Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Buddy, Can You Spare Ninety Thou?

Ack! Klaus and I went to visit an early college program called Simon's Rock College of Bard over the weekend. The good news is, it seems like a perfect match for him. An astonishingly good match for him, actually. While we were waiting around for his interview after lunch, a current student suddenly appeared and said, "Hi, my name is P_____ and I'm going to be your new best friend. I've been assigned to you for the next year and a half. I'm going to write my cell phone number on your nametag here, even though we have no reception because we're in the middle of f-ing nowhere." He did write a phone number on Klaus' nametag then disappeared. Klaus' reaction? "I am so going to do that next year!"

The bad news is that tuition, room and board costs $45,000 a year. **faint**

They do offer merit scholarships, thank goodness, because we're likely not going to qualify for need-based aid. Most students only stay for two years, then transfer to another university (In the top 5 schools accepting transfers from Simon's Rock, Stanford is #2). Of course, schools like Stanford cost just as much. Oy vey. We're still reeling from sticker-shock.

5 comments:

Zany Mom said...

Oh. My. God.

That's more than my entire 8.5 years of college total.

OUCH.

And what does Klaus want to be when he grows up?

The Princess Mom said...

No kidding. He wants to be a shrink, he says, so then there's medical school to add onto the bill... =:O

Yes, we're taking donations. LOL

I think he wants to major in psychology as an undergrad just to have a better idea why people think like they do. We've been having lots of discussions lately about "How can someone think that?" "How can they just accept someone else's opinion?"

At least psych has some actual science/experimentation involved, unlike philosophy or comparative religions.

Zany Mom said...

Time to start flipping those hamburgers...

Michael Patrick Leahy said...

If your child wants to be a psychiatrist, the amount you spend on tuition does not have to be $45,000. The Simon's Rock program looks great, but as an experienced home school mom, there are several alternatives you might consider.

The cheapest is www.collegeplus.org . You end up with a 4 year degree from Thomas Edison State College (NJ) at a TOTAL cost of about $8,000. Basically home school college.

Not exactly Stanford, but could probably get you into medical school.

Other more "real college" alternatives:

Patrick Henry College (www.phc.edu) designed for homeschoolers where tuition is $16,000 per year.

And then, of course, there are a couple top rate Christian colleges, like Hillsdale in Michigan, (www.hillsdale.edu) and Belhaven in Mississippi.

Culturally, though, this might not be a fit.

Our game plan as a family is to go for quality education at smaller religious institutions with tuition costs of $15,000 to $20,000.

The Princess Mom said...

Excellent suggestions. I'll look into them. Thanks so much! Anyone else have ideas?