ot college costs

[parris]

I don't normally rant very much on the board but this is something that's got me pretty bummed and just a touch angry.

Our son is a senior in hs and will be heading off to college in the fall. We did the college tour thing during the summer and he loved RIT. His back up was Binghamton University.

We filled out the FAFSA forms, applied to both schools and he was accepted to both schools. RIT came back with their financial package. He scored a few scholarships but what killed us was the gap between our EFC and the school numbers. I called the school and they were very nice and competent but basically the numbers are what they are.

Tonight we told our son that we just couldn't swing RIT. The kid would walk out of the school with a very good education and better then $125k of debt! This after scholarships and such.

So tomorrow I'll give them a call and tell them that we just can't/wont do it our son will go to Binghamton University instead. The kicker is that for the program he want's to go into BU is a much tougher school to get into.

Thanks for listening.

[Louis]

You're doing the right thing. That debt would likely weigh him down for much of his life, and the additional payoff from the more expensive school would probably not be worth it.

He'll get from college what he puts into it in terms of effort, not what he pays.

Best of luck to your son.

[rwsaunders]

Don't you have until May to accept or did he go early decision?

[Macadamia]

very hard choice to make, that early. I'm glad I waited a few years to go back to college, even though I changed my mind on what I wanted to do a few times since restarting.

You can get a good education a lot of places. I just switched from a small easy to get into school to a larger harder to get into one, and I am pretty unimpressed with the new one so far. Seems like their higher prices revolve around selling the social experience and supposed prestige, rather than a more rigorous education.

[parris]

RW because he knew the two schools he wanted to get into he went early decision.

[p nut]

If I were doing it over again, I wouldn't mind saving some money by getting my associates at a community college, then transferring to a U. Maybe he can do the same and transfer to RIT after 2 yrs of community college.

[Louis]

Here's an interesting study from the Journal of Labor Research.
(It is heavy on the statistics.)

http://rd.springer.com/article/10.10...122-010-9086-1

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship among college quality, earnings, and job satisfaction among a recent cohort of college graduates. Our results suggest that, controlling for earnings, college quality is negatively related to job satisfaction, especially to those aspects of the job that are associated with monetary rewards. Further analysis indicates that there is no significant difference between the male and female groups; however, the negative relationship between satisfaction with monetary rewards and college quality is mainly driven by the non-white group. These findings do not support the view that graduating from elite schools will necessarily lead to greater job satisfaction.

[CMiller]

Community College -> Transfer is such a great idea for most people, but unfortunately some schools are nearly impossible to get into as a transfer.

Sorry about the financial problems, but still, huge congratulations on your kid getting into the schools!

[mgm777]

Parris -- As an alternative plan, your son could accept admission into RIT, his #1 school, and pay tuition for one year. During his Freshman year, he could join the Air Force ROTC unit on campus, work hard, and apply for a 3-year scholarship. If successful, he would have his remaining 3 years of school covered by an AFROTC scholarship. It is too late to apply to AFROTC this year. After graduation from RIT, he would be commissioned as an Air Force officer and obligated to serve four years(ten years if he chose to become a pilot) on Active Duty afterwards. He would graduate from RIT with just the debt incurred from his freshman year and he would have a guaranteed career afterwards. Hint, Hint! The Air Force is more likely to award full scholarships to STEM majors and those who want to major in strategic languages.

[fa63]

Why not a state school? SUNY is quite good based on my experience working with their graduates. Private school education is overrated at the undergraduate level in my opinion. At the grad level, the name matters a lot more, but if you are a good STEM student, it is more than likely that you will get a scholarship for grad school anyways.

I know parents want to do everything they can for their children, but that is not a good reason to incur debt in my humble opinion.

Good luck.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by mgm777

Parris -- As an alternative plan, your son could accept admission into RIT, his #1 school, and pay tuition for one year. During his Freshman year, he could join the Air Force ROTC unit on campus, work hard, and apply for a 3-year scholarship. If successful, he would have his remaining 3 years of school covered by an AFROTC scholarship. It is too late to apply to AFROTC this year. After graduation from RIT, he would be commissioned as an Air Force officer and obligated to serve four years(ten years if he chose to become a pilot) on Active Duty afterwards. He would graduate from RIT with just the debt incurred from his freshman year and he would have a guaranteed career afterwards. Hint, Hint! The Air Force is more likely to award full scholarships to STEM majors and those who want to major in strategic languages.

I agree with 2 caveats. I'd have him join the NROTC(if available), and hopefully he'll understand being in the military requires of him he support 'war fighting'..it's what the military does. Ya know, killing people and breaking things. No such thing as a free lunch.

[buddybikes]

A friend of mine, now highly successful engineering director (with a nationally sponsored cycling team member) attended engineering school in Canada (St Mary's in Halifax) only thing they could afford, he was 1 of 12 kids.

In our area, Worc Poly Tech, has a set program of offering admission and funding for top community school grads.

that being said, 125K doesn't sound like much. Sure total bill would be twice that. Our first daughter was something like that. After surviving first year - then off campus living like slum dropped costs significantly. What are room/board costs? Are these required?

[Hilltopperny]

I am looking at going back to college for a third time. I have a breakdown of the colleges that are within driving distance from my home. Community colleges are only about $1,000 less tuition per semester that the SUNY schools I've been looking at.

[paredown]

Originally Posted by Hilltopperny

I am looking at going back to college for a third time. I have a breakdown of the colleges that are within driving distance from my home. Community colleges are only about $1,000 less tuition per semester that the SUNY schools I've been looking at.

That would be a no-brainer...

For the OP--did your son look at Ryerson Poly in Toronto?

Canadian schools are considerably cheaper even paying foreign fee levels, education is as good or better, and you get to drink Canadian beer..

[verbs4us]

At my engineering firm we hire people from all kinds of schools--state schools, Ivys, IITs from India, Ecole from France, Universitat from Germany, etc. I have seen a pattern: the most ambitious, hungriest and talented kids often went to public universities or schools outside the USA and many are working on H1B visas. Some of our best and brightest are from Iran and Iraq and I fear for their future here; some Muslims have transferred to Canada. The kids that went to Stanford, Princeton, MIT, etc are all very bright, can "see" deep into equations and have a certain polish. But they are sometimes so smart they can't get out of their own way and some have a sense of entitlement that comes from being told, from age 6 onward, that they are the best and brightest. The future leaders of the firm, I suspect, won't be the smartest students, but the best leaders of others, the horizontal thinkers, and often they came from another country, came from poverty, or from North Texas State or CUNY.