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Something has peeked my curiosity of late. I am currently back in school to obtain a career in a more lucrative industry. I have started at the local community college to obtain some of the prerequisites before deciding if I want to go on to pursue my bachelors degree at a four year institution.
In my immediate area we have several private schools that have excellent programs. However, no one outside of a 100 mile radius has probably ever heard of these schools. However they typically cost in the ballpark of $20-30k per year. Conversely, I could decide to attend a middle of the road state college that a good percentage of people around the country have heard of for about $10-15k per year. What would you choose?
I guess my big worry is that if I decide to relocate after finally obtaining my degree, I might be passed over because no one had ever heard of my school, despite it costing me $30,000 a year to attend.
What is your opinion on local private schools that cost an arm and a leg, yet no one has ever heard of versus a state institution that carries some name recognition?
I think you are wise to be considering all of the issues in selecting a school. Gathering school reputation information is very difficult. I have heard hundreds of people make comments that this college or that university is a "good school." What you learn is people have no basis to have these opinions. Their opinions typically come from two sources: one, they know someone who went there or they have heard the name from advertising or sports. Sports does more than anything to give name recognition to schools that have big time basketball or football teams. Many people are familiar with schools like Davidson, Gonzaga and Butler because of their success in the NCAA basketball tournament.
If that "middle of the road state college" does not have name recognition from sports, you might be surprised how little name recognition the school has outside of your state. West Chester, Kutztown, Slippery Rock and Indiana University of Pennsylvania are all medium sized state schools in Pennsylvania, that are well known in Pennsylvania but have little name recognition outside of the state.
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Originally Posted by joe from dayton
Unless you are attending a notorious substandard school, the majority of employers could care less about the provenance of your degree.
I interviewed and hired a lot of people and always asked why they selected the schools the attended. The answers usually provided good insight into the person's thought process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marie5v
I can't understand why you would choose the small private school in the first place. If no one has heard of them, then they probably aren't that good. Sometimes small private schools do a lot of advertising right in their area, so everyone thinks they are good. That was the case with several small schools near where I grew up. Only when I moved away did I realize that those schools were nothing special - we'd just been subjected to a lot of outreach for many years, and therefore thought they were good. Also, because they are expensive they tend to be less competitive than state schools. Most small private schools will take anyone who can pay these days.
I can remember when colleges and universities did not advertise; now it seems we are bombarded with their television ads. There seems to be a correlation between how much advertising a school does and how low their acceptance criteria is.
People who graduate from private schools normally have more debt (and this is not including for-profits). While there are a lot of top private schools that have excellent financial aid packages, most of the lesser-known private schools do not receive enough endowments to bring the cost down to that of state schools.
That has not been our experience at all after going through this process with 3 kids and looking at a LOT of schools. None of the state schools came close to matching the merit aid and final cost of the private schools.
That has not been our experience at all after going through this process with 3 kids and looking at a LOT of schools. None of the state schools came close to matching the merit aid and final cost of the private schools.
This greatly depends on whether you hit the sweet spot of being "poor" enough to receive significant financial aid, while still being "rich" enough to afford the private school in question. The better the private school, the more they will typically have to offer, although most schools outside the tippy-top don't offer a whole lot once you pass the six figure income threshold. Merit scholarships are another story, but they are an especially unpredictable part of the aid process. For me, the cheapest option was a public, in-state university on partial scholarship. Your mileage may end up similar mine, on par with golfgal's (no pun intented ), or somewhere in the vast abyss between.
The moral of the story is that it's important to apply broadly now; you can always turn down prohibitively expensive options later.
I don't think there should be too much focus on whether you go to a private or public school. All that matters is that you go to a good school with a good program in your field of study. You can go to any credible college ranking source to find out which ones are the best. Remember that you're not just paying $$ for college... you're also spending a considerable amount of time. Don't waste that time just like you wouldn't waste money.
Something has peeked my curiosity of late. I am currently back in school to obtain a career in a more lucrative industry. I have started at the local community college to obtain some of the prerequisites before deciding if I want to go on to pursue my bachelors degree at a four year institution.
In my immediate area we have several private schools that have excellent programs. However, no one outside of a 100 mile radius has probably ever heard of these schools. However they typically cost in the ballpark of $20-30k per year. Conversely, I could decide to attend a middle of the road state college that a good percentage of people around the country have heard of for about $10-15k per year. What would you choose?
I guess my big worry is that if I decide to relocate after finally obtaining my degree, I might be passed over because no one had ever heard of my school, despite it costing me $30,000 a year to attend.
