Anonymous wrote:My parents are seriously blue collar and scraped to put together the money to make sure I graduated without debt for my undergrad. I think it would be an insult to their effort if I didn't do the same.

I'm paying for my kids.

I've noticed that blue coller types don't believe in the skin in the game concept that debt is good. Seems to be something made up by people who make more money but want to spend more on themselves so they invent an idea (without any proof) that debt is good. For me, debt caused a huge amount of anxiety and now I'm in a job I don't like but feel stuck because of my income. It is depressing.

Besides I want grandkids someday. Debt = delayed everything including having kids.

I have no respect for parents who renovate their kitchen a second time or add on to their house, drive two new cars, and won't pay for their kid's education - or won't do it without guilting, bullying the kid.

Of course we're paying.

In the first instance, we are going to encourage our kids to go to state school. I don't know what will happen yet if they choose to go out of state (whether we will say they need to pay anything over what in state would cost or if we'd cover it either way) - they are too young for us to figure this all out right now.

When they do go, I plan to cover room and board and tuition, but they'd be responsible for their own spending money through a summer job and/or small job on campus after freshman year. I might reassess if they had some sort of huge extracurricular commitment at school, but I was heavily involved in extracurriculars in college and still worked about 5-10 hours a week after freshman year.

Anonymous wrote:Don't get me wrong, we are putting away $$ in a 529... but neither my nor my husband got our degrees without some debt. Is everyone planning to cover the cost for their kids or is there still something to be said for a kid having a part in paying for their education?

Both DH and I graduated from college with no debt. Thanks 100% from my parents and much from DH's parents (he had a nice scholarship too- but his college was much more expensive). We think of it as a loan that we pay forward to our children. Like ourselves, our children are responsible for their spending money, but we pay for tuition & fees, R&B and books.

If our incomes stay where they are, we will not be able to afford to pay 100% for our son's college out of pocket. We are saving what we can, and hope that when the time comes he can get scholarship or grants. We will consider whether to take out a home loan to pay for him, or pay his loans for him. But we'll see.

My parents paid 100% for my undergrad, and I was responsible for grad school.
DH's grandparents paid for most of his college, but he still had $10K in loans, that were paid off within 5 years of graduation. No grad school.

Yes we are. We make enough money to pay without incurring any debt.

I will pay what I can.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
The data do not support your assertions.

It would be useful to see the data you reference.

Well, you made the assertions, not I, and you made them based on your anecdotal experience (which means nothing) - but here is some info for you anyway:

http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/nchems.pdf

http://fortune.com/2015/11/13/liberal-arts-degrees-critics/

Most liberal arts graduates plan to, and do go on to professional or graduate school.

Thanks, seems they earn about 30% less than STEM graduates, per your reference 1. This data does not seem to show lifetime earning and employability, which is different from peak earnings. It also does not parse out the role of connections.

Depends on the point in time you are referencing as well as whether they have graduate degrees, and what kinds. My brother the American Studies major is now a psychiatrist. Some humanities majors go on to do graduate or professional work in the sciences or math, and vice-versa.

Do you think that no one should study the humanities? That there should be no social workers, teachers, museum professionals, writers, artists, lawyers, professors?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
The data do not support your assertions.

It would be useful to see the data you reference.

Well, you made the assertions, not I, and you made them based on your anecdotal experience (which means nothing) - but here is some info for you anyway:

http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/nchems.pdf

http://fortune.com/2015/11/13/liberal-arts-degrees-critics/

Most liberal arts graduates plan to, and do go on to professional or graduate school.

Thanks, seems they earn about 30% less than STEM graduates, per your reference 1. This data does not seem to show lifetime earning and employability, which is different from peak earnings. It also does not parse out the role of connections.

They earn less out of the gate, which is to be expected. Over the long haul, not so.

What data do you have to support your assertion that a SLAC graduate without connections is sunk?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
The data do not support your assertions.

It would be useful to see the data you reference.

Well, you made the assertions, not I, and you made them based on your anecdotal experience (which means nothing) - but here is some info for you anyway:

http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/nchems.pdf

http://fortune.com/2015/11/13/liberal-arts-degrees-critics/

Most liberal arts graduates plan to, and do go on to professional or graduate school.

Thanks, seems they earn about 30% less than STEM graduates, per your reference 1. This data does not seem to show lifetime earning and employability, which is different from peak earnings. It also does not parse out the role of connections.

Love that this is an anonymous forum.

We will be paying for our kids college. We will have about $150k in a 529, but our income level will afford us to pay for it. I am reading so much on CC and DCUM and relay all of the headache to DH who gets frustrated with me that I don't seem to "get it" and where we are financially (I grew up poor.) Even tho I am always looking for a sale and get a high off of getting a deal, I do understand it now. DH deals with the finances, and he had to show me that we now *choose* to pay $30k+ a year in tithes to our church, with a lot left over for charities and spending...we will be more than able to pay $70K for school in 5 years.

DH has stressed that the goal of my "research" on these sites will be to help our A-B honors kids get INTO college, not get a deal. We have investments, salary, savings, etc to afford a $70k+ college a year.

Both DH and I went to public state schools. His parents got loans to pay and he worked during the summer. I was lower-class, so relied on grants and workstudy to afford school. We both have MS degrees, so 11 years of college between us. Our kids are blessed to be 100x more financially fortunate than we were.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
The data do not support your assertions.

It would be useful to see the data you reference.

PP wasn't claiming to have other data, just correcting grammar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^
The data do not support your assertions.

It would be useful to see the data you reference.

Well, you made the assertions, not I, and you made them based on your anecdotal experience (which means nothing) - but here is some info for you anyway:

http://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/nchems.pdf

http://fortune.com/2015/11/13/liberal-arts-degrees-critics/

Most liberal arts graduates plan to, and do go on to professional or graduate school.

My husband is giving/gave his GI bill to our kid so we don't have to worry about it. But we expect her to be employed during the summer and she works less than part time as a tutor with the local school district.

We're also going to help pay for grad school.