Where you go to college....for most it matters!

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UCONN is cheaper but still not cheap. State schools tend to give less aid and merit money if at all vs many privates. If a private school really wants you they will create appealing packages. You need to have the hook that makes them want you - it could be sports, academics or other. In your example of no package then you probably have very average grades for the school and no hook. Then yes UCONN may be a better bet. Across four years that's a lot of money saved.

Also depends in what you want to study (does one school have the top program for major X that you want?). Other things like honors programs come into play - one school puts you in the honors track but not the other? So many reasons why you pick one over another and each case is unique.

Those schools? No. Not worth it. But we were talking elite schools.

[Unregistered]

Yale $71,500
Middlebury $69,400
Wellesley $70,000
Trinity $71,500
Harvard $69,600
Colgate $69,900
Colby $69,000
Amherst $72,000
Williams $70,700

Some current tuition rates py.

$285K

You got it?

Actually we do. We've been fortunate enough to have high salaries and made saving for college a priority. However, that doesn't mean we'll pay for our child to go to Trinity or Colby at $70K vs UCONN, UGA, WISCONSIN at $45k. (We're not CT residents)

[Unregistered]

Yale $71,500
Middlebury $69,400
Wellesley $70,000
Trinity $71,500
Harvard $69,600
Colgate $69,900
Colby $69,000
Amherst $72,000
Williams $70,700

Some current tuition rates py.

$285K

You got it?

You never will really know what kind of package you'll get until you apply but there are lots of online resources that can give you some ideas. The Ivies are more generous with need based aid but have no merit. To get merit at many other schools you have to far above their admitted norms, or have some other reason the school really wants you. That's where a sport or other talent can help but it will be a mystery until you apply or coach puts together an athletics based package.

Tell your kids that there's a real possibility it won't happen without big grants or loans. Explain it all to them BEFORE they start looking, go through the websites to get estimates with them. Encourage them to explore all options but with just with realistic expectations. I've seen several families not have that tough talk (probably because the parents haven't faced the cold hard reality that they haven't saved enough), kids apply and are all excited when they get in, then the family goes "oh shi t we can't afford this."

[Unregistered]

Actually we do. We've been fortunate enough to have high salaries and made saving for college a priority. However, that doesn't mean we'll pay for our child to go to Trinity or Colby at $70K vs UCONN, UGA, WISCONSIN at $45k. (We're not CT residents)

Some NE state schools are really expensive if you're not a resident. Out of state tuition in the midwest and west can be much cheaper. UCONN, even UVM out of state is absurd. If you're in state that's different. Yet UCONN is still high in state vs other in state tuitions. Often you can get a package elsewhere that matches UCONN's instate price

[Unregistered]

People don't seem to look at student loan debt the same way they look at other debts. When you get a mortgage, you decide if its a good investment. Is paying the mortgage better use of capital than renting? Will the home appreciate during the time you own it to offset the interest paid (or even earn a profit). Most importantly, will you be in a financial situation to pay the mortgage the next 15-30 years?

Education is the same. It's an investment. The asset you are buying is a diploma. The diplomas all have different market values. You can justify Yale at $70K but Trinity at $70K is an overpriced asset. The major, starting job/salary, and your work effort/abilities will determine if you get an ROI on the investment. A Yale kid who becomes an art teacher in Bridgeport may have a fulfilling job but will not get an ROI. A QU kid who takes an entry level job at Pitney Bowes and busts ass for 15 years, may land in a nice corner offer and do well (though may be miserable).

As someone said earlier it's about swimming with the current or against it. The thing about joining a consulting firm is that it's not about choosing a career in consulting it should be thought of as graduate school. At my company nearly every exec at SVP or above worked in consulting. Consulting is a platform to whatever you choose whether it's politics or healthcare or music. The ONLY way to get in is to start at a top school. Just look at this PARTIAL list from just a single firm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ny_consultants

[Unregistered]

People don't seem to look at student loan debt the same way they look at other debts. When you get a mortgage, you decide if its a good investment. Is paying the mortgage better use of capital than renting? Will the home appreciate during the time you own it to offset the interest paid (or even earn a profit). Most importantly, will you be in a financial situation to pay the mortgage the next 15-30 years?

Education is the same. It's an investment. The asset you are buying is a diploma. The diplomas all have different market values. You can justify Yale at $70K but Trinity at $70K is an overpriced asset. The major, starting job/salary, and your work effort/abilities will determine if you get an ROI on the investment. A Yale kid who becomes an art teacher in Bridgeport may have a fulfilling job but will not get an ROI. A QU kid who takes an entry level job at Pitney Bowes and busts ass for 15 years, may land in a nice corner offer and do well (though may be miserable).

