The college application/choice process

[Brisketexan 105,057]

Civil and environmental engineering.

Mines is her top pick since you can get a masters in Civil & Env in 5 years total.

I also have all the data on average merit aid for those schools if anyone is interested.

From a merit aid perspective, I will say Vermont is pretty intriguing. We had to cancel a tour due to a work conflict for me and they have been aggressively emailing to get her to campus. A female majoring in STEM is highly sought after. The last email basically said if she applied and had a 3.25 GPA, she’d get $20K a year in merit aid.

And, from what I hear of Vermont, she could look like me and be the prettiest gal on campus.

Seriously, cool degree plan. I’m sure she’ll do great wherever she goes.

[South Austin 52,444]

Bumping, now that my senior daughter is starting this hellish process.  She still won't consider any schools in Texas or the South (like south of the Mason-Dixon line, so no interest in NC or Va schools), and she's primarily looking at schools in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast, which is fucking fantastic for my finances.  Her current list of schools for application are:

University of Washington (probably top choice right now)
University of Oregon
Reed College (seems like the Rice of the PNW - great school, but way nerdy)
University of California, San Diego 
University of California, Santa Cruz
Lewis & Clark College (is my daughter smoking pot and I don't know it?)
University of the Puget Sound (wtf, something her mom suggested)
George Washington (a late addition, a couple friends started looking at the DC area)

The college coaching service I've hired for her recommends applying to at least 10 schools.  I think she's gravitating toward a state school.  Private schools may be too small and cliquish for her, and she thinks she'll like a larger public university with a more robust and diverse campus life (she loves college athletics, not that good sports programs are the top priority).  She's shot down University of Colorado.  I've suggested looking at Maryland, and she's been meh on that.  Nothing in the Midwest and Northeast seems to interest her.  I'm looking for other ideas. 

For what it's worth, she's got a 1450 SAT, 4.34 GPA, and is in the top 6% of her class (dad humblebrag).  She's thinking about something in the science/health care field, but not necessarily a STEM major.

Any thoughts?

 

 

[SimonBolivar 10,957]

I toured UBC last year and it feels like an American university more than other foreign school I've toured. They even have a small football field, and everything is school pride colored and named.  

[SimonBolivar 10,957]

7 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Bumping, now that my senior daughter is starting this hellish process.  She still won't consider any schools in Texas or the South (like south of the Mason-Dixon line, so no interest in NC or Va schools), and she's primarily looking at schools in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast, which is fucking fantastic for my finances.  Her current list of schools for application are:

University of Washington (probably top choice right now)
University of Oregon
Reed College (seems like the Rice of the PNW - great school, but way nerdy)
University of California, San Diego 
University of California, Santa Cruz
Lewis & Clark College (is my daughter smoking pot and I don't know it?)
University of the Puget Sound (wtf, something her mom suggested)
George Washington (a late addition, a couple friends started looking at the DC area)

The college coaching service I've hired for her recommends applying to at least 10 schools.  I think she's gravitating toward a state school.  Private schools may be too small and cliquish for her, and she thinks she'll like a larger public university with a more robust and diverse campus life (she loves college athletics, not that good sports programs are the top priority).  She's shot down University of Colorado.  I've suggested looking at Maryland, and she's been meh on that.  Nothing in the Midwest and Northeast seems to interest her.  I'm looking for other ideas. 

For what it's worth, she's got a 1450 SAT, 4.34 GPA, and is in the top 6% of her class (dad humblebrag).  She's thinking about something in the science/health care field, but not necessarily a STEM major.

Any thoughts?

 

 

Well if UO is her 2nd choice then the rest are just there for looks because she's getting in there easily. I'm pretty sure she'll get into UW too, but UO is almost a no doubt with her credentials.

[South Austin 52,444]

5 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Well if UO is her 2nd choice then the rest are just there for looks because she's getting in there easily. I'm pretty sure she'll get into UW too, but UO is almost a no doubt with her credentials.

I’m not sure if Oregon is necessarily her second choice. It might be UC, San Diego (I have family in SD). Oregon accepts just about everybody. She’ll get in, and from what I heard of other Texas kids going there, they’ll probably throw her a good chunk of money.

