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[SIZE=2]I know this my seem like a weird question, but I don't see how it makes sense to pay $40-50K a year for an undergrad education. Where we come from college is free, so my mother did not understand paying for college. When I went, I chose a cheap school and she gave me about $500 a month to cover expenses. I worked all summer, entire 14 weeks, 60 hours a week to have spending money during the school year. I graduated with $20K in student loans and an undergrad degree.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=2]When I have my kids, unless they are passionate about something or really have an aptitude, I would say go to state school or community college until you figure out what you really want to do. I would have them work to pay expenses and I would cover some of the expenses as well. I'll leave the Ivy League out of it, but is school name really that important for most professions? In accounting, they don't really look at your school, they look at your experience and certifications. I k now law school, med school and prestigous MBA schools don't apply here.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=2]My brother made a big stink that it was my mother's duty to pay for his college and she shelled out $14K a year for him to go to a $45K a year school. He has $70K in loans, but did get a job right out of college making $50K. His field is engineering. I figure if he did engineering at UCONN (where he got a full ride), he would be doing the same thing.[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=2]Is my thinking this way because I see so many college grads with debt up towards the 6 figures with a job paying $30K a year?[/SIZE]
My kids are not old enough for college yet, but my eldest intends to go to community college for two years, then transfer to a state university like I did. We will pay for that. It's also possible that she will get a scholarship in art, but she doesn't know if she wants to go to art school despite the free education. Our middle daughter will probably never go to college, and our son, the youngest, is only six. We intend to pay for his college path in the same fashion, but who knows what will happen between then and now.
My parents and grandparents paid for my college and my sister's. I don't see anything wrong with helping your kids in that way, as long as they are working toward becoming productive, self-reliant adults. Goofing off in school and getting bad grades would make me reconsider.
My parents paid for the portion of college that wasn't covered by my scholarships. I'm really grateful that they were able to do so, as I was able to focus completely on my studies (I had jobs to earn spending money,) and I graduated without a huge load of debt. It was my dad's position that it was my job to be a student, to take advantage of higher learning, and to become a productive adult.
Not all parents do or can pay for their childrens college. That is why there are schlorships, grants and student loans. Most parents help as much as they can because we want to see our children do well as adults and be self sufficient.
Financial advisors say to save for your retirement first and your kids education second. Community College followed by State College is a great and smart way to go if you don't have a scholarship, grant or any other help. Recent studies have shown that in many ways, that high tuition for Ivy League schools helps to pay for the teachers and expenses but doesn't necessarily guarantee a top notch education.
There are also tax incentives for paying for your child's college education.
We plan to help our children through college but in our experience, you get more out of college if you have to also work hard to get yourself through college. The people we know who had college paid for them didn't always seem to appreciate it or make the most of their time, and once they were done with school they had a hard wake-up call when reality hit them in the face for the first time.
I think it's a decision that is very personal and really depends on many factors.
I think going to a junior college or community college first is an excellent choice. There are many certificates and 2-year degrees you can work towards so that you can get some kind of decent-paying job first, then you can transfer to a 4-year college.
I started out life as an adult debt-free. At the time it didn't seem like such a big deal but really it was the greatest gift my parents could have given me. I hope we can do the same for our kids, at least combined with them working.
1. Very few people pay "sticker price" of $40-50k per year for undergrad. For example, I think Harvard's tuition & fees is a bit over $40k per year, however the school is FREE for any student whose family makes < $60k per year. Family's between $60-180k income are asked to pay approx 10% of their salary towards education. Only families making $200k++ are paying the full price. Only 30-something% of Harvard students graduate with ANY debt and the average debt load is around $10k.
Of course, Harvard offers the most generous tuition assistance plan, but many good students will find that private schools are MUCH better at meeting aid needs via grants & scholarships (vs loans) than public schools.
2. If parents CAN and WANT to pay for their kid's college, they should. If they can't (ie, it would mean taking out parent loans and not funding retirement), then they shouldn't. Easy as that.
3. The parent should ALWAYS help the student navigate the college decision- help research pay & job market for subjects/ majors the student is interested in and keep the debt load (if necessary) in check with anticipated starting salary.
Good rule of thumb is debt load shouldn't be more than starting salary to keep the payments manageable (ie, want to be a teacher? No more than $40k in loans for a starting salary in the $40's. want to be in public relations? No more than $15-20k in loans for a $20-25k starting salary. want to be an accountant? NO more than $50k in loans for a Big 4 starting salary in the $50's.) If student has dream to move to NYC or some other ridiculous COL city after graduation (as I did!), I would recommend taking out no more than 50% of the starting salary in loans ($20k for teachers, $7-10k for PR, $25k for accounting).
I can't comment on your brother's college choice or your parents decision to pay, other than it was their decision to make and hopefully it didn't put their retirement of track. If they could afford private school & wanted to pay for it, so be it.
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