Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 kids, we live in a 3 br townhouse in an exurb that has a 1400/mo mortgage, we send them to public school and we only save $2000 per year per kid for their college while having a 400k HHI. Rec soccer, cheap city summer camps. I don’t believe that you are morally obligated to financially strain yourself just to give your kids what society thinks is the ideal life. Our kids are very happy and don’t feel like they’re deprived from what I can tell.

OP, I wouldn’t do the same but I fully understand what you are doing. You are doing the right thing. Good parenting doesn’t mean throwing money into expensive activities for your kids. Money doesn’t buy happiness. Your kids can be happy and have a wonderful life without all of this, and it seems like they are happy.
Kids don’t need to go to elite colleges to succeed in life. Your plans don’t include paying for expensive colleges and this is totally fine.

-1

Huge difference between "paying $80K/year for elite colleges vs fully funding $40-50K/year for good state school/private school with some merit vs go to CC and figure it out from there you are on your own"

Providing an education is very different than funding expensive sports/activities.
Why have kids is you don't want to help with the basics? In 2023, helping fund college is part of the basics when you make$400K

Education is very important and helping fund college is definitely part of the basics. But that can be partly funding, that can be funding CC, etc..
Teaching your kids how to fish is more important than serving them the fish in a golden plate.

CC path is not that viable if you want engineering/CS. 2 years at CC would be half wasted---you'd have your Gen Eds and maybe the first year of Calc. Where I live the CC is not as rigorous as the first year of classes at StateU so you might get at most 1 year towards your Eng Degree. Therefore, starting at a 4 year would be more useful. Have the kid go to State school/private with some merit so it's only 40-50K/year. But if you make $400K+/year, you should at a minimum help your kid attend that without debt (or at most the $27Kmax over 4 years). yes the kid can work a summer job and during breaks and earn $10K towards college and their spending in college. But why would you saddle them with more debt or make them take 6-8 years to get their degree while working?

Not prudent

Is this a new thing?

I know engineers who earn 300k and upwards who went to CC for two years and a 4 year university for two years. All their credits transferred.

In my college days (14 years ago) Montgomery community College in Maryland had a lot of transfers to University of Maryland who didn't lose any credits.

Exactly.

I transferred into pre-med at UMD with credits from CC. I did my labs at CC just fine before and during my time at UMD; I took summer classes as well. Everything transferred. I have no idea when or where some of these posters went to college but at least in Maryland there is a very good path between the CCs and the public universities.

Anonymous wrote:If I didn’t spend my money on my kids, what would I spend it on? The only reason I’ve worked as hard as I have is to make enough money to provide my kids with opportunities. Otherwise, I don’t see the point in having money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why you would send your kid to a crappy CC on a 400k HHI instead of giving them the full college experience is crazy to me.

PP above is correct. The academic peers are totally different.

Would that college experience include underage drinking, hazing, and partying? What else is there? Oh there is living in shitty dorms and sharing bathrooms with filthy roommates.

Not every kid is looking forward to that.

You send them to "great" schools to hang out with other children whose parents could afford to send their children to "great" schools. There is a lot of value in that, no doubt.

Otherwise, a good student is a good student.

A ton. Internships (many companies won’t hire interns who go to cc), Greek life, club sports, living independently, learning to deal with roommates, getting away from your helicopter parents, late night adventures…

I’ll add a cerebral academic environment, access to professors, majority equivalent academic peers, a very diverse array of courses to choose from to build a good underlying humanities base to name a few.

I feel sorry that PP kids got deprived of such. College is the best 4 years of your life and for many it’s true.

If you want to grind away at CC and then grind away the last 2 years to make up for lost credits that’s your choice. No way I’m sending my high performing kid to CC when I have options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why you would send your kid to a crappy CC on a 400k HHI instead of giving them the full college experience is crazy to me.

PP above is correct. The academic peers are totally different.

Would that college experience include underage drinking, hazing, and partying? What else is there? Oh there is living in shitty dorms and sharing bathrooms with filthy roommates.

Not every kid is looking forward to that.

You send them to "great" schools to hang out with other children whose parents could afford to send their children to "great" schools. There is a lot of value in that, no doubt.

Otherwise, a good student is a good student.

A ton. Internships (many companies won’t hire interns who go to cc), Greek life, club sports, living independently, learning to deal with roommates, getting away from your helicopter parents, late night adventures…

I’ll add a cerebral academic environment, access to professors, majority equivalent academic peers, a very diverse array of courses to choose from to build a good underlying humanities base to name a few.

I feel sorry that PP kids got deprived of such. College is the best 4 years of your life and for many it’s true.

If you want to grind away at CC and then grind away the last 2 years to make up for lost credits that’s your choice. No way I’m sending my high performing kid to CC when I have options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CC, then Undergrad at UMBC, then MBA from University of Virginia Darden
35yo and currently making $370k
Not bad. It's not that hard. If I can do it, anybody could do it.

Curious to know what job you were able to get out of UMBC that was considered good enough job experience to get into Darden.

Anonymous wrote:We have 2 kids, we live in a 3 br townhouse in an exurb that has a 1400/mo mortgage, we send them to public school and we only save $2000 per year per kid for their college while having a 400k HHI. Rec soccer, cheap city summer camps. I don’t believe that you are morally obligated to financially strain yourself just to give your kids what society thinks is the ideal life. Our kids are very happy and don’t feel like they’re deprived from what I can tell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why you would send your kid to a crappy CC on a 400k HHI instead of giving them the full college experience is crazy to me.

PP above is correct. The academic peers are totally different.

Would that college experience include underage drinking, hazing, and partying? What else is there? Oh there is living in shitty dorms and sharing bathrooms with filthy roommates.

Not every kid is looking forward to that.

You send them to "great" schools to hang out with other children whose parents could afford to send their children to "great" schools. There is a lot of value in that, no doubt.

Otherwise, a good student is a good student.

A ton. Internships (many companies won’t hire interns who go to cc), Greek life, club sports, living independently, learning to deal with roommates, getting away from your helicopter parents, late night adventures…

Anonymous wrote:The college experience has value in and off itself.

Anonymous wrote:CC, then Undergrad at UMBC, then MBA from University of Virginia Darden
35yo and currently making $370k
Not bad. It's not that hard. If I can do it, anybody could do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why you would send your kid to a crappy CC on a 400k HHI instead of giving them the full college experience is crazy to me.

PP above is correct. The academic peers are totally different.

Would that college experience include underage drinking, hazing, and partying? What else is there? Oh there is living in shitty dorms and sharing bathrooms with filthy roommates.

Not every kid is looking forward to that.

You send them to "great" schools to hang out with other children whose parents could afford to send their children to "great" schools. There is a lot of value in that, no doubt.

Otherwise, a good student is a good student.

A ton. Internships (many companies won’t hire interns who go to cc), Greek life, club sports, living independently, learning to deal with roommates, getting away from your helicopter parents, late night adventures…

Many companies will hire interns who went to CC. My kids went to CC and had no problems getting internships and jobs at top fortune 500 companies. But I have to admit, not every kid will be successful taking that path. Only the smart kids will succeed. If your kids aren't smart enough, take a different path.

This is the most aggressive helicopter/participation trophy parenting I have ever encountered. Did you write their fortune 500 cover letters for them while they were at home too?