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

Worst. Thread. Ever.

You are correct that I did not attend an Ivy. However, I was accepted at 2 of them but was shocked at the price tag of $60k that they offered to me. My father made about $200k and my mother was a mom. They worked hard so it was disappointing to discover that the Ivies charged based on income. I decided to attend my state school, University of Iowa, and major in engineering. I paid only about $10k per year due to a 35ACT. I now work for a large manufacturing company and I earn $150k 10 years out of college. My salary is much higher than the average salaries earned by grads from the top ranked schools. I have no way to know if I would have earned more but I did start out about $200k further ahead which would have been hard to overcome.

Ivies Lose wrote:

You are correct that I did not attend an Ivy. However, I was accepted at 2 of them but was shocked at the price tag of $60k that they offered to me. My father made about $200k and my mother was a mom. They worked hard so it was disappointing to discover that the Ivies charged based on income. I decided to attend my state school, University of Iowa, and major in engineering. I paid only about $10k per year due to a 35ACT. I now work for a large manufacturing company and I earn $150k 10 years out of college. My salary is much higher than the average salaries earned by grads from the top ranked schools. I have no way to know if I would have earned more but I did start out about $200k further ahead which would have been hard to overcome.

Good post. Students with technical or otherwise valued majors are wasting money by spending 60k per year for a 'name' school. A graduate with something like a biomedical engineering degree who is not staying in the academic world has bright prospects and can choose schools based upon many other factors, including academic freedom which is a rarity among many schools 'ranked' highly. Enjoy that 3 feet of designated, free speech ground, nittany lions and golden bears.

RU12 wrote:

kyoto wrote:

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

Are you just trolling? Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania are both private Ivy League schools, and the state of Pennsylvania is not in the Midwest.

Cornell University is a mix of private and public colleges. The public schools offer lower tuition to New York state residents. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (the "Ag School") is a public school. It is possible to major in biology in the Ag School (public) or in the Arts School (private), e.g.

Most of Cornell is in Ithaca, NY, but there is the Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York City and the brand new Science/Tech whatever-they-are-calling-it-besides-incubator is still going up on Roosevelt Island, also in New York City.

Agreed. We make about $300k per year now so are expected to pay $90k per yr for daughter to go to Ivy with son at state school which is not realistic. We told her we could pay $45k and she'd need to get loans for the other $25k. She chose University of MN where she gets in state tuition as an out of state student. Two years in she's killing it as a neuro science and Spanish double major. No doubt she will have the option to go to a prestigious grad/prof school if she chooses. Regardless she will graduate with no debt and lots of good options.

Neruo science and Spanish major from MN? On track to b e a surgeon in Mexico City.

I don't think my situation is an obvious exception. Public schools do all kinds of things to attract top notch state students. Yes, the Shipman Scholarship is unusual (my kid was accepted to Ivy League Schools and Duke), but there are all kinds of incentives available if you push for them for out of state students. The program my kid matriculated into was rated third in the country at Michigan, so even if the scholarship wasn't so generous, it still could have been in play. My other kid - a 2400 SAT scorer, went to Princeton. I am not sure it was worth the cost given the alternatives.

46uh wrote:

Neruo science and Spanish major from MN? On track to b e a surgeon in Mexico City.

Read: 'premed major' (not that there's anything wrong with that)

Ivies Lose wrote:

You are correct that I did not attend an Ivy. However, I was accepted at 2 of them but was shocked at the price tag of $60k that they offered to me. My father made about $200k and my mother was a mom. They worked hard so it was disappointing to discover that the Ivies charged based on income. I decided to attend my state school, University of Iowa, and major in engineering.

Lol @ 'and my mother was a mom' you can be a mom and have a job, just like you can be a dad and have a job. Not meaning to shame her or stay at home moms or anything...I just find the wording a bit funny.

Why were you diappointed to learn that Ivies give out financial aid based on income? I always thought this was common knowledge, especially for someone who applied to at least 2 of them.

You were diappointed to learn that the Ivies, a group of schools that have historically been rich kids clubs have tried to become more accessible to lower income students by giving out need based financial aid...really!??!

I'm going to guess that you might be in the 'I make $250k/year I'm not a freaking millionaire' camp. Face it...if your family income was $200k/year you grew up very wealthy and you really don't have much room to talk regarding how schools award need based financial aid.