Anyone else spending $7000 oer month (or more) on tuition from earned income?
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Anonymous
I'm the PhD poster and it is true that most are funded IF you make smart decisions about the program you accept. I can't tell you how many interns I see make really crappy financial choices about their graduate education. Med School is one of the few that is worth it and will pay itself off if you need loans (I'm in a medical field so work alongside many MDs), but many other programs are truly money makers for the schools and are not worth the cost. And for the poster above in the 500k per year bracket, do you really think the Harvards all get further than the UMDs? I work alongside both and for the motivated student, they do not. They do make smarter financial decisions though quite often. And if you are wondering what else you could teach them to do with 60k per year? Well sheesh, travel the world and see what that kind of cash would mean to most of it. I am in a field where SES is a huge driver in outcome for sure, but the thing is that if you have the kind of parent who is on a board like this and critically thinking about these issues, you are already ahead of the game. It's really not the school they attend: it's the parents they are born to, for better or worse. |
Anonymous
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OP, my parents paid for 3 kids' private school education out of earned income (pre-school through 12 for all of us). Tuition was obviously lower back then, and their HHI was higher than yours...but I don't think it's uncommon at all to pay for tuition from earned income...at least it wasn't where I went. Actually, though my parents had saved for college (not in a 529 since those didn't exist then), they ended up paying for all three of our college costs through earned income as well. Don't forget this will be an option for you to supplement their 529 unless you are planning to retire before then.
$7K/month does seem high at your HHI (you're paying close to 20% of your HHI in tuition), but only you can decide if you are able to afford it and whether it's worth it. |
Anonymous
| Too many variables here that are unknown, including the age of the parents (how many years from retirement) and housing costs. Some of us bought when houses were fairly cheap 15+ years ago, and are in a different situation than families who bought more recently, even if at the same income. Look for advice from a financial planner (who of course, will tell you to find a good public school). |
Anonymous
Bingo. And more of the $150k and up families will attend public. Already happening. |
Anonymous
OP - we are spending a large amount of our income on private. We are OK with public college - we were more worried about our kids hating school in early elementary but didn't realize it until later. In hindsight, I wish we had done grades 2 - 8 private and then public HS. |
Anonymous
You'd be surprised. All of the financial aid qualification firms also sell loans for private school. Conflict of interest much? And boy, do they push them! |
Anonymous
No, you are thinking of your parents' day when everyone (or all boys) of a certain upbringing went to Ivies. Colleges are much more open to lower middle class and real middle class (i.e. Not DC region faux middle class) than ever before. |
Anonymous
I think the closest good district is too long a drive. We are all raising our kids in large urban districts whereas most of us grew up with smaller class sizes, calm teachers who imposed appropriate discipline, with plenty of time for recess and specials. To get that in this area, you pay for private. |
Anonymous
Who pays for grad school?! DH and I both had TA-ships and graduate tuition waivers. Plus your child isn't really a child when in grad school, payment is really their responsibility. |
Anonymous
The Ivies and private colleges are not always the best. It really depends on the department, like you wouldn't want to go to Harvard for Engineering. There is nothing wrong with public universities and land grant universities. The obsession with Ivy League schools on this forum is nauseating. I have met a few Ivy grads in DC and cannot figure out what the obsession is. Someone explain it to me, please. It has to be bragging rights only and the status that people envision it brings them as parents. |
Anonymous
+1 Bragging rights for my MIL for sure. |
Anonymous
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Curious if the OP has specifics around why they've chosen for private . . . how else could anyone possibly have a few on whether it's worth it?
Our HHI is similar (actually a bit higher and with zero investment income) and we opted for a bigger house/mortgage (our mortgage is $6K/month), no private school, fully funding retirement/college, comfortable lifestyle. However, we made this decision several years into public education and have a comfort level with our kids and how they are doing in their public school environments. They do not have special needs, and appear to be thriving. I am a product of private schooling (different metro area but school akin to NCS). I had an excellent, personalized, challenging education K-12, and sometimes I wonder if I'm making the wrong choice because I know how wonderful that kind of education can be. On the other hand, though, no matter how many kids there were on FA/scholarship, fact was that it was a bubble exceeding the bubble that you see in the MCPS "W" clusters. I really wanted my kids to mix it up more in the real world (recognizing that it's still a bubble but less so). A big driver for us is that we want to ensure we are funding college and our retirement fully. My parents did not do this, they sacrificed future stability to pay the private school tuition, and it caused a tremendous amount of stress (for me and them). A great education is a huge gift, but so is financial stability. If financial stability could be compromised by spending so much on private education, I would say it's not worth it. |
Anonymous
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PP, Ivy obsession has to do with high average lifetime earnings and high availability of desirable opportunities for life. It is a path that allows even the worse students to thrive. The people who do not have successful lives typically have some physical or mental illness. Of course, there are many paths that lead to the same place so its not the only way. I can say for a number of jobs or professional schools it is the easiest way to enter and excel. .. mentors and guides are immediately available to the new class of recruits from Ivy X. Again its not the only way but it is the easiest.
The same could be said for the "Big 3" in DC. Not the only way but the easiest to get to a top college of any kind.The numbers and odds are just in those kids favors. They do not have to be #1-5 in a class of 1000s to get the nod, just top 1/3 out of anywhere from 70-125. |
Anonymous
OP here. This is a thought-provoking post. I have definitely noticed (and there is even a thread on the Private/Independent School Forum) that parents who went to private themselves seem to send their kids to public, and vice versa. Even accounting for the fact that approximately 90 percent of American kids go to public school, the number of public-school parents at the privates seem high. It's interesting to observe that, when some private-school grads look back on their own education, they feel that they got a great education, but that it perhaps was not worth the high cost their parents had to pay. Very thought-provoking! We are in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Cluster, which is a good one in MCPS. A lot of kids who live in the cluster go to MCPS K-12, but a fair number also go to private schools. When my oldest child first entered private school two years ago as a 6th grader (and as a newcomer to private school generally), I was really impressed with the quality of the private schools. We still are on board two years later. Since my kids are not academic superstars, the private seems to be good for them in that it gives them a little extra push but is also supportive. If my kids were academic superstars and super resilient/organized kids, I would definitely keep them in MCPS as I think the public schools have a lot to offer to that type. |
Anonymous
What this article talks about is exactly why I believe in private school for my kids. They are not smartest and not trouble makers, but they receive so much attention and support from their teachers. Each year, I see them grow exponentially as people. The academic outcome is irrelevant to me. PS-12 is what really forms you and what you carry with through your life. I want these years to be happy and giving them this gift to them is a joy. They are so happy to go to school every day. |