I live in Virginia. Moved here from DC before kids so college wasn’t really in the picture. I much prefer living in DC and even near-in MoCo so sometimes hop on Redfin to see what is available. But every time I do, there is a small part of me that thinks, “well, that wouldn’t be great when college rolls around.” Which is all just a long way of saying I probably wouldn’t pick up my whole life to move to Virginia just for the college options, but I get why it is compelling.

We had wished that we stayed in Va rather than move to Md about 10 yrs ago. I now have a kid who just finished freshman year at UMd. We are SO impressed by UMd and so glad we moved here!

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

Folks might be surprised, but it can be hard to get into any UC site (possibly excepting Merced) even as an in-state resident. Many are forced to go private (U. SoCal, Claremont) or to the Cal State system: SDSU, SJSU, CalPoly SLO, and so on. Income taxes in California are maybe 11% if a family makes at least maybe $100k/yr, which is double VA.

U. Michigan is well regarded, but honestly the rest of the Michigan public options are not that great.

NC is a viable option if OP is willing to move outside the metro DC area. Both UNC Chapel Hill (comparable to UVa) and NC State (comparable to VT) are well regarded. The other UNC sites compare with maybe the JMU tier in VA.

Very few states have a public university that truly is similar to William & Mary.

Moving from Montgomery Co. to Fairfax Co. or Arlington Co. would not require a job change, by contrast to the states PP mentions. VA has zero local income taxes and state income tax maxes at 5.25%.

I went to the University of Michigan, live in Michigan now, and feel that the top kids from MSU are very well educated and have similar results to Michigan grads within region. It's probably similar to UVA and VT within Virginia for specific majors. MSU is popular with the "good kids" who are not GPA-grubbers at our high school. And the honors college gives very good top scholarships. MSU reminds me a lot of PSU.

MSU is a great school but not comparable to Michigan really. My OOs kid with a 1240/3.5uw/no AP wa accepted and also accepted into the honors program. Nothing wrong with that but my kid is not honors program material really.

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Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

This is kind of a weird suggestion. I would presume that OP is asking about Virginia because they live in the DMV, and this move means they can keep jobs, church, friends, and social circle if they like. Hauling off and moving 600 miles away is it completely different story.

Moving from Md to Va means changing most of that except your job. I don't drive 30 mins to see friends as much as I see friends who live 5 mins away

Anonymous wrote:What is the problem you are trying to avoid by doing this OP? We are a UMD family and our kids (3) went to UMCP, and they all turned out great. My siblings live in VA, and their kids went to VA state schools - UVa, VT, and W&M. They also turned out very well. I don't know where you live really matters that much.

Va has more choices at each level. Md has umd--and starting to have umbc (but it is not the same level really). Va has 3.

Then there's Jmu and beyond. Me has Towson, Salisbury and... not nearly as many good choices

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Anonymous wrote:Are you planning on having other children? To me, this move makes sense if you have a big family, like four or more children, wear chances are high that a couple of them will remain in state. The math and odds don’t make sense to me for an only child, or even for two.

Despite what you see on this board, most kids go in-state. OP is willing to move which tells you the financial aspects are of top consideration for her family. MANY families to not allow their kid to go out of state or private for financial reasons.

So bizarre. If the constraint is financial, admit the constraint is financial. The political subdivision within which a school is located can be a factor in price, but it’s not the only one.

This 1000%!

Outside of top 25 schools, many give excellent merit aid. Often brining prices down to $30-40k (in state pricing) or lower.

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Anonymous wrote:Are you planning on having other children? To me, this move makes sense if you have a big family, like four or more children, wear chances are high that a couple of them will remain in state. The math and odds don’t make sense to me for an only child, or even for two.

Despite what you see on this board, most kids go in-state. OP is willing to move which tells you the financial aspects are of top consideration for her family. MANY families to not allow their kid to go out of state or private for financial reasons.

But that's silly because sure there are many excellent privates and oos schools that give good merit aid. Brining the cost down to instate pricing or just slightly over

So we don't limit our kids, we simply discuss how much we can pay and go from there

Anonymous wrote:FWIW we did this when our twins were in junior high and I ended up regretting it. Daughter got into UVA, which was great, so we’ll save $160k with in-state tuition. But our son decided he needed a gap year and moved to the Pacific Northwest for a volunteer program; his plan is to stay out there and gain residency for a Washington school. Meanwhile, I liked our Maryland house and locale better, and since the VA one cost $240k more, we’re not even financially coming out ahead and I miss my old neighborhood.

This!!!

Only do it if moving to Va makes sense in most areas of your life. I wouldn't commute farther or pay more for a similar house just to possibly save at college time. I'd rather have a shorter commute,live where I want to and save a bit extra for college. Because there is no guarantee your kid will get into a top Virginia school or want to trend one of them (uva, va tech or w&m).

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Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

Move to California to save money on college is the worst "save money" strategy ever, lmao. Then imagine going to all that effort and your kid is offered admission to UC Merced. 😭😭😭

Worst would be Florida because prices are unhinged from reality. And well, Florida. #Floridan

DP and I disagree. You have excellent choices in Florida. Many kids here apply to Florida schools because they are so good, IF they can get in, and our OOS costs are extremely reasonable even when compared to in state VA costs.

My relatives live in FL and it is a myth that their education is lacking. They are taking the same AP courses my kids are taking here. In FL, you have the Bright Futures program where students can get free or reduced tuition if you are a resident. FL would be my top choice over VA. We are looking at grandparent waivers since they also live there.

