Reply to Totally Freaked About the Entire College Industry and Game

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Totally Freaked About the Entire College Industry and Game"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I have a junior who is at a private school that literally forces the parents into this circus. Perhaps all the privates do, but at ours, it's a military operation. It has me going completely crazeeeee! My child plays a sport that's only played at a relatively small number of colleges, most of them private, so that is a restriction on the schools that he will attend that is doubling my craziness! On top of that, we are not eligible for FA, but can't afford to pay for any private college, so have to negotiate this very hazy world of "merit" aid in order to get DS into a school we can afford and where he can play his sport. I feel like DS will end up at a community college in the end -- to the complete revulsion of parents (and the counseling office) at our school!

When I went to school, I applied to three schools, one of them an Ivy. I got into all three, picked the one I wanted to go to, got some financial aid, and my dad paid the rest. I had a job at school, and a tiny loan. Four years later, I graduated from that very fine school with a small debt, got a low-paying job, yet still managed to pay off the loan in a few years.

Now, I see children and their families taking on staggering debt just to get through what I consider second or third tier schools. The schools I applied to are completely out of bounds for my kids, who have the same credentials I did, but are facing competition from a much larger pool of kids who have far better credentials. You didn't have to be a superstar to get into a great school back in my day, and it was completely within the ability of the middle class to pay for it.

I really don't know how to negotiate this mess, but I suppose we'll stumble through.

I don't understand why Congress has not started reining in college costs. Most of these schools should be taxed -- they are selling a product at a profit, and they plow those profits into larger campuses, bigger buildings, more expensive faculty to add to their prestige. Little of this creates a better education for our children, but the costs keep going up, and we keep paying them.

I do not think you can stay out of the craziness, OP, unless you let your child take a gap year and apply after all the madness of her peers has died down. I know someone whose child did that. She had a wonderful year working at a retail store, taking classes at a community college and spending time on her applications. She ended up at a very good school (not Ivy, but close) and avoided the madness.

Otherwise, you just have to hang on for the ride and enjoy it. That's what a parent whose gone through this twice and is on her third (and last) ride told me. This is the last year your child will be at home with you, so it's best to have fun and cherish every moment until they leave. They'll come back, but never live with you as a child again. That's how I'm dealing with it, OP. Good luck to you. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics