College Visits and DVC Vacation

[corpcomp]

Well for the 2nd year in a row and the 2nd time just in this year, we have changed vacation plans to accommodate admitted students weekends at the colleges my DS 17 applied to. Two visits to Philadelphia and Atlanta in the same weekend during Winter Break and now during Spring Break again in PA. Talk about exhausting.

So we just shortened the April break by two days to get home early to attend the prospective school weekend. So if anyone is looking for the 18th & 19th of April at BVC, it just came open

BUT to make up for all of this I also planned a vacation for the 1st week of Jan 2014 as he will be home for the entire month for Xmas break regardless of where he goes. And its less points and hopefully cheaper flying at that point.

Welcome to the college process. At least all three schools have a Disney Intern program and he hopes to apply for it.

 

[Cinderpamela]

I was just going along planning my December 2013 trip, not even thinking about the fact that it will de DS(15)'s JR year and there may be some college visits needed at that stage. Now you have me thinking!

This is gonna be messing with my vacation planning for sure! How did we get to be so close to the college years!! Ack!

 

[corpcomp]

I was just going along planning my December 2013 trip, not even thinking about the fact that it will de DS(15)'s JR year and there may be some college visits needed at that stage. Now you have me thinking!

This is gonna be messing with my vacation planning for sure! How did we get to be so close to the college years!! Ack!

December should not be a problem as most colleges are closed for tours at that time. Target weekends or break periods and go to their websites for scheduling. We also arranged meetings with engineering and computer science deans as well as Music Directors and coaches as my son does all that. Even though he is not a music major, he is up for a non music major scholarship at one school that wants him in their Jazz Ensemble.

We also found that for technical areas, the schools did not really care about his reading SAT score as much as his Math score.

 

[Cinderpamela]

Thanks! That is great advice, and good to know that our Christmas plans will not be messed up!

DS thinks he wants to go to our local state school, University of Washington, so that would certainly make things easier as far as visits... but I still feel he should check out other options. Plus entry there for in state students is extra hard (they like the extra bucks that out of state tuition gives them).

He is a rower, swimmer and a musician as well- so I like your plan of talking to those folks as well. Its crazy to think that it is just a few years away!

Thanks again for your experienced parent input!

 

[corpcomp]

Thanks! That is great advice, and good to know that our Christmas plans will not be messed up!

DS thinks he wants to go to our local state school, University of Washington, so that would certainly make things easier as far as visits... but I still feel he should check out other options. Plus entry there for in state students is extra hard (they like the extra bucks that out of state tuition gives them).

He is a rower, swimmer and a musician as well- so I like your plan of talking to those folks as well. Its crazy to think that it is just a few years away!

Thanks again for your experienced parent input!

Not a problem. I did see an article on UWASH about their taking more and more students from out of state and the in state people are up in arms. Where we live, UCONN is raising fees 15% to offset the reduction in contributions from the state.

UNC Chapel hill is the opposite - They have a state law that requires 83% be from in state and those that are from out of state are either athletes or class Valedictorians or Salutorians and have very high GPAs and SAT scores. They told us that because, since they have to take so many from in state, they want to maximize the SAT and GPAs reported. It is still a top school, but has no engineering so we had no interest. Among others, he has already gotten into Georgia Tech. They told us GT and MIT have the same notification date for accepted students 15 minutes apart to give candidates a choice on the same day. Very clever. But the money, that is the killer. Generally a student not getting into MIT goes to Georgia Tech, Stanford, Cornell or Carnegie Mellon.

 

[Cinderpamela]

Generally a student not getting into MIT goes to Georgia Tech, Stanford, Cornell or Carnegie Mellon.

Then after all that there is the problem of that darn tuition cramping our vacation style!! Especially those school's you listed above! Ouch!

 

[corpcomp]

Then after all that there is the problem of that darn tuition cramping our vacation style!! Especially those school's you listed above! Ouch!

Yes we have heard from 6 of the 10 schools he applied to. Three offered him scholarships ranging from $3,500 to $15,000 and three offered $0. The ones he is interested in are the three not paying anything. So we are looking at between $41K to $58K for next year with absolutely no financial aid available. The schools looked at our financial applications and said we could take it out of the equity in our house or out of my pension contributions. Like that is going to happen. And students can only apply for $5500 in financial loans from the Fed. He can get a job at Five Guys near the schools and we are applying for a lot of scholarships from the high school list. Not taking a loan out and burdening him with that much debt. My niece has 160K in loans from med school and the finance office told her when she graduated that with the repayment schedule, she will be 61 when the loan is paid off. She better marry rich.

 

[Anal Annie]

I've already been wondering how this process is going to affect us next spring. We went down LAST year over spring break and then in August but this year we're not going AT ALL because we opted to save our points to use this summer for 4 nights at VGC and 7 nights at Aulani. That means NEXT year we'd generally plan to make it a 2-3 trip year since we're taking a break this year BUT our DS will be a Jr. next year so I know we SHOULD plan to do the college trip thing over spring break. But that's not what I WANT TO DO, I WANT TO GO TO DISNEY!! At this point he still has no clue what he wants to do...the U. of Maryland tends to take out-of-state students before they take IN-state students (because they get more in tuition). We've been to their campus several times for swim meets and he feels it's too big for him so I think whatever schools we look at will definitely be on the smaller size of the scale. All I know is that I'm really dreading the process. Guess we'll find out how much the "prepaid university plan" we chose for his 529 works out for us. Good luck!!

