Reply to NY Times Article by Mother Who Invested in Child vs. Saving for College

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[quote=Anonymous]So, my parents did not save for college.  My father worked on Wall Street.  I couldn't tell you the actual thought process my parents went through, but I think it was along the lines of: we will pay now for a nice life and the rest will work itself out.  Also, until my father lost his job, he certainly never contemplated that would happen to him (despite the fact that it happens all the time on wall street).

I went to private school, but by the time I reached my HS years, the tuition payments were a terrible stretch.  My father first lost his job when I was in 8th grade.  At one point, my grandmother paid the tuition.  My younger brother went to public school (we were in a W-school-equivalent district).  There was no money for extras.  I had to stop piano - no money for lessons.  No vacations.  I worked and bought my own clothes, paid for my own entertainment.  I could have cared less about this private school, would have happily gone to public.  But that was not something my parents would consider.

When it came time for college, I was very sensitive to cost in my applications.  For that particular application year, my father was unemployed.  As it turned out, private college or public - no difference, same loans and work-study at both, just also got a grant at private college.  I happily trotted off to the prestigious private college (and worked my work-study, and lived life on the cheap).  One year later - private college provides ZERO grant.  In the meantime my father was (temporarily) employed, his salary was too high, etc.  But of course by then my parents were behind on their mortgage, and a million other essential expenses. Through a combination of help from my grandmother, AP credits (one less semester of college) and a year of college at State U, I managed to graduate from private college.  With quite a bit of debt - not just "good" federal student loan debt, but about $10K on credit cards (which I had used to stuff like books. and groceries - I remember when safeway started accepting credit - it was a good day for me).

Fast forward to my life - my kids do not go to private school, although we probably could scrape it together to pay for it "in the now."  We live in a tiny, modest home - although we could afford much bigger/nicer.  But we are saving for college.  Not for private college - but we will have the $ in the bank to pay for flagship State U, for each child. We also have emergency savings in case one of us becomes unemployed.  That is the best investment we can give them. The freedom to graduate from college debt-free and not to have to worry about supporting their parents in the future.

All that said, I agree with PPs that on $60K with 6 kids, you were never going to save to pay for college anyway.  Your children will need to borrow to go to college.  Those are the facts.  I actually think on that fact pattern, your kids will not need to choose a school by cost.  In other words, these kids are going to need to borrow/work-study wherever they go.  They might as well go to the "best" (including most prestigious/private) that they get into. Probably not going to make any difference loan-wise.  And if they get into an Ivy that commits to no-debt, all the better.[/quote]

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