UCSD might be the “reach” for her on this list. I never thought much of it, having known more about other UC schools like LA, Berkley, Davis, and Santa Barbara. But UCSD is a pretty damn school and its acceptance rate is not all that high. If she gets in, she won’t be getting any merit-based aid, as UC schools are notoriously stingy when it comes to aid for nonresidents. They take care of their own very well. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by South Austin

[SimonBolivar 10,957]

1 minute ago, South Austin said:

I’m not sure if Oregon is necessarily her second choice. It might be UC, San Diego (I have family in SD). Oregon accepts just about everybody. She’ll get in, and from what I heard of other Texas kids going there, they’ll probably throw her a good chunk of money.

UCSD might be the “reach” for her on this list, and if she gets in, she won’t be getting any merit-based aid, as UC schools are notoriously stingy when it comes to aid for nonresidents. They take care of their own very well. 

I have a family member that went to UCSD and he loved it and is really successful in his career path too. It's obviously a really different life than life at schools like UW and UO culturally with it not really being a school pride kind of place, but rather a great place to live with a top education. 

[South Austin 52,444]

If money were no object, UCSD would be my top choice for her, with U Dub second. 

[DaysOff 7,947]

I know three UPS grads. All quality individuals. I'm sure that helps.

[Sbbruin 21,829]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

If money were no object, UCSD would be my top choice for her, with U Dub second. 

Can't go wrong with either.  

[South Austin 52,444]

1 hour ago, DaysOff said:

I know three UPS grads. All quality individuals. I'm sure that helps.

Crossing UPS off the list.

[Brisketexan 105,057]

Seriously, UBC ought to get a look. Canadian, but hey, she can drink some moosehead eh.

[SimonBolivar 10,957]

Vancouver > Seattle

 

Also cheaper cost of living (housing is expensive in both but USD does well on things like food in Vancouver), but I guess the worse funding options make that point moot.

[boilerhorn 1,372]

3 hours ago, South Austin said:

Bumping, now that my senior daughter is starting this hellish process.  She still won't consider any schools in Texas or the South (like south of the Mason-Dixon line, so no interest in NC or Va schools), and she's primarily looking at schools in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast, which is fucking fantastic for my finances.  Her current list of schools for application are:

University of Washington (probably top choice right now)
University of Oregon
Reed College (seems like the Rice of the PNW - great school, but way nerdy)
University of California, San Diego 
University of California, Santa Cruz
Lewis & Clark College (is my daughter smoking pot and I don't know it?)
University of the Puget Sound (wtf, something her mom suggested)
George Washington (a late addition, a couple friends started looking at the DC area)

The college coaching service I've hired for her recommends applying to at least 10 schools.  I think she's gravitating toward a state school.  Private schools may be too small and cliquish for her, and she thinks she'll like a larger public university with a more robust and diverse campus life (she loves college athletics, not that good sports programs are the top priority).  She's shot down University of Colorado.  I've suggested looking at Maryland, and she's been meh on that.  Nothing in the Midwest and Northeast seems to interest her.  I'm looking for other ideas. 

For what it's worth, she's got a 1450 SAT, 4.34 GPA, and is in the top 6% of her class (dad humblebrag).  She's thinking about something in the science/health care field, but not necessarily a STEM major.

Any thoughts?

 

 

This is a strong list of schools.  

As has been noted, UO will be almost automatic.  UW very close.

Friend's daughter went to Maryland for Public Health - loved it and is gainfully employed.  Step-niece attended Maryland and has a PhD in molecular and cellular biology.  Also loved it.  You should consider suggesting again and possibly visiting. 

I know the NE and MW does not interest her, but...

Also consider Minnesota (or any other university with a close affiliation to a VERY strong research and medical school).  Minnesota is a fantastic school and the Mayo Clinic affiliation helps.  Daughter 2 and I visited there for a different major - in December.  LOVED the campus, but the program was not what she wanted.  Make no mistake, it gets really fucking cold there.

