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My brothers son is entering his senior year in college this fall and has been flooded by fancy brochures promoting a variety of very expensive colleges. He wants to go a University that costs about $40,000 a year and because his father and mother do make about $100k combined very little financial aid is available. Most of the college expenses will be paid by student loans. Assuming a part time job and some limited financial aid, the boy will likely graduate with over $100K in debt. (Parents have no savings for college)
Why would anyone go to such an expensive college unless they were getting most of the cost paid for by millionaire parents or a full scholarship?
I said the logical but less pleasant approach is to go to a community college the first two years, live at home and then transfer to the University of Minnesota. Total four year cost about $30K. Assuming he works summers and part time and lives at home, he could graduate with little debt.
Why not?
Last edited by Weekend Traveler; 07-17-2009 at 01:10 PM..
If I went to a community college my first 2 years, I would still have had to go 4 years to my private, $40,000 a year university. Credits don't transfer.
Private schools tend to have much better merit scholarships than public schools. I got an almost full tuition scholarship based on merit from my school and most of my friends are on at least half-scholarships. For me, it ended up being cheaper to go there than in-state.
If you nephew is a competitive student and treated as seriously as he should, he could have a shot at a fair bit of scholarship money. You never look at the sticker cost of a private school- very few people actually pay it.
I will need a diagram to keep up with your family.
This topic was covered in a Yoder and Son column in the "sunday WSJ" insert in the money section of my Sunday paper. Son wanted a small liberal arts college that cost roughly the same, Dad was not so sure of the wisdom of that.
My brothers son is entering his senior year in college this fall and has been flooded by fancy brochures promoting a variety of very expensive colleges. He wants to go a University that costs about $40,000 a year and because his father and mother do make about $100k combined very little financial aid is available. Most of the college expenses will be paid by student loans. Assuming a part time job and some small financial aid, the boy will likely graduate with over $100 in debt. (Parents have no savings for college)
Why would anyone go to such an expensive college unless they were getting most of the cost paid for by millionaire parents or a full scholarship?
I said the logical but less pleasant approach is to go to a community college the first two years, live at home and then transfer to the University of Minnesota. Total four year cost about $30K. Assuming he works summers and part time and lives at home, he could graduate with little debt.
Why not?
I don't know anything about the Uni. of Minnesota, but in general I think going to a CC and then transferring to a good Uni. is a much more cost effective plan. Of course I'd apply to whatever Uni. he was interested in anyway because I have heard many of the better ones have better financial aid plans based on merit as well as need. Doesn't hurt to try to get in, but if they had to pay the whole amount for sure I'd think it was smarter to go the CC rout, and then transfer, assuming all credit transfers.
As a parent my personal feelings on her insisting on what school he goes to is that unless they are completely footing the bill, which you said they are not, she should let him decide what school he goes to.
He won't know how much the final tab will be for hthe private university until he gets a financial aid package. Some private schools are able to meet financial needs with their own grants and scholarships. He won't know for sure until he applies for funding. As for the U of MN, it's a good school, and while not cheap, is at least somewhat reasonable if he is eligible for the in-state tuition rate. If he wanted a smaller experience (because the U is not for everyone - the main campus is huge) he could try one of the smaller U of MN campuses, or one of the state colleges. I don't think it's worth going into huge debt for college, but at the same time he doesn't need to give up his dreams of living on campus or going to a 4-year school until he sees what the final tab will be. He needs to be proactive and apply for scholarships, too; individual schools offer merit scholarships, of course, but so do outside sources. When it comes to funding college every little bit helps.
My brothers son is entering his senior year in college this fall and has been flooded by fancy brochures promoting a variety of very expensive colleges. He wants to go a University that costs about $40,000 a year and because his father and mother do make about $100k combined very little financial aid is available. Most of the college expenses will be paid by student loans. Assuming a part time job and some small financial aid, the boy will likely graduate with over $100 in debt. (Parents have no savings for college)
Why would anyone go to such an expensive college unless they were getting most of the cost paid for by millionaire parents or a full scholarship?
I said the logical but less pleasant approach is to go to a community college the first two years, live at home and then transfer to the University of Minnesota. Total four year cost about $30K. Assuming he works summers and part time and lives at home, he could graduate with little debt.
Why not?
I am not going to bother questioning the legitimacy of this post, but you do mean senior year of high school, don't you? And, graduating with more than $100 in debt? Wow, that is a whopper of a loan. $100,000, perhaps?