What is your opinion on local private schools that cost an arm and a leg, yet no one has ever heard of versus a state institution that carries some name recognition?
You're an RN?
I'm not sure what bachelors field you could go into that is more lucrative. More fulfilling and enjoyable possibly. Maybe engineering by a bit. Business maybe, but you could get an MBA without a bachelors in business.
What are you trying got do? You're a more non-traditional student, so the name recognition won't be as important.
The more you divulge, the more people can help you.
Generally I would recommend going to the college that provides you an environment where you are most likely to succeed, the place you are most likely to graduate with honors and with opportunity. Forget about the rest. Who has the best program for your intended major and who as he best alumni network in your intended field?
That said, if you want to leave moving out of the area as an option, then name recognition does matter IMO. I think that is worth giving some serious consideration in this case.
Something has peeked my curiosity of late. I am currently back in school to obtain a career in a more lucrative industry. I have started at the local community college to obtain some of the prerequisites before deciding if I want to go on to pursue my bachelors degree at a four year institution.
In my immediate area we have several private schools that have excellent programs. However, no one outside of a 100 mile radius has probably ever heard of these schools. However they typically cost in the ballpark of $20-30k per year. Conversely, I could decide to attend a middle of the road state college that a good percentage of people around the country have heard of for about $10-15k per year. What would you choose?
I guess my big worry is that if I decide to relocate after finally obtaining my degree, I might be passed over because no one had ever heard of my school, despite it costing me $30,000 a year to attend.
What is your opinion on local private schools that cost an arm and a leg, yet no one has ever heard of versus a state institution that carries some name recognition?
I have no idea why you would pay "an arm and a leg" for a college no one has ever heard of just because it's private and close to home. But where I live in North East PA, many people do just that.
Go away from home. Private or State is not the issue. Quality is. And the experience of going away can't be replicated.
That has not been our experience at all after going through this process with 3 kids and looking at a LOT of schools. None of the state schools came close to matching the merit aid and final cost of the private schools.
If they are A students with stellar board scores, you are right. LACs of all calibers pay big money for superb students. They also need to be willing to go to the school that gives them the best package.Having less money is sometimes better, coupled with those fantastic grades.
Or there is the strategy of choosing a school a notch UNDER what the student could attain. LACs love to give money to these applicants.
Or if their is something else unique about the student.
Some state schools are more like privates and some are well endowed.
As a general rule though, if you are a middle - upper middle class home owner with a student with a high B average who is not a minority, is pretty average, and has no extreme talent - I think the state universities are best financially. There are plenty of scholarships available for various majors and talents.
This greatly depends on whether you hit the sweet spot of being "poor" enough to receive significant financial aid, while still being "rich" enough to afford the private school in question. The better the private school, the more they will typically have to offer, although most schools outside the tippy-top don't offer a whole lot once you pass the six figure income threshold. Merit scholarships are another story, but they are an especially unpredictable part of the aid process. For me, the cheapest option was a public, in-state university on partial scholarship. Your mileage may end up similar mine, on par with golfgal's (no pun intented ), or somewhere in the vast abyss between.
The moral of the story is that it's important to apply broadly now; you can always turn down prohibitively expensive options later.
None of the aid our kids have received has been financial aid, it has all been merit aid. Right now the public schools on their list are coming in at a net cost of $15,000-18,000. The private schools are coming in at a net cost of $9000-13,000 with 2 private schools in the $25,000 range and they were crossed off the list. This is out of 20 schools currently on the table with offers in the door.
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Originally Posted by sheena12
If they are A students with stellar board scores, you are right. LACs of all calibers pay big money for superb students. They also need to be willing to go to the school that gives them the best package.Having less money is sometimes better, coupled with those fantastic grades.
Or there is the strategy of choosing a school a notch UNDER what the student could attain. LACs love to give money to these applicants.
Or if their is something else unique about the student.
Some state schools are more like privates and some are well endowed.
As a general rule though, if you are a middle - upper middle class home owner with a student with a high B average who is not a minority, is pretty average, and has no extreme talent - I think the state universities are best financially. There are plenty of scholarships available for various majors and talents.
Sellar, no, good, yes. There are 1000's of schools out there that offer generous merit aid for B students and above. Your general rule fits our kids pretty much to a T and they have gotten significant merit offers from every school they applied to. The East Coast schools are pretty stingy with merit aid but the rest of the country there is ample aid for kids. Over the past several years with our 3 kids, we have looked at 100's of schools either in person or online and had NO problems finding private schools that were very generous with their merit aid. The only "financial aid" we qualify for are the loans that everyone gets.
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), or somewhere in the vast abyss between.
