I genuinely don't get saving for college for kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full paying foreign students are avoiding USA because it is a dangerous, racist shithole country.

I think you have that backwards. Full paying foreign students are FLOCKING to the USA because they LIVE in dangerous racist shithole countries.

Foreign students are not avoiding the USA.

[Anonymous]

NP: I have not read through the entire thread. Culturally, I was raised with the notion that each generation pays for the subsequent generation's education. My parents paid for my college, I am paying for my daughters.

Why? By giving the money for education, you are more likely to have a successful offspring. Education is where we do the intergenerational wealth transfer. My DD may not inherit much, but her undergrad education will be paid for -- and by me paying the 160K over 4 years (state, no aide), DD will be able to pursue her dreams rather than chase the dollar. That means she is more likely to be happy with her career choices. I was able to not chase the dollar, but pursue my interests.

That is my UMC Jewish Privilege.

[Anonymous]

Median HHI has increased slightly over the years. Tuition, however, has tripled and quadrupled disproportionately, and so have home prices. You are privileged enough to say "we'll just pay whatever scholarships don't cover", but the rest of us poors have to actually plan ahead to help our children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full paying foreign students are avoiding USA because it is a dangerous, racist shithole country.

I think you have that backwards. Full paying foreign students are FLOCKING to the USA because they LIVE in dangerous racist shithole countries.

Foreign students are not avoiding the USA.

You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Every higher ed survey and article shows a massive drop in international applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full paying foreign students are avoiding USA because it is a dangerous, racist shithole country.

I think you have that backwards. Full paying foreign students are FLOCKING to the USA because they LIVE in dangerous racist shithole countries.

Foreign students are not avoiding the USA.

You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Every higher ed survey and article shows a massive drop in international applications.

And those same surveys and articles say it is largely due to COVID and to expect a dramatic recovery when travel and health concerns abate. It’s not because the USA is a “racist shithole country.” Facts don’t need empty rhetoric to back them up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is ironic, that the people on this forum who are most able to save for college in a 529 (this is what DCUM means by "saving for college") could likely afford to cashflow college if they needed to, so probably don't need to amass a small fortune in 529 accounts. 529 accounts are tax friendly and people make so much money, so why not.

This might be the only take on this thread dumber that OP's.

You think the ability to save, over 18+ years, with all the help of compounding, for a six figure tuition bill means that you have the means to cash-flow that same tuition bill?

So if someone can afford to save $925 per month, they also are absolutely able to pay for $50k for each of four consecutive years?

[headdesk]

+100. I two kids who will be going trough college at roughly the same time, but will not totally overlap. We have a 250k HHI, and there is no way we could afford to cash flow 100k+ a year while they overlap. We can afford to save and hopefully have enough so that we don't have to.

There is no excuse on that income to at least save for a state college and pay in full. We make $150K max and in 10 years saved $10K. You need to change your lifestyle if you cannot afford college on that income.

I think you need to reread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. We're older parents. We started saving when our first of 3 was born. 19 years later, we have 3 generous 529s that enable all our kids to go to college more or less where they choose. The downside? Impossible to get financial aid. We also made a lot of sacrifices along the way, despite pretty well-paying jobs. We prioritized. We know we're outliers. No judgement of parents who do things differently... it's unfortunate higher education in this country comes with such a price tag.

You apparently didn't need financial aid, so what's the problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP: I have not read through the entire thread. Culturally, I was raised with the notion that each generation pays for the subsequent generation's education. My parents paid for my college, I am paying for my daughters.

Why? By giving the money for education, you are more likely to have a successful offspring. Education is where we do the intergenerational wealth transfer. My DD may not inherit much, but her undergrad education will be paid for -- and by me paying the 160K over 4 years (state, no aide), DD will be able to pursue her dreams rather than chase the dollar. That means she is more likely to be happy with her career choices. I was able to not chase the dollar, but pursue my interests.

That is my UMC Jewish Privilege.

