Posted on 05/03/2016 1:19:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
In early April, my son Dan arrived home from the University of Wisconsin’s Admitted Students Day holding a Wisconsin windshield sticker—and immediately affixed it to our car above his older brother’s University of North Carolina sticker, with a smile I can only describe as vengeful younger-brother joy.
He, too, was going away to a prestigious public university in a storied college town and with a cult-like alumni following.
A couple days earlier I’d photographed him, lanky and beaming, at Bascom Hill, and posted to Facebook: “On Wisconsin! Dan’s a Badger.” Congratulations poured in: 58 “Likes” and 17 comments. He performed the teenage equivalent, recording Snap Stories for his buddies.
All along, he had been clear that he didn’t want to attend a private school because of the price tag: “$70,000 a year! That just makes me angry!” And then he’d laugh at the ridiculousness of those costs. Above average but not a rock star student, he labored through five Advanced Placement classes, including calculus, biology, and statistics; and earned a weighted grade point average well north of 4.0, as well as a very high ACT score.
He’ll graduate next month from a public high school in a New Jersey suburb, one of those places where 98% of the class attends a four-year college. Some go to Ivies or near Ivies, many to prestigious liberal arts colleges, and another group to public research universities. That’s my kids’ peer group. So Dan and I exulted our way through April.
Then, two weeks after we put down the deposit for Wisconsin, we got the financial aid package. We were stunned when he got zero—nada—in aid. Unless you count the $5,500 in federal loans we were offered.
“This must be a mistake,” I thought.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Out-of-state tuition, room, board, and fees for Wisconsin run more than $48,000 this year. Even with the money I’d saved in his 529 fund, there is no way I can afford to send him there, particularly on top of the cost of my elder son’s education.
Tell him to apply here:
One of my husband’s daughters graduated Hillsdale and she did so without debt and she also came out the same wonderful person who went in. That school is a blessing!
Maybe apply to a college you can afford? And what’s wrong with living at home when you attend college? I did. I commuted into Manhattan and back home every afternoon.
community college for two years. A lot of times, if you get through two years of CC (in the honors program) universities will line up to offer aid to finish up there.
Not the ideal solution but that’s what we’re faced with nowadays.
Whatever you do, don’t go into debt.
It’s a story that’s been told over and over. I started saving for my kids college education before they were born.
And frankly, I’m surprised Wisconsin is that cheap. We looked at a few schools for my son that were closer to $60,000 and I’m talking places like Quinnipiac and USC. Airfare and all that other stuff add up too.
I’m not saying school should be free ala Bernie. But something has to change. And I don’t know what that is.
Send him to Plumbing or Welder school.
Vote Bernie, of course, Duh!
Send him to welding/plumbing/electrical/contracting school at votech. He’ll make 48k in a year. Then he can pay for his own college.
Depends on what this kid want so major in.
Does Hillsdale have STEM programs?
Crazy people.
I wouldn’t let a child even apply for a state university other than our own state, in most cases, unless he coughed up the $200 or so application fee himself.
Get a job (or three like I did) and live off campus (it is a scam). Go to school in Jersey where you live.
A young engineer who works with me has debt north of $200,000.
That isn’t sustainable.
Funny thing is when I hear professors at these schools, they keep saying they need more money. I have family who teach at a university. They do not make major coin, but yet the tuition is horrendous.
Where is the money going?
Go to college elsewhere produce great grades and he may find a full ride at school of his choice
Community college for two years.
“Out-of-state tuition, room, board, and fees for Wisconsin run more than $48,000 this year. “
Simple answer, if he can’t afford it, he doesn’t go there... going 200,000 into debt for a 4 year degree is insane.
Just because you get accepted somewhere, doesn’t mean you have to go there, or that its the best fit. If the tuition per year is roughly the median household income in America the price is too damned high to justify.
It would be cheaper for him to go to college in Germany. He can’t be that desirable as a student if they won’t at least waive the out-of-state.
He might want to explore his options at Missouri - he’d have a particularly strong bargaining position with them this summer.
It’s out of control. That said, push the school for assistance, and don’t be shy about it.
If we end student loans then the cost of a college education will drop to something more rational.
Supply and demand.
CC looks horrible on a resume. So much so, I will not recommend it to anyone interested in a STEM career. It will be challenged by the hiring managers.
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