The cost of an Ivy League undergrad degree next year….

[an]

[quote=FlyerInHi]It’s not like you need to come up all the money all once. An 18yo is just out the cocoon. A young reaponaible adult going to grad school can work and will know how best to do right by his parents.

You can afford to pay.[/quote]
How much would you need from day one?

[scaredyclassic]

Take that no. And multiply by 3 cuz I got 3

[an]

[quote=scaredyclassic]Take that no. And multiply by 3 cuz I got 3[/quote]
That would be almost $3m if we assume medical school for all 3 @ $95k/year. Wow.

[scaredyclassic]

No problemo divide by 18. Carry the 3. If I just give up one starbucks latte, my hero in habit and live in a van down b u the river everything will be fine

[spdrun]

Med school abroad is also cheaper. Poland or the Czech Republic, and there are programs that cater to Americans looking to get licensed in the US.

[FlyerInHi]

It’s a question of priorities.
If your family makes $150, why can’t you live on $50 and save the rest. People do it all the time.

[scaredyclassic]

Let me get this straight.

Live at poverty level…
or liquidate everything you have
To send yr. Kid
To a school
For prestige purposes
Because he might possibly make a connection.

in reality, uh, no.

dumb.

plus one factor that greatly enhances kids odds of success…

is financially stable patents.

not dummies who fork over a fortune on a dream

[FlyerInHi]

If you begin saving before your children are born, you will be financiay stable by the time they reach 18. The likelihood of all 3 kids getting accepted into Ivy League is low. They may not even apply or want to go. But you should pay if your kid wants to go and is accepted.

Excluding housing, you don’t really spend that much on yourself.

Plus people shouldn’t have kids in their 20s. They should be financially stable before having kids.

[flyer]

All of us who went to college, and everyone in college now, has, and is, in essence, banking on a “potential outcome,” with no guarantees, whether they realize it or not, and I completely agree that going into extreme debt for that “potential outcome” is very risky. Many parents today are getting a very disappointing ROI in that regard–and I know a lot of them personally.

If the grandparents hadn’t willingly financed the education of all of the kids in the family, especially those who went to med school like my daughter, I know my wife and I would have had some serious discussions about how far out on a limb we would have been willing to go to finance their educational dreams, vs. investing in properties and other things for them, etc., as AN mentioned.

[nla]

This topic is very close to my heart as a parent of a student currently attending as a Freshman in an Ivy paying full price. She turned down UCLA with Regents Scholarship, UC Berkeley and USC with Presidential Scholarship (1/2 tuition).

It was a hard decision for us, considering the cost differences. For the record, I am not in the camp of “Ivy or bust”. Heck, me and my wife have BS degrees from a third world country and we are doing just fine. Fine enough that the Ivies considered our income high enough that we don’t need any kind of Financial aid. But we also can’t deny that having an Ivy education has a “special” pedigree.

To be clear, we are sending her to an Ivy knowing that it won’t affect our retirement contributions and with very minimal student loan. We asked her to have some loan to make sure that she’s also vested on her education. It is/wasn’t easy, believe me, but we were saving since she was born so it’s not like the whole 60K per year is coming from our current income.

I didn’t read the whole thread but just want to clear out some incorrect assumptions that I noticed.

1. Somebody mentioned that the cost of attendance (COA) for a UC is about 14K and 60K for an Ivy. 14K, is just the tuition for a UC. Total COA for UC is about 35K. So approximately, the total COA difference for four years between UC and the Ivies is about 110K to 120K, depending on the school. That 120K is probably the difference of the cost of living in Scrrips Ranch vice living in Escondido. Or maybe by not driving a Range Rover/Porsche but just having a Honda Civic or a Kia. Maybe not going to Europe for vacation but instead just driving to Arizona or Las Vegas. Or maybe not paying for an expensive extra curricular (i.e. soccer, baseball, etc.). Or maybe a combination of these things and other. But who am I to judge? And I don’t. Different people put values on different things.

2. Somebody mentioned scholarships. The Ivies don’t give merit/academic scholarship or athletic scholarship. They give “grants” and “scholarships” based on needs (income/assets). There are colleges that are just below the Ivies that gives out academic scholarship (USC is one, which my daughter got). But those are very competitive, probably more competitive than getting to an Ivy. There are outside scholarships, but getting close to 60K for an outside scholarship is close to impossible, specially for an upper middle class.