As someone said earlier it's about swimming with the current or against it. The thing about joining a consulting firm is that it's not about choosing a career in consulting it should be thought of as graduate school. At my company nearly every exec at SVP or above worked in consulting. Consulting is a platform to whatever you choose whether it's politics or healthcare or music. The ONLY way to get in is to start at a top school. Just look at this PARTIAL list from just a single firm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ny_consultants

Well put.
The fact that consultants make up a large % of Sr Execs at major corporations explains, th precarious state of business in this country, but that's for another forum.

[Unregistered]

Doesn't have to be consulting but landing an entry level job at a big name company that actually trains people can be invaluable. The name and learning experience can help you land other good jobs down the road vs working at a startup that didn't quite make it. You don't have to stay in big corporate, but take in as much as you can learn while you're there. Continuing education so to speak

[Unregistered]

Doesn't have to be consulting but landing an entry level job at a big name company that actually trains people can be invaluable. The name and learning experience can help you land other good jobs down the road vs working at a startup that didn't quite make it. You don't have to stay in big corporate, but take in as much as you can learn while you're there. Continuing education so to speak

My daugher's experience.....

Recruited by a number of D1, D2 and D3 schools to play. Aggressively recruited by Brown, Bentley, Boston College, Northeastern and a couple of others. High school valedictorian on top of the soccer, so she really had her choice. We urged her to consider Brown, but she seemed less interested there and liked the Boston area. But, she didn't want to feel compelled to play soccer if she didn't want to do so. So she turned down the soccer money and went after academic monies. She finally settled on Bentley, because of it's excellent reputation in the area she wanted to study. It was also smaller than Boston College, her other favorite, but still had that same feel. She got what she wanted from the school and then walked onto the soccer program. Made the team and had a fine career there. Got recruited out of Bentley to a Fortune 100 company. Over the next four years they trained her in several areas of the company, paid off what small student loans she had accumulated and paid for her Masters at Virginia. Now she's the VP of a new arm of the company, with stock options. In another couple of years, she will be able to keep me comfortable the rest of my life....lol.

It was the fit that made it all possible for her. That and a great corporate start.

[Unregistered]

My daugher's experience.....

Recruited by a number of D1, D2 and D3 schools to play. Aggressively recruited by Brown, Bentley, Boston College, Northeastern and a couple of others. High school valedictorian on top of the soccer, so she really had her choice. We urged her to consider Brown, but she seemed less interested there and liked the Boston area. But, she didn't want to feel compelled to play soccer if she didn't want to do so. So she turned down the soccer money and went after academic monies. She finally settled on Bentley, because of it's excellent reputation in the area she wanted to study. It was also smaller than Boston College, her other favorite, but still had that same feel. She got what she wanted from the school and then walked onto the soccer program. Made the team and had a fine career there. Got recruited out of Bentley to a Fortune 100 company. Over the next four years they trained her in several areas of the company, paid off what small student loans she had accumulated and paid for her Masters at Virginia. Now she's the VP of a new arm of the company, with stock options. In another couple of years, she will be able to keep me comfortable the rest of my life....lol.

It was the fit that made it all possible for her. That and a great corporate start.

Cool. Looking at Bentley for 2018 (boy)

[Unregistered]

Doesn't have to be consulting but landing an entry level job at a big name company that actually trains people can be invaluable. The name and learning experience can help you land other good jobs down the road vs working at a startup that didn't quite make it. You don't have to stay in big corporate, but take in as much as you can learn while you're there. Continuing education so to speak

Partially correct. There was a time when having GE or IBM on your resume would open doors. These days it's a quick way to get your resume to the bottom of the pile. There may still be some value in having Google or Amazon or Microsoft on the resume but even that is eroding.

Consulting is different. They EXPECT their staff to leave an join companies... because they know they will one day be executives and hire the consulting firm. At many firms if you say you are thinking of leaving, they will actually give you time to look for a job and set up interviews with possible employers. Imagine telling your boss at GE or Pepsi that you are thinking of quitting and going elsewhere! At a consulting firm, they see it as a "graduation".

Not saying consulting is the magic pill to prosperity but it definitely offers an unfair advantage... which is why it's so hard to get into a top firm.

[Unregistered]

Partially correct. There was a time when having GE or IBM on your resume would open doors. These days it's a quick way to get your resume to the bottom of the pile. There may still be some value in having Google or Amazon or Microsoft on the resume but even that is eroding.