I love this. That is all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Merit aid is dead. Weird people still don’t get it.

My kids are both receiving merit aid to the tune of over $20k a year - each. I guess we're weird.

My DC has been offered 30k a year at the University of Arizona. She's trying for some higher ranked schools but aid is unlikely at those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full paying foreign students are avoiding USA because it is a dangerous, racist shithole country.

I think you have that backwards. Full paying foreign students are FLOCKING to the USA because they LIVE in dangerous racist shithole countries.

Foreign students are not avoiding the USA.

What? Did the pp's statement offend you somehow? Foreign students are afraid our immigration policies will change and they will be kicked out. Our standing in the world is not what it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP: I have not read through the entire thread. Culturally, I was raised with the notion that each generation pays for the subsequent generation's education. My parents paid for my college, I am paying for my daughters.

Why? By giving the money for education, you are more likely to have a successful offspring. Education is where we do the intergenerational wealth transfer. My DD may not inherit much, but her undergrad education will be paid for -- and by me paying the 160K over 4 years (state, no aide), DD will be able to pursue her dreams rather than chase the dollar. That means she is more likely to be happy with her career choices. I was able to not chase the dollar, but pursue my interests.

That is my UMC Jewish Privilege.

I love this. That is all.

+1

At 24 years old, my son (who graduated debt-free a few years ago) now understands fully the value of the gift of the debt-free education we provided for him. Because he has no debt, he is able to max out his retirement account, buy a car without debt, and save in a rainy-day fund. He sees how his peers struggle and understands the meaning of what we did for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full paying foreign students are avoiding USA because it is a dangerous, racist shithole country.

I think you have that backwards. Full paying foreign students are FLOCKING to the USA because they LIVE in dangerous racist shithole countries.

Foreign students are not avoiding the USA.

What? Did the pp's statement offend you somehow? Foreign students are afraid our immigration policies will change and they will be kicked out. Our standing in the world is not what it was.

Well, yes, actually, it does offend me when people call the USA a dangerous, racist shithole country.

[Anonymous]

I really don't care if people do not save for college or don't go to college. All I wish for is educated people who are not swayed by people like Trump and can understand cause and effect. So if the k-12 education is superb in the usa, people won't have to go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP's plan might work because -- (a) she only has one child; (b) she does not seem super concerned about the prestige of the college; and (c) her daughter is a high achiever.

DH and I have 3 kids, and they do fine in school, but are not academic super stars by any means. My DS is a 12th grader, and we recently filled out the Common App that many colleges use. It asks if you plan to apply for financial aid. We figured it helped our DS that we were able to check "no" to that box because we have 529s for each of the 3 kids (thanks to my in-laws). It may help him a bit in the admissions process that he is full pay. That's not really fair to have "full pay" count toward admissions, but perhaps my DS would be subsidizing another student who is a better student but does not have the $$ to pay for this college.

Even my DS (with a 3.1 GPA and similar ACT score) is getting offered some merit aid from (not well known) colleges. So that suggests that, if you have a high-achieving child and are not too picky about the college, it might work out for OP.

Oh my. I was with you until you talked about subsidizing another random student who can't afford college by paying full price for your own. It doesn't quite work the way you think it does. Your ability to pay full price is what's actually inflating higher ed costs and keeping more poorer kids out of college. Not that it's your fault, it's just the current system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full paying foreign students are avoiding USA because it is a dangerous, racist shithole country.

I think you have that backwards. Full paying foreign students are FLOCKING to the USA because they LIVE in dangerous racist shithole countries.

Foreign students are not avoiding the USA.

What? Did the pp's statement offend you somehow? Foreign students are afraid our immigration policies will change and they will be kicked out. Our standing in the world is not what it was.

Well, yes, actually, it does offend me when people call the USA a dangerous, racist shithole country.

Does not matter what we call or don't call USA, it is a dangerous, racist, shithole country, lacking decency and compassion for its own people. It is a greedy country.. So I can call it a rose but it will still smell like sewer.