Ohio State has a really good medical school and - by extension - public health school.  I visited there w/ my daughters.  Nice campus; strong programs; not as cold as Minnesota.  But... too many of their football fans are fucking assholes.  So you have to keep that in mind.

Another advantage of most large state schools - and larger private schools - is flexibility in changing majors.  There is a chance a kid will change majors and they may want to stay at the same school.  But definitely ask (and perhaps do some research on your own)- if SA's-Daughter wants to change from Public Health to Computer Science, what would it take?  A place like UT Austin would say, "it can happen, but do not count on it."  That would mean, "it ain't happening."  Many schools are at capacity in their programs.  And they do not flunk out 20+% of their freshman on an annual basis like when we were young.  So, there's no room.

Last, you might consider suggesting she take the SAT one more time.  She has a great score (96+ percentile nationally) and she'll hate the idea, but it could help a bit with placement in some of the more competitive colleges.

[Texas Jeff 1,944]

7 hours ago, South Austin said:

University of Washington (probably top choice right now)

If your kid is admitted, they have an admitted students' day that is on a Saturday at the peak of cherry blossom season.  If you can, go a day early so that you can see the campus (and the cherry blossoms) without 20,000 other people trying to do the same thing on the same day.  We didn't realize you had to preregister for this event, so we showed up on Saturday with everyone else and registered late.  We were always a step behind the horde of people.

If you go to an out-of-state state school, most everyone else will be from that state.  That makes sense, but I had to experience it to realize that almost everyone else we talked to was from some town in Washington, and we weren't.

It's a beautiful campus but my daughter ended up choosing Texas over Washington.  If we lived in Washington and were picking, I bet she would have picked Washington over Texas.  The schools are similar, but your "home state" school will always be cheaper.  Cost of living in both Seattle and Austin is high, but in-state kids get that great tuition break.  Out of state kids pay high tuition and high housing costs.

Both of my kids started out looking nationally and both had stats similar to your kid, so they had UT and A&M in their pocket if they got into their major.  And both eventually decided to go to an in-state school.

Washington does have nice train system already in place .... a "west campus" stop and a "stadium" stop, both underground, with underground stops through downtown and connections to the airport.  I thought it was funny that Seattle is building an underground train system with the cool weather they have, and Austin is forging ahead with a surface system that will bake in 110 degree weather, that does not connect to the airport.

The train system also gets you to NFL or MLB games.  I was annoyed that Austin seems incapable of attracting professional teams, building stadiums for them, or planning train service to the venues we have.  Seattle seems to be 30 years ahead of us and has spent some time thinking about how the parts of a city work together.  But I digress...

[Chicken fried bacon 46]

Anyone have experience with a child that went to Southwestern University in Georgetown.  My daughter is looking at playing DIII volleyball. Sorry no pictures.  
 

 

[South Austin 52,444]

2 hours ago, Chicken fried bacon said:

Anyone have experience with a child that went to Southwestern University in Georgetown.  My daughter is looking at playing DIII volleyball. Sorry no pictures.  

My fiancé’s son just started school there. I helped with move in and got a great vibe from the campus, faculty, and student community. It’s small, much smaller than his high school (Westwood). He’s only been there a week, but they seem to be doing a good job with activities to get him engaged.

My finance also went there and loved it.

[bschoolprof 6,251]

1 hour ago, South Austin said:

My fiancé’s son just started school there. I helped with move in and got a great vibe from the campus, faculty, and student community. It’s small, much smaller than his high school (Westwood). He’s only been there a week, but they seem to be doing a good job with activities to get him engaged.

My finance also went there and loved it.

A lot of finances went there . . . very pricey. 

 

But agreed, it is a very solid small liberal arts school.   

[Brew 3,049]

This whole college process sucks. I always thought make the grades, the ACT score, and have the extra curricular activities and you could go where you wanted and they would throw money at you. Oldest is a senior and is applying now and I was clearly wrong. The advisor she is working with has told her that her top 3-4 choices probably aren’t happening because of ultra low out of state admittance and the rest aren’t giving away money. Seems most colleges through the NE and East coast have moved to only or mostly need based and away from merit based and application numbers are through the roof at the same time.

