Just back after a Thursday morning to Saturday morning college visit road trip with DD2. We have a pretty firm cap on what we can afford so not stretching to look at unrealistic options beyond what either we think we can afford or could with anticipated scholarships. Even so, there is about a 35% swing in overall cost between lowest and highest expected out of pocket, roughly $7,000 per year, so pretty significant stakes that we invest the time early and in detail to find the right school. You have to look at out of pocket and not just sticker price. Private schools have many buckets of scholarships to offer, depending on student profile, than do public schools. Besides division, and she is looking at DI, DII, and DIII-mostly private, size of student population, distance from home, urban or small town setting, and surrounding amenities seem to factor into the varied costs. We have perhaps four more schools to visit over the next 10 months before she starts the application process, narrowing down to applying at two schools she'll likely be accepted at, one that could go either way, and perhaps one dream school.
She clearly has a favorite right now, but I won't reveal as it is a long time before she needs to make any choices at all. She did not want to buy any t-shirts or sweatshirts as she felt it would be pointless to buy from a school that she wouldn't be attending, despite seeing so many others in the different tour groups carrying University book store bags. She was given a free t-shirt at one school as part of the visit, pens and pencils at another, and a mini-backpack, pennant, and key chain at a third. She has folders from all of them. Believe me though, collecting free swag is not a reason to go on visits.
We consolidated this road trip into potentially as many as seven different college visits. We ended up doing two formal, one informal, and two stop bys. The stop bys were only because they were on route, and if something excited her, we would plan to schedule a more formal visit later. Neither drew her in. The informal visit was due to late planning on our part and not getting a reserved slot. We probably could have tagged along on a tour, but we were able to talk with people in the departments she has interest in, see the campus and classes in session, the student union, the performing arts center, and between you and me, all dorm rooms and dining options are about the same, so she ended up with a pretty solid insight.
We spent quite a bit on this trip, though economized in a few places. We stayed at my older daughters Friday night and she made us a delicious meal of red lentil daal and cauliflower rice. I picked up muffins and bananas for breakfast. Here is our rough budget for a 2 1/2 day road trip. Our hotel, to which I had applied some Orbitz bucks, had both a complimentary hot breakfast and a managers reception with beer and wine and appetizers so we had a bite to eat before looking at Madison a bit Thursday night, which meant we didn't need much dinner and ended up picking up a pick two 1/2 salad (me) and cup of soup(her) an an extra baguette from Panera to bring back to hotel room.
Gas-2 tanks (have about 1/3 left) $72
Hotel Thursday $74
lunch Thursday (wraps and soup) $19
supper Thursday $12
chocolate, ibuprofen, diet coke $10
lunch Friday $15
iced tea and coffee for road $ 7
muffins, milk, bananas, soda,Mikes $12
Total spent $221
Next opportunity will be spring break for looking at schools. She is toured out at this point, back to focusing on her high school years, but glad she has had the opportunity to see options. I enjoyed our time together. There were a few surprises to what both she and I had assumed and what we saw and learned. She has a more realistic view of the differences and will better be able to compare features based on her longer term goals.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
13 comments:
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good for you for budgeting; I hope this 'wears off' on her.
ReplyDeleteShe's a practical kid, so hopefully she is thinking long term and not just the moment. We're trying to look at the ROI on each school option with her.
DeleteI have to laugh at the line item spending on ibuprofen. lolz
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to the good old days(when I was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth)when kids didn't "visit" potential schools? I think I only visited one college that was "sort of" on my radar(back when you shopped via school catalogs before the interwebs)and I only visited that because 2 girlfriends wanted to go on a road trip and the school was nearby my then current boyfriend's college.
I think all this visiting business can get out of hand easily. But combining it with a mother/daughter trip and only visiting realistic institutions and being frugal about it all is totally cool with me(because I KNOW you want my approval, right? lolz).
I think the kids nowadays get too wrapped up in the trappings and "extras" at schools and the schools likewise wrap themselves up in all that stuff because they know it lures kids(and their parents' money)in. College is an experience but at the end of the day, they are there to be educated. Now excuse me while I go yell at some kids to "get off my lawn"....
I think even comparing anything to how it was when I looked at colleges is apples to grapefruit. I could work a part time waitress job in a pizza restaurant and cover tuition, room, board, spending money, and my car insurance and expenses. Now, the lowest cost option we are looking at will be $16K just for tuition, room, and board. This feels worth the investment of time, and if spending a few hundred on a couple road trips means a better decision, worth it for me. The ibuprofen was needed for my knee after what felt like miles of walking. Plus those long drives are killers on the back.
DeleteI agree with Sluggy. I chose my four-year college, which was several states away, from the brochures and the "Handbook of U.S. Colleges and Universities." I attended sight unseen, and never regretted my choice. My parents dropped me off at the airport, and said "See you at Christmas." (I shipped some stuff ahead via U.P.S.) As my father said, " One small, private, liberal arts college campus is pretty much like another!" The deciding factor between my final two choices was that my alma mater offered a generous financial aid package and excellent course selection in my intended major.
ReplyDeleteI think it was easier decades ago, and the ROI paid better for a college degree. This is why we want to make sure she does make the best decision for her because there will not be a do over.
DeleteI think going to visit is a wise choice. If we had not visited Son3 would never have applied for the fantastic college opportunity he had. We were able to combine all visits in a 5 day span among 3 different cities. (but is was not cheap)
ReplyDeleteWhile we won't do more road trips for a while,I too was a "bad chooser" the first time around. Besides visiting, the opportunity to talk with people is easier on campus.
DeleteYou did a great job minimizing expenses. And, as someone who ended up at a college I didn't like (I transferred), I can echo how important it is to find a good fit! Also, I ended up getting significantly more financial aid from the private schools, making the cost lower than public schools.
ReplyDeleteI think I would have thrived had I made a different choice but went with close and convenient rather than best fit. In doing so, I ended up with an odd college career. It worked out in the long run, but not easily.
DeleteI think you did great on expenses. Picking up Panera was a great idea. A little money spent ahead can mean lots of money saved later by not picking the wrong school.
ReplyDeletePanera has such large portions it was perfect for the two of us to share. My daughter cooking us dinner instead of me taking the girls out was the real saver.
DeleteMy daughter just started college this semester. We only visited two universities, both in-state thinking we would save money on tuition and travel costs this way. She ended up getting accepted to two of them out of the five she applied to. Thankfully, one of them was a good fit for her and her first choice. That is where she is now. She applied to only public schools, no private, again in hopes to save money. I have heard private colleges typically do offer more scholarship money and now I believe it. In the end, we are only getting about $1500. in scholarship money from her school for her freshman year. We are responsible for the remaining $32,000! And that number is just for her first year!
ReplyDeleteD.