If they can or want to afford it, Wharton.

We are talking about Norte Dame right? Haha yeah the answer is Wharton.

Anonymous wrote:Wharton and it is not even close. If the choice was between full ride at a top10 then maybe.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We would struggle but take Wharton over ND any day. Your mileage may vary.

If it's a "struggle" you should not be picking it. The differences are minimal. The impact of costs are huge

Some parents choose to "struggle" a little. Struggle does not necessarily mean 100k in loans, it could mean cutting back on vacations and other spending, going to a full time job. Every family approaches the decision differently.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really know what peer group means anymore. You think the Vandy/ND kids are somehow less impressive than Wharton/Duke? I dont know that that is true. (Wharton especially still loves the fake not for profit kids .. that's who they are)

Going forward, peer group at duke will be more and more N and S Carolina kids with families making under 150k.

They did not matriculate more NC/SC students than in the past, they just made a higher % of ED. All it has done is up the % of the class on need based aid, which keeps it in line with changes the top 5 ivies have already made. They have always had financial aid advantages for Carolina residents (such as grants to replace all loans in the 90s): it is slightly easier to get in from Nc/SC, just as it is easier to get in to Princeton from NJ, and Penn from Philly especially.

Anonymous wrote:We would struggle but take Wharton over ND any day. Your mileage may vary.

If it's a "struggle" you should not be picking it. The differences are minimal. The impact of costs are huge

Anonymous wrote:WWYD: heard this several times in last few years, with similar kind of schools. Stamps at ND vs Wharton. Went w Wharton. Another full ride at Vanderbilt vs full pay at Duke. Went Duke. etc.

this from families with more than one kid and total wealth at 3 or 4ish million (let's say). So full pay for each is possible, but not meaningless.

every time the bigger name school was picked over the full ride. and I'm not really buying fit since these could all be fit schools - they're schools they applied to and acknowledge would have been fine. "but she just really wanted Duke" or whatever. I honestly think you all might love your kids more than I do ... because I'd be banking that money for kid down the road.

It depends upon your finances.

My kid had $42K/year merit award ($85K school) versus a slightly higher ranked school of a similar price (with no merit). We are full pay, the 529 is fully funded and even if not, paying the $85/year is not a real issue financially. We let our kid pick the full pay. Why? Because it was definately a much better fit. The school with merit was one my kid initially said "nope not applying" then come sept/oct, did some research and realized that it is a great school for their major (STEM/engineering) and no supplemental essays, so why not apply. never visited until April of senior year. I could tell the full pay was a much better fit for my kid (and 10-12 ranking higher, but I consider them similar and am more worried about fit and my kid wanting to be there).

So we are paying close to $380K versus $240K.

My kid knows if that 98% of kids would be at the other school.

Anonymous wrote:It’s about the kid, not the school, you dumb MF.

what does this even mean?

Anonymous wrote:I don't really know what peer group means anymore. You think the Vandy/ND kids are somehow less impressive than Wharton/Duke? I dont know that that is true. (Wharton especially still loves the fake not for profit kids .. that's who they are)

Going forward, peer group at duke will be more and more N and S Carolina kids with families making under 150k.

Norte Dame is a target school. Go with that.

It’s about the kid, not the school, you dumb MF.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WWYD: heard this several times in last few years, with similar kind of schools. Stamps at ND vs Wharton. Went w Wharton. Another full ride at Vanderbilt vs full pay at Duke. Went Duke. etc.

this from families with more than one kid and total wealth at 3 or 4ish million (let's say). So full pay for each is possible, but not meaningless.

every time the bigger name school was picked over the full ride. and I'm not really buying fit since these could all be fit schools - they're schools they applied to and acknowledge would have been fine. "but she just really wanted Duke" or whatever. I honestly think you all might love your kids more than I do ... because I'd be banking that money for kid down the road.

Sure happens all the time for fullpay families: some families let the kids pick based on fit. Nothing wrong with that, to each their own. Some families pay for all kids to be full pay and plan for full pay, so they would not push a kid toward saving money for the sake of saving money, because they already have a plan. Why should one sibling get to be full pay wherever they want and then another wins a huge scholarship and suddenly is not allowed to pick the favorite, when the plan the whole time was to pay? The push to take the full ride would only make sense if finances were a concern: that is a different ballgame.

As to Wharton vs ND, I can imagine a few kids who would pick ND even if both schools cost the same. It is a fit thing. Not everyone picks based on some screwy ranking.

Some full pay families let kids keep scholarship money they earned. It just stays in the 529 or whatever

Anonymous wrote:WWYD: heard this several times in last few years, with similar kind of schools. Stamps at ND vs Wharton. Went w Wharton. Another full ride at Vanderbilt vs full pay at Duke. Went Duke. etc.

this from families with more than one kid and total wealth at 3 or 4ish million (let's say). So full pay for each is possible, but not meaningless.

every time the bigger name school was picked over the full ride. and I'm not really buying fit since these could all be fit schools - they're schools they applied to and acknowledge would have been fine. "but she just really wanted Duke" or whatever. I honestly think you all might love your kids more than I do ... because I'd be banking that money for kid down the road.

Sure happens all the time for fullpay families: some families let the kids pick based on fit. Nothing wrong with that, to each their own. Some families pay for all kids to be full pay and plan for full pay, so they would not push a kid toward saving money for the sake of saving money, because they already have a plan. Why should one sibling get to be full pay wherever they want and then another wins a huge scholarship and suddenly is not allowed to pick the favorite, when the plan the whole time was to pay? The push to take the full ride would only make sense if finances were a concern: that is a different ballgame.

As to Wharton vs ND, I can imagine a few kids who would pick ND even if both schools cost the same. It is a fit thing. Not everyone picks based on some screwy ranking.

I don't really know what peer group means anymore. You think the Vandy/ND kids are somehow less impressive than Wharton/Duke? I dont know that that is true. (Wharton especially still loves the fake not for profit kids .. that's who they are)

Anonymous wrote:Those are choices that are so close together that it's ridiculous not to take the full ride.

It's not even "full ride at target vs full pay at reach", it's "full ride at reach vs full pay at different reach".

No. For some of these tippy-top kids (99.9%ile types their whole lives, +creative, ++everything else) many schools like ND, Vanderbilt, WashU even JHU are matches, not reaches. For true outlier kids, they often need to pick the school that provides the peer group with the largest % closest to them so they are no longer outliers in college. These kids are the ones that get into multiple T10s unhooked, and not uncommonly have a "known" merit based full-ride at a T30 and up, if they applied to those schools that offer the competitive ones. These kids are still often the top 10% once they attend the T10, but they would often be outliers at most T15-30s. The average kid at an ivy would not be an outlier at the latter schools. The group for which the peer group matters between most T15-30s vs T10s are not average ivy kids. The need a highly matched peer group to reach their full potential, because they have never had one.