College savings--GAH!

[Anonymous]

This thread is very anxiety-inducing.

[Anonymous]

We choose to do the prepaid to make sure we had something (i.e. 4 years tuition) and just treat it as a regular monthly payment, just like you would a car payment (we are holding off on a new car to do this). The prepaid made more sense to us as if the market tanks again, you could lose everything so at least we have something and we will save more after this is paid off. If you have a reasonable income level (not struggling to pay basic bills), at some point, it becomes about priorities. It is a lot of money to put away, but I'd rather do it now and know I can provide the opportunities my parents provided and make life just a bit easier if I can.

[Anonymous]

Do what you can OP. My parents had very little saved for us due to huge medical bills that came about before my mother passed. Both of my brothers wound up going the military route, so I inherited their college money. It ended up totaling about $20,000. My freshman year cost out of pocket $18,000, while having a $12,000 scholarship. I transferred to a public school after that where about 75% was covered by athletic scholarships, and paid the remainder myself. Even if my brothers had gone to school and I'd received less from my parents, I would have been fine. I think the biggest thing is encouraging the student to work while in school (it really isn't all about having free time to go to parties and hang out) as that will help keep the loans down, and choosing an affordable school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do what you can, OP.

Contrary to public opinion you do not have to pay your child's full tuition throughout college. Not everyone can, not everyone has to. If you support your child in other ways (mainly emotionally, academically, etc) you can work with your child to help get them through college.

My parents set aside a small amount of money for my brother, but had none for my sister or I. I worked my way through college. I want to have a college fund for my kids, but there's no way I can pay the full amount every year so we will have to work together. I will do what I can, they will have to do what they can.

That is unbelievable.

PP here. I know. But we were the first women in our family to go to college, they simply didn't expect us to (and this wasn't even that long ago!)

Why is that unbelievable?

My parents could not afford to save or contribute to any of my siblings' educations. Every single one of us attended college, including an Ivy and several top private universities. We worked our way through, and graduated with minimal debt. It can be done.

My children have also been told from the start that there is no college savings. We are helping them figure out different possible paths they could take, including dual enrollment/guaranteed transfer, military service, or becoming National Merit Scholars. They all start working when they are 11 or 12 and are saving their earnings. They know to avoid excessive debt at all costs.

Their education is their responsibility. I owned my education, and graduated at the top of my class, while working full time. That's how I expect my kids to grow up and become responsible adults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do what you can, OP.

Contrary to public opinion you do not have to pay your child's full tuition throughout college. Not everyone can, not everyone has to. If you support your child in other ways (mainly emotionally, academically, etc) you can work with your child to help get them through college.

My parents set aside a small amount of money for my brother, but had none for my sister or I. I worked my way through college. I want to have a college fund for my kids, but there's no way I can pay the full amount every year so we will have to work together. I will do what I can, they will have to do what they can.

That is unbelievable.

PP here. I know. But we were the first women in our family to go to college, they simply didn't expect us to (and this wasn't even that long ago!)

Why is that unbelievable?

My parents could not afford to save or contribute to any of my siblings' educations. Every single one of us attended college, including an Ivy and several top private universities. We worked our way through, and graduated with minimal debt. It can be done.

My children have also been told from the start that there is no college savings. We are helping them figure out different possible paths they could take, including dual enrollment/guaranteed transfer, military service, or becoming National Merit Scholars. They all start working when they are 11 or 12 and are saving their earnings. They know to avoid excessive debt at all costs.

Their education is their responsibility. I owned my education, and graduated at the top of my class, while working full time. That's how I expect my kids to grow up and become responsible adults.

It is unbelievable to me that parents would save money to contribute to a son's education, but not the daughters' education.

It is not unbelievable that parents would contribute nothing ('though I myself wouldn't do that) - what is unbelievable is the son/daughter discrimination.

[Anonymous]

15:33, what the PP finds unbelievable, I think, is that the parents saved for the male child, but not his sisters. Though I also think it's unbelievable, and not a little selfish, that parents that have the ability to save for college choose not to in order to teach their kids a lesson, especially given the exploding cost of higher education.

[Anonymous]

We put aside $3000 when DD was born and then $150 per month until she's done with day care and pre-K. After that the plan is to start saving $550 a month which is what our estimator indicated we'd need to save to afford a public university for 4 years. We also anticipate that we'll still be working while DD is in college, so we may contribute to tuiton and living expenses that way. Our HHI is $160K and we live in Silver Spring.

I have to agree with 15:47, though. To have the ability to save for your kids' education and not to, is selfish. I expect my daughter to "own" her education and do well academically, but I don't want her burdened with crazy loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do what you can, OP.

Contrary to public opinion you do not have to pay your child's full tuition throughout college. Not everyone can, not everyone has to. If you support your child in other ways (mainly emotionally, academically, etc) you can work with your child to help get them through college.

My parents set aside a small amount of money for my brother, but had none for my sister or I. I worked my way through college. I want to have a college fund for my kids, but there's no way I can pay the full amount every year so we will have to work together. I will do what I can, they will have to do what they can.

