I'm thinking about the education, prestige and opportunities that each school offers. But Erin, as the worrier of the family, is more focused on tuition costs, debt, cost of living in a new town, etc. Plus, Erin thinks about how far away a school is from our families, whereas for me it's almost a non-factor.
With the list of 14 schools I'm applying to, I found the cost of tuition, percentage of students who receive half- to full-tuition scholarships, percentage of students who receive grants, average debt after graduation, distance to Mosier, OR (my hometown), distance to Tomball, TX (Erin's hometown), cost of living, and annual premiums for school health insurance.* Then, I ranked each school in each category. Finally, I added each school's ranking in each category to come up with the "Erin score."
Ready to see the results?
44 on The Erin Scale - BYU
45 - Baylor
48 - Texas
51 - Ohio State
51 - Utah
53 - Minnesota
54 - North Carolina
62 - Notre Dame
62 - Iowa
63 - Arizona State
69 - UC Davis
69 - Washington
75 - Oregon
91 - Virginia
BYU was #1 in lowest tuition and lowest debt, #3 in health insurance cost and #5 in cost of living, percentage of students who get scholarships and in distance from Mosier.
I'm pretty sure we would still pick some schools before picking BYU, because even though distance from home was one component of The Erin Scale we still want some sort of adventurous unfamiliarity.
But, it's interesting nonetheless.
Here's how all the schools ranked in each category:
Annual tuition:
1 - BYU - $10,280**
2 - Utah - $18,231**
3 - Oregon - $29,953
4 - North Carolina - $31,218
5 - Arizona State - $35,147
6 - Washington - $37,299
7 - Ohio State - $39,418
8 - Minnesota - $40,388
9 - Notre Dame - $40,805
10 - Baylor - $40,904
11 - Iowa - $42,922
12 - Texas - $44,638
13 - Virginia - $47,500
14 - UC Davis - $50,595
Percentage of students who are given half- to full-tuition scholarships:
1 - Baylor - 29.9%
2 - UC Davis - 24.4%
3 - Iowa - 22.4%
4 - Minnesota - 19.2%
5 - BYU - 18.3%
6 - Ohio State - 14.7%
7 - Utah - 13.4%
7 - Arizona State - 13.4%
9 - Notre Dame - 13.0%
10 - Texas - 12.8%
11 - North Carolina - 10.7%
12 - Virginia - 9.0%
13 - Washington - 5.3%
14 - Oregon - 4.2%
Percentage of students who are given grants:
1 - Texas - 91.2%
2 - North Carolina - 85.4%
3 - Baylor - 85.2%
4 - UC Davis - 81.7%
5 - Ohio State - 78.8%
6 - Notre Dame - 77.2%
7 - Minnesota - 62.7%
8 - Oregon - 56.1%
9 - Utah - 54.3%
10 - Virginia - 51.3%
11 - Washington - 48.7%
12 - Arizona State - 48.6%
13 - Iowa - 30.5%
14 - BYU - 30.4%
Average debt:
1 - BYU - $52,315
2 - North Carolina - $60,212
3 - Utah - $61,665
4 - Washington - $63,393
5 - Texas - $78,408
6 - Ohio State - $81,408
7 - Iowa - $87,891
8 - Arizona State - $89,038
9 - Minnesota - $91,314
10 - Oregon - $91,353
11 - Notre Dame - $92,310
12 - UC Davis - $98,179
13 - Baylor - $100,795
14 - Virginia - $107,384
Distance to Mosier, OR:
1 - Oregon - 177 miles
2 - Washington - 234
3 - UC Davis - 576
4 - Utah - 698
5 - BYU - 750
6 - Arizona State - 1,277
7 - Minnesota - 1,661
8 - Iowa - 1,835
9 - Texas - 1,999
10 - Baylor - 2,047
11 - Notre Dame - 2,131
12 - Ohio State - 2,347
13 - Virginia - 2,730
14 - North Carolina - 2,770
Distance to Tomball, TX:
1 - Texas - 139 miles
