Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing this 28 year old Princeton grad thinks it was worthwhile

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/eugene-gokhvat-28/

I'm sure the 28-year old Princeton grad got his money's worth. But so did the some of the other graduates on the list who attended Fordham, Notre Dame, U. of Michgan, Colby College, and City University of New York. They got their money's worth too and worked just as hard or they wouldn't be on that list.

HYP isn't the only game in town. It is what you make it as affirmed by the Forbes list.

The 28 year old on the Forbes list is also a Landon grad.

Is the point that the Princeton grad attended a local school? Otherwise, he is among peers who have done equally well academically and career wise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing this 28 year old Princeton grad thinks it was worthwhile

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/eugene-gokhvat-28/

I'm sure the 28-year old Princeton grad got his money's worth. But so did the some of the other graduates on the list who attended Fordham, Notre Dame, U. of Michgan, Colby College, and City University of New York. They got their money's worth too and worked just as hard or they wouldn't be on that list.

HYP isn't the only game in town. It is what you make it as affirmed by the Forbes list.

The 28 year old on the Forbes list is also a Landon grad.

Not that this is much better, but let's remember few if any schools have tuition at $55,000 -- Tuition, room, board, books, misc. sure, but I think the most expensive ivies have tuitions still in the mid-40s. The kid is going to need room and board everywhere -- I suppose living at home incurs not much more room cost, but still food and higher utilities (water bills, etc.). So the question is really is any school worth tuition of say 45,000 or even 48,000 or so. But then you ask compared to what? Compared to 100% free ride at a good school? I think most of us would say of course not. But say compared to paying tuition of half that amount (24,000), then what? The real question in that case is any school worth say $24,000 per year more than the next best alternative? The gap may be a bit larger if one is comparing to in-state tuition. Looked at this way, the difference in tuition at the college level is probably much smaller than the difference at the high school level if you send your child to an independent DC area school for $30-35,000 per year vs. a free high school education in public school (and assume you can move to MoCo or Fairfax county too if you don't think the DC schools are a good comparison). Of course, it also matters a great deal why a student is going to college. If you are going to be a teacher, nurse, social worker, PT, etc. then the case for the higher priced school is harder to make. If you want to be a college professor, scholar, etc. you may get a different answer. And there is the issue of the experience itself. If you want to be around lots of "regular" kids, go to lots of school sporting events, etc. you may get a different answer than if you crave an environment where many (not all) students have a deep genuine intellectual curiosity and view college as a once in a lifetime chance to deeply study all sorts of things -- at least before retirement. Having just gone through the college app process, I have little doubt that there are significant differences in the vides of some campuses compared to others. And if there is a something of a brand name reputation tailwind some of these pricey schools offer, there is no shame in also riding that wave. I went to a large state school -- had a pretty good experience and was happy, -- but now see how much more was possible that I missed. So is any college worth these high tuitions? It depends.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:VERY few reasonably good students pay full list price for college. Sure, save what you can to help out but the reality is when they are in college there are scholarships to be had (academic and otherwise), your current income can be used to help pay for school, kids can earn money over the summers, and then add in savings.

If you have a student that is a B student or better with reasonable ACT/SAT scores, you can expect to pay 1/2 of the list price or less at private schools--state schools give very little in academic money and usually end up costing more for better students for the most part. Sending kids to community college to start can actually end up costing more in the end if kids qualify for scholarships at a 4 year college because transfer students just don't get the same money as freshmen.

Really? How do you define decent scores? My DC has a 4.0 GPA unweighted and SAT score between 2000-2100, and I have been led to believe we should not expect any merit aid from any top 25-30 universities or colleges. We will not qualify for financial aid but sure don't want to be one of the only families paying full freight. Please convince me I am wrong and you are right!!

No, you are right and she is wrong. And it's more like top 50, not 25.
Honors college in a state flagship is a much better deal for your DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're looking for a "bargain" then private colleges are not for you.

There are numerous state schools that are highly rated and not a 'bargain' academically. The cost of a private university does not mean it's superior if it doesn't offer what you want.