I also had no idea there were undergrads approaching $100k a year now. We toured Wake recently and it’s right at that with room and board. I’m not looking forward to the next few months as she’s been seriously stressed about it.

[Hefeweizen 5,310]

31 minutes ago, Brew said:

This whole college process sucks. I always thought make the grades, the ACT score, and have the extra curricular activities and you could go where you wanted and they would throw money at you. Oldest is a senior and is applying now and I was clearly wrong. The advisor she is working with has told her that her top 3-4 choices probably aren’t happening because of ultra low out of state admittance and the rest aren’t giving away money. Seems most colleges through the NE and East coast have moved to only or mostly need based and away from merit based and application numbers are through the roof at the same time.

I also had no idea there were undergrads approaching $100k a year now. We toured Wake recently and it’s right at that with room and board. I’m not looking forward to the next few months as she’s been seriously stressed about it.

Yes undergrad private is about 90k per year.  And it sucks sweaty hairy balls.   I’m about to have two of them.

[Brisketexan 105,057]

Yes undergrad private is about 90k per year.  And it sucks sweaty hairy balls.   I’m about to have two of them.

Well, I mean…most of us here have two sweaty hairy balls. You’re not special.

[tx 3 putt 76,868]

3 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

Yes undergrad private is about 90k per year.

that’s crazy 

 

Goto smaller state schools 

[dcbc 14,465]

On 8/25/2023 at 3:31 PM, South Austin said:

is my daughter smoking pot and I don't know it

 

On 8/25/2023 at 3:31 PM, South Austin said:

and is in the top 6% of her class

1.  Probably

 

2.   Shame she won't consider UT.  She could meet DCBC, Jr.  But I get it.  And it's probably for the best for her in not meeting my lovely first born.

 

3.  I have a friend whose son is a freshman at Cal Poly.  Probably worth a look if she's looking at the UC schools.

Edited August 28, 2023 by dcbc

[South Austin 52,444]

8 hours ago, dcbc said:

Shame she won't consider UT. 

Yeah, I know, for financial and other reasons.  But I get why someone who's lived in Austin her whole life (and without getting all Cloak Roomy, has a growing disdain for the political direction of her home state) wants to go away for college.

My son, on the other hand, told me this weekend when we were talking about his sister going far away for college, "I want to go to UT.  I love Austin and don't want to leave."  But he's in seventh grade, so . . . .

[CooterBrown 18,002]

29 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Yeah, I know, for financial and other reasons.  But I get why someone who's lived in Austin her whole life (and without getting all Cloak Roomy, has a growing disdain for the political direction of her home state) wants to go away for college.

My son, on the other hand, told me this weekend when we were talking about his sister going far away for college, "I want to go to UT.  I love Austin and don't want to leave."  But he's in seventh grade, so . . . .

My kid was the same. Only going to UT until she hit high school and now it's blue states away from Texas.  Which is fine since we want to get out when our youngest gets out of HS.

[South Austin 52,444]

20 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

My kid was the same. Only going to UT until she hit high school and now it's blue states away from Texas.  Which is fine since we want to get out when our youngest gets out of HS.

I'm likely stuck in Austin for the rest of my life for various reasons.  But at least my daughter's top choice will be a cool place to visit and relatively easy to get to, as opposed to some other blue state locations.

[Brew 3,049]

14 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

that’s crazy 

 

Goto smaller state schools 

She’s dead set on going big law in Chi/NYC so she’s looking at feeder schools to graduate schools that feed those practices.

Our main state school is right at $40k now for instate and is housing kids in local hotels because they are out of dorm space. They have all gotten to be fairly ridiculous including schools I would have never associated with high costs/low acceptance rates in the past.

[Brew 3,049]

17 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

Yes undergrad private is about 90k per year.  And it sucks sweaty hairy balls.   I’m about to have two of them.

I figure it will average out with my second one. She’s probably going somewhere in Colorado where she can eat gummies and snowboard with a little school on the side (hopefully.)

[fattyflattie 4,639]

29 minutes ago, Brew said:

I figure it will average out with my second one. She’s probably going somewhere in Colorado where she can eat gummies and snowboard with a little school on the side (hopefully.)

