Ask Me Help Desk - True cost of private college?

I have a kid who is junior in high school. He is likely to go to a 4 year private university. The cost of $40k - $50k/year quote for a good private university education scares me a bit but I am hearing financial aid/grant/scholarship and such lowers the overall cost. Whether you are a parent or student, if you know what 4 year private university education is truly costing you after all the aids, please tell. It will help me and others wanting to know the similar info.

College name?
What it supposed to cost?
What it is actually costing you?
Your parents income level

Thanks in advance.

Hi,
Unless you are a millionaire, $200,000.00 for a 4 yr degree is completely ridiculous!
Any college, university, whether private or public, cannot offer anymore than another; it's all up to the student.
If your child in jr high has the ability, and wants to succeed, well beyond the average student in college, then he will do well at any University.
If you are looking strictly for Prestige or "have his name associated with a well-known private school", then that's something else; and has nothing to do with a good education.
Companies and corporations hire people every day, and those with private college education doesn't have a better chance, overall, than those from a good University. It depends on the subject, what jobs are available, and how well you did in college.
I do hope you have a LOT of money, if you intend to pursue private colleges.
Best of luck,
fredg

White, married, middle class couples can expect most of the aid will be in the form of loans, either student loans, or parents. My wife and I were under employed in the 90's when our son attended Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. The aid packages suggested loans no bank in its right mind would give us at our income level.

Frankly look at Fred's advice. Our daughter choose to attend a state university and graduated with much less of a student loan anchor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredg

Hi,
Unless you are a millionaire, $200,000.00 for a 4 yr degree is completely ridiculous!
Any college, university, whether private or public, cannot offer anymore than another; it's all up to the student.
If your child in jr high has the ability, and wants to succeed, well beyond the average student in college, then he will do well at any University.
If you are looking strictly for Prestige or "have his name associated with a well-known private school", then that's something else; and has nothing to do with a good education.
Companies and corporations hire people every day, and those with private college education doesn't have a better chance, overall, than those from a good University. It depends on the subject, what jobs are available, and how well you did in college.
I do hope you have a LOT of money, if you intend to pursue private colleges.
Best of luck,
fredg

I can afford my kid to go to a private college but the important thing is that HE makes the decision and may likely to pick a private school. I don't mind his choosing a publice one as I have done. I will be more than happy. Thanks for your reply.

Quote:

Originally Posted by labman

White, married, middle class couples can expect most of the aid will be in the form of loans, either student loans, or parents. My wife and I were under employed in the 90's when our son attended Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. The aid packages suggested loans no bank in its right mind would give us at our income level.

Frankly look at Fred's advice. Our daughter choose to attend a state university and graduated with with much less of a student loan anchor.

Thanks.

MIT stat recited by their college recruiter:

$45k a year, average student gets about $35k worth of financial aids per year and kids graduate with lowest amount of loan compare to other college graduates. Can someone who sent their kid to MIT or current MIT students confirm?
:)

The big dirty secret about private universities is that they're a ripoff, a scam, a con game, if you pay list price. I read a study that said that there are exactly 2 types of students at these universities. First, there are brilliant students, the mean SAT of someone in a top-15 school is 1400-1450, at the 25th percentile. Second, there are people who pay list price for the 'prestige', but they are not good students, mean SAT is 1200-1250 at the 75th percentile. Moreover, the distribution is bimodal.

As someone who scored at the high end of that range, but paid list price, I am painfully aware that I did not break even on college costs until nearly TWENTY years after graduation. In other words, if I had just put tuition, room, and board ($50,000) into an S&P 500 index fund, and had gotten a job as a computer programmer (something that was possible when I was 19), then all I had to do was break-even for 4 years, and I would have been rich enough that I would have done better for the next 20 years of my life. Instead, MIT blew a hole in my economic future. It's not clear that I can get that far ahead in the last 20 years of my working career.

Best advice is to go to a major public university, i.e. Berkeley, Michigan, or Illinois, etc, and do well. In fact, many of my friends who did this, are living in houses worth 3x my house right now...