I love credit cards so much!

[havaneselover]

We’re at 13”. I highly doubt my kids will see the inside of a classroom this week.

 

[havaneselover]

Tink1970, you’re in Florida, right? It amazes me that states like Texas, Florida, Virginia, etc. have such good, inexpensive schools, while here in Connecticut, all we’ve got is very expensive or not very good.

ETA: Huh. I think I stand corrected. Virginia and Florida are not as inexpensive as I thought. I believe, though, that some of the states reduce tuition for good students? I thought I had read that somewhere. Only valedictorians and salutatorians get free tuition here in CT, and room, board, and fees are more than tuition.

Here’s the average cost of attendance I looked up real quick just now.

UVA. 29,572
UCONN 29,302
FSU 22,071
TWU 18,402

The last one puzzles me. It’s the Texas school my daughter attended, but I know she only paid around $10 grand a year. Oh, duh, that figure includes room and board. Daughter was in grad school, so lived off campus and only paid tuition to school.

I went to UVa as an out-of-state student (from Connecticut) in the 90s. It was a great deal back then as was the University of Richmond. Now UVa is not cheap by any means out of state. In state it’s reasonable. I’ve got 8 semesters prepaid for both kids so I don’t pay a lot of attention though. The great thing about Virginia public universities is the variety

 

[AmyAnne]

One thing I’d really recommend is cast a wide, wide net. My daughter ended up at a great school that she loved, but I wish she had applied to twice as many schools. The aid packages varied so much.

Agree with this 100 percent.

Be aware that a good many of the schools that tend to meet a high % of need require the CSS, which drills down a lot deeper into your finances. And if you’re divorced, as is the case with me, and your ex refuses to fill out the paperwork, those schools will be off the table.

Not completely sure about this, but I do think that if you submit a statement that the other parent refuses to cooperate, schools have the ability to adjust their rules.

And I second or third the advice to take both the ACT and the SAT. My daughter did significantly better on the ACT, which is not as commonly taken as the SAT around here. Just double check that your guidance dept. does not put both on transcripts if you request them not to! (Yeah, I’m a little bitter. Found out after the fact that my daughters high school, despite assuring me they’d only use her ACT scores, put both on her transcripts.

One thing that I did know (that I can't recall how I knew) is just not to report scores to the high school at all -- there's no need for them to know the scores.

ETA - I had a struggle with my kids' high school counselor because she mostly sends kids to the local state school. She really seemed annoyed that my kids had other ideas.

And look into the profiles of which students get merit scholarships. Your student might be in the running at one school, but not another. Another real life example: My daughter just finished a three year grad program that would have been $90000 plus (yikes! No way!) just for tuition in state. We did a lot of research and knew she had an excellent shot at getting an in state tuition scholarship at Texas schools. She did, and even though she had to keep her fingers crossed the last two years that the Texas legislature would re-approve the program, it would have been a good amount of savings even if she had had to pay out of state tuition her last two years. The total tuition cost of her program ended up being $30000 for three years. That just astounded me! Most people just assume that their in-state school will be the cheaper option, but that’s clearly not always the case. And neither is public vs private school, because public schools don’t always have money for scholarships.

Yep. This is how all of my kids ended up at private liberal arts colleges.

 

[MKTokyo]

401k doesn't count in FASFA, but what you contribute does count.
As far as college tuition is concerned - the world has gone mad. My FASFA tells me I qualify for loans - that's it. You need to make very little money to qualify for financial aid - and even that is determined by the specific college. Some colleges meet the FASFA gap (if there is one) and some colleges don't. My fasfa tells me I can afford twice as much as I am actually paying - um no. I would have no money for basic needs left over.

My UG tuition - tuition alone - was $45-50K. Room & board was an additional $15-20K. (Each started at the lower end when I was a freshman & worked its way up to the higher end.)

I received a $25K/year merit scholarship from the university.