Sounds like our 1 and 2 are similar.  My oldest has always been Rice/UT, and my middle one asked if there were any colleges near, last time we were floating the river.  Was funny to me because I’ve been calling it correctly since they were 3 or so.  

[Damor 1,236]

Well, I'm here to answer @Brew and @fattyflattie's questions, then.  My older one just started at Wasted State Western Colorado University.

[Brew 3,049]

20 minutes ago, Damor said:

Well, I'm here to answer @Brew and @fattyflattie's questions, then.  My older one just started at Wasted State Western Colorado University.

My man, that looks perfect for what she is looking for other than out of state being higher than I expected.

[Hefeweizen 5,310]

Well I’m currently trying to get my son to go to UCSD (it’s number two or three on his list) and I told him I’ll pay for med school if he does that.  If he goes private he can pay himself after undergrad.  Same deal I offered my daughter.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

54 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

Well I’m currently trying to get my son to go to UCSD (it’s number two or three on his list) and I told him I’ll pay for med school if he does that.  If he goes private he can pay himself after undergrad.  Same deal I offered my daughter.

Good problem to have. 

[Brew 3,049]

1 hour ago, Hefeweizen said:

Well I’m currently trying to get my son to go to UCSD (it’s number two or three on his list) and I told him I’ll pay for med school if he does that.  If he goes private he can pay himself after undergrad.  Same deal I offered my daughter.

If he goes to med school, do at least part of it on a loan. If he’s going into any legitimate specialty he’ll get loan forgiveness as part of the recruitment process with limited time commitments to the area.

I’ve offered similar. Go to a reasonable undergrad and I’ll pay for law school if that’s where she decides to go.

[Horn of Gabriel 1,614]

On 8/25/2023 at 3:31 PM, South Austin said:

Bumping, now that my senior daughter is starting this hellish process.  She still won't consider any schools in Texas or the South (like south of the Mason-Dixon line, so no interest in NC or Va schools), and she's primarily looking at schools in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast, which is fucking fantastic for my finances.  Her current list of schools for application are:

University of Washington (probably top choice right now)
University of Oregon
Reed College (seems like the Rice of the PNW - great school, but way nerdy)
University of California, San Diego 
University of California, Santa Cruz
Lewis & Clark College (is my daughter smoking pot and I don't know it?)
University of the Puget Sound (wtf, something her mom suggested)
George Washington (a late addition, a couple friends started looking at the DC area)

The college coaching service I've hired for her recommends applying to at least 10 schools.  I think she's gravitating toward a state school.  Private schools may be too small and cliquish for her, and she thinks she'll like a larger public university with a more robust and diverse campus life (she loves college athletics, not that good sports programs are the top priority).  She's shot down University of Colorado.  I've suggested looking at Maryland, and she's been meh on that.  Nothing in the Midwest and Northeast seems to interest her.  I'm looking for other ideas. 

For what it's worth, she's got a 1450 SAT, 4.34 GPA, and is in the top 6% of her class (dad humblebrag).  She's thinking about something in the science/health care field, but not necessarily a STEM major.

Any thoughts?

 

 

One of my friend's son attends the University of Puget Sound.  He's a sophomore, plays football there.  So far likes it and the photos of campus have been beautiful.  But, it's a tiny tiny school compared to others on this list, so your daughter would really want to have the small school experience, which is not for everyone.

[Mach 1 1,677]

Same boat as alot of you guys, daughter has the grades/scores/extras and wants to shoot for the stars with top private schools.

Wife and I were kind of smug starting the college tours this year, patting each other on the back for starting a 529 when they were babies and saving enough for all 4 years

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.  OUR $200K PLUS ONLY PAYS FOR 2.5 YEARS?

Thankfully her counselor has her applying to some state schools as back ups, but the leaders in the pack so far are Emory, Northwestern and Wash U - all absolutely gorgeous and all reaches.  Trip to Boston area schools coming up next month. Needless to say we're scrambling to figure out the final 1.5 years.  Fuck me.

