Do you agree or disagree with this: Parents should pay for undergrad tuition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will help out but I will not pay the full ride.

They will have to get student loans. I paid my way through college and it made me really think about how I spent my hours on the weekends while my friends were out every night with $50 bar tabs I was (in addition to my real job) working for a caterer to help pay off student loans.

I will also not pay for a car, phone, cable, or insurance.

I have boys so I will give them a certain amount of money when they get married to do with as they will - rehersal dinner or down payment on a house - up to them.

Am i reading this correctly? You will give them a lump sum for a rehearsal dinner or a down payment for a house, but not for college? I wonder how they'll make the house payments and student loan payments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll pay if I have the money, if I don't, then my kid will just have to work through college like I did. It didn't break me, it made me a better person.

It's not a should or shouldn't question. It's a can or can't question. Like many things in life, I will try my best to set my kid up but if I don't have the means, she will just have to suck it up and deal.

"Having the money" is not happenstance. It is something you plan for (or don't).

Are you not saving anything towards your child's college education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents couldn't afford to pay my tuition for college. My dad did pay my rent and covered the cost of books, which were a good $800 at least a semester. Rent was $380 a month for my share of our apartment's rent. (Three roommates.) The deal was, he would cover that if I got a part time job to cover miscellaneous expenses (in other words, alcohol). The thing is, I'm from Georgia, where they have the HOPE scholarship, and when I entered college, if you had a 3.0 GPA, the state would pay for your tuition, and would continue to pay it for 4 years as long as you maintained a 3.0. Really, it was a great deal. I lost HOPE 2 years in (partied too much; after being on Dean's List my first 2 years, I dropped to a 2.97 and lost HOPE by 3/10ths of a GPA point, like an idiot) and the agreement after that was, I would take out student loans. I felt and still feel that was fair. I blew a free ride, so I had to pay. I took out student loans totaling about $18,000 for the remainder of my time in college, and started paying those back after graduating. It's not the end of the world. DH and I will probably do something similar for our kids when they go to college, but am I going to kill myself to make sure I have $250,000 saved up by the time they're 17 so they can graduate debt free? Nope. I don't think contributing to your own college education is a bad thing at all.

Note to self: move kids to GA before HS graduation.

HOPE scholarship is funded fully by lottery. I lived in GA for many years and this is one of the most brilliant thing i have seen. Someone at some point figured out that investing in education is a great thing.

I'm the original HOPE PP and I will add, it's gotten harder to get and maintain HOPE now. I want to say the GPA is 3.3? It's been a few years since I left college, even more since I actually HAD HOPE, so I'm not sure, but I do remember toward the end of my time in college the standards for getting and maintaining HOPE were rising due to SO many kids receiving it. It really is an amazing deal.

[Anonymous]

For all of you who don't plan to pay for your kids college education, let me assure you that they will be pushed out of jobs by immigrants whose parents lived in shacks so their kids could get the best possible education. Indian, Korean, Chinese families sacrifice EVERYTHING so their kids can get the best possible education. Later those same kids help the elderly parents because they are able. This discussion, right here, on this thread is why the U.S. is going to become second world very soon.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of cheap universities abroad and in 15 years things are only going to get better. The current pace of tuition inflation is unsustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents couldn't afford to pay my tuition for college. My dad did pay my rent and covered the cost of books, which were a good $800 at least a semester. Rent was $380 a month for my share of our apartment's rent. (Three roommates.) The deal was, he would cover that if I got a part time job to cover miscellaneous expenses (in other words, alcohol). The thing is, I'm from Georgia, where they have the HOPE scholarship, and when I entered college, if you had a 3.0 GPA, the state would pay for your tuition, and would continue to pay it for 4 years as long as you maintained a 3.0. Really, it was a great deal. I lost HOPE 2 years in (partied too much; after being on Dean's List my first 2 years, I dropped to a 2.97 and lost HOPE by 3/10ths of a GPA point, like an idiot) and the agreement after that was, I would take out student loans. I felt and still feel that was fair. I blew a free ride, so I had to pay. I took out student loans totaling about $18,000 for the remainder of my time in college, and started paying those back after graduating. It's not the end of the world. DH and I will probably do something similar for our kids when they go to college, but am I going to kill myself to make sure I have $250,000 saved up by the time they're 17 so they can graduate debt free? Nope. I don't think contributing to your own college education is a bad thing at all.

Note to self: move kids to GA before HS graduation.

HOPE scholarship is funded fully by lottery. I lived in GA for many years and this is one of the most brilliant thing i have seen. Someone at some point figured out that investing in education is a great thing.

I'm the original HOPE PP and I will add, it's gotten harder to get and maintain HOPE now. I want to say the GPA is 3.3? It's been a few years since I left college, even more since I actually HAD HOPE, so I'm not sure, but I do remember toward the end of my time in college the standards for getting and maintaining HOPE were rising due to SO many kids receiving it. It really is an amazing deal.

I still think it's an amazing deal. Maintaining a 3.3 GPA is not that hard when you don't have to have two jobs to pay for tuition. Something many parents on this board clearly don't get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of cheap universities abroad and in 15 years things are only going to get better. The current pace of tuition inflation is unsustainable.

