Choosing Undergrad School for Kids

[qesehmk]

Friends

I am looking for some information/advice here.

Time flies and now my Son is ready to go to a college. He got accepted into a few good schools. UMich Ross undergrad BBA is one of those. Unfortunately we are out of state and so the cost of attendance will be pretty steep - $70K per year. Our second good option is Univ. Maryland where the cost of attendance will be $27K.

So we are wondering following things ... any inputs are welcome.

1. Is UMich Ross BBA worth $280K (vs $108K at UMD)
2. UMich undergrad is pretty cheap for MI residents. Has any one experience bagging in state tuition for out of state college? Please share any tips what you did.
3. What could be some other way to lessen the financial burden?
4. Regardless of school, what are other surprise expenses you may have experienced with your freshman child's education?

As I said - any tips will be useful.

[imdeng]

Q,

I am intimately familiar with the Ross BBA program - so any question you have about it that you might not want to ask in a public forum, please send a message and I will be happy to reply.

Ross BBA is a top-5 BBA program so as such it will be worth the money. However, the question is of relative value. Maryland is a pretty good school too (I am assuming B-school there as well) and at nearly one third cost, might be preferable if you are having to stretch for the cost. If you are able without financial strain then I would prefer Ross BBA to Maryland. Are you based in East Coast now? Closeness to home might be factor then?

Where does your child want to go live/work post college? Are there grad school aspirations? What job areas? Ross sends whole bunch of students to Chicago/NYC/SFO. Ross is very strong in Consulting, getting very strong in Tech and does pretty well in Finance too. I am less familiar with Maryland's strengths.

[qesehmk]

Q,

I am intimately familiar with the Ross BBA program - so any question you have about it that you might not want to ask in a public forum, please send a message and I will be happy to reply.

Ross BBA is a top-5 BBA program so as such it will be worth the money. However, the question is of relative value. Maryland is a pretty good school too (I am assuming B-school there as well) and at nearly one third cost, might be preferable if you are having to stretch for the cost. If you are able without financial strain then I would prefer Ross BBA to Maryland. Are you based in East Coast now? Closeness to home might be factor then?

Where does your child want to go live/work post college? Are there grad school aspirations? What job areas? Ross sends whole bunch of students to Chicago/NYC/SFO. Ross is very strong in Consulting, getting very strong in Tech and does pretty well in Finance too. I am less familiar with Maryland's strengths.

Hi Imdeng

Thank you so much for responding. Your inputs are so valuable!

My son is no different than other kids of his age. He has strong inclination towards finance but also wants to be an entrepreneur. He is not entirely sure what comes after BBA (partly because he has no idea what Finance leads to) but is entirely sure that he has no appetite for science or tech education. As you can imagine - like all Indian parents - we are worried that he needs to have a core. But now we are past that discussion and he is on the path to earn a BBA.

He absolutely wants to live / work in NYC or SFO. If he attends a top school like UMich now, he doesn't want to go for a post-grad. But if it's UMD he will go for a post-grad from a top school. He also got into Univ of Arizona with full tuition but with UMD we are narrowing it down to UMich and UMD.

I will reach out privately too.

[monsieur]

Both are amazing school, you will not go wrong with anyone of them. With that said below are my thoughts

Local employment in Ann Arbor area is mostly in Manufacturing thanks to Big-3 auto makers. Things have changed a lot but still dominated by Auto makers. UMich brand name and alumni network will come in handy.

Personally I will prefer Maryland as its closer to / part of DC metro area which has thriving job scene and also proximity to NY area (if he really wants to live in NY/SFO type city). During my time in college in Ann Arbor and my friend in George Washington Uni (GW), I felt he has more local opportunities for Internship and start of career comparing to me. I ended up in CA so started from scratch again post school where as GW guy carried on with his network in DC Metro area. We both were doing Masters in mid 2000s so our experience as 1st gen immigrants will be totally different than your kid.

[qesehmk]

Hi Monsieur,

Thank you for an informed post. Really appreciate it.

CA and NYC are the two best places for Desi folks. So I am glad you are doing well. Thanks again.

Both are amazing school, you will not go wrong with anyone of them. With that said below are my thoughts

Local employment in Ann Arbor area is mostly in Manufacturing thanks to Big-3 auto makers. Things have changed a lot but still dominated by Auto makers. UMich brand name and alumni network will come in handy.

Personally I will prefer Maryland as its closer to / part of DC metro area which has thriving job scene and also proximity to NY area (if he really wants to live in NY/SFO type city). During my time in college in Ann Arbor and my friend in George Washington Uni (GW), I felt he has more local opportunities for Internship and start of career comparing to me. I ended up in CA so started from scratch again post school where as GW guy carried on with his network in DC Metro area. We both were doing Masters in mid 2000s so our experience as 1st gen immigrants will be totally different than your kid.

[idliman]

R.H.Smith Business school in UMD is very good. As the cost differences are so high (I would choose R.H.Smith). It is not worth paying an additional mortgage for life. UMD gives you a lot of opportunities as it is in DC Metro area. NYC is 250 miles from there. I am a former Terrapin from Engg School. So I may be a little biased.

[qesehmk]

R.H.Smith Business school in UMD is very good. As the cost differences are so high (I would choose R.H.Smith). It is not worth paying an additional mortgage for life. UMD gives you a lot of opportunities as it is in DC Metro area. NYC is 250 miles from there. I am a former Terrapin from Engg School. So I may be a little biased.

Thank you Idliman. Appreciate your advice. UMD indeed is a great engineering school and their BBA is great too.