Hi, actual graduate of well-ranked FL public u here! I went to grad school in this area with kids from DMV & North East schools and....they absolutely got a better, more robust education than my FL public university. My parents still live there & I won't send my kid to any FL public university.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

Move to California to save money on college is the worst "save money" strategy ever, lmao. Then imagine going to all that effort and your kid is offered admission to UC Merced. 😭😭😭

Worst would be Florida because prices are unhinged from reality. And well, Florida. #Floridan

DP and I disagree. You have excellent choices in Florida. Many kids here apply to Florida schools because they are so good, IF they can get in, and our OOS costs are extremely reasonable even when compared to in state VA costs.

My relatives live in FL and it is a myth that their education is lacking. They are taking the same AP courses my kids are taking here. In FL, you have the Bright Futures program where students can get free or reduced tuition if you are a resident. FL would be my top choice over VA. We are looking at grandparent waivers since they also live there.

UF has definitely built a better cohort with Bright Futures -- since OOS and private school tuition exploded, it was harder for the top students to ignore the free tuition and save the money for professional/grad school.

But the quality of education is nothing like UVA/WM/UCLA/UCB/UMich -- Florida was one of the first schools to install an office of "US News Rankings" -- to push out policies to game the rankings to raise their apparent stature. Its rise has been engineering far more than most; and the best students in Florida who can't afford private tuition are still coming from a pretty terrible K-12 experience.

So OP may save money going to UF, but have to pay private for high school. I'm from Florida -- everyone I know is paying for private school, albeit its much cheaper than private college tuition, so maybe if you can limit it to just the 4 years of high school you can finesse it and come out ahead?

But you are still stuck in Florida -- unless you an afford oceanfront, its a pretty subpar experience -- and if OP could, they wouldn't care about residency tuition costs!

OP's child is in elementary school, so young enough to make new social connections in NOVA. Plus it's not like MD is light years away from NOVA (although sometimes it feels like it, with traffic) so you can keep up with old friends.

We faced this choice 14 years ago when moving to the DMV. We chose VA over MD because UMCP is basically the only in-state public school with an international reputation. VA has 3 such schools with an international reputation (UVA, VT, W&M) although the total combined capacity of the three schools is comparable to UMCP (meaning that the availability of those schools for in-state residents is just as difficult when comparing UMCP with UVA/VT/W&M). However, the next-tier Virginia schools have strong regional reputations and developing national reputations in JMU, GMU and VCU. I could not say that about UMBC or Towson. And from our own experience with relatives who went to Frostburg, Salisbury and family friends who went to Longwood, Radford, ODU, CNU, UMW, I would prefer to hire someone from such Virginia schools over those Maryland schools.

For those who say that OOS publics or privates are an option with merit money or financial aid, those options would be available regardless of where OP would reside.

We are happy with our outcomes. Older DC got into VT, but went OOS public with merit money. Younger DC is at UVA (and got into W&M as well).

So to OP, yes, it will be painful reading DCUM posts about how difficult the competition is for UVA/VT/W&M (and it is difficult) but the alternatives in VCU/GMU/JMU, and even the ODU/CNU/UMW are much better than their Maryland counterparts. Move to VA.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

I won't get into California schools - there is already a long thread dissecting them - but NC, Michigan, Ohio, Florida don't have three schools that compare to the top three Virginia options: UVA, W&M, Tech. No other state besides California does.

What public option in California has a similar option to W&M? UCs are generally quite large.

Stop being so literal minded. CA has multiple flagship tier schools and so does VA. None of the CA schools have to be exactly like your special snowflake precious college in every respect for the analogy to make sense.

Stop being a jerk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

I won't get into California schools - there is already a long thread dissecting them - but NC, Michigan, Ohio, Florida don't have three schools that compare to the top three Virginia options: UVA, W&M, Tech. No other state besides California does.

What public option in California has a similar option to W&M? UCs are generally quite large.

Stop being so literal minded. CA has multiple flagship tier schools and so does VA. None of the CA schools have to be exactly like your special snowflake precious college in every respect for the analogy to make sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

Folks might be surprised, but it can be hard to get into any UC site (possibly excepting Merced) even as an in-state resident. Many are forced to go private (U. SoCal, Claremont) or to the Cal State system: SDSU, SJSU, CalPoly SLO, and so on. Income taxes in California are maybe 11% if a family makes at least maybe $100k/yr, which is double VA.

U. Michigan is well regarded, but honestly the rest of the Michigan public options are not that great.

NC is a viable option if OP is willing to move outside the metro DC area. Both UNC Chapel Hill (comparable to UVa) and NC State (comparable to VT) are well regarded. The other UNC sites compare with maybe the JMU tier in VA.

Very few states have a public university that truly is similar to William & Mary.

Moving from Montgomery Co. to Fairfax Co. or Arlington Co. would not require a job change, by contrast to the states PP mentions. VA has zero local income taxes and state income tax maxes at 5.25%.

I went to the University of Michigan, live in Michigan now, and feel that the top kids from MSU are very well educated and have similar results to Michigan grads within region. It's probably similar to UVA and VT within Virginia for specific majors. MSU is popular with the "good kids" who are not GPA-grubbers at our high school. And the honors college gives very good top scholarships. MSU reminds me a lot of PSU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aren't there better states for this purpose? NC, Michigan, California. Florida has bright futures. Ohio has free dual enrollment at many four year universities, including OSU and CWRU, and a full ride to OSU for a 1600 or 36

I won't get into California schools - there is already a long thread dissecting them - but NC, Michigan, Ohio, Florida don't have three schools that compare to the top three Virginia options: UVA, W&M, Tech. No other state besides California does.

What public option in California has a similar option to W&M? UCs are generally quite large.