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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This seems so simple. You pay what you saved. Your child can take out loans for gap. Don’t mess up your retirement to pay for their college. Medical bills will unlikely go down. Pay off their loans later if you are in the financial position to do so.

I don’t think you should discourage child from going to the college he wants.[/quote]

The gap is $40,000 or more per year. The student cannot take out that much in loans without the parents taking the loans on themselves. [/quote]

[b]Then be it.[/b] My parents didn’t pay for my college. I had a mix of scholarships and loans.

This is such an UMC problem, stressing about paying full price of college.

DH and I both had loans. We both paid off our loans shortly after getting married. We somehow survived. We can easily pay for our three children’s college, grad school, weddings, down payments and vacations.

I had Ivy League education debt. I would not recommend it for some second tier private school.[/quote]

No undergraduate degree, Ivy or otherwise, is worth over $100,000 in loans.

OP's kid has other options that involve no loans, or limited loans.  "So be it" is not sound financial advice.[/quote]

My $100k debt was worth it 20 years ago. [b]Granted that included grad school. [/b]Undergrad was mostly scholarships.

I would argue the college you attend is vastly important. I met many amazing people in Boston, my spouse especially. I made six figures at my first job. DH now earns 7 figures.[/quote]

Apples and zebras.  Grad school is a different animal altogether.  I took out loans for law school and it was worth it at that time, in that context, for the job that I got right after graduating.

Six figures for undergrad alone (and OP's kid would be looking at $160K or so, which is the gap between what she can pay and what an elite school costs) is insane no matter what.

The data make it clear that the college you attend is not "vastly important" unless you come from poverty.

The data also make it clear that significant student debt hampers your ability to get ahead in adulthood - to marry, have children, save for retirement, buy a house.  That is a fact.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianahembree/2018/11/01/new-report-finds-student-debt-burden-has-disastrous-domino-effect-on-millions-of-americans/#2836da0112d1[/quote]

Says the author who attends Green Mountain College.

We can agree to disagree. I personally think certain schools are worth the price - Stanford, MIT, Johns Hopkins, UChicago in addition to the Ivys. Is NYU worth it? Maybe. Boston College? Maybe. Maybe not.

My 40yo friend can’t pay off her loans from her crap private college. I’m sure she would say it isn’t worth the price.
[/quote]

Leaving aside your snarky remark about your personal opinion of her educational credentials, she is just the messenger.  The piece is based on a study.  It's not the only study on this topic; there are lots.  It is a FACT that significant student debt is crippling and causes people fall behind, financially speaking.

https://www.meetsummer.org/share/Summer-Student-Debt-Crisis-Buried-in-Debt-Report-Nov-2018.pdf?_t=1541171524

Other sources for the same information:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/16/student-loan-debt-is-keeping-young-people-from-buying-homes-fed-study-finds.html

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2018/jun/student-loan-debt-has-negative-consequences-later-life-review-ioe-researchers-suggests

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/17/how-student-loans-are-making-some-people-abandon-their-dreams.html

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-student-debt-does-to-people-its-not-pretty-2018-11-14[/quote]

I’m from NY where SUNY schools are decent but not like UVA level. Those friends who went public instead of Cornell, NYU, Tufts, Boston College, etc. had such a chip for many many years. I can’t think of anyone who didn’t go to Harvard or Yale to attend SUNY. I knew lots of kids who did not attend other very good universities like Amherst due to money.

I doubt OP wants her children to attend community college to save money in hopes to transfer as juniors.[/quote]

Times have changed, the economics are altogether different from when you were a college student.  Your experience 20 or more years ago is irrelevant now.

There are a lot of options in between an elite school with a $75K price tag and community college.  If OP does a little due diligence, she will find the ones that work for her kid.[/quote]

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