I had wanted to go there for as long as I can remember and I loved my experience there. It was everything I expected & more. But... had there been no education savings account for me, which only existed because I was fortunate to be born to parents that could pay into one... I would have graduated with a SIGNIFICANT amount of student loan debt, and many of my classmates did. Some of them are being crushed by those payments now because they make "too much" to qualify for a reduction.

Of course, there's always the option to go to a less expensive school. You don't think about that when you are 18 & all you want is to go to the school you have dreamed about for years.

I am not sure that any experience & any education, no matter how good, justifies a $280K price tag. I think this tends to create a school that is divided economically & is largely inaccessible to those who want to make smart financial choices & don't have the means to pay for it outright. It should not be this way.

 

[DaveL]

I’ve watched 4 episodes of The Good Place today, so maybe that counts for something?

LOL. So my DD has been out of school now for about two weeks with what seems to be the worst luck, Four Dr apts and the last ending in two shots she's finally getting better... Anyway I have been working from home these last two weeks and one night last week after kids movies all day I was on Netflix looking for something and discovered that... Very interesting show, Just found out last night that YoutubeTV has this current season.

 

[calypso726]

I initially was really interested in the miracosta until I saw the price and read people’s struggles to get the room they want. I didn’t want to deal with that hassle and Dh didn’t like the price tag that came with it. Plus, like you said I knew we wouldn’t be spending much time in the room.

I’m definitely going to write a trip report for our trip but I haven’t decided if I’ll be posting during the trip or if I’ll just wait until we get back and type notes every night. I’ll take lots of pictures and videos, too. I’m pretty excited that we can stay on the monorail loop for so cheap at the Hilton!

I totally agree about the value of that Hilton on the monorail loop.

The MiraCosta was definitely a pain to book. DH wants me to go for it again next year. He wants to watch Fantasmic from the room again. I told him I'd try.

Did you happen to check the cash rate for the same room type and dates? Curious if there are good redemption values to be had with AmEx Travel portal hotels. I have very minimal MR, but that may be my next focus after stocking up on UR.

I did. Here are the screen shots from Ashford Castle's own website (more expensive), Hotels dot com, Chase UR portal, and Amex travel portal. Only Ashford Castle's own website and the Amex travel portal give me the option to even book something less expensive than a junior stateroom. All are for checking in on 6/13 and out on 6/20.

It seems that Amex has different inventory than Chase.


Ashford Castle's website



Hotels dot com




Chase UR portal




Amex travel portal

 

[mmmears]

I was out all day and missed so much. Trying to catch up again. I'll post and respond in batches I guess.

I was looking at the FIRE posts. We walk the line between saving (maxing 401K, etc.) and also living. I like to travel so I'm hoping this stuff will help with that. And we spend on education because that's just something we have prioritized. My DF worked hard, saved, retired early, and didn't live long enough to use that money for travel or anything else. My DM can afford to travel, but can't anymore. So we walk the line.

College financing - @SouthFayetteFan - they won't count your 401K, but they will count the current income that goes into it. Every college has an NPC on their website (net price calculator) where you can put in some info and see what they think you would need to pay. It varies greatly from college to college. HUGE differences, for us anyway. DD qualified for merit at some places, but went to a college that awards no merit whatsoever. The NPC did show that they were one of the most generous she was looking at. She will graduate debt free but has her eyes on Med and Grad schools and that part will have to be on her. We need to start saving more and spending less. But I don't think we would be able to not help her out in some way in the future. If paying less for college is a goal there are certainly some good colleges that offer merit out there, of course depending on the needs and interest of the student. I did a ton of research on this stuff (maybe too much LOL).

 

[tink1970]

Tink1970, you’re in Florida, right? It amazes me that states like Texas, Florida, Virginia, etc. have such good, inexpensive schools, while here in Connecticut, all we’ve got is very expensive or not very good.

ETA: Huh. I think I stand corrected. Virginia and Florida are not as inexpensive as I thought. I believe, though, that some of the states reduce tuition for good students? I thought I had read that somewhere. Only valedictorians and salutatorians get free tuition here in CT, and room, board, and fees are more than tuition.

