 280k combined income (divorced parents).
I thought my eyes had misplaced the apostrophe and they meant “parent’s income” since I am the custodial parent. Nope, it said “parents’ income” even though we are divorced with 2 separate households.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.

That is so very profound, thanks for posting your wisdom.

But I think this is meant to be a larger comment about the expense of education in the US.

Yes expenses have risen way too fast. But just like most everything else in life, there will always be something that is "nice and you'd like to have" but cannot get because it's too expensive. The vast majority of Americans apply to and attend a college within 4 hours of home, normally a State U (or CC to 4 year state U). Most don't even think of applying to anywhere non-local or that costs $90K, because they simply cannot fathom paying that much.

If you are truly "donut hole", that means you make more than $200K currently. Even if 10 years ago you only made $100K, you had the choice as your salary increased to put 100% towards college savings, if you actually value education that much. Not saying it's the right thing to do, but you could have chosen to do that.

Personally, If I only made $200K, I would have saved as much as I could, but assumed my kid would attend a State University or similarly priced Private. So I'd be targeting at most $40-50K/year. My kid would be contributing $10K+ per year and taking the federal loans up to $27K for the 4 year total. I'd know my kid is not entitled to an expensive school just because they have high scores and good grades. I know they will succeed wherever they go, because it's about their work ethic and what they do. And that having minimal loans will give them a much better start in life.


Similarly, if I only make $200K/year, I'm driving a $25-30K Honda/Toyota, and I'm driving it to 150-200K miles. Sure a BMW or Lexus or Acura would be nice, but I know the Honda will do the job just as well and leave me with more money to spend/save elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.

That is so very profound, thanks for posting your wisdom.

But I think this is meant to be a larger comment about the expense of education in the US.

But the thread is what schools are truly worth 90k to you.

Anonymous wrote:Ivies
MIT
Stanford
Duke
Rice
WashU
JHU
Vanderbilt
Bucknell
Caltech
UChicago
Northwestern

+90,000

We live in CA. Off the top of my head, HYPMS, probably Brown, maybe Northwestern. The others would be hard to justify over a top UC. That’s based on my kids’ interests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

+1 It is entirely dependent on finances.

Now that number is less than a months pay so the answer is any that they want to go to as long as the quality is high enough.

Ten years ago there would have been alot of soul searching on how much debt we could take on.

Why that definition of a donut hole - making 300K in this area with multiple kids doesn't mean 90K/year is at all doable, or?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.

That is so very profound, thanks for posting your wisdom.

But I think this is meant to be a larger comment about the expense of education in the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This question is really for donut hole families. People that make over 200,000 a year but less than 300,000. Have some saved for college but not nearly enough.

IMO, if you cannot "easily pay the $90K", then it's not worth it. Don't mess with your retirement to pay for college. There are hundreds of great schools that will be affordable (thru merit or simply lower overall prices). Find the best ones of those for your kid

Np. My kid hasn’t applied yet but I just ran a NPC for a private school my kid is interested in, and despite my having an older dc in college and living in a high COL location, apparently these schools think I should spend 65% of my take home pay on their tuition. So ridiculous.

Then the $90k schools are not worth it for you.