parents who send their kids to "out of state" public universities

Real life situation wrote:

kyoto wrote:

have got to be some of the dumbest people (unless they're very rich). the ONLY possible exception is if your state lacks good public universities (the dakotas, delaware, some southern states, etc).

but lol just lol at some middle class new jersey family sending their precious child to the University of Wisconsin for $48,000 / year when Rutgers is right down the road for less than 1/2 the cost.

What if none of the public schools in my state offer the major I want and have a respectable track team?

How about living off campus, getting in-state residency and only paying for two years worth of out-of-state vs. four years?

How about neighboring states that have tuition exchange programs?

https://www.nasfaa.org/State_Regional_Tuition_Exchanges

I think you’re picking one instance and might be missing the big picture.

There are a lot of "compact" states.

I think getting in state tuition is more challenging than just living off campus.

U of Community College wrote:

Wouldn't it also be true that parents who send kids to a 4 year public school are stupid for not saving money by getting the required undergrad work done at a local community college? Then transfer after 2 years to get a university "name" on your degree? Two years higher tuition for the same credits.

Also take advantage of state programs that pay for community college classes while still in high school and count toward HS credit.

I wonder whether a key element of this phenomenon is not being missed here, namely, that university administrations, having suffered a significant loss of state and federal funding as a percentage of spending since 1980 and especially since the recession, have attempted to replace that funding by bringing in a lot more out of state students (and foreign students), who will tend to be wealthier since they can afford the higher out of state tuition. So, they are admitting more out of state students and fewer in state students, and they are also offering more grants to out of state students, not big enough to make up the funding difference but to sweeten the pot enough to attract them.

Your last sentence is not true. The most selective schools are known to inflate grades. The Ivies have graduation rates of 98%. They obviously do more screening up front during admissions but every snowflake attending wouldn't be assisted to earn their A if they attended a regular public university.

Wisconsin is a tough school. Some of the higher level classes graded as hard as my med school classes.

From NY, went to school in CT. All I had to do was get a full time job (30 hours/week: overnight retail stocking), move off-campus, switch over my license to my apartment address, have my parents stop claiming me as a dependent, show 6 months of bills and boom that was it. Sounds like an awful lot, but it really wasn't much. Had three other roommates over my three years off-campus do the same thing (two from NY, one from NJ.)

At least they're smart enough to know that there's no reason for quotation marks in the thread title. And they're still paying less than if they sent their kids to a lot of private schools. And their kids may not be able to get into their own state's university.

I have mostly seen this when kids pick out odd areas as their focus for school. My boss's son went to an out of state school because it had a commercial aviation program. The kid was dead set on flying as a career, but wasn't into doing the military thing. The school was a run of the mill Div I state school with very average academics. In state choices were much better in terms of academics. But none of the in state schools had the aviation program. Otherwise, it can be a complete folly when a kid picks Miss State over Alabama or Ohio State over Penn State. In those situations, the kids are usually just picking flavors and trying to put some distance between themselves and their parents. I think some parents indulge their kids in hopes that getting them out of state will get them to be more independent and not come home every weekend for laundry.

Another part of the problem is that kids tend to be overly optimistic about their career plans and prospects. If you walk into a freshman bio class on the first day of fall semester and say "who here is planning on going to medical school," about 50% of the hands in the class will go up. 90% of those kids will never darken the door of a US MD or DO school. If you're just sure that you're going to be an orthopedic surgeon, $80K in undergrad debt seems like no big deal. But then when you find yourself with a 3.2 GPA and you're forced to acknowledge that "lab tech" is a more likely title for you than "doctor," that $80K suddenly becomes terrifying.

If you're making your college plans with the assumption that you're going to get into med school or that you're going to land that six figure Wall Street gig right out of undergrad, you're likely to make some bad choices. If your parents aren't knowledgeable about professional careers, they might not really be able to talk sense into you.

kyoto wrote:

Public Ivy wrote:

I'd put Cornell on the same tier.

What about the University of Pennsylvania? It's one of the finest public colleges in the Midwest.

University of Pennsylvania is a private college.

It’s also nowhere near the midwest

I went to Georgia Tech from out of state. I got a generous scholarship which reduced tuition to in-state levels. My in-state university gave me nothing. GT was the more prestigious school. It wasn't really a hard decision.

Some states have lots of pure merit money - Georgia for example. There are many others. Other states, such as Washington state where I live now, reserve all their money for people with financial need and minorities. I can easily see it being a financial wash to send my kids out of state to a place with merit-based scholarships. They're young, so I haven't looked into it extensively, but that's my guess based on what I know now.

From UW's website (

https://www.washington.edu/financialaid/types-of-aid/scholarships/undergraduate-scholarships/

):

"Approximately 600 awards from privately donated funds are given each year to students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and financial need. " " These awards are a partial tuition waiver, based on academic merit and financial need" "Selection, by the Office of Admissions, is predominately academic, but also incorporates activities, achievements, leadership and socio-economic factors."

This is the story for ALL the scholarship listings - all based on financial need. Georgia Tech, by contrast, gives money purely based on merit:

http://stampsps.gatech.edu/Program-Pillars

And who do you think gets the better students? GT is ranked higher as a university overall, and also is ranked #4 in undergrad engineering and #2 in my field (aerospace). UW by contrast is ranked is ranked TWENTIETH in engineering, its specialty. This despite being the home of Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing.

Ignore room and board when comparing schools, as that's a function of school location, not whether it's public or private.

Tuition at a private tier 1 research university is over $50K/year.

There are top public universities in the $30-35K range.

Those of us who make a decent living don't get need based aid. None of my friends kids got a penny of need based aid, so sending a kid to Illinois, Purdue, or Georgia Tech for engineering instead of a private school, for example, saves $60-80K over 4 years. These are all top 10 programs with outstanding faculty and facilities.

kyoto wrote:

Public Ivy wrote:

I'd put Cornell on the same tier.

What about the University of Pennsylvania? It's one of the finest public colleges in the Midwest.

Nice joke. Penn is private and on the east coast.

It pretty much doesn’t matter where you go. All flagship public universities are about equal. Are you really trying to tell me that University of Mississippi grads are significantly worse off than a graduate from SUNY Binghamton or University of Michigan? You’ll never get me to agree to that crazy arguement. Both of graduates will be able to land jobs earning about 45-60k.. just matters how much debt you want.

Most who go to these colleges end up poor middle class anyway and work as corporate jerk until age 65+ so who cares

I think New Jersey is a bad example for the point you are trying to make. There is always a good reason to leave New Jersey. Am I right?

my kid wrote:

My kid was a Shipman Scholar at Michigan. Out of state. Huge discount off tuition as well as stipends for other expenses and first choice of housing and classes. It would have been foolish to turn down.

If you read the OP's post, don't you think that your situation is an obvious exception and goes without saying? Duh?