LOL--the funny thing is I'm in FL, attended college in TX and graduated from hs in VA so I'm familiar with all of these states and Texas was (and still is) pretty reasonable. Both the Texas A&M and UT systems have the PUF (oil money endowments) so I think this helps.

FL has the Bright Futures Scholarship which basically pays tuition (higher level) or a large part of tuition (second tier) for a combination of grades/test scores/community service. Since my DD will have an IB Diploma she automatically qualifies for the higher of the two (so all tuition) although of course, as anyone who's attended school knows there are fees, fees, and more fees and room/board. Still, I'm sort of rooting for either FSU/UF/UVa or William and Mary. They are still much more reasonable than the U of Chicago which is $75,000/yr (and in Chicago so COLD!) or Boston U $71,000/yr AND the Florida and Virginia schools take credit cards .

Now UVa is not cheap by any means out of state. In state it’s reasonable. I’ve got 8 semesters prepaid for both kids so I don’t pay a lot of attention though. The great thing about Virginia public universities is the variety

Virginia has great schools! When I was graduating, however, the military children didn't get the in state consideration a lot of states provide now so that's how I ended up in Texas-they were very supportive of a kid who didn't really have a "home state." My brother graduated from high school in Japan and so every school he applied to was on an out of state basis. Of course my parents loved him more and paid OOS tuition for him

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Sorry I threw our whole thread into a discussion on education costs, LOL! I will say that it is nice to have a discussion like this INSIDE of our thread though where we know we are isolated from the DISboards Crazies who would come in and stir up drama.

 

[Mopedmom1]

Response in the quote.

Thanks for digging up some info on the gift card. I couldn't find anything including it, or excluding it. It would be nice to have some actual dp's here. Guess I need to be the dp.......... Thanks @SouthFayetteFan and @GusGus16 as well.

When Chase dumped Disney dh and I decided we would go to a few away games of our local NBA basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers. Due to dh's surgery this fall, scheduled vacations, and general lack of vacation time we will hopefully be able to pull together a few road trips next season, with some sightseeing thrown in along the way. That gives them the remainder of the season and the summer to get their act together!

 

[3 DD love princesses]

off topic but this snow is nice but not happy just got the notice no school tomorrow. it started snowing at noon and still coming down

 

[DisneyMandC]

It was a great deal back then as was the University of Richmond.

As I sit here in my U of R hoodie... hilariously, law school there is cheaper than undergrad.

 

[mmmears]

Forgot to say, regarding the FAFSA, that people will say you have to fill it out, but you don't. Or at least we didn't, and DD is set to graduate in May, so it clearly didn't matter for her. We knew she wasn't going to get need based aid with our current circumstances, but she did choose a "meets full need" college where she would have qualified for aid had DH lost his job. We made certain of that one.

Thanks...actually my DD is excellent at standardized test taking-to the point of being a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist. The problem is, they narrow down Semis to Finalists with an application and her grades will take her out of the running. She is not so great at keeping her grades up so there goes several potential thousands of dollars out the window. When we were in school and had handwritten grades there would also be an area for notations. She's the kid who "has ability but lacks effort." Sigh...

You might not be correct on the NMF count - she might still make it. I do know one kid who didn't make it past SF because of a C, but I know another who did even with 3 Cs (chem and something else I can't remember). I think a D or an F would mean no finalist for certain. More than 90% of SF make it to Finalist, and there are many great scholarships if you look around. Of course, in the end, DD wanted something different.

My favorite part is when they ask how much your mortgage is and what the house is worth to add a portion of that amount to your contribution ... ummm no! It is like we are being penalized for living in a house for 16 years.

It's worse when you live in a crazy area where housing has gone up over 5x what it was 20 years ago. I will say that different colleges look at home equity differently. It must be the reason we had such a high swing on those NPCs. Oh, and we are in our tiny starter home (and no way will we ever move up), not a mansion. What they don't take into consideration is the high cost of living in certain areas.

