Fully Funded College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes no sense to me. Fully funded means family money or a trust fund. Or grandparents put away a half million when the child was born for education purposes. Or it means you work for a college and your child gets fully funded tuition if admitted.

No, it doesn’t we were able to save to fully fund our children’s college. They are currently in college. Total costs are going to be around $360k. One is at an out of state school and one is at a private school with a scholarship that ends up costs about the same as the other. We saved more Incase both went to private with little scholarships. So we will have a bit leftover. Our HHI now hovers around $200k. It was $100k when the first child was born.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure "fully funded" means different things to different people. For us, it means to cover 4 yrs of in-state tuition, fees, room& board at an in-state public and we're on track for that. My kids (now in 8th/10th) know that's their college budget. We aren't paying more and I don't want them taking loans for undergrad. If they want to go private/OOS then they need to target schools that give good merit aid to match the in-state price. My parents had the same approach with me and I've done well in life with my public U education.

I think this is kind of bogus. I totally understand that all you are willing to only contribute 4 years of in state tuition. Totally reasonable and generous of you. I don’t think it’s reasonable for you to say that you don’t want them to take loans for college. That isn’t your decision and frankly is not doing anything to teach them about making good financial decisions. You should talk with them about why you believe a state school education is the best option and that OOS/private’s don’t buy your much in undergrad- especially for certain majors. But the final decision (and subsequent consequences) belong to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the posts are about VA schools. UVA is a very good school. Would you make your kid go to UMD if they got into Michigan, Tufts, Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon or other top 30 schools? I think that where you go to college stays with you the rest of your life. Every time you give a presentation and you’re introduced your education is usually mentioned. Throughout your life probably thousands of people will ask you. Whether we like it or not, people make judgements about you based on this, whether it’s a potential employer or love interest.

I'm a female executive at an IT company and I speak all the time at conferences and events in the DC area. I'm never ever introduced and my college mentioned. Never. I went to UMASS and people cannjufge away. I think your statement is about your own insecurity, not the reality. Nobody cares about your degree beyond your first and maybe, just maybe second job. I run an organization of 1500 people and nobody is impressed of you went to Tufts. When I review a linked in profile, I rarely scroll to the bottom. I don't care when you did in 2004, let alone where you graduated from in 1998.

What role are you in?

If degree didn’t matter, you would see lifetime earnings converge for college gradutes. Yet we know that lifetime earnings are correlated to college attended. Probably some limitation to causation there, but college is playing some role in this. To be clear, I’m not necessarily a proponent of going to the “best” school you can go to. For example, a young adult looking to go into teaching, nursing or accounting should be balancing cost against school prestige looking to achieve an optimal outcome. On the other hand, a young adult looking at high finance, elite IT jobs, big law or something similar does need to position herself to have an elite resume. For example, lawyers that speak at conferences always have their undergrad and law school mentioned.

I'm not going to out myself. There are very few women in my capacity.

There are no such thing as "elite" IT jobs. Bright people work their way into the best jobs. Brilliance and your alma matter are mutually exclusive. Our EVP of engineering, who is brilliant, holds patents, and is currently a pioneer in quantum computing did not even finish his college education. Most people cant even wrap their head around quantum compute.

Please stop. I know that there are brilliant people without fancy degrees. And genius beats pedigree every single time. But I know a ton of quantum info scientists (some might consider me one). Most are PhDs from mit, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Berkeley and Wisconsin. I know I am missing some big powerhouse schools but don’t let’s pretend they don’t exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes no sense to me. Fully funded means family money or a trust fund. Or grandparents put away a half million when the child was born for education purposes. Or it means you work for a college and your child gets fully funded tuition if admitted.

What if I have already put $0.5M in a 529 for my kid? How is that different than if my parents had done so.

Agree. I had enough in both my kids accounts to pay 4 years of tuition. That means fully funded to me. We saved, and the accounts grew. No family money or trust fund. Maybe the PP means someone else was funding college? But that was not the OPs question.

PP confused. I finally realized why this was bothering me. When I did my PhD it was fully funded--so tuition and health benefits plus stipend were all take care of via the university. So when I think fully funded, it means someone else pays. For undergrad, we say "full ride" full ride when the university fully funds a student. But fully funded is a weird term when people are just saving and paying out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure "fully funded" means different things to different people. For us, it means to cover 4 yrs of in-state tuition, fees, room& board at an in-state public and we're on track for that. My kids (now in 8th/10th) know that's their college budget. We aren't paying more and I don't want them taking loans for undergrad. If they want to go private/OOS then they need to target schools that give good merit aid to match the in-state price. My parents had the same approach with me and I've done well in life with my public U education.

I think this is kind of bogus. I totally understand that all you are willing to only contribute 4 years of in state tuition. Totally reasonable and generous of you. I don’t think it’s reasonable for you to say that you don’t want them to take loans for college. That isn’t your decision and frankly is not doing anything to teach them about making good financial decisions. You should talk with them about why you believe a state school education is the best option and that OOS/private’s don’t buy your much in undergrad- especially for certain majors. But the final decision (and subsequent consequences) belong to them.

How does this work? A student can't take out more than $31K TOTAL for undergrad without a cosigner...so exactly how is NOT the parent's decision?

[Anonymous]

WTF do people do who only make 100k a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTF do people do who only make 100k a year?

