Costs for an "elite" education?

[Phil Thien]

While not Ivy League...they reduced their offer by that amount.

That is such valuable information, I am extremely thankful for that.

So we will encourage her to apply to UW no matter what.

[Phil Thien]

Pretty much...plus come with other perks (meet-and-greets with the president, etc).

Thank you Dan. You guys are on a roll for providing excellent tips.

[Matt Meiser]

Again, here small schools might be more helpful than big schools. I had no intention of transferring to the school I graduated from I was looking at smaller state university. My brother had a roommate who was transferring to this school they were encouraging me to check it out. I had pawned calling them off to my mom. She forgot about the time change and called just before business hours and got campus security. The head of security gave her the 800 number and had her call back then transferred her to admissions to leave a message. He had her call back again and transferred her to financial aid. And so on with each group she wanted to get information from. By mid-day every single one had actually called her back. Financial aid gave her a rough idea of what they could do for me. I went for a campus visit later that week and within about 2 weeks I had been accepted, have everything lined up, etc.

Also regardless of whether you think its right or wrong, at least in the early 90's, some schools were looking at meeting diversity numbers as a major factor. If you were in a category they were looking for you got a lot more support than someone who wasn't.

[charlie knighton]

Phil,

look into this

http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/

full ride, also sent to europe for a summer trip paid for by the school/foundation

my brother's daughter married a jefferson scholar

it definetly was a good deal

and yes start now setting your daughter up to qualify, by the way he was from outside phila, does not matter if student is out of state

only bad thing you are wahoo instead of hokie for life

[Phil Thien]

BTW, should we start sending ACT scores to schools she may be interested in NOW? This is an automated process, you do it via the ACT web page.

Or should we wait until she is applying?

I'd think the fact that you can do it early means we should probably do it early to see if there is any interested among the schools she is considering?

[Dan Hintz]

When we talked with MIT (1998) we already had in hand not only a full ride at Iowa State University (tuition, room and board) but he would get an additional $14,000/year. I thought this would allow some leverage at MIT... Uh, no. The finance counselor said, "ISU is a very good school and in four years he can say he graduated from ISU; or he can say he graduated from MIT."

This is essentially what Purdue told me... there is little leverage unless you're in the top 0.1% of those applying.

[Dan Friedrichs]

BTW, should we start sending ACT scores to schools she may be interested in NOW?

Yes, do. It can't hurt (other than the flood of junk mail that they'll all send you back). But I'd also expect some personal contact from institutions that are more interested.

[Rich Riddle]

Phil,

My wife and I have elite educations and also good educations. The endeavor cost us hundreds of thousands. You can only decide it that's worth it. It's paid off for us. It's hard to determine if lesser educations would have paid as well, and no method exists to accurately speculate. If we had to do the same thing again, would we? Most likely, but not in our exact specialties. That would have only changed the ending of our educations, not 90% of the educational process.

[Greg Portland]

Edit to add: Two things she has expressed an interest in include: (1) Becoming an M.D., (2) Serving in the military. But if she takes a ton of loans to go through medical school, would she be able to make enough income in the military to make payments on the school? How does that work?

The military will pay for you to become a doctor. The programs vary & I don't know what happened after the recent round of budget cuts.

Be very careful with the financial aid packages. I know a lot of people at top tier schools who got great financial aid for 3-4 years and then were screwed on the last year.

[Darius Ferlas]

Regarding the "elite" education, it is always a good idea to decide what the word "elite" refers to. Check the faculty biographies at Harvard Med school and you will be pleasantly surprised to find out how many of the professors were originally educated in other, not so elite universities. Take Harvard's Jack Szostak (Nobel in medicine). He's at Harvard now but he didn't go to any elite schools. He got hired by one. There are plenty of examples like that. It's not just the school. It's also the student.

When it comes to money, here in Canada parents can setup educational savings accounts for their children. Basically, the federal government matches parents' contributions We opened an account like that for our daughter when she was 12, so by the time she was ready for the academia, a good chunk of the costs was already covered, and whatever was left to pay she managed to pay for from grants and scholarships.

Long story short - she turned down a pricey offer from Yale and opted for the lowly Brock University in Canada instead. She continued on in Wroclaw (Poland), Leipzig (Germany) and now she's competing her masters in Vienna (Austria). Just 23 years old now, last month she got a job offer from a major international organization fighting drugs and crime. Her debt is close to zero, though I have to admit her multiple citizenships helped with that, as EU education is not that expensive for EU citizens. Sadly, US based schools were the most expensive she applied for, and offered the least financial discounts/incentives, even though she is also a US born citizen. The "out of state" reason was the most frequently used basis for the higher prices. None of the EU countries were she studied have a concept of non-resident citizen for the tuition purposes.

As someone mentioned before, another key factor is WHAT she wants to do. Matching genuine interests and passion with education and careers is the ideal to strive for. Avoid mortgage sized student loans for a young person just starting out.

[Dan Hintz]

Regarding the "elite" education, it is always a good idea to decide what the word "elite" refers to. Check the faculty biographies at Harvard Med school and you will be pleasantly surprised to find out how many of the professors were originally educated in other, not so elite universities. Take Harvard's Jack Szostak (Nobel in medicine). He's at Harvard now but he didn't go to any elite schools. He got hired by one.

If a school only hired alumnus, the knowledge base would stagnate pretty quickly. I have no issue with (using your example) Harvard hiring someone with a community college education, as long as they're selecting the cream of the crop. I know some guys who have no education beyond high school, but they're light years beyond some guys with PhDs. Not every potential Nobel Prize winner gets the chance to go to Harvard, but Harvard would be crazy not to take them when they appear.

[Darius Ferlas]

The point is not that Harvard hires outside profs. The point is that you don't need to go to Harvard to become the cream of the crop.

[Dan Hintz]

The point is not that Harvard hires outside profs. The point is that you don't need to go to Harvard to become the cream of the crop.

Understood... but it's easier to become cream if you're surrounded by a creamer.

[Mel Fulks]

I don't think elite and education are compatible terms. The competion among colleges for newer bigger buildings and top athletes are the source of most elite ratings . The word traditionally applies to ones place in society ,not education. It is a fact that professions such as law like to hire people from the same schools and don't hire 'rivals'. That means they are all the best. My son paid for his own education at a good ,not high profile ,engineering school and has excelled .Putting education as the highest priority makes choosing a school a lot easier.Good luck!

[Brian Elfert]

The idea of applying to a military academy for a "free" education is a good one, but at least for West Point you must be nominated by a member of congress or the vice president. Most members of congress will nominate one person to West Point with a possibly a few alternate nominees. A young man I know was planning to go to Virginia Military Institute, but he got accepted to West Point so of course he went to West Point.