[flyer]

Very informative, nla. In our neighborhood (RSF), for better or worse, it’s pretty much “Ivy or bust” land. As I’ve heard from friends, even then, things don’t always work out as planned, so there are still no guarantees as far as career outcomes are concerned.

So far, so good, for the two of our three kids who graduated from Ivies, and I wish your daughter the best.

[joec]

Thanks for sharing nla.

I also would like to add that all my comments are not purely black and white. If you son or daughter just wants to go to an ivy to just party and learn a crap major and do nothing, sure, it’s a waste of money probably. Maybe they want to get a MRS degree…maybe worth it, no experience there so can’t say.

My comments are all about having both options and if you get the ivy option, I feel it will be better if given both. The cost, as nla mentioned isn’t as insane as stated as well.

Also, with me being dead broke currently, if my kids DO get into an ivy, I assume we won’t have to pay a cent honestly. Makes the decision easy really.

Also, there has been a lot of articles in the past few years I’ve read that if you aren’t super wealthy, the ivy league school isn’t “THAT” much more expensive. In those cases, it’s a good option to get an education that probably isn’t as annoying with constant budget cuts, tuition raises (I lived through the 90s at UC)…and not being able to take your frigging class you want.

Also agree with the other comments that a lot of the people who get accepted into the Stanfords or Harvards of the world are already the top high school people so you already have a student body highly above most other people.

That makes it MORE likely that these people will carry you farther than a UC person.

On Nick Woodman, I posted about him before I think, but his parents live in Rancho Santa Fe and I believe they are very wealthy. He lost over 3 million dollars on his first start up (probably family friends) during the tech boom and after that, took a long trip to surf in Australia.

With wealthy parents, you can AFFORD TO TAKE time off JUST TO SURF. He developed what is GoPro after that there while selling jewelry with g/f / now wife.

This goes back to flyer and my point constantly that connections matter all the more since most people (me included) can under no circumstance take time off to just “play” in some foreign country.

After he came back, his dad helped him and invested money in his GoPro idea (I believe initial is 50k). Also, having wealthy parents invest money, I assume they also had other help to make the business a go which most people won’t have assistance or help with.

One reason that Nick Woodman is a poor example with being a UCSD grad in this discussion since his connections are a major reason for his success since most UC grads can’t afford to take that much time off work (since their parents aren’t the super wealthy types).

[scaredyclassic]

You can wait to have kids and spend yr. TUition on ivf procedures.

We could not save a dime til the kids were pretty old. It was just too tight.

[joec]

[quote=FlyerInHi]If you begin saving before your children are born, you will be financiay stable by the time they reach 18. The likelihood of all 3 kids getting accepted into Ivy League is low. They may not even apply or want to go. But you should pay if your kid wants to go and is accepted.

Excluding housing, you don’t really spend that much on yourself.

Plus people shouldn’t have kids in their 20s. They should be financially stable before having kids.[/quote]

Don’t think you are married or have kids…but I believe if that were to happen, your view (assuming you wanted to stay married), will change drastically…

Similar to those famous divorced people who say they will never get married again…and in 6 months, get hitched…

this love thing makes people do completely illogical things.

Everything is easy to say or do as a single guy…been there, but life changes drastically with kids/wife.

[CA renter]

[quote=FlyerInHi]CAr, what’s wrong with having high expectations that your kids will be chosen among the smartest?

A top education is a badge of merit, if your kids can get in on their own, without you pulling strings. Connections trumps merit, but everyone wants to make it in their own in some way.

People often talk about merit and hard work. But they don’t mean it for themselves.

If I had kids, I would teach them early on that the Ivy league is the only way, and I will find a way when it comes time. if you don’t teach them any differently, that’s the only thing they know. Maybe they don’t make it, and that’s totally fine but you have to set expectations for excellence.[/quote]

Nothing at all wrong with high expectations, but there is a difference between that and “paying for a dream,” as scaredy noted.

Also, I think you grossly underestimate how expensive kids are, even before they ever step foot in college. I’m sure most of us parents have been a bit surprised at the expenses once the kids come along. With multiple kids? Forget it, you’re toast. Not saying it’s not worth it — it’s beyond worth it to most of us as the emotional “ROI” is out of this world — but there is no doubt that having kids is one of the worst possible financial decisions one can make. They cost A LOT of money.

[Author]

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