As stated by a previous poster, few people pay the full sticker price at private colleges and in most cases, it is actually cheaper to go to a $40,000 a year private than to a $10,000 state.
Doing the first two years at a CC is a great way to save money, however there are some drawbacks; for one, unless you plan on transfer to a public university within the same state that has an articulation agreement with the CC, expect the possibility of losing up to one years worth of credits. Simply put, while most colleges will accept up to around 60 transfer credits, without the articulation agreement, you will lose some credits in the transfer.
UoM, TC is a good public university. It is a top research uni, Big Ten, the largest college campus in the US (50,000 + students), top notch medical, aeronautical engineering, and law schools. However, for a public college, it ain't cheap.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with any other UMinnesota school, with the exception of maybe UMD.
My brothers son is entering his senior year in college this fall and has been flooded by fancy brochures promoting a variety of very expensive colleges. He wants to go a University that costs about $40,000 a year and because his father and mother do make about $100k combined very little financial aid is available. Most of the college expenses will be paid by student loans. Assuming a part time job and some limited financial aid, the boy will likely graduate with over $100K in debt. (Parents have no savings for college)
Why would anyone go to such an expensive college unless they were getting most of the cost paid for by millionaire parents or a full scholarship?
I said the logical but less pleasant approach is to go to a community college the first two years, live at home and then transfer to the University of Minnesota. Total four year cost about $30K. Assuming he works summers and part time and lives at home, he could graduate with little debt.
Why not?
If his parents make only $100K (yes that's ONLY when you're talking about a school with tuition of $40K/year) there should be financial aid available. Tell them to look harder.
I attended a private university. Tuition was $10K/year with me not living on campus (this was over 20 years ago....man I feel old). I was married and the way financial aid forms work, both my husband and I had to claim his income but only he could claim his dependents. So, it looked like I had his income and no dependents. Since I was on a full academic scholarship, I had to sign a waiver accepting any financial aid the school could find for me. They covered my tuition completely all but one year (the year after my husband graduated) and then they covered 2/3 of my tuition. That was with a family income of over three times what my tuition was.
A lot of financial aid goes unused because no one applied for it. My husaband's aunt used to work in the financial aid office for a university and she said there were millions of dollars of aid that went unused every year. Tell them to pick up a scholarship/grant book from a book store and apply for everything they can think of. The worst case is they waste a stamp.
Friends tell me that much of the financial aide package they talk about is loans.
I am afraid that the cheaper to attend an expensive private college in the end story is just plain fiction. Most people would prefer to go to a nice private college of 3000 students with smaller classes and supportive teachers who act more like mentors than Professor Kingsfield, if it were really the same cost in the end as some are saying. Anyone have stats on the average debt of a student who graduates from a private college vs a public university?
Friends tell me that much of the financial aide package they talk about is loans.
I am afraid that the cheaper to attend an expensive private college in the end story is just plain fiction. Most people would prefer to go to a nice private college of 3000 students with smaller classes and supportive teachers who act more like mentors than Professor Kingsfield, if it were really the same cost in the end as some are saying. Anyone have stats on the average debt of a student who graduates from a private college vs a public university?
It can be the same cost for good students. Unfortunately, most students do not work their butts off in high school and don't qualify for that kind of help.
I would flounder in a huge school like UGA, majored in a social science so Ga Tech was out, and couldn't handle the party party party atmosphere of the smaller Georgia schools (Georgia State, Georgia Southern) which were still far too large. That was my motivation to work hard in high school so I wouldn't have to go to either. I graduated with over a 4.0, high SAT and ACT scores, tons of extracurriculars and volunteer work, 2 foreign languages, and 8 AP/IB courses.
Students with stats like that DO get merit scholarships at the little 5000 student or less research universities or LACs. I know I got large scholarships almost everywhere I applied. I could have gone to UGA honors college for virtually free (though would have had to buy a car and pay for the expenses around that and also lived off campus after my first year and have to pay for that), but why spend 4 years of my life in a situation that wouldn't be ideal for my education and career prospects when the trade-off isn't all that much money?
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). I was married and the way financial aid forms work, both my husband and I had to claim his income but only he could claim his dependents. So, it looked like I had his income and no dependents. Since I was on a full academic scholarship, I had to sign a waiver accepting any financial aid the school could find for me. They covered my tuition completely all but one year (the year after my husband graduated) and then they covered 2/3 of my tuition. That was with a family income of over three times what my tuition was. 
