College suggestions for Baitboy

[jredfly]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their great input, all the information offered was awesome. With him being our first one going to college we didn't have a clue.

Well drum roll please, he got a full scholarship to UMass Boston with admittance into their Honors College and he decided to take it.

He got into some very good schools like NYU and William & Mary but thought they were either factories or drink-fests. They were giving him some decent money but it would have still cost me like $130k. I let it be his own decision though and told him I would cover most of it but he would have some "skin in the game" with loans of about $40k. He said to me that $130k is a lot of money to spend on something you aren't sure on so he decided on UMass.

Once again this kid just keeps on making me proud of him. We live in a fairly affluent town where there is a stigma that you have to go away to college or you're a loser and he just decided to rise above that which I thought displayed a great amount of self fortitude.

Just as an FYI for parents with young kids, with a SAT score of 2230, a 3.85 GPA and fairly active in clubs and sports he still got rejected by some of his fall-back schools, that's how competitive it is out there now.

I am really glad it turned out this way though because I think he is in a great place that he will really enjoy. UMass already had their orientation and he made some friends and seems really happy.

BTW - He saved me so much money I went out and bought him a crap box Jeep he wanted. Crash is going to help us fix it up and it should be fun.

Once again, I can't thank everyone enough for all your help. Who would-a-thunk you should come to a fishing site for college planning.

Thanks again!!!
JREDFLY

[Sea Dangles]

Kudos for some great parenting results!
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[Raider Ronnie]

[QUOTE=Fly Rod;1023392]State college....why pay more to learn the same thing.

U say good in math....CPA.....average age of a cpa is mid 50's

Mass Maritetime...3 of my friends kids R doing very well...most get jobs.



Lots of kids can't hack Mass Maritime (I'm told 1/3) don't last the 1st year as it's a military school.
The other 2/3 100% job placement, and Mass Maritime rates very high for starting salary for grads.
My son Leo will be part of the 2020 graduating class with an engineering degree.
I've got everyone possible drilling into his head about the school.

[Sea Dangles]

[QUOTE=Raider Ronnie;1045920]

Originally Posted by Fly Rod

State college....why pay more to learn the same thing.

U say good in math....CPA.....average age of a cpa is mid 50's

Mass Maritetime...3 of my friends kids R doing very well...most get jobs.



Lots of kids can't hack Mass Maritime (I'm told 1/3) don't last the 1st year as it's a military school.
The other 2/3 100% job placement, and Mass Maritime rates very high for starting salary for grads.
My son Leo will be part of the 2020 graduating class with an engineering degree.
I've got everyone possible drilling into his head about the school.

Ronnie,let him decide what he want s to do.Trust the judgement you have instilled and you will both be happy.

[Guppy]

Congrats to you and he, exciting times ahead, goes by soooo fast,,, too fast

[spence]

I'd take the full scholarship any day. My stepson got huge grants from U Hartford and it made a big difference.

Props to the kid.
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[Swimmer]

Read Goliath, it has a great chapter on college choice. Good luck
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[GregW]

Congrats. I honestly think going to a state school debt free will help a lot. I see a lot of kids who can't take internships at Fortune 500s because they need to wait tables to pay off student loans. Seems to be a vicous 6-figure cycle.

In regards to the school snobs- I had one give me a hard time about attending a state school. I reminded him that he paid over 200K to share a bedroom- while I bought my own house and attended a state school. needless to say that ended that conversation. lol

[vineyardblues]

Congrats ......
My daughter is a 4.0 at Isenberg Umass
Happy , Happy is all i say every day
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[Rockport24]

Congrats to your son and to you! He won't regret the decision. I went to an expensive private school and am still paying it off 13 years later and I got scholarships too!

Oh and a crap box jeep? for $130k in savings, you should have got him a corvette!

[Diggin Jiggin]

Tuition is ridiculous. Its one thing to pay it at a top notch ivy league school, maybe you will earn that back in your career eventually but they get so many qualified applicants it is like winning a lottery to get in. There is a huge drop from there to other private non ivy league schools in terms of prestige/education/earnings potential but they are almost as expensive. Really hard to justify it.

My son is going to Umass Amherst, he was accepted into the Commonwealth honors college and he loves it. (Just finished his freshman year) For the money I don't think you can beat it. Its intended to compete with the ivy league schools in terms of the education, they take some regular Umass classes and some honors classes (with different faculty). They have separate dorms and its not a zoo, but you pay state school tuition rates. One of the few things our state has done that seems smart. Another nice thing is that they accept the AP class credits so he will be able to skip taking some of the normal required classes which frees them up to take more interesting classes.