VERY few reasonably good students pay full list price for college. Sure, save what you can to help out but the reality is when they are in college there are scholarships to be had (academic and otherwise), your current income can be used to help pay for school, kids can earn money over the summers, and then add in savings.

If you have a student that is a B student or better with reasonable ACT/SAT scores, you can expect to pay 1/2 of the list price or less at private schools--state schools give very little in academic money and usually end up costing more for better students for the most part. Sending kids to community college to start can actually end up costing more in the end if kids qualify for scholarships at a 4 year college because transfer students just don't get the same money as freshmen.

Really? How do you define decent scores? My DC has a 4.0 GPA unweighted and SAT score between 2000-2100, and I have been led to believe we should not expect any merit aid from any top 25-30 universities or colleges. We will not qualify for financial aid but sure don't want to be one of the only families paying full freight. Please convince me I am wrong and you are right!!

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing this 28 year old Princeton grad thinks it was worthwhile

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/eugene-gokhvat-28/

I'm sure the 28-year old Princeton grad got his money's worth. But so did the some of the other graduates on the list who attended Fordham, Notre Dame, U. of Michgan, Colby College, and City University of New York. They got their money's worth too and worked just as hard or they wouldn't be on that list.

HYP isn't the only game in town. It is what you make it as affirmed by the Forbes list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12:37 - do you have a source for this?

Not the OP, but a quick Google brought this up: http://www.lawschoolpredictor.com

And reading around, it looks like their URM statistics are reasonable based on actual total admit numbers based on their predictions. That doesn't mean it couldn't be wildly inaccurate for each individual school and just happen to be accurate in the aggregate.

I went the top engineering institute at the time it had that price tag (now it's more like 65K with more financial aid given to students). I was upper middle class and graduated with 6 figures of debt in STEM. It wasn't worth for me in terms of income earned. It paid off for friends in consulting, finance, or tech business entrepreneurs.

Anonymous wrote:12:37 - do you have a source for this?

Not the OP, but a quick Google brought this up: http://www.lawschoolpredictor.com

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're looking for a "bargain" then private colleges are not for you.

There are numerous state schools that are highly rated and not a 'bargain' academically. The cost of a private university does not mean it's superior if it doesn't offer what you want.

VERY few reasonably good students pay full list price for college. Sure, save what you can to help out but the reality is when they are in college there are scholarships to be had (academic and otherwise), your current income can be used to help pay for school, kids can earn money over the summers, and then add in savings.

If you have a student that is a B student or better with reasonable ACT/SAT scores, you can expect to pay 1/2 of the list price or less at private schools--state schools give very little in academic money and usually end up costing more for better students for the most part. Sending kids to community college to start can actually end up costing more in the end if kids qualify for scholarships at a 4 year college because transfer students just don't get the same money as freshmen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing this 28 year old Princeton grad thinks it was worthwhile

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/eugene-gokhvat-28/

Yawn........

+2. Probably a relative of the poster since this was the only one singled out.

Anonymous wrote:U of Michigan, UCLA, Berkely, etc are so-called bargains IF you can get in.

Those schools are all going to cost just as much as a private school for OOS studnets...

Anonymous wrote:I am PP who said that very few schools would be worth $55K and to save $ for grad school. But I would modify my comment and agree with PPs who say that it depends on the child. Of course, if you have a child with special needs - or one that you do not have confidence would thrive in a large state school environment, then the $55K cost *might* be worth it. However, I'd wonder if it's seriously true for a non-special needs child that only a $55K school would do. I'm venturing a guess that perhaps a smaller state school might also work.

Yeah, the thing is, there's tons and tons of small LACs that don't cost $55k. So I'm not sure this argument that youre child is only going to succeed at a $55K school is legitimate.

Anonymous wrote:You do not have to live on campus. Campus living costs about half of college fees.
That alone is a huge saving. So what if you do not get the 'experience', you are there for the education

No, living expenses, on average are about $8,000-10,000 for room and board. If you are looking at an expensive private school it's about $45,000 for the tuition. That's not one half.

Anonymous wrote:I'm guessing this 28 year old Princeton grad thinks it was worthwhile

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mdg45edmhm/eugene-gokhvat-28/

Yawn........