[South Austin 52,444]

1 minute ago, Mach 1 said:

Needless to say we're scrambling to figure out the final 1.5 years.  Fuck me.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

1 hour ago, Mach 1 said:

Needless to say we're scrambling to figure out the final 1.5 years.  Fuck me.

So let’s say you have 3 of them…Furk 

[Brew 3,049]

1 hour ago, Mach 1 said:

Same boat as alot of you guys, daughter has the grades/scores/extras and wants to shoot for the stars with top private schools.

Wife and I were kind of smug starting the college tours this year, patting each other on the back for starting a 529 when they were babies and saving enough for all 4 years

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.  OUR $200K PLUS ONLY PAYS FOR 2.5 YEARS?

Thankfully her counselor has her applying to some state schools as back ups, but the leaders in the pack so far are Emory, Northwestern and Wash U - all absolutely gorgeous and all reaches.  Trip to Boston area schools coming up next month. Needless to say we're scrambling to figure out the final 1.5 years.  Fuck me.

Looks like you are in the same area with the exact same thoughts that we had. Wash U, NW, Univ of Chi, NYU, Illinois, UNC, William and Mary, UGA, Belmont as her safety school, and then going to Boston fall break to look at a few around there.

Edited August 28, 2023 by Brew

[Mach 1 1,677]

7 minutes ago, Brew said:

Looks like you are in the same area with the exact same thoughts that we had. Wash U, NW, Univ of Chi, NYU, Illinois, UNC, William and Mary, UGA, Belmont as her safety school, and then going to Boston fall break to look at a few around there.

Yep.

U Chicago really nice.  She wasn't feeling it for the "whole college experience" social aspect, but they don't fuck around when it comes to job placement.

UNC - didn't visit since only 20%? out of state allowed

William Mary - I thought it was great, she thought everyone she met was weird. And they noted one of the social things to do was take a shuttle to an outlet mall. Nope.

We all liked Wake alot BTW.  And UVA.

[Brew 3,049]

Wake was super nice, she did a summer immersion deal there this summer and liked it. Price tag versus other factors including virtually no merit based money didn’t make sense to her. UVA and MD are also on her list but UVA is sub 10% out of state admittance like UNC. Right now, she thinks she has decided not to apply and look at it for law school potentially. All the state schools outside of the southern SEC schools are ultra low out of state now. Hell, Tenn went to 30% total admittance which is close to conference low behinds Vandy last year which is vastly different than where it was a few years ago.

[Mach 1 1,677]

Just to put a cherry on the shit sundae that is private school tuiton, an anecdote:

Wife's uncle taught at Loyola Baltimore.  Had a conversation a few years back about tuition before he retired.  I asked about the increasing cost of college tuition and he said, "It's real, we just increased tuition X percent."  I said something naive along the lines of "Wow, costs must really be affecting the university."  His response shocked me:  "Not really.  Our peer schools increased their tuition so we had to match so as not to seem less presitigous."

He wasn't an adminstrator, so could be bullshit, but I suspect there's a level of truth there.

[Brew 3,049]

2 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

So let’s say you have 3 of them…Furk 

Easy, battle of the kids. Smartest/most driven one gets the tuition coverage, other two are going to a low tier state school. Put your eggs in the basket of the one with the best shot.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

46 minutes ago, Brew said:

Easy, battle of the kids. Smartest/most driven one gets the tuition coverage, other two are going to a low tier state school. Put your eggs in the basket of the one with the best shot.

Fuck that.  I’ll work till I die to not have a couple of aggy running around the house.  

[Brisketexan 105,057]

Just had the “family finances” conversation with both kids about graduate schools. Explained that we would like to support them through grad school, but our assistance has number limits. If you wan to go to Georgetown at $80k for your masters…you’re probably going to pay for half or more yourself. So, cost is a consideration to have in mind as you’re looking around and thinking about where you might want to go.
Mind you, we do well. We can afford more than most families. But fuck any of these $80k-$100k per year schools. That’s bullshit, and the ROI, but for the Stanford/Yale etc class, ain’t there.

[tx 3 putt 76,868]

57 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

and the ROI, but for the Stanford/Yale etc class, ain’t there.

