have you considered asking your kids to consider a Canadian university? Not only are they very prestigious institutions-but the cost can be cheaper even as an out-of-country applicant because of the lower tuition/lower cost of living. To boot, they still award significant merit scholarships. The only caveat is that they hold their international applicants to extremely high standards-but your kids sound like they are really bright. I know my high school counselours frequently advised kids to take this route if they didn’t want to attend the local state university but couldn’t afford private tuition either-and I have many American friends from uni that went there for that specific reason.
Well I chose the filthy lucre route…
I am a Canadian (although I live in the US) and I gave up my dream of attending Northwestern to attend McGill and it was the best decision I ever made in my life. I got a substantial academic scholarship that made it worth my while and I graduated with 0$ in loans-leaving me free for the full amount of loan assistance for my graduate studies. I also have the pride of being able to pay for grad school for myself-which was a goal that was really important to me. And I don’t feel that I made any sort of significant academic tradeoff either.
Well I should be honest: I threw a hissy fit when my parents basically cajoled/arm twisted me into attending McGill but once I got there, I fell in love with it. However, I wouldn’t advocate this strategy with everyone else’s kids because you might not get lucky and then they will blame you as opposed to thanking you!
Anyway, now I am thanking my lucky stars I made that decision. Apparently this was one of the toughest years to get into law school because of the increased volume of applications and I think that I might have gotten like an 1/8 of a millionth of a fraction of extra “oomph” out of my various foreign-nesses, and that includes my “foreign” degree.
Glad your kid has the financial backing of her parents.
There’s a lot to be said about going to a school that doesn’t put you into serious debt for the next 20 years. Use the money on Graduate School, when you’re a lot more focused.
Damn! You must be proud of her!
Think of it this way, in four years time when she’s finished, the money won’t matter anymore and she’ll have achieved things just the way she wanted to.
Man, all this talk about college expenses is freakin’ scary! Especially to the father of a high school junior.
We already know Sakura is going to college on scholarships and/or loans. We have zero money saved for this, as we have struggled financially most of our married life.
The good news is, the girl is something of an academic workaholic. She’s taking honors and AP classes out the ying-yang, and getting low/mid 90s in most everything. Her counselor told Mrs. Dave-Guy that the colleges she’s interested in (Pace, NYU, Manhattan College at Manhattanville) would be eager to have her. We’re hoping this means that they will see fit to chip in and pony up the dough. I mean, if she’s that good a catch…
Sheesh. I can practically feel my hair getting grayer by the minute.
OSU is a very good school for some things. As mentioned, they have a pretty good engineering program. But, as you said, your daughter wants Physics and they do have a fair program.
I went to OSU on a full scholarship including room and board and books. I was quite comforatble all through school and never felt any guilt regarding my parents forking over money for me to go. My theory always was that I would do OSU for undergrad and then go to a pricey school for grad/law school. I bet your daughter will be looking to attend grad school, so why don’t you send her someplace she can get a big 'ol scholarship (not necessarily OSU) for undergrad and then spend the big bucks for grad?
Then again, I blew that theory when I went to law school at the mediocre place that I had a full scholarship at
Oklahoma State has a great scholarship progarm and to all of you Okies out there (there are some of you other than Arden and I?) any kid w/ an ACT score high enough gets a full scholarship to OSU or OU expenses paid. That’s how I got mine
