Is Notre Dame or Northwestern worth the coin over UM? $60K vs $30K

Lot of factors that are a personal preference, but since he's in-state, Michigan is pretty much a no brainer as the far better value. Might want to take the state money they've been contributing! Even for an out-of-stater paying nearly the same tuition, it's a close one in terms of education and long term benefits.

Getting to go in-state to an elite public school like Michigan is the best of both worlds. Honestly, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a justification for the increased cost of a private school, even an elite private like an Ivy, outside of the private just being a better fit, if that is indeed the case.

College costs are so high today, it begs the question whether any degree is worth the money. Certainly an art history major who pays $200k for their degree will spend most of their working life paying off that loan. I've been putting away in a 529 for both kids for years. When I started, the estimates for a 4 year out of state public school (ie Michigan for me) is estimated to be $300-350k by 2028. That's insane.

I thought almost no one paid sticker price at elite colleges anymore, certainly not in the Ivies and I would think that has trickled down to the top-25, 30ish type schools like NW, ND, UM. No? Harvard and Yale have free-ish tuition these days unless you're the child of a 1%-er, in which case, as you stated, who cares?

This is my way of saying you're asking the question at the wrong time. Find out what they'll actually pay, then put up the irresistable clickbait playing on people's sensitivities re: educational elitism and the value thereof. 

give ND their due, they are a very good school.  but northwestern is the choice to make if you're not going to michigan.   chicago is beyond fun for a young person, the academics are extraordinarily good, and the networking in chicago would be very valuable too.  

disclosure: oldest brother played ball at northwestern, so my bias.  he has to root for michigan though, since thats were i went/played.  

There is a lot of serious research in labor economics which suggests that, for most students, the whole undergraduate degree is not even worth that much. Doubling the cost makes zero sense.

but if the student is unsure, UM is the better route, imo.  the midwest is lucky to have quality big ten schools.  and if it's an in-state school, even better.

growing up in Mich, i felt lucky to have UM as an in-state option when my out-of-state friends were paying more than twice as much to attend.

and if one is not lucky enough to get into UM, MSU is a pretty good second option.

Chose UM over ND and NW 20+ years ago.  NEVER regretted the decision.  However, I can see pros and cons for each school, and if my son is able to get into all three in the future, it will be a tough one for certain.

ND? No. Northwestern? Maybe, but it depends on what he wants to study.

My admittedly biased view is that if you're a high school senior in the State of Michigan and you get into U-M, there is no good academic reason to go anywhere else unless you can get into an upper-half Ivy League school (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and maybe Penn), Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, or one of the elite liberal arts colleges (Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona, etc). To be clear, there may be other good reasons to chose another school outside of that group over Michigan (scholarship money, better social scene, more desireable location, desire to get out of Michigan, etc), but as far as academics and marketability of the degree are concerned, there are only a handful of options that are clearly better than Michigan.

I grew up in Michigan, and I had no idea how well the U-M name carries outside the Midwest until I moved to California. Out here in the Bay Area, people seem genuinely impressed when I tell them I went to Michigan. The name has opened doors for me that would not have otherwise opened.

Tell your nephew that it doesn't matter what college he goes to.  It matters who he is.  If he continues to work hard and be an honest person he will find success no matter what college he attends.  A study of students who were ALL accepted into IVY League schools showed virtually no difference in long term income between those that went to the IVY League Schools and those that got accepted, but went to a good public school instead.

With that said...steer him to Michigan, afterall, we have more majors and better graduate level programs for him to find his career from since he is undecided.  :-)

I was accepted by UM but Western gave me a full ride so my parents talked me into heading to K-zoo. Flash forward 10 years and it seems like the right choice as I have several UM alums underneath me and never made a student loan payment.

However, I will always regret not living in AA or being on the campus of the team/school I grew up idolizing. Consider your nephews personality, is he the type that will take advantage of the networking available at NW or ND? If he is a wallflower, save the money and go to Mich. A schools brand will get you in the door but your skills & network will play a bigger part in getting you the job.

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It all comes down to money.  If money is unlimited, send him to Northwestern, or hell, somewhere even more expensive.  Otherwise, take the in-state tuition to Michigan and call it a day.  The Michigan degree will be plenty good enough to open doors unless there is a specific major he wants that Michigan does not offer. 

For certain diciplines IMO don't even think about anything but Michigan. For example, Engineering and Business--no matter how good anyone else is, for the value of in-state tuitiion, the Michigan degree is going to be the best value you are going to get.  Probably applies to law and maybe medicine too. 

Those are three fantastic schools, and you can't really go wrong with the education at any of them.

Make sure they visit all three (or whichever the daughter is accepted to), because you want to choose somewhere you're excited about living and spending four years.

Financially, it obviously depends a lot on the financial aid packages--I would expect private schools to discount (i.e. give aid) much more heavily than the public school, so the gap may not be as big as it seems on paper (but make sure they're looking at all four years--it's standard to get a bigger discount the first year than the others so that you're in the door). Graduating debt free is very different from graduating with $100k in debt. The tricky part is that $100k in debt with some majors is very different than in others, and whatever the plans going in those are likely to change. (I'm just making up numbers there, but if Michigan wouldn't be debt free, then that makes the extra debt even harder).

On the other hand, if the parents can swing any of the schools or manage without much debt, then let the kid pick--what's best really varies a lot from one person to another.

My wife went to Northwestern (and I to M), and there are parts of her experience that I would have loved, and parts of mine that she would have. Among some things I would have loved at Northwestern are the increase in caliber of student (not huge, but definitely there), the location along the lake, the smaller class size, and the diversity of students she knew (partly that's just my wife, but I mostly knew engineering students or people I had a specific connection to, whereas she knew students from a huge variety of majors). On the other hand, she really would have loved Michigan's football, the proximity of everything in Ann Arbor, the presence of Michigan in the city and the ability to find a group for just about anything (as one small example, I was actively involved in my campus church, she didn't have as many options and never found one that was a good fit). In the end, I think I would have loved my experience at Northwestern if I had gone there, and she would have loved Michigan--maybe that's an argument to go the cheaper route, but I also think if they can swing the higher cost, there's a lot of value to going into a situation having actively picked it (while being reasonable about financial repurcussions are down the line).

Yes, it's not ND or NW, and yes, that means I'm not answering your question, I suppose. Rice is similar to both the schools you mentioned and I can attest that the undergraduates there are playing in an entirely different league than at Michigan. I transfered to M from a few different schools, the last being Sparty. I'd say that the jump from Sparty to M is about the same as the jump from M to the next tier. The better students at Michigan are the average or so at Rice (and I assume NW or ND).

If you're really smart, going to Michigan versus NW, ND, Rice, etc, doesn't really matter. But, if you're barely getting in, then you should choose the better school. Of course, the game changer is always financial aid. Moreover, Michigan is still the best instate bargain outside of maybe Cal or UVA in the country. If you live in any of those states you're a fool to go anywhere else that isn't making the cost even.

but I would not suggest paying $30K/year for NU over UM, unless there was a very clear reason to go there (such as an exclusive/premier Music prof or the like), and I'm a grad alum.  Even then, I'd suggest such decisoins be saved for grad school.  Given how EFC from the FAFSA works out with many schools, depending on your situation, schools can end up costing the same - in state OSU was actually about a wash with out of state UM once we factored in the financial aid they were offering when one son was considering schools a few years ago.  Thankfully UM was the choice.