Consulting is different. They EXPECT their staff to leave an join companies... because they know they will one day be executives and hire the consulting firm. At many firms if you say you are thinking of leaving, they will actually give you time to look for a job and set up interviews with possible employers. Imagine telling your boss at GE or Pepsi that you are thinking of quitting and going elsewhere! At a consulting firm, they see it as a "graduation".

Not saying consulting is the magic pill to prosperity but it definitely offers an unfair advantage... which is why it's so hard to get into a top firm.

and you get to work 80+ hours a week. Consulting isn't for everybody.

Agreed on the big company thing - it really depends on the company, also the field. But also it's tough to break through with a no-name one as well.

[Unregistered]

My daugher's experience.....

Recruited by a number of D1, D2 and D3 schools to play. Aggressively recruited by Brown, Bentley, Boston College, Northeastern and a couple of others. High school valedictorian on top of the soccer, so she really had her choice. We urged her to consider Brown, but she seemed less interested there and liked the Boston area. But, she didn't want to feel compelled to play soccer if she didn't want to do so. So she turned down the soccer money and went after academic monies. She finally settled on Bentley, because of it's excellent reputation in the area she wanted to study. It was also smaller than Boston College, her other favorite, but still had that same feel. She got what she wanted from the school and then walked onto the soccer program. Made the team and had a fine career there. Got recruited out of Bentley to a Fortune 100 company. Over the next four years they trained her in several areas of the company, paid off what small student loans she had accumulated and paid for her Masters at Virginia. Now she's the VP of a new arm of the company, with stock options. In another couple of years, she will be able to keep me comfortable the rest of my life....lol.

It was the fit that made it all possible for her. That and a great corporate start.

Imagine if she went to brown!

[Unregistered]

and you get to work 80+ hours a week. Consulting isn't for everybody.

Agreed on the big company thing - it really depends on the company, also the field. But also it's tough to break through with a no-name one as well.

Consulting is definitely not for everyone... the same way an engineering degree is not for kids interested in humanities. However, anyone who wants to climb the corp ladder and be an executive somewhere or run their own business there is nothing better.

I was lucky to land in consulting. I was convinced I was going to law school before popping into an info session of a major consulting firm to flirt with a girl I know would be there. After 10 min, I forgot about the girl and was hooked. I spent 4 years in consulting and that time shaped the next 25 years of my career. Multiple people have talked about the connections and doors that open. That's true but for me the greatest value was the "education". Consulting changes how you think and how you solve problems. Even today as an executive at a large media company, I use countless techniques/methodologies/frameworks I learned as an analyst 25 years ago. I use exactly 0 things from my undergrad days.

[Unregistered]

My daugher's experience.....

Recruited by a number of D1, D2 and D3 schools to play. Aggressively recruited by Brown, Bentley, Boston College, Northeastern and a couple of others. High school valedictorian on top of the soccer, so she really had her choice. We urged her to consider Brown, but she seemed less interested there and liked the Boston area. But, she didn't want to feel compelled to play soccer if she didn't want to do so. So she turned down the soccer money and went after academic monies. She finally settled on Bentley, because of it's excellent reputation in the area she wanted to study. It was also smaller than Boston College, her other favorite, but still had that same feel. She got what she wanted from the school and then walked onto the soccer program. Made the team and had a fine career there. Got recruited out of Bentley to a Fortune 100 company. Over the next four years they trained her in several areas of the company, paid off what small student loans she had accumulated and paid for her Masters at Virginia. Now she's the VP of a new arm of the company, with stock options. In another couple of years, she will be able to keep me comfortable the rest of my life....lol.

It was the fit that made it all possible for her. That and a great corporate start.

Ahh yeah. She could have played at BC? SURE. BC recruits for ACC... Not teeny eeeny U

[Unregistered]

Ahh yeah. She could have played at BC? SURE. BC recruits for ACC... Not teeny eeeny U

How Bentley gets into to the same academic set as BC and Brown defies all logic. Brown and Bentley for soccer makes sense, but not BC soccer.

If the story is true great for the them. But unless you know with 100% certainty you want business and only business then a more specialized school like Bentley is a riskier choice. There are many schools with good undergraduate business programs and if you decide to change majors's you have more options and exposure to many different areas of study. Plus in business the MBA degree and where it comes from is a huge stepping stone. You don't have to have an undergraduate business degree to land into a good MBA program. The top program I attended had plenty who csme from corporate backgrounds but also had ex military, liberal arts (one friend was an art history major, another a journalist) law etc.