There is great financial aid at a lot of private institutions. State schools have a good sticker price (unless you have a high price and high aid model like PA) but are not as generous with aid outside the states that have lottery scholarships. From that answer, you can see it is complicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the posts are about VA schools. UVA is a very good school. Would you make your kid go to UMD if they got into Michigan, Tufts, Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon or other top 30 schools? I think that where you go to college stays with you the rest of your life. Every time you give a presentation and you’re introduced your education is usually mentioned. Throughout your life probably thousands of people will ask you. Whether we like it or not, people make judgements about you based on this, whether it’s a potential employer or love interest.

I'm a female executive at an IT company and I speak all the time at conferences and events in the DC area. I'm never ever introduced and my college mentioned. Never. I went to UMASS and people cannjufge away. I think your statement is about your own insecurity, not the reality. Nobody cares about your degree beyond your first and maybe, just maybe second job. I run an organization of 1500 people and nobody is impressed of you went to Tufts. When I review a linked in profile, I rarely scroll to the bottom. I don't care when you did in 2004, let alone where you graduated from in 1998.

What role are you in?

If degree didn’t matter, you would see lifetime earnings converge for college gradutes. Yet we know that lifetime earnings are correlated to college attended. Probably some limitation to causation there, but college is playing some role in this. To be clear, I’m not necessarily a proponent of going to the “best” school you can go to. For example, a young adult looking to go into teaching, nursing or accounting should be balancing cost against school prestige looking to achieve an optimal outcome. On the other hand, a young adult looking at high finance, elite IT jobs, big law or something similar does need to position herself to have an elite resume. For example, lawyers that speak at conferences always have their undergrad and law school mentioned.

I'm not going to out myself. There are very few women in my capacity.

There are no such thing as "elite" IT jobs. Bright people work their way into the best jobs. Brilliance and your alma matter are mutually exclusive. Our EVP of engineering, who is brilliant, holds patents, and is currently a pioneer in quantum computing did not even finish his college education. Most people cant even wrap their head around quantum compute.

Please stop. I know that there are brilliant people without fancy degrees. And genius beats pedigree every single time. But I know a ton of quantum info scientists (some might consider me one). Most are PhDs from mit, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Berkeley and Wisconsin. I know I am missing some big powerhouse schools but don’t let’s pretend they don’t exist.

Lol! You just never know. My DH just sold his "small" company for 30M. Government contracting and he had 2 pretty large contracts. He never even stepped foot in a college or university.

I had a tin of loans that he paid off and capped out at an 85k income before I left the workforce. Even had I continued working, there would have been no distinguishable ROI on the name brand school I went to vs a state school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the posts are about VA schools. UVA is a very good school. Would you make your kid go to UMD if they got into Michigan, Tufts, Wake Forest, Carnegie Mellon or other top 30 schools? I think that where you go to college stays with you the rest of your life. Every time you give a presentation and you’re introduced your education is usually mentioned. Throughout your life probably thousands of people will ask you. Whether we like it or not, people make judgements about you based on this, whether it’s a potential employer or love interest.

I'm a female executive at an IT company and I speak all the time at conferences and events in the DC area. I'm never ever introduced and my college mentioned. Never. I went to UMASS and people cannjufge away. I think your statement is about your own insecurity, not the reality. Nobody cares about your degree beyond your first and maybe, just maybe second job. I run an organization of 1500 people and nobody is impressed of you went to Tufts. When I review a linked in profile, I rarely scroll to the bottom. I don't care when you did in 2004, let alone where you graduated from in 1998.

What role are you in?

If degree didn’t matter, you would see lifetime earnings converge for college gradutes. Yet we know that lifetime earnings are correlated to college attended. Probably some limitation to causation there, but college is playing some role in this. To be clear, I’m not necessarily a proponent of going to the “best” school you can go to. For example, a young adult looking to go into teaching, nursing or accounting should be balancing cost against school prestige looking to achieve an optimal outcome. On the other hand, a young adult looking at high finance, elite IT jobs, big law or something similar does need to position herself to have an elite resume. For example, lawyers that speak at conferences always have their undergrad and law school mentioned.

I'm not going to out myself. There are very few women in my capacity.

There are no such thing as "elite" IT jobs. Bright people work their way into the best jobs. Brilliance and your alma matter are mutually exclusive. Our EVP of engineering, who is brilliant, holds patents, and is currently a pioneer in quantum computing did not even finish his college education. Most people cant even wrap their head around quantum compute.

Please stop. I know that there are brilliant people without fancy degrees. And genius beats pedigree every single time. But I know a ton of quantum info scientists (some might consider me one). Most are PhDs from mit, Stanford, Harvard, Chicago, Berkeley and Wisconsin. I know I am missing some big powerhouse schools but don’t let’s pretend they don’t exist.

It doesn't matter as much as other fields, like big law, business or medicine. You cannot do much with a PhD in IT but teach. My husband went to a no name school and is doing just as well as many others are. I would want my child to go to a better school for other reasons but you don't need the top schools to do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTF do people do who only make 100k a year?

Social worker, teacher, police, office workers, etc. Not everyone makes even $100K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTF do people do who only make 100k a year?

Social worker, teacher, police, office workers, etc. Not everyone makes even $100K.

I took the question not to mean 'what do they do for a living' but rather 'how can people/families who earn $100K possibly afford college?'

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Do people really put $240K ($60K *4) in college funds and call that "fully funded"?

Of course. My kid is 7 and has over 150k. I'm expecting it to cost close to 400k by the time he is ready for college.

What did you think it meant???

This has to be one of the most smug out of touch posts on DCUM ever and that's saying something.