Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Save in 529, have cash, have kid do work study/get a job to help pay.

Op here..
we did too. Could pay for Michigan but still couldn’t justify the cost of attendance as an out of state student. So i guess my question is how do you justify paying 50-70k for a slightly more prestigious school.

Listen, some people just have more money than you and don’t have to justify the cost.

Anonymous wrote:We are lucky to make enough money to pay for our DC’s LAC out of regular salary. Some people like fancy cars, others like big houses or extravagant vacations. We pay for our kids schooling. No judgment. If you can afford it without loans, why does it matter? ROI isn’t necessarily the motivating factor behind all of my life decisions and I’m sure I’m the happier for it.

Egads, the sanctimony! As if people who can't/won't pay $80k/year for college are driving a Beamer, living in a mansion, and going to Europe every year instead

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you pay for slac? Or oos state schools? Like Michigan tuition is 50k out of state. My DS was accepted but we couldn’t justify the cost to attend Michigan when he could just go to UMD for a fraction of the cost. Just curious how do families pay for schools that are over 70k .

Do you have such little imagination that you can’t imagine that someone might think differently than you?

No need to be snarky here. Just wanted to understand other people’s perspective

Anonymous wrote:How do you pay for slac? Or oos state schools? Like Michigan tuition is 50k out of state. My DS was accepted but we couldn’t justify the cost to attend Michigan when he could just go to UMD for a fraction of the cost. Just curious how do families pay for schools that are over 70k .

Funny you ask this but I was a MD resident 15 years ago when I was accepted to Michigan and UMD, and it was actually MORE expensive for me to attend college park because of how little aid they gave aside from loans. Michigan was very generous with grants - even as an OOS student - so I ended up going to Michigan over MD for purely economic reasons. Wasn't too caught up in which school was better at that time b/c I was just a typical lazy high school student, lol.

Anonymous wrote:How do you pay for slac? Or oos state schools? Like Michigan tuition is 50k out of state. My DS was accepted but we couldn’t justify the cost to attend Michigan when he could just go to UMD for a fraction of the cost. Just curious how do families pay for schools that are over 70k .

Do you have such little imagination that you can’t imagine that someone might think differently than you?

DH and I both went to SLACs before meeting at a top 3 law school. We know the value of a SLAC education and we can afford it for our kids. If you can't or don't want to pay for a SLAC, that's fine, but how is it so difficult for you to understand that people have different priorities?

pp again, and because she went into a 2+4 (medical) program the merit package paid for 2 years of graduate school

we would never have known that going in

OP, some OOS schools do not cost what Michigan costs. We would not have allowed DC to apply to Michigan because of cost. We did allow 7 other OOS schools. Merit aid varied. One school gave us the equivalent of in-state tuition. It became DC's favorite.

DS attends OOS. Tuition ~$21k. SAT scores knocked that back $7,200. Athletics took off another $1k and is paying for meals. We use the 529 to pay what is left.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Save in 529, have cash, have kid do work study/get a job to help pay.

Op here..
we did too. Could pay for Michigan but still couldn’t justify the cost of attendance as an out of state student. So i guess my question is how do you justify paying 50-70k for a slightly more prestigious school.

For us it is not about prestige - it is about fit for a child with a learning difference.

I agree. But so many families send their kids to expensive salc without merit aid or other financial assistance without bringing the cost down to your instate school when they could get petty similar education at the state school. What I don’t understand is how do you justify the ROI for such schools? Especially when kids go to such schools to study history or philosophy. That clearly indicates they will need to go to graduate school as well or law school or medical school. Do people take out loans?

This just isn’t true. Lots of people graduate with liberal arts degrees and get jobs. I have a team of 25+, and virtually all have undergraduate degrees in liberal arts; a few have graduate degrees (liberal arts master’s degrees, not professional degrees), but the vast majority do not.

+1

My DC the philosophy major graduated three years ago and is making $84K + benefits.

Anonymous wrote:If you don't qualify for need based aid in state, then the best financial option can often be to go to a lower ranked private school with significant merit aid.

My parents didn't think girls needed to go to college because they end up just SAH, so they refused to contribute towards my college costs. I turned down Cornell and Carnegie Mellon for a full ride at Clarkson.

Go Tech

We are in DC so no state flagship. A combination of a merit scholarship, financial aid and outside scholarships brought cost down to price within 5k of a public OOS with DCTag. School attending was top in niche field so choice made more sense. It hasn’t been easy, but she has kept all aid in place, worked and will be graduating soon.

My DS got a decent amount of merit aid at private school- turned down similarly priced publics and also full price privates to attend.

You have to have your kid apply to a wide variety of schools to see what you pick and also be willing to have your kid attend a lower ranked school in exchange for a lot of money.

If you don't qualify for need based aid in state, then the best financial option can often be to go to a lower ranked private school with significant merit aid.

My parents didn't think girls needed to go to college because they end up just SAH, so they refused to contribute towards my college costs. I turned down Cornell and Carnegie Mellon for a full ride at Clarkson.

Your question really boils down to “why do people decide to spend their money differently than me.” Which is a pretty silly question.