Multiple children / paying for college?
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Anonymous
You do it by planning ahead. My parents saved since I was born and grandparents helped out. My parents will not help so we got the prepaid college fund and treated it as a car payment (we needed a new car, still do but didn't get one to do the college fund) and got each paid off in 4-5 years. Now we are slowly doing 529's. Its great other posters got financial aid but my sister was very smart, graduated at the top of her class and got nothing so I don't count on any help outside us. It would be a nice bonus but we don't count on it. |
Anonymous
| You can plan ahead all you want but some people don't make enough to put even $20/month away for college. My DD is now 10 and this is the first year I have started saving for college. I'm a teacher and make under $60K per year. I just didn't have a dime to spare after paying all of my bills. I can spare appr. $50-$75/month now. Not much but it's what I can afford. |
Anonymous
You really can't generalize like this. I have a nursing major daughter and an engineering major son and we didn't even look into the community college option because they wanted schools where they could jump right into their major, research, clinicals for the nursing major, etc. None of that was possible at our local community college. For a kid that doesn't know what they want their major to be, or are doing something slightly more general like English, psych, etc. community college can be a fine option. But it's not for a lot of kids. |
Anonymous
It's also not the best option for very high-achieving kids who have already taken several AP classes (or even college classes). That doesn't mean the community college route *can't* work for these students, but taking that route means the high-achieving kid spends 2 years taking classes with many students who may not be performing anywhere near his/her level. It's not ideal. |
Anonymous
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OP - You and DH might benefit from a one-time, fee-based financial advisor for whom you would provide a lot of information ahead of or for the initial meeting in terms of your present financial situation with income, loans and expenses and your future goals with retirement planning for you two first goal, college planning for your children second goal and go from there. I think the question of what your household income is now and what it might be in the future if one of you is not working full-time or were to get a bit more training in one's field of choice. An impartial financial advisor who is not selling any products and earning a commission might help you both clarify what a reasonable approach to college might be for your four children. I do think that having the expectation that each child will work at least during the summer and on weekends if a part-time job is possible is reasonable, and it will help each to be more responsible if they "have skin in the game," too. Encouraging them to get certified in CPR/First Aid, swimming and life guarding are all ways to earn a reasonable amount of money part-time. I would be more inclined to discuss the idea of the community college route for even the first year if you have a teen who is uncertain about what he or she wants to do in college or to be flexible and to suggest a year working with maybe a couple of community college classes. Why - because in your particular situation there is not going to extra money to just "dabble at college." Also be cautious in encouraging your kids to take on extra debt for undergraduate education which might be held in check by doing ROTC, community college for one or two years and/or an in-state school. If there is the option, encourage them to take AP classes or dual enrollment classes to start college with credits in hand. These credits may well mean that a student in college might be able to work say 20 hours a week or so to afford a summer or semester abroad experience as I did while in college or might be able to take a less than full-load and be at college with peers, but paying a lot less for tuition for a semester as a student who I know is doing now. Also, in her case with the extra credits, she is able as a junior to get in her 500 hours of observation needed to apply to vet school. You need to set the expectation that college is not going to be a free ride nor simply a "fun four years" but a wonderful opportunity that you would like to help each teen pursue - without going bankrupt or loading them down with unnecessary debt, too. |
Anonymous
Yes. My child, who was a solid high school student but not a superstar (had 5 AP classes in HS), ended up having to do a year at CC because of an illness that required her to be home (but she was still well enough to take a 12 credit load), and was bored silly at CC. She said it was on par with her 'on-level' high school classes and a step below her APs. It was not a good fit. She felt like her original college was a much better academic fit. (And it was University of Pittsburgh, so again, not like we're talking about going from CC to Yale.) |
Anonymous
| Plenty of people in this world live in less than ideal conditions. If parents don't have the money to pay for college and the student doesn't get enough FA or scholarships, they may have to take the less than ideal route of CC. |
Anonymous
| Planning would have been limiting the number of kids you need to cover expenses like college. Too late now. |
Anonymous
Are you always this bitchy? 
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Anonymous
Absolutely, but I was responding to someone who seemed to not understand why anyone would do anything other than go the CC-to-college route. I'm explaining why some people prefer their kids to go straight to college, even if it is a financial stretch for them. My kid has been bored even in some of his AP classes. He is chomping at the bit for deep, intellectual discussions of meaty topics and has found it frustrating that this isn't a priority for many of his high school classmates (even in the highest-level classes). I think CC would be a mistake for him--much more of a turn-off than a turn-on, and I would move heaven and earth to get him directly into a 4-year college. For some kids it might be a better option to live at home and commute to GMU (especially if AP credits mean they can jump directly into some upper-level classes) than it would be to go to CC and then transfer, even if the transfer was ultimately going to be to a top school like UVA. (Especially given the fact that it is not always easy for transfer students to 4-year colleges to become deeply involved in the campus community, if that's important to you or your kid.) As I said earlier, on page 1 of this thread, there are too many unknown variables in this equation to give good advice to OP. It depends on what the family's EFC is, what the family feels it can actually afford, and what caliber of student we are talking about. |
Anonymous
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OP,
My cousin has 4 boys. She and her husband lived quite frugally and now in their late 40s have their house paid off and the colleges all funded. I don't know everything that they did, but I know the overall stuff. They are pretty frugal. She's a SAHM and he works from home. They also tithe (big participants in their church) 10% of their income. Don't eat out much (but a few had food allergies one of whom had severe ones) so mostly had meals at home. They bought before the boom out in Reston. Anyway, I believe they never moved to a fancier house (it was brand new when they bought in the late 90s) (spent $60K of so on basement upgrade/bedroom for au pair that didn't work out and a home office and family area) and b/c were able to refinance during all the low interest rate madness had it paid off before oldest went to college. Also, they did the pre-paid plans to VA colleges (don't know too much about that other than a hair dresser mentioned he had done the same thing for his two kids). So far 2 of the 4 kids (youngest is around 13, so figure next older one is maybe a sophomore or junior in high school) have gone to VTech. Things have worked out well for them. They are pretty relaxed and happy. |
Anonymous
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My rule has always been that if you got over a 3.8 GPA in high school we would pay for schooling and housing, if you got a 3.5 GPA or above we would pay for room and board, and if you got a 3.0 GPA or above we would cover transportation fees (between school and home for breaks).
If you got anything below a 3.0 you were expected to go to trade school and cover all of your own costs. |
Anonymous
Then, your child will qualify for tons of financial aid. |
Anonymous
So you incentivized your kids to avoid challenging classes in high school. |
Anonymous
Weighted or unweighted? |