I assume you do this for everything, OP -- you buy the cheapest reliable car because it will get you there, you eat the cheapest food (and never eat out) because nutrients are nutrients, you don't go on vacation because after two weeks you're just going to be back at home anyway, all your clothes come from Target because leggings are leggings . . .

It's all about the bottom line!

That’s really penalizing older DS. I wouldn’t gift $200k to younger DS. Thats the bigger question/issue.

My daughters friend her parents had all three kids go in state at University of Maryland to pay for a second needy kid to attend for free.

There kids all thought that was a great idea to use the money they are saving for instate for good. All three did it.

One of my kids is at a private school that is 80k/year. We saved about half and then used money we inherited for the rest. All of her other options were a quarter to half as much. But we have the money and the school was the best fit for her. Sometimes I still think it is crazy but she won’t have debt and we don’t feel the cost at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not even a question. UVA all the way.

Private school tuition is for the birds. Unless money is no object, it is really not worth it. A UVA grad will get just as far (perhaps further without debt) than any Northwestern grad.

My kids are not allowed to apply to private schools. There's no point

I will say I did get a better financial aid package from NU than some other schools, but I was living in a state where the state schools were nowhere near as good as UVA. So if you might be looking at financial aid, go ahead and try.

I was in-state VA and didn't even apply to any instate schools. I wanted Engineering and music performance. There is no comparison between either of those and NU 30-40 years ago (and still is absolutely no comparison for music). Then again, I got FA at NU so my total out of pocket costs were at most $6K (in the late 80s/early 90s---total cost was $29K my final year).

If it makes you feel better OP we saved enough to send both of our kids to an 80 K private and together we all decided it would be crazy to spend all of that money on a good but not top 10 school - so they both went to state schools - had amazing experiences - worked a few years to figure out what they wanted to do - then both went to elite grad programs and together with their funding/scholarships we paid for all of that using their original undergrad savings - and now each kid will get 100K or more for a house and have no debt. Best decision we ever made.

Anonymous wrote:Your kid didn’t get any scholarships from northwestern? Vast majority of college students get *some* aid or scholarship money. If not, don’t go to that school unless you got the money

Northwestern does NOT do merit/scholarships. Just like most of the T25 schools They don't need to give merit when they have a 7% acceptance rate. FYI---they didn't do merit 30-40 years ago either, except for very rare instances (a few music students had a little merit).

Anonymous wrote:This is not even a question. UVA all the way.

Private school tuition is for the birds. Unless money is no object, it is really not worth it. A UVA grad will get just as far (perhaps further without debt) than any Northwestern grad.

My kids are not allowed to apply to private schools. There's no point

It's only "not a question" if Northwestern requires anyone to take out debt. I prioritized saving in my kids' 529 plans. They'll each have over $400k, and I told them they could use it for any qualified educational expenses. If they want medical school help, I'll encourage them to do well somewhere like UVA so they have leftover funds for medical school. If they want to go into banking and keep playing their sport in college, I'll encourage them to apply to Nescac schools.

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s silly, no matter how much money you have.
If kid is brilliant, they will get merit scholarship.
If they are not, then college not for them.
Just my opinion.

BS. I was a terrible student in high school and barely got in to college. Graduated with an engineering degree with a 3.5 GPA and made 300k/yr by 26 at a FAANG, now making half a million at 32. No scholarships and had a bit of student debt upon graduation.

Anonymous wrote:It’s the same reason why I paid for DC’s private school. It’s not for prestige, but so that they have good teachers who inspire then and are surrounded by peers who want to do something with their lives, not just get a C and go back to playing video games.

I don’t think it’s justifiable to pay $100k a year if you can get the same level of experience elsewhere cheaper.

But I also don’t want DC to be in Alabama University for free where football and bleached blonds with outfits are the main focus.

Where's Alabama University?

Anonymous wrote:If money is no object, and you can give your kid $200k for a down payment anyway, then Northwestern might be worth it.

If you were doing a particular, lucrative major where northwestern is much higher ranked than UVA it might also be worth considering.

But for most people, most of the time, the answer is obvious. $200k is a lot of money, and you won’t earn that higher return from Northwestern vs UVA over a lifetime.

Agree. For a few unique circumstances it is worth to go to a private college if you get into UVA, but most of the time UVA will make more sense.

Anonymous wrote:It’s the same reason why I paid for DC’s private school. It’s not for prestige, but so that they have good teachers who inspire then and are surrounded by peers who want to do something with their lives, not just get a C and go back to playing video games.

I don’t think it’s justifiable to pay $100k a year if you can get the same level of experience elsewhere cheaper.

But I also don’t want DC to be in Alabama University for free where football and bleached blonds with outfits are the main focus.

? There are many public school kids who aren't like this.

It’s the same reason why I paid for DC’s private school. It’s not for prestige, but so that they have good teachers who inspire then and are surrounded by peers who want to do something with their lives, not just get a C and go back to playing video games.

I don’t think it’s justifiable to pay $100k a year if you can get the same level of experience elsewhere cheaper.

But I also don’t want DC to be in Alabama University for free where football and bleached blonds with outfits are the main focus.

Anonymous wrote:This is not even a question. UVA all the way.

Private school tuition is for the birds. Unless money is no object, it is really not worth it. A UVA grad will get just as far (perhaps further without debt) than any Northwestern grad.

My kids are not allowed to apply to private schools. There's no point

I will say I did get a better financial aid package from NU than some other schools, but I was living in a state where the state schools were nowhere near as good as UVA. So if you might be looking at financial aid, go ahead and try.

It's the age-old dilemma with no clear answer.

My kid chose Penn over GA Tech (not in-state, but GA Tech very reasonable even for OOS) and went to work for a hedge fund started by Penn grads and makes $500k at 23.

Who knows the outcome if selected GA Tech though likely not a hedge fund...also, plenty of kids go work for FAANG which plenty of GA Tech kids do as well, so imagine if had gone that route there would have been no difference.

I think you need to figure out what unique outcomes may exist and if that is what you want...if you just plan to go work for Accenture, well there is no reason to select NU over UVA.