What card would you arrange financing to buy?

[todeen]

Originally Posted by raulus

Brigham Young University

To those not familiar, BYU is subsidized by church members' monthly donations. Tuition is not subsidized for non-members as far as I know. My wife attended BYU and actually paid her college loan off in 10 years. She also worked during the summers, except the summer she was an intern in DC. I did not attend BYU, but I also don't think I would have been a good fit at any church school.

I attended College of Idaho, private, and the quality of education was worth it. My parents made loan payments for me while I served my mission in Thailand (which cost $10k). I was underwhelmed at academic rigor attending EWU for my second BA. Did not make loan payments while attending EWU. I worked 3-4 part time jobs during the school year (life guard, baker, referee, umpire).

I think my college loans are $60k right now. But I also didn't make payments while getting my MA. And now I'm considering my doctorate. But the profession I'm in is a "more education = more pay" wage ladder. I think it's a racket, but it's the game I chose to play.

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[raulus]

Originally Posted by todeen

To those not familiar, BYU is subsidized by church members' monthly donations. Tuition is not subsidized for non-members as far as I know.

For non-members, the cost is about double that of members.

At the same time, if memory serves, the relatively few non-members (maybe 1% of the student body) who attend are mostly on the football team, many of whom have scholarships. From my experience, the majority of the remaining non-members come from conservative backgrounds (including foreign countries) who are looking for a US education without the party culture.

When I was at BYU, in rough percentages, the church paid for about 70% of the cost, with alumni donations covering 10%, and 20% from tuition. It's possible that the percentages have moved over the years.

There's no question that this school is not for everyone. I'm not advocating that someone should attend simply because it's a good deal. But there are plenty of public universities where in-state tuition is in the $3k-$6k per semester range. And most community colleges are less. So it's not like there are no good schools that are relatively affordable.

I will also disclose that my son was also accepted to Stanford. They declined to offer him an academic scholarship, and he didn't qualify for need-based aid. Tuition + room/board at Stanford ~$75k per year. He decided not to attend Stanford, primarily because $300k for an undergraduate education seemed like a whole lot of bread, particularly for an 18-year old boy who changes his major every 2 weeks, and therefore has no ability to assess whether his TBD major is even offered at Stanford, or whether that TBD major is a major where Stanford excels.