First, the author of this article isn’t Peter Thiel. It’s Sarah Lacy.
Second, we’re looking right now for colleges for our older son.
The sticker price for the Ivies is around $50K per year.
Same at lots of other private universities.
But only folks in Obama’s class of rich folks ($200K+ income) typically pay full price at all of these institutions.
The ironic thing is that because of their large endowments, the Ivies often give much more financial aid than other schools charging similar tuition and fees.
I plugged my 2009 tax info into the Princeton financial aid estimator and found that they would give a very big chunk of their tuition, room and board, and books to my son in financial aid, and I’d have to pay a relatively small percentage of the overall $50+K of the annual expense. After taking into account the financial aid, what I’d have to pay amounted to something modestly more expensive than sending him off to the University of Maryland, College Park (around $8K per year without room and board, but our son could commute) (we’re Maryland residents and qualify for in-state tuition).
When we went to the Princeton presentation a few months ago, we were surprised to learn that families with up to around $200K per year in household income usually get financial aid.
And when I say “financial aid,” I don’t mean “loans.” The Ivies no longer provide student loans as part of their financial aid packages. It’s all grants. So, if they determine your Estimated Family Contribution should be $10K per year, then they’re going to give $40+K in grants.
On the other hand, the estimator for Johns Hopkins shows that I’d have to pay more. Hopkins is a great school, but not with quite the reputation of the Ivies. And then, Catholic University in Washington, DC, would offer less. Good school, but not at the level of, say, Hopkins.
Our data gathering tracks this principle generally: the more prestigious the school, the less you will pay to go there because the more financial aid you will receive.
And unless you’re sending your kid to the state university in your own state, public universities aren’t a lot better. With room and board, these often exceed $40K per year. Financial aid available varies widely, but my own data gathering indicates it’s not as generous as the best private schools.
Thus, the moral of the story is, the better the reputation of the school, the better a deal it will be.
All you need is for your kid to get accepted to an Ivy, LOL.
sitetest
Thanks for the info! I hav a very gifted nephew who is in the 5th grade and tells everyone that he will go to Harvard someday. Nice to know that it might actually be possible.