Yep. This is how all of my kids ended up at private liberal arts colleges.

After looking at publics, privates, huge universities and LACs, mine narrowed it down to LACs and is at one now.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thanks for digging up some info on the gift card. I couldn't find anything including it, or excluding it. It would be nice to have some actual dp's here. Guess I need to be the dp.......... Thanks @SouthFayetteFan and @GusGus16 as well.

When Chase dumped Disney dh and I decided we would go to a few away games of our local NBA basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers. Due to dh's surgery this fall, scheduled vacations, and general lack of vacation time we will hopefully be able to pull together a few road trips next season, with some sightseeing thrown in along the way. That gives them the remainder of the season and the summer to get their act together!

The NBA Western Conference is insane this year! Portland is a good team...but apparently there are 14 good times out west!

 

[platamama]

Thanks so much for the follow-up and DP!

I was trying to set my airline and enroll in the Saks benefit ALL week but was having trouble. It finally went through on both yesterday. I will go for the AA GC tomorrow. Are you planning on saving your GC for future air ticket purchase or selling? Just curious because I might go the selling route. You can't use an AA GC on checked bag fee, correct?

I'm planning on saving them for future use. I have 160K AA miles, but it would be nice to have the GCs in case I don't have enough for miles for all 3 of us to get tickets on miles alone. Yes, as far as I understand, the GCs are good only for airfare and nothing else. Between my & DH's Biz Plats, I plan on getting $800 in AA GCs for this year + next year before I cancel them (which goes a long way to offset the $450 AF on each). I might also enroll his AX Gold in the AA program too and get another $100 this year for future use.

 

[mmmears]

Sorry I threw our whole thread into a discussion on education costs, LOL! I will say that it is nice to have a discussion like this INSIDE of our thread though where we know we are isolated from the DISboards Crazies who would come in and stir up drama.

Oh yes. I refuse to post about college in the DIS, until tonight here in this little thread. I weathered the drama on college confidential and it's rough out there, but there are some real kooks here on the boards as well. And as with everything else, it's nice to be in a place where we can all have different ideas/priorities/opinions and it's actually OK.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Oh yes. I refuse to post about college in the DIS, until tonight here in this little thread. I weathered the drama on college confidential and it's rough out there, but there are some real kooks here on the boards as well. And as with everything else, it's nice to be in a place where we can all have different ideas/priorities/opinions and it's actually OK.

I know we have a lot of FIRE oriented folks on our thread too, I've always thought it could be fun to start a thread on that topic too but again I worry about the "kooks"...

 

[gottalovepluto]

Sorry I threw our whole thread into a discussion on education costs, LOL! I will say that it is nice to have a discussion like this INSIDE of our thread though where we know we are isolated from the DISboards Crazies who would come in and stir up drama.

#truth

 

[mmmears]

I know we have a lot of FIRE oriented folks on our thread too, I've always thought it could be fun to start a thread on that topic too but again I worry about the "kooks"...

Agree. It would be fascinating, the topic that is, but not if it draws out the crazies.

 

[tink1970]

You might not be correct on the NMF count - she might still make it. I do know one kid who didn't make it past SF because of a C, but I know another who did even with 3 Cs (chem and something else I can't remember). I think a D or an F would mean no finalist for certain. More than 90% of SF make it to Finalist, and there are many great scholarships if you look around. Of course, in the end, DD wanted something different.

Thanks for the optimism...she got 3 Cs in her junior 2nd semester after her grandmother died and she was a mess. Just a mess. So I'm not holding out hope. I joke that 1.2 million take the PSAT, 50,000 are commended or higher, 15,000 are finalists so she has to be in the smallest percentage (the 1,000 that don't progress from SF to finalist). So she's the most special.

And can I say how BRAVE you were to wade into College Confidential? Seriously, those folks are intense!

I do like that we can discuss things and stay friendly on this thread. Such a nice respite from the polarization of the outside world.