Woo-hoo!  My son was accepted to a state college, and I couldn’t be happier.  He was pretty excited, too.  It was his first choice, and has a great program for his major.  What makes it sweeter is the fact that this particular school had a record number of applicants for the next Fall semester, so the competition was fierce.  The kid worked his butt off in high school, and didn’t slack off during his senior year, so he definitely earned it.

Some of his friends weren’t so lucky.  The college had a record number of applicants due to the bad economy.  Many students who would have gone away to a private school elected either to go away to a state school, or live at home and go to a state school.  This caused a surplus of empty spots at the private schools, while state schools filled up fast.  An article at news-record.com details the phenomenon of private colleges experiencing declining enrollment:

Their biggest fear is that come spring, prospective students frightened by the economic situation will take their money to cheaper public universities and community colleges or stay away from college altogether. And students who do choose private colleges are likely to need more financial aid.

While his friends didn’t get accepted to the state school, many private schools were more than willing to accept them (I hope they’re not part of the dummies and slackers that Tough Money Love wrote about!).  As an added benefit, his friends were offered more financial aid.  But even with the more-generous-than-usual financial aid packages offered at the private schools, the cost was still much higher than my son’s tuition at the state school.  This will translate into more student loans for his friends, while my son’s college tuition shouldn’t leave him with a pile of debt when he graduates.

Hopefully, in four years, when I report back on my son’s progress, he’ll have graduated without incurring a huge student loan debt.  I’ll be able to attribute this to his attending a state college instead of a more expensive private school.  Then, he’ll just need to find a job.

How about you?  Did you attend a state college, and save a bunch on tuition?

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