we have about 2.5mm liquid and 4.5mm total.

two kids, who both knew early on where their interests were leading them - and it wasn't towards lucrative careers. so we said, we can't pay 400k for college and help you later. and we think you'll be a lot happier down the road if you're making okay but not great money BUT own a home (from personal experience).

older: classical musician, went to conservatory. there's a lot of scholarship money for classical music so that ended up being 40k a year COA

younger: classics major, interest in academia. went to UK. expensive but just 3 years.

kept powder dry for down payments. we'll take advantage of shifting 35k from 529s to ROTH IRAs for each.

if they had an interest in tech or business or something, I would have felt better doing full pay.

Anonymous wrote:We are full pay anywhere. We found that with our kids' stats, they got merit at schools more in the T80 range and chose to attend those schools over full pay at U Roch, though we would have paid for U Roch if they had wanted to go. Rejected from Villanova a few yrs ago, but with 3.5/1500.

I admit I do not understand why Villanova wouldn't take a 3.9/1480 ED full pay, and that is the frustration of the opaque admissions process, we just don't know the reason. The 3.9 should have been enough. BC and Villanova are looking for top grades moreso than scores, close to 4.0 unweighted. Large chunk admitted without scores at BC, not sure about Villanova.

Kid is at Rochester full pay (great school, very happy with choice). Turned down 2nd choice with $42K/year of merit (CWRU). Kid knows 95% of other students would have been told to pick CWRU and save the money. But we can easily pay so we let them choose the best fit for themselves and are happy with choice

DH and I valued our big state school experience so we aren't as likely to value private unless kids twist our arm. OK if OOS public is 2x our instate but not more.

we're full pay per colleges, but not per our own feeling of security (seconded by our financial person).

our high school limits apps so it made it pretty easy: a few lottery ticket schools that were literally HYPSM (that we'd pay full fare for), state safety, and then 3-5 targets that gave merit.

the whole "what is this worth" was part of every conversation starting from 9th grade so my kids went in very clear thinking. it helps that they have classmates who are also either merit or public (along with classmates who didn't even have to even think about this). as one of my kids said, If you gave me a Toyota, I'd be thrilled - I wouldnt cry it wasn't a Ferrari.

We told our kid that we're willing to pay for private (or out-of-state public) if it's better than our state flagship.

Damm.. when did Villanova become a 4.0 GPA admission school?

We are full pay. Our EFC is in the 7 figures and all kids have a fully funded 529 (over 400K now).

We allowed our kids to pick where they wanted to attend. One is at a T40 full pay. They turned down a T50 with 50%+ tuition merit award (would have reduced college cost by 42K per year)
because while it was their 2nd choice, they really like where they are better.

So we would pay for any school.

However, if we didn't have it all saved and enough backup to not worry about med school/law school/any graduate school/etc, then we might have them consider the 2nd choice.

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)

would not pay full fare for any of these. BC was our example of "this is not worth 400k". we're full pay but not rich enough to say, wherever you want. and my kids know that saving money now means we can help put 200k towards an apartment later.

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)

Yes I would pay and I do because I can afford it.

I also would not refuse to pay for a college that my dc wanted to go to just because they didn't get into one that I don't approve of. It would be impossible to justify paying full pay for sib's that I 'approve' and not for sib's I don't 'approve.' My exbf's dad paid for his sister to go to Yale but would not pay for his state school. He never got over it.

We are on our third kid doing full pay at the college they chose. One kid was offered a fair bit of merit at Emory and still turned it down to do FP elsewhere, and it was worth it (but we had the luxury of making that choice, and Emory would have been fine if the money had been a dealbreaker)

We've been thinking about this a lot as our kid starts to develop their list for next fall. We would be more likely to pay for USC over Rochester b/c of location. When I compare OOS flagship costs ro privates, though, I'm not sure the private schools are worth it.

Anonymous wrote:I think it depends on how comfortably full pay you are. We will be full pay and it will be tight for the 6 years our two kids will be in college. I think we'd have a very hard conversation if one of our kids chose GW or Miami. If we were in a position to just cash flow it, then I would not pay anywhere

This. We are full pay but it is a significant amount of money for us and depends on us cash flowing some of it from current income. We have twins followed by a third kid.
Our older two go to a private high school where many of their classmates' parents save more than the cost of tuition each and every month.

I would put it onto the kid. I'll pay for the school, or I'll put the difference in price from state school to chosen school into a 529 (or just investment fund) for them to use for grad school or other approved expense (down payment; summer abroad experience, etc.). If the $$ is a real stretch, then maybe my offer is that they'd get 50% of the difference or something like that.

Anonymous wrote:We’re full pay no matter what and in fact 3 of those schools are at the top of my juniors list. What I’m now questioning is if there’s any advantage to being full pay. I kind of thought it would give you a bump but now that I can see our school’s scattergrams, it doesn’t look like it. You still have to be pretty near perfect to get into BC and Villanova (and probably the others). Still need a 4.0+, right? Is there any advantage?

It makes a big difference at BC and Nova to be ED. That’s where the full pay advantage helps the most.

Same for most of the other schools that are ranked 30-90 or so. And most of the SLACS.

Anonymous wrote:Would pay for wherever our child decided to go. Am full pay for a current freshman who made their own decision.

+1

We have so much money that $90k a year for a school they’d a good fit is NBD.