Meaning what? Don't try to save? I'm one of those posters willing and able to save $200,000 per child for college. If they don't need it, we'll find other uses for it. My kids don't need a swimming pool in their backyard, or annual trips to Disney, but they may well need a lot of financial assistance from us for college.

[Anonymous]

I have one in college and one soon to go and yes we are paying full freight for at least one liberal arts education so far. Didn't even consider not paying. We can afford it and saved the full amount of tuition in 529s. We both had our liberal arts undergraduate degrees paid for by parents with less means than ours. I had to pay for graduate school on my own, DH had some help with tuition but not living expenses.

We paid private school tuition for 14 years so certainly wouldn't have suddenly cut it off for college. I really can't imagine people with means suddenly saying - hey you can go to swanky private schools so we can put the sticker on the car, but if you don't get into a college of a certain rank so we can add that sticker then sorry, you are on your own.

We both value our liberal arts degrees and somehow have managed to earn a damn good living with our "useless" degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll pay if I have the money, if I don't, then my kid will just have to work through college like I did. It didn't break me, it made me a better person.

It's not a should or shouldn't question. It's a can or can't question. Like many things in life, I will try my best to set my kid up but if I don't have the means, she will just have to suck it up and deal.

"Having the money" is not happenstance. It is something you plan for (or don't).

Are you not saving anything towards your child's college education?

Nope, I'm not. I'm trying to feed, clothe and care for the child NOW, with the limited funds that I have. The rest goes towards savings for family emergencies and my own retirement. College tuition will come when there is disposable income, as of right now? I'm not going to bust my balls for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You would rather pay interest on the sum you can pay for upfront? Brilliant! Kids either have "skin in the game" or they don't. Burdening them up with loans could potentially turn them away from school. Many liberal arts English majors go on to become lawyers because they are good writers.

1. Yes, and I can assure you that I can generate a higher rate of return on the money than the low interest rates on student debt.
2. My kids will know the value of moving up, because I am making sure that they know all too well how miserable dead-end manual or service jobs can be.
Of course, if they want to go the entrepreneur route rather than college then I am all for that. Didn't do Bill Gates or Branson any harm.
3. Literally the very last thing this country needs is more lawyers. I would rather expose my children at birth than add to their ranks.

'

How do you make your money, out of curiosity?

I run poetry workshops.

What??? We pay for college tuition, room & board, books, transportation for all my kids. Majors must be employable: hard sciences, engineering, business, eco, etc. Otherwise they can go to community college etc. One goes instate and based on choices that one will be getting more $ when we die. Mine know dead end work . DH wanted private schools for HS and college for them ...I would have used public all the way unless any were admitted to HYP. Just to draw the line some where. The dumbass who was admit material for those chose ED at another school.

[Anonymous]

Sure, I will pay my child's tuition at any in-state public university. If he wants to attend a private school, I'll pay the portion I would have paid for an in state public school, and can make up the rest in student loans or get a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll pay if I have the money, if I don't, then my kid will just have to work through college like I did. It didn't break me, it made me a better person.

It's not a should or shouldn't question. It's a can or can't question. Like many things in life, I will try my best to set my kid up but if I don't have the means, she will just have to suck it up and deal.

"Having the money" is not happenstance. It is something you plan for (or don't).

Are you not saving anything towards your child's college education?

Nope, I'm not. I'm trying to feed, clothe and care for the child NOW, with the limited funds that I have. The rest goes towards savings for family emergencies and my own retirement. College tuition will come when there is disposable income, as of right now? I'm not going to bust my balls for that.

You didn't read the threat then. This discussion is for parents who have the means but CHOOSE not to pay. Different from your situation which is completely understandable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of you who don't plan to pay for your kids college education, let me assure you that they will be pushed out of jobs by immigrants whose parents lived in shacks so their kids could get the best possible education. Indian, Korean, Chinese families sacrifice EVERYTHING so their kids can get the best possible education. Later those same kids help the elderly parents because they are able. This discussion, right here, on this thread is why the U.S. is going to become second world very soon.

I am one of those immigrants (though I live quite comfortably). I said previously that I would only pay for a top school tuition and only on my own terms (i.e. children get to choose their major only from a pro-approved list created by me and DH). It is hard for me to imagine immigrant parents giving their children free reigns in terms of exploring various college majors etc. Also, more than many here (and this despite both me and DH being PhDs) we are willing to accept that our children might not be good enough for college and that there other honorable ways to make a living. We are certainly not going to pay $$$ so that children can have a "college experience".

[Anonymous]

Should? As in the kids are entitled to a college education paid for by their parents?
No way.

I think that the kid should have to work and save for it throughout the years. I also believe that the kid should work hard and try to get scholarships.

If the parents can and have the will to pay, more power to them. But, I think that parents mortgaging their house to pay for a kid's college is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of cheap universities abroad and in 15 years things are only going to get better. The current pace of tuition inflation is unsustainable.

Meaning what? Don't try to save? I'm one of those posters willing and able to save $200,000 per child for college. If they don't need it, we'll find other uses for it. My kids don't need a swimming pool in their backyard, or annual trips to Disney, but they may well need a lot of financial assistance from us for college.

So you all you are basically saying is that you are a big saver. You are not truly saving for anything in particular.