Quote:
Originally Posted by Pingyang
Top private schools with strong endowments and a desire to attract the strongest students can sometimes offer better financial aid packages, especially compared to states where in-state residency is hard to establish. If she becomes a National Merit Semifinalist or better, that might open some doors for scholarships to out-of-state schools, but be wary of front-loaded financial aid and scholarships that require extremely high GPAs to keep. (Even the best students sometimes struggle with the adjustment to college.)
Net price is not sticker price, though both are much too high these days. Don't rule out private institutions early because of high sticker price--every school will have different financial aid opportunities, and it's worthwhile to research them.  |
Oooh - I'd like to "third" this.
Remember that part of the rising cost of college has to do with the strategy increasingly employed by many universities - "high tuition, high aid".
Universities use merit scholarships to lure in the very top of their applicant pool, because they really want those best candidates for all the metrics that go into rankings. So, regardless of public or private, the real issue should be how desired is that school, and how does Cheddar compare to their typical pool of applicants? Obviously, you'll balance that with fit, reputation and her definition of "good" school.
If you're interested in podcosts, I listened to two interesting ones recently:
Planet Money's "The Real Price of College"
This American Life's "How I Got Into College"
Also keep in mind that the overall pool of high school-aged students is declining with movement of that second baby boom, so many smaller universities are finding it much harder to recruit students than they did 5-7 years ago.
For example:
This is from 2010, where there was a noticeable bulge at the 18-20 year old mark. I'm guessing your daughter was about 11 or 12 in 2010 - placing her right in that nice little valley around the 10-year-old mark. I think your daughter is in the best position (numbers-wise) as any student has been in 15 years.