Anonymous wrote:The meat of the article is good: don’t let your kids afford something you can’t.

^^^

Oops. Do t let your kids choose something your family can’t afford.

The meat of the article is good: don’t let your kids afford something you can’t.

Sounds like the real problem is the kid’s choice of professions, not taking out student loans. Art school? I would never pay for my kid to go to art school. Or become a teacher either (and I am a teacher).

Anonymous wrote:Ummmm, NCS tuition is around $50k. If my kid goes to any of these colleges, I’ll have spare change.

My DD was recently accepted into a school that is $62k, with a 28k per year scholarship. It will cost us less than her 50k HS tuition. Of course, I’m sure she will pick a 70k RD school instead. We can afford it, though. We have been paying 50k per year and we have 529 money, so it’s ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The author lives in Virginia. Her daughter can go to VCU, one of the top art schools in the country, and pay in-state rates. I'm not getting what the big sacrifice is here.

I think daughter wanted to be an artist in NYC. But I agree, VCU is fantastic.

I think most broke kids who really want to go to school in New York should look at the CUNY schools over NYU. The CUNY schools are the UVA of New York.

The SUNY schools are the UVA of NY. Not CUNY.

Ummmm, NCS tuition is around $50k. If my kid goes to any of these colleges, I’ll have spare change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why the author didn’t save a realistic amount of money for college. It’s about priorities.

Do you understand that many families work to pay their bills and that’s it. I don’t have enough money to pay my bills some months so there won’t Ben any college savings. Not everyone is living beyond their means.

I do and I have sympathy for that. Her tone suggests to me that was not the case. She seems surprised that college costs money and that the $14,000 she saved isn’t going to do it. We saved from the time our kids were little. It was mostly small amounts (and a small direct deposit from one of our paychecks). We put all of those random checks you get (rebates, refunds, gifts from grandparents, and our tax refunds) into the 529. It grew over time. I think $14,000 for a donut hole family suggests they did not really try.

And I have to use every dime of my refund to pay my bills like most Americans. Most people don’t get gifts from grandparents either. My kid is thrilled at the $20 he gets from his Grandmom each year.

I suspect we will always disagree. I’m talking $50-100 per paycheck and yes, those $20 gifts from grandma. Neither my parents nor my DH’a are wealthy and we never got huge gifts from therm. DH and I both worked for the government so we weren’t rich. We were able to save $230k by starting when they were young and putting anything we could find in there. I guess that’s how I find it hard to believe the author could only save $14k.

Yeah the author is pathetic on so many levels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why the author didn’t save a realistic amount of money for college. It’s about priorities.

Do you understand that many families work to pay their bills and that’s it. I don’t have enough money to pay my bills some months so there won’t Ben any college savings. Not everyone is living beyond their means.

I do and I have sympathy for that. Her tone suggests to me that was not the case. She seems surprised that college costs money and that the $14,000 she saved isn’t going to do it. We saved from the time our kids were little. It was mostly small amounts (and a small direct deposit from one of our paychecks). We put all of those random checks you get (rebates, refunds, gifts from grandparents, and our tax refunds) into the 529. It grew over time. I think $14,000 for a donut hole family suggests they did not really try.

NP. The article struck me the same way. Given that it is hard to buy a new car for $14,000, I was taken aback that the author of the article seem surprised by the cost of college. The whole thing smacked to me of her thinking that her emergency was now ours. NOT. Definitely not.

We were saving for college before our first baby was even born. We did not do a 529 (if they had 529s back then we didn't know about them) but we had a college savings account. We put in a little bit here and a little bit there. By a little bit I mean that if I saved $9.75 at the grocery store because I bought items on sale, then I wrote a check to myself and deposited $9.75 into the college savings account (that was the easy way to do it then).

Yes, I understand not being able to pay bills. I am a teacher and I teach at a Title I school. So not only do I not earn a lot but I work with students who come from poor families. I was still struck by the author's lack of foresight and planning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The author lives in Virginia. Her daughter can go to VCU, one of the top art schools in the country, and pay in-state rates. I'm not getting what the big sacrifice is here.

I think daughter wanted to be an artist in NYC. But I agree, VCU is fantastic.

I want to be an artist in NYC, too. You don’t always get bankrolled for whatever it is you want. It is ok to tell your kid that you can only afford in-state.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why the author didn’t save a realistic amount of money for college. It’s about priorities.

Do you understand that many families work to pay their bills and that’s it. I don’t have enough money to pay my bills some months so there won’t Ben any college savings. Not everyone is living beyond their means.

Dad was still in school for a bunch of the years. They were not living on a lot.

VCU is the best public art school in the country. I’m not crying for this girl. Art school never needed to be in NYC.

Good article about choices, though.

I liked the idea of the essay but it wasn’t that powerful because it’s pretty easy to understand why art school wouldn’t be wise if you’re not wealthy. A tougher question is something like MIT versus public engineering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The author lives in Virginia. Her daughter can go to VCU, one of the top art schools in the country, and pay in-state rates. I'm not getting what the big sacrifice is here.

I think daughter wanted to be an artist in NYC. But I agree, VCU is fantastic.

I think most broke kids who really want to go to school in New York should look at the CUNY schools over NYU. The CUNY schools are the UVA of New York.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why the author didn’t save a realistic amount of money for college. It’s about priorities.

Do you understand that many families work to pay their bills and that’s it. I don’t have enough money to pay my bills some months so there won’t Ben any college savings. Not everyone is living beyond their means.

I do and I have sympathy for that. Her tone suggests to me that was not the case. She seems surprised that college costs money and that the $14,000 she saved isn’t going to do it. We saved from the time our kids were little. It was mostly small amounts (and a small direct deposit from one of our paychecks). We put all of those random checks you get (rebates, refunds, gifts from grandparents, and our tax refunds) into the 529. It grew over time. I think $14,000 for a donut hole family suggests they did not really try.

And I have to use every dime of my refund to pay my bills like most Americans. Most people don’t get gifts from grandparents either. My kid is thrilled at the $20 he gets from his Grandmom each year.