How important are college costs to you, even if you can afford any college?
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Anonymous
It depends on what the other options are. If the other school is some no-name lousy CTCL school, for example, and you have decent money, you don't turn down Harvard for it and totally compromise your kid But if it's a good school offering decent merit aid and your other choice is, say, Georgetown, you go with that school over Georgetown. |
Anonymous
You are right! Thank Obama for that “progressive” policy change. |
Anonymous
Same. And I’d add that “return on investment” is not a factor in our calculations. I don’t expect my child to make a certain salary to justify what I pay for their college. To the extent that I consider “ROI” it would be their happiness and fulfillment, not something quantifiable. All of that said, I’d be thrilled if my kids chose state universities. If they were torn between two schools and there were a big cost differential, cost would certainly be part of the equation in their decision-making, especially since they know that whatever is left in their 529s after undergrad can be used for grad school. |
Anonymous
| DH and I were both full pay at private colleges that now cost $70-$80k a year. We live in va and could afford private for our kids. It’s not worth it imo. They can go to va tech or JMU. |
Anonymous
You’re making assumptions in order to conclude she’s “not very smart”. Maybe hundreds of thousands is a very small percentage of her overall portfolio so keeping it in cash makes sense? She’s just making a different decision than you would - it doesn’t make her stupid. |
Anonymous
+1000 DOn't understand the "I'll pay for an ivy or Stanford/MIT but after that, I'm not paying $80K". If you can afford to pay, why would you not want your kid to attend the best college of THEIR choice? And if you would need to take loans for the IVY/S/M I don't call that affording it. I'd ask, why would you take $40-50K/year just for that. Ivies are great school, but really not that much better (or even better at all) than many of the other T50 schools. For me it's more about major and fit. But I wouldn't go into debt for any school if I had other choices I could afford (but it's a mute point as I have saved and can/am sending my kids to full pay expensive schools) |
Anonymous
I do. I've been fortunate to live in good area, but targeted those areas for the public school and all of my kids have graduated from public HS and done very well for themselves. Parental attitude and attitude in the home is much more important than an elite private school . One kid graduated T80 school with 35% merit award each year. One kid in at T30 school full pay and doing extremely well. Last kid in at a T40 school with 50% merit. Each kid picked the best fit for them. |
Anonymous
Because paying 80k "after that" is just plain stupid, that's why, and most 18 year olds aren't sophisticated enough financially to realize that. So you have to step in. Why is it that folks don't think twice about denying a kid anything but a college education on the ground that the thing they want just isn't worth the money. We had one kid get into UVA and Notre Dame. Yes, we could have afforded Notre Dame, but we can afford lots of things that we don't buy. Are we really just expected to pay double for Notre Dame just because our kid wants us to? Sorry, no. |
Anonymous
Of course you can treat the kids differently. However, does the 2nd kid want to attend the State Uni? Would it be a good fit for them? If not a good fit, then I personally would try to pay for what is a good fit. My one kid attended a school that was $40K tuition when they started and kid got $18k/year merit. Done in 4 years and not likely to head back to school anytime soon. Other kid will be full pay $80K/year at T30 school. We "allowed" them to turn down a T40 school also 80K/year but they had $42K merit/year. Most parents would not allow that, and if all things were equal I'd say go to the cheaper school, but our kid was really really not feeling the 2nd school. First school is where they just felt at home and really liked from the first time they set foot on it's campus (and each subsequent time). So we let them pick the more expensive school (but the $$$$ is in 529 and easily accessible) This kid will also likely go to grad school at some point, which we will help fund. So 2nd kid will get probably $250K more for education than the first. However, first kid required tons of specialized tutors and educational help in ES/MS/early HS (all needed to make them a successful adult and it worked) So I've paid $15-20K/year for that and didn't for 2nd kid. Heck, I needed expensive braces growing up, my siblings didn't. Life is never "fair" for kids. Most deal with it just fine. |
Anonymous
I agree however it is kind of easy from my vantage point be. We can afford choices and it’s not a hardship at all. Our approach was we thought all of ours where capable of large state schools. We gave them basically a budge t and explained all costs. They were free to choose any college they wanted but we would only pay the instate tuition price. Each choose a different path. I do think parents need to make kids aware of college costs way before senior year . I do think community college is a great way for some kids to go. And I also think in our case SLACS weren’t the best idea mine are all stem majors . Every kid is different experience and learning styles. I think it’s more important when going through the process is for kids to understand the goals and costs of the college they choose . |
Anonymous
So what kind of cars do you drive? |
Anonymous
We drive two used cars. Paid $22k for one and $12k for another. We'd never buy a new car. Such a waste of money. |
Anonymous
And how much is your house worth? |
Anonymous
Yeah but what kind are they? |
Anonymous
Primary residence is worth $1.8 million. Second home is worth $900k. |