Constant Tuition Increases -- at what price point will you have to switch to public?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I totally agree with that pp. It is crazy for someone to pay all of those years of private and then expect their kid to pay for college. They should save the money for later.

[Anonymous]

GD World Bank people. The bank and other organizations pay for tuition. Good private schools are $20K in Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

I thought the World Bank cut out the tuition benefit a few years ago?

[Anonymous]

If a kid is smart enough to get a full ride in college, he or she is better off excelling in public school, then having no barriers -including money - when it comes to college and grad school - which really matters. i say that as a parent with a kid at sidwell who i pay full share for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband + I both work FT -- have one child in private + struggle to pay the private school tuition. We live in DC and despise public schools. At what price point will you switch to public if you are paying for it yourselves w/o help from anyone?

It would probably have to get to around $40-50K each (2 kids, currently about 28K each, I think) for a fairly significant number of years (not just 1 or 2 to go). I factor in not only the dollars out the door for tuition but also the move costs when I think about this. We, too, are in DC and would have to take a bigger mortgage (probably) at a time we are ramping up retirement savings, plus have to pay moving costs, broker's commissions, blah, blah, blah. It would take a lot. Right now we are able to save and pay tuition. Our plan for college so far is to save the differential between current tuition and private college tuition, but I suppose if current tuition climbed high enough we would either need to make sure we could handle the full college amount out of cash flow for the entire period or look at other options. I would actually like to retire at some point!

[Anonymous]

@22:34 - My hubby works for the WB, and I just asked him this question. The Bank stopped paying for tuition for kids in the US years ago. If a family decentralizes (i.e. moves to one of the country offices), tuition may be partially or fully paid for. The IDB, on the other hand, does pay tuition for kids in the US.

[Anonymous]

I feel like the tuition is starting to kill us. I feel like we are at this tipping point of when is it just not worth the money anymore. I'm just not sure we can keep it up for much longer and it makes me sad.

[Anonymous]

If tuition continues to rise at a multiple of inflation, the schools will ultimately go out of business. It may be 50 years from now, but tuition will outstrip demographics. From my point of view, one huge problem is that middle class families are underrepresented on the boards. If there were more families in the $200k range, the boards would have a stronger anti-tuition increase voice. I know that 200k is a lot but those are the people that feel the squeeze the hardest, too wealthy for aide and too poor to feel comfortable spending $30k a year.

[Anonymous]

$200k with 2 kids will qualify for partial aid (3-7k) depending on circumstances.

Schools will always provide partial aid to keep the professional class in the community.

[Anonymous]

Will your kid be better off going to a public school and you giving them a $500,000 graduation gift?
With 2 kids it would cost me $60,000 a year, just tuition, excluding other expenses. With that money I can hire a teacher to educate my kid at home.

I was dreaming about a private education for my kids. But for us it would mean a big expense and in return my kid being singled out as the poor one in the school. I do not want to pay that much just so they will feel inferior.

And from what I hear, most college students say those who went to private schools have to pay their own way. Because the parents paid for the private, they will not pay for college. That is common. I do not know what my kid will choose if she had the choice. But it seems that those colleges have public school kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And from what I hear, most college students say those who went to private schools have to pay their own way. Because the parents paid for the private, they will not pay for college. That is common. I do not know what my kid will choose if she had the choice. But it seems that those colleges have public school kids

Honestly I have never heard this. At my kid's schools the only kids who "pay their own" way are the ones on financial aid already. I have never heard any of the parents at either high school say they expect their kids to pay for college. if they get a scholarship great, but paying $30+k a year for high school and then $0 for college? Doesn't even make sense.

[Anonymous]

I went private and grade school, had almost a full ride in college and my parents had me take out a SMALL loan to cover part of the costs to help my credit score. They felt and easy $1000 loan would be good to boost my credit straight out of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went private and grade school, had almost a full ride in college and my parents had me take out a SMALL loan to cover part of the costs to help my credit score. They felt and easy $1000 loan would be good to boost my credit straight out of college.

private IN grade school. I swear I did.

[Anonymous]

The people at work who attended private schools went to University of Maryland and other colleges where they could have gotten to from a public school.

[Anonymous]

My kids are at a private school in elementary. We love the school but feel like we just can't keep up with tuition. And I have this feeling of I wish we had started public and then gone private. It's so hard to go from private to public, I imagine, because then you know what you're missing...