A College Visit

On Thursday we made a college visit to the university located in our community.  It is our youngest son's first choice.  I have not been on the campus for several years and in the past couple of years there has been a major building campaign.

One of the buildings is a huge athletic center and another new building is a large facility that houses many state of the art classrooms.  As we toured the campus I met several people that I knew. 

The best part of the visit was not only having our son walk around and knowing that this college was a perfect fit for him, but it was when we sat down with the admissions counselor and she ran the numbers past us.

Tuition is around $20,000 per year, which is a bargain for a private college.  However, since we live in the county and town that the school is located in, there is a special rate for local residents:  $5,000 tuition per year as long as your g.p.a. from high school is 3.0 or above and you maintain that throughout your 4 years.  I about fell off my chair.  Not only is this my son's first pick for college but it is also a bargain from a financial viewpoint.

He does not want to live on campus so we will only be paying tuition, books and other related expenses.  I do expect that by the time he would hit his junior year that he will probably share an apartment.

This is a big relief to me as he will be getting a private college education, be able to work and volunteer in our community (which is very important to him) and we will be able to do all of this without having to borrow a cent.