Anonymous wrote:If the parents are going to select the college, why not choose the major also? STEM majors are good choices for future job prospects.

It's not "selecting their college" it's offering them a gift.

Paid for, debt free, college is a gift. I feel fortunate that I'll be able to offer my kid that gift at certain schools. Beyond that, he has other options. He can study hard and get merit aid. He can join ROTC. He can take a few years off and earn money to add to the money I'm offering. He can take out federal student loans, although nothing beyond that because I'm not co-signing. Honestly, a kid should be grateful for that many options.

It's like saying that because I give my kid a "Target level" budget for the new pants he needs, I'm a horrible parent because I'm selecting his clothes for him. Kids don't need a million options for clothes. In this case, my kidcan go to Target, or Walmart, or Pennies or Sears. He's welcome to get a job, or save up his Christmas money, and supplement the cost of those pants. He's welcome to go to the thrift shop and find a designer brand. He can look for sales. He's welcome to ask his bigger friends if they have hand me downs. Just because I have a budget, doesn't mean my kid doesn't have choices.

Anonymous wrote:Slightly off-topic, but has anyone heard of the initiative in Oregon to offer deferred payment to state schools -- and to limit the amount alumnae pay to 3% of their post college tuition (for 23 years). Forward thinking:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/pay-it-forward-oregon-tuition-free_n_3543827.html

Yes, interesting. How does that work though? Doesn't OR have very few public colleges?

Pp here, I meant $240,000 for four years.

For about 95% of the population, $240,000 a year is an absurd amount to pay for a college education. It is like walking into a housing market bubble and over paying by $100,000+ for a house and telling yourself well I can get a mortgage to cover the cost of this overpriced house I can not afford so I will buy it anyway. This is what has happened to college education.

Anonymous wrote:For those who work at a college or university, don't forget that your child may not get into that school.

This may be so but....we assumed our kid couldn't get into the school but then we found out that it saves the university money if staff kids go to the university rather than going to another school where the university would have to send actual tuition money and staff kids don't take up any spots offered to regular students. So they're not keeping out a full-tuition-paying student by enrolling a staff kid. Kid was accepted.

They would either go there or start now making straigjt As , etc. To get a full scholarship to school of their choice. Parents do not "owe" their childten a college education from Hatvatd, Yale, etc. My parents helped me a lot but, essentially, I worked my way through college and it took me 5.5 yrs. and I never took out loans so did not have that monkey on my back. If there had been the offer of a free education at an accredited college, I would have jumped at the chance.

Slightly off-topic, but has anyone heard of the initiative in Oregon to offer deferred payment to state schools -- and to limit the amount alumnae pay to 3% of their post college tuition (for 23 years). Forward thinking:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/pay-it-forward-oregon-tuition-free_n_3543827.html

Anonymous wrote:I would encourage them, and explain their other options. Assuming its a decent school, I would hope my kids would understand the value and opt to go the more affordable route as opposed to taking out loans for a different school.

Fwiw, I know a few families who let their kids pass up free rides (scholarships) at one school to attend another school at nearly $50k a year. Absurd if you ask me...I would not have allowed my kids to make such a silly choice. As an example: is $50k a year at Syracuse better than free ride at the honors program at U Md? I think not.

Did my grad school work at SU and can say without reservation - No! Take the free ride at the honors program at UMD.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of these deals include reciprocal agreements with other colleges. I might also "force" them to at least do the first two years there. College keeps getting