Anonymous wrote:Above all you must remember that you need to take care of your own retirement as well. The collective college bills for the four children will be pretty close to a million if you elect to go the fancy private college route.

I'd be looking at instate schools and merit scholarships to out of state/midrange private colleges. A diploma from a good instate school will open just as many doors and experiences as most private colleges. If the child is Ivy caliber, he/she will do just as well in life out of College Park or UVA/VATech as if he/she had gone to an Ivy school.

This.

My parents put three of us back to back through college on nothing. One thing that they did to help us shave off time/money was to get us joint enrolled:

http://www.nvcc.edu/dual-enrollment/

Summers starting at age 16 were spent in community college getting core stuff out of the way. It was affordable and the kid already in college was home working for spending money, so they didn't have to double up with tuition in the same time frame.

Taking this route I graduated high school as a late sophomore, nearly a junior. Their real goal was to avoid overlapping tuition.

(not many AP options where I grew up, so I can't compare there)

Instate schools are the way to go for your crew.

Do you have 529s and are you contributing to them monthly? It's also a nice gift option for grandparents, if they are able. My parents give their grandkids a small gift and a $100 check to their 529 plans for things like 1st communion, Christmas, birthday. Even a $50 contribution would be a help!

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the test prep poster. Test prep and good grades. All choose a stem major at state school and declare early and go for merit aid. I got 4 years of UMD paid for because I declared engineering as a freshman and got money from the department and the school. I was nt a super star in HS, probably top %25.

I don't know when you went to college but getting a merit scholarship from UMDCP is not easy. High cost of private colleges is driving a lot of instate middle/upper middle class kids with high stats to UMD. You have to compete with kids with crazy high stats for merit money.

Above all you must remember that you need to take care of your own retirement as well. The collective college bills for the four children will be pretty close to a million if you elect to go the fancy private college route.

I'd be looking at instate schools and merit scholarships to out of state/midrange private colleges. A diploma from a good instate school will open just as many doors and experiences as most private colleges. If the child is Ivy caliber, he/she will do just as well in life out of College Park or UVA/VATech as if he/she had gone to an Ivy school.

Do you live in a state where the public university system is generally good -- i.e. where the flagship isn't the only strong school? If not, I'd move to such a state.

Raise your kids with the expectation that they will go to a public university unless they can get into a private that gives them enough aid to minimize the price differential. Also consider OOS publics in the Midwest -- some of which (OSU, UW-Madison - but not UM) are significantly cheaper than privates.

I agree with the test prep poster. Test prep and good grades. All choose a stem major at state school and declare early and go for merit aid. I got 4 years of UMD paid for because I declared engineering as a freshman and got money from the department and the school. I was nt a super star in HS, probably top %25.

Over 14 years you saved enough to put the 9th grader through college.

You now have about 16 years to save enough to pay for the other 3.

My guess is that you need to save $900,000+ over those 16 years to pay for a full DCUM spend-fest school.

Interest will pay for any cost increases beyond that even if none of your DC forgo the spend-fest schools.

That is about $60k per year or $5k per month. Certainly not easy on $250k per year but not impossible unless your job situation is deteriorates.

1. borrow
2. steal
3. beg
4. pray

Spend your money on test preparation and send your kids to the University of Alabama:

http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php

Presidential Scholar

A student with a 32-36 ACT, 1400-1600 old SAT score or 1450-1600 new SAT score and at least a 3.5 GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of tuition, or $107,800 over four years ($26,950 per year). Students graduating with remaining tuition scholarship semester(s) may utilize these monies toward graduate school and/or law school study at UA.

We have 4 kids. We had 2 in college and 2 in private.

Our HHI is >250K. We pay out of pocket and the kids go to state schools.

With K-9, you won't ever have 4 in college at once. What's the most number of kids that you'll have to pay for in a single year?

We have 4 kids spread over 7 years so almost same amount, and went into first in college with about same. Put max into 529 each year. We pay about $68k for 2 kids now on about same income, which doesn't leave a lot for other stuff, but we have gotten through the first one who will graduate this year, and we have another about to go in. If your kids have good grades and scores there should be a number of options in the $30k/year/kid range. State schools, other state schools, some private. You need to make sure they have grades and scores (test prep is useful). Athletics helps too but the reality is that it gets most into a better school, but not that many into a better school for cheaper. Really not horrible. You'll be fine. Just keep saving. Good luck

1. state schools
2. community college + state schools
3. military - GI Bill
4. service academies
5. ROTC

Save for instate schools.

With an income over 250k, you should be putting away money monthly for them. It's really going to hurt your kids that you make too much money for them to get aid, but also didn't save for them.

Can't you pay some out of pocket?

My husband and I paid for most of our own colleges. We have 4 kids spread out in K-9. I do not think its a given that they should get every penny funded by us. But our income is definitely not going to qualify for any income based anything. income > 250k
We have enough to pay for 1 kid for 4 years now.

No, I don't need to be judged about not having enough savings. I wish we had more but we just don't. There are reasons but probably not the greatest ones. We have 10+ years before our last starts college and 4 yrs before our first. It is possible that we could inherit some $. But I wouldn't expect that.

What strategy would you pursue to save going forward? Even savings? Start weighting towards youngest? Start beefing up oldest?
We have been doing somewhat of an even strategy but starting to wonder if this makes sense.

thoughts