That is unbelievable.

PP here. I know. But we were the first women in our family to go to college, they simply didn't expect us to (and this wasn't even that long ago!)

Why is that unbelievable?

My parents could not afford to save or contribute to any of my siblings' educations. Every single one of us attended college, including an Ivy and several top private universities. We worked our way through, and graduated with minimal debt. It can be done.

My children have also been told from the start that there is no college savings. We are helping them figure out different possible paths they could take, including dual enrollment/guaranteed transfer, military service, or becoming National Merit Scholars. They all start working when they are 11 or 12 and are saving their earnings. They know to avoid excessive debt at all costs.

Their education is their responsibility. I owned my education, and graduated at the top of my class, while working full time. That's how I expect my kids to grow up and become responsible adults.

It is unbelievable to me that parents would save money to contribute to a son's education, but not the daughters' education.

It is not unbelievable that parents would contribute nothing ('though I myself wouldn't do that) - what is unbelievable is the son/daughter discrimination.

[Anonymous]

Sorry about the quoting above. I was the first in my family to go to college. When my mom told my grandmother that I was going, my grandmother told her that she was wasting her money and that some man would just profit from my education.

[Anonymous]

I see that I missed the gender discrimination in the "unbelievable" post, so I add my own "unbelievable" to that! In this day and age, wow.

But I do think the expectation that parents are to foot the bill is ridiculous, and allows colleges to raise tuition at the unbelievable rates they do. There is a bubble, and I want no part in that. Cost will drive my kids' decisions. There is always a way. Just not always an easy way.

By the way, here's a good tip: high AP scores translate to credit at community colleges, and therefore to guaranteed transfer contracts. So if your child gets a 5 on the AP English exam, s/he will have a year of college English credit through the guaranteed transfer agreement with certain schools. That's $89 for the credit, versus $1200 for the equivalent CC course, versus thousands for the equivalent public or private university course. That's a way to cut huge amounts from the total cost of a quality degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see that I missed the gender discrimination in the "unbelievable" post, so I add my own "unbelievable" to that! In this day and age, wow.

But I do think the expectation that parents are to foot the bill is ridiculous, and allows colleges to raise tuition at the unbelievable rates they do. There is a bubble, and I want no part in that. Cost will drive my kids' decisions. There is always a way. Just not always an easy way.

By the way, here's a good tip: high AP scores translate to credit at community colleges, and therefore to guaranteed transfer contracts. So if your child gets a 5 on the AP English exam, s/he will have a year of college English credit through the guaranteed transfer agreement with certain schools. That's $89 for the credit, versus $1200 for the equivalent CC course, versus thousands for the equivalent public or private university course. That's a way to cut huge amounts from the total cost of a quality degree.

Agree, and you can get even more "bang for the buck" if you target specific AP classes/exams, eg you get 3 credits for a 5 on AP French but 8 credits for a 5 on AP US History (this was as of 10+ years ago when I went to college). I did well on 3 AP exams, and came in with 24 credits - I could have easily graduated college in 3 years had I wanted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:15:33, what the PP finds unbelievable, I think, is that the parents saved for the male child, but not his sisters. Though I also think it's unbelievable, and not a little selfish, that parents that have the ability to save for college choose not to in order to teach their kids a lesson, especially given the exploding cost of higher education.

We are saving and have over 100k in DS's 529. He's 5. It's ridiculous to expect him to be able to save and pay for college on his own when most private colleges cost over 50k+ yr. We as parents will pay just as our parents did for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15:33, what the PP finds unbelievable, I think, is that the parents saved for the male child, but not his sisters. Though I also think it's unbelievable, and not a little selfish, that parents that have the ability to save for college choose not to in order to teach their kids a lesson, especially given the exploding cost of higher education.

We are saving and have over 100k in DS's 529. He's 5. It's ridiculous to expect him to be able to save and pay for college on his own when most private colleges cost over 50k+ yr. We as parents will pay just as our parents did for us.

It's $50k+ NOW. In 12 years, who knows what it'll be? I agree that it's absurd to expect kids to work and pay for school. Plus, their ability to get need-based financial aid will be affected by your income/assets, whether you contribute or not.

[Anonymous]

Our household income is about $180,000. I did the Maryland pre-paid tuition and paid $37,000 as a one time payment (this was two years ago as my son is now two and I did it when he was born), to cover 4 years of tuition at any MD public university. The nice thing is that there are many different payment plans to meet your needs. You also get a decent tax deduction.

My parents paid for me to go to a public university when I was a student but told me that I was on my own for grad school. Since I didn't have to work when I was in undergrad, I had the time to study hard, participate in research...and was able to get accepted into a fully-funded doctorate in the social sciences. I still appreciate their support of my education, to this day.

If they hadn't helped me with undergrad, I may have either skipped grad school to start making money immediately or selected a profession with a higher earning potential......so, I'm sure it would have worked out, but it is much less stressful not to currently have student loans.

[Anonymous]

We're down to one income, about $90k. We have not yet opened a 529 account which should give you a hint about how much we are saving for our 9 and 6 year olds.