This is a timely topic in our household, jbr.

My high school senior has had her eye set on private Maryville College--$25K annual tuition, plus another $10K for housing/meals, or $140K for four years (at last year's rates).

Now, MC offers generous institutional aid, and she already is to receive their top-tier guaranteed Presidential scholarship, with an award varying from a minimum of $15K annually ($60K for four years) up to full tuition of $25K annually ($100K for four years). Add to that the HOPE award of $5K annually or $20K over four years (she gets that $1K annual supplement for her ACT score). Adding both sources of aid, then, she has a guaranteed award of $80K to $120K for the four years at MC.

Given that $140K cost, though, there's a big difference--a $40K difference--in the top end and the low end of that guaranteed $$$. We can't help much, and I *don't* want her to finish her undergrad degree $40K in debt...

Now contrast what the state schools can offer: Both ETSU and UT-Chattanooga, where we toured just this past week, conduct rigorous "honors colleges," within which a select group of students receives full tuition, housing (in apartments at Chatanooga), meals, fees, books, and even a paid "cultural stipend" to attend operas, plays, concerts and such.

UT-Chattanooga also underwrites a good portion of a junior year abroad, and some students we talked to actually traveled free with the help of a competitive grant program that covered costs remaining after those underwritten by the school.

Wow. We're looking harder at these state schools recently, and based on the profiles of students accepted into the programs last year, my daughter appears to be a perfectly qualified candidate.

However, I've cautioned her that the competition may be far more fierce among students now applying for next fall. If other parents are thinking like we are (and you know in this economy that they are), many young people who might otherwise have applied to top private schools will be looking for cheaper options.

What to do, what to do...

They occasionally make a token, one-time contribution. When I was there in the early 1990s, they made a contribution to help avoid cutting library hours.