Did your senior apply to schools where neither of you knew the COA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been at a lot of holiday events lately that were still canceled last year. I'm really amazed at how many fellow parents have no clue what the schools their kids applied to cost and whether those schools give merit awards. (99% of the people in our circles wouldn't qualify for financial aid at any but the most generous Ivy schools.)

Did you just have your student apply to schools blind, with no info on whether you'd be able to afford to send them there? Did you make sure that at least one school would be affordable given your savings and ability to cash flow? Are you willing to bite the bullet and borrow hundreds of thousands if not?

Had no idea how much schools cost that my kids applied to. Didn’t care. They knew we’d pay for them to go to where they want just like my parents did for me and my grandparents did for my parents. College choice shouldn’t be limited by finances.

Aw, so cute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been at a lot of holiday events lately that were still canceled last year. I'm really amazed at how many fellow parents have no clue what the schools their kids applied to cost and whether those schools give merit awards. (99% of the people in our circles wouldn't qualify for financial aid at any but the most generous Ivy schools.)

Did you just have your student apply to schools blind, with no info on whether you'd be able to afford to send them there? Did you make sure that at least one school would be affordable given your savings and ability to cash flow? Are you willing to bite the bullet and borrow hundreds of thousands if not?

Had no idea how much schools cost that my kids applied to. Didn’t care. They knew we’d pay for them to go to where they want just like my parents did for me and my grandparents did for my parents. College choice shouldn’t be limited by finances.

You must be very wealthy. Your last sentence suggests you live in a bubble.

Not PP but no not a bubble just a choice. They go where they want. My job is to figure out how to pay.

Coming up with 100k a year isn't a choice for most people

Seriously. It's nice that you can figure it out but that's not a great decision for most people. That's where you end up with financially clueless people who take out unsustainable levels of Parent Plus loans.

I would assume the "we'll figure it out" comments at a party are mostly people who either have way more money than you realize or just realize it's not an appropriate thing to get into detail about. Definitely some of them may find themselves on the road to ruin but that's not an appropriate conversation to have with someone who is not a close friend and they probably wouldn't take the advice anyway.

There definitely are those people out there. I briefly followed the "Paying for College" group on Facebook and in the Spring there were a shocking number of people posting that they'd just realized their kid had no college they could afford and asking at that late date about scholarships or if it was reasonable to be borrowing $50k/year for college when they already hadn't been able to save much (uh, no, not reasonable). People who thought their EFC was actually what all colleges would ask them to pay. People who swore they could never tell Larla they couldn't go to the dream college that was going to cost more than their annual income. People planning to take out loans to send their kid to a college that had a sub 50% graduation rate. I did not last long following that group but it was definitely an interesting window into how some people approach college decisions.

[Anonymous]

We've got a spreadsheet running.

[Anonymous]

This approach would be very stupid, and unfair to your child. Unless you had tons in savings and were willing to spend whatever the child's little heart desired.

[Anonymous]

This whole thread feels redundant. Regardless of what anyone says in a social setting - if you can afford it, you don't care so probably assume $80K is the max and if you have financial considerations you spend more time figuring it out. It's not rocket science to work out that different people approach this issue as they need to to accommodate their circumstances. Silly thread.