2 - Baylor - 158
3 - Iowa - 1,057
4 - Notre Dame - 1,157
5 - Ohio State - 1,169
6 - Arizona State - 1,184
7 - Minnesota - 1,185
8 - North Carolina - 1,199
9 - Virginia - 1,321
10 - BYU - 1,413
11 - Utah - 1,457
12 - UC Davis - 1,957
13 - Washington - 2,360
14 - Oregon - 2,419
Cost of living (compared to Provo, UT):
1 - Baylor - -24%
2 - Notre Dame - -19%
3 - Ohio State - -10%
4 - Iowa - -1%
5 - BYU - 0%
6 - Texas - 3%
7 - Arizona State - 4%
7 - Utah - 4%
9 - Minnesota - 8%
9 - Virginia - 8%
11 - Oregon - 13%
12 - North Carolina - 30%
13 - UC Davis - 44%
14 - Washington - 50%
Annual premiums for school health insurance plan:
1 - North Carolina - $2,364 plus summer term***
2 - Minnesota - $4,368
3 - BYU - $4,680
4 - Texas - $4,710
5 - Baylor - $4,864
6 - Washington - $4,908
7 - Ohio State - $5,054
8 - Utah - $5,212
9 - UC Davis - $5,254
10 - Notre Dame - $5,828
11 - Virginia - $5,834
12 - Arizona State - $6,328
13 - Iowa - $6,720
14 - Oregon - $7,164
And, the scores in each category:
Arizona State - 5 + 7 + 12 + 8 + 6 + 6 + 7 + 12
Baylor - 10 + 1 + 3 + 13 + 10 + 2 + 1 + 5
BYU - 1 + 5 + 14 + 1 + 5 + 10 + 5 + 3
Iowa - 11 + 3 + 13 + 7 + 8 + 3 + 4 + 13
Minnesota - 8 + 4 + 7 + 9 + 7 + 7 + 9 + 2
North Carolina - 4 + 11 + 2 + 2 + 14 + 8 +12 + 1
Notre Dame - 9 + 9 + 6 + 11 + 11 + 4 + 2 + 10
Ohio State - 7 + 6 + 5 + 6 + 12 + 5 + 3 + 7
Oregon - 3 + 14 + 8 + 10 + 1 + 14 + 11 + 14
Texas - 12 + 10 + 1 + 5 + 9 + 1 + 6 + 4
UC Davis - 14 + 2 + 4 + 12 + 3 + 12 + 13 + 9
Utah - 2 + 7 + 9 + 3 + 4 + 11 + 7 + 8
Virginia - 13 + 12 + 10 + 14 + 13 + 9 + 9 + 11
Washington - 6 + 13 + 11 + 4 + 2 + 13 + 14 + 6
For all you law school experts out there: what do you think of The Erin Scale? Should I give more weight to certain categories, like more weight to tuition and debt and less to who gets scholarships? Should there be some adjustments for schools that are only a few percentage points or dollars apart?
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Also, last night I finished two more personal statements, for Virginia and Ohio State. Five out of 14 applications done! And here's something awesome: for those five, I've only had to pay for two of them and had fee waivers for the rest!
I've learned something that I maybe wish I had known before. My initial strategy was to apply roughly in order from toughest schools to easiest schools, because the head start could be an advantage for those tougher schools. So that also means the most important personal statements are being written and submitted first.
But as I'm borrowing parts from previous personal statements, I'm finding mistakes that I let slip through as the statements were sent to Texas, North Carolina and Notre Dame! Silly mistakes, like saying "As an employee at BYU Multicultural Student Services, I was in charge of the BYU's Celebration of Culture events ..." Oh well. We'll see what happens.
* The number I chose for my calculations was the cost for a student and a spouse, but realistically we would be paying to add child(ren) to the plan or a family plan.
** In-state tuition sure is nice!
*** I couldn't find a figure for an annual cost or for a summer term, just a price for fall and spring terms without summer term.
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