 

the same could be said of undergrad degrees ...

[Brew 3,049]

48 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

the same could be said of undergrad degrees ...

Depends on where you want to go and what you want to do. I run a top 140 firm based out of a moderate sized town with a degree from a college that doesn’t exist any more . I did just fine on the path I chose. However, if I had wanted to go Big 4 in a major market out of college I would not have gotten an interview. It’s changed some now because of scarcity of people, but it’s still a stigma to go to a lot of different schools. There are plenty of careers in plenty of places where you just need the diploma then it’s on you. There are certain ones and certain places where the diploma opens the door for you to then prove it.

[South Austin 52,444]

10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Just had the “family finances” conversation with both kids about graduate schools. Explained that we would like to support them through grad school, but our assistance has number limits. If you wan to go to Georgetown at $80k for your masters…you’re probably going to pay for half or more yourself. So, cost is a consideration to have in mind as you’re looking around and thinking about where you might want to go.
Mind you, we do well. We can afford more than most families. But fuck any of these $80k-$100k per year schools. That’s bullshit, and the ROI, but for the Stanford/Yale etc class, ain’t there.

You're more generous than I've indicated to my daughter so far.  Her mother and I have told her that collectively we're willing to fund her undergraduate at a very healthy level, even for her out-of-state and private school targets, and if she needs loans beyond that it shouldn't be significant.  We don't want finances to be something that forecloses her top choice, but she also needs to be mindful of a budget and the possibility for a student loan to bridge the gap if her top choice is that important to her.

But for graduate school we've said that she's on her own.  Which is similar to how I got through school.  My parents paid every penny of undergraduate, which wasn't a huge burden given that I went to very cheap state schools between 1992-1996 (two years at N.C. State then two years at Texas).  But law school was going to be a stretch for them, even at UT (which was about $4,000 in tuition at the time), so it was all on me.  Also, the time my daughter will be headed to grad school will be when we're sending Thing Two off to undergrad.

But yeah, I'm already drilling into my daughter's head the notion of ROI, especially when it comes to grad school.

[South Austin 52,444]

15 hours ago, Horn of Gabriel said:

One of my friend's son attends the University of Puget Sound.  He's a sophomore, plays football there.  So far likes it and the photos of campus have been beautiful.  But, it's a tiny tiny school compared to others on this list, so your daughter would really want to have the small school experience, which is not for everyone.

The last reported enrollment I've found (Fall 2021) is 1,866.  I just don't see her going to a school that small, whether University of Puget Sound or some other private school.  But we'll see.

[tx 3 putt 76,868]

 

12 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Just had the “family finances” conversation with both kids about graduate schools. Explained that we would like to support them through grad school, but our assistance has number limits. If you wan to go to Georgetown at $80k for your masters…you’re probably going to pay for half or more yourself. So, cost is a consideration to have in mind as you’re looking around and thinking about where you might want to go.
Mind you, we do well. We can afford more than most families. But fuck any of these $80k-$100k per year schools. That’s bullshit, and the ROI, but for the Stanford/Yale etc class, ain’t there.

 

what grad degrees are they looking at ?

some are very high value 

[Brisketexan 105,057]

28 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

what grad degrees are they looking at ?

some are very high value 

Yeah....we're also having THAT conversation.  Daughter (just graduated undergrad) is going through a bit of a rough patch, being hit with the reality of adulting pretty hard.  She had been looking at a (shitty) grad program as a bridge (it would be a safe landing pad for a couple of years, because she knows how to "do school"...and the reason it was just the one school was her late applications, because she changed her mind about going to grad school late in the game...it's complicated).

The point being, now that she is figuring out how hard it is to get a decent job without both experience and a valuable graduate degree, she's opening up her mind to different degree programs with a broader reach.  Which we wholeheartedly support.  And a discussion of "and what career path and income possibilities do these open up for you?" is part of the evaluation.  She's starting to get it.  Maybe we didn't do a great job impressing that on her when she was in college, but we're making up for lost time.

And the boy is watching all of this unfold and is quite aware of the conversations and considerations.  He's just a sophomore, so he has some time.