 

[corpcomp]

I've already been wondering how this process is going to affect us next spring. We went down LAST year over spring break and then in August but this year we're not going AT ALL because we opted to save our points to use this summer for 4 nights at VGC and 7 nights at Aulani. That means NEXT year we'd generally plan to make it a 2-3 trip year since we're taking a break this year BUT our DS will be a Jr. next year so I know we SHOULD plan to do the college trip thing over spring break. But that's not what I WANT TO DO, I WANT TO GO TO DISNEY!! At this point he still has no clue what he wants to do...the U. of Maryland tends to take out-of-state students before they take IN-state students (because they get more in tuition). We've been to their campus several times for swim meets and he feels it's too big for him so I think whatever schools we look at will definitely be on the smaller size of the scale. All I know is that I'm really dreading the process. Guess we'll find out how much the "prepaid university plan" we chose for his 529 works out for us. Good luck!!

Interesting, I went to U MD years ago when they would accept anyone that applied. My relative works in the registrars office and she told me they concentrate on looking at kids from one specific county in MD and lots of out of staters for that extra money. UMD has really come up in ranking and I think is 14 in either engineering or CS. It is huge and since I went there and my wife to Georgetown, those are the two schools he refused to consider. Wants his own legacy. UCONN is really cheap for us at about $18K including the scholarship but as far as he is concerned, it is way too close to home. Does not want mommy showing up with food packages or me checking up on him. So he drew a circle around our town of about 150 miles and would not consider anything inside the circle.

 

[Cinderpamela]

The schools looked at our financial applications and said we could take it out of the equity in our house or out of my pension contributions.

Nice! Easy for them to say! SO you are supposed to sacrifice your retirement to pay for their tuition?!

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey every so often (when in the car and he happens to be on the radio) and he makes a lot of sense on this subject. He says its not worth it to risk your retirement for your kids college fund.

I had student loans and I was able to pay them off early. Now they were not 160K like your niece! But if you base the amount borrowed on a realistic future salary that will be earned for the field of study, it makes a whole lot more sense than dipping into retirement!

 

[corpcomp]

Nice! Easy for them to say! SO you are supposed to sacrifice your retirement to pay for their tuition?!

I have been listening to Dave Ramsey every so often (when in the car and he happens to be on the radio) and he makes a lot of sense on this subject. He says its not worth it to risk your retirement for your kids college fund.

I had student loans and I was able to pay them off early. Now they were not 160K like your niece! But if you base the amount borrowed on a realistic future salary that will be earned for the field of study, it makes a whole lot more sense than dipping into retirement!

Absolutely. I even redid a bathroom myself the last few months to save 15K in labor. That is going into the 529 plan. Currently a good engineering or CS student can expect upwards of 60K when they graduate. So he can take care of us after that and take US to Disney!

 

[Cinderpamela]

Currently a good engineering or CS student can expect upwards of 60K when they graduate. So he can take care of us after that and take US to Disney!

Amen to that!!!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

When we visited Aulani in December, my DD toured University of Hawaii. She liked it- it's very affordable for those in the Western States (can get reduced out-of-state tuition), pretty easy to get in, and lots of merit aid available. It's now probably her #1 fall- back school.

Plus this view from the freshman dorms can't be beat:

And it even has surfboard parking:

So college touring and DVC trips need not be exclusive!

 

[Cinderpamela]

That's awesome Silly Little Pixie!!

Plus it sure wouldnt be a bummer to have to go and visit her!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

That's awesome Silly Little Pixie!!

Plus it sure wouldnt be a bummer to have to go and visit her!

I know. Darn.

Wait, no need to come home for Christmas. We'll come to you.

Her only drawback? She plans to get a car when she graduates, and she'd either have to buy it there, or have one here...not gonna ship that back and forth.

 

[Anal Annie]

Interesting, I went to U MD years ago when they would accept anyone that applied. My relative works in the registrars office and she told me they concentrate on looking at kids from one specific county in MD and lots of out of staters for that extra money. UMD has really come up in ranking and I think is 14 in either engineering or CS. It is huge and since I went there and my wife to Georgetown, those are the two schools he refused to consider. Wants his own legacy. UCONN is really cheap for us at about $18K including the scholarship but as far as he is concerned, it is way too close to home. Does not want mommy showing up with food packages or me checking up on him. So he drew a circle around our town of about 150 miles and would not consider anything inside the circle.

Yeah, UMD is a good school and we may live in "that county" your relative talked about as it's ranked very high nationally for its high schools - but I've heard of lots of kids that have like 4.2 on their GPA's that can't get in because they're in-state. Sad. Since DS is an only child we're pretty close - so far (at 15, almost 16) he is not chomping at the bit to get away from us so it wouldn't surprise me if he didn't want to go more than a couple of hours drive away from home. But living in the DC area there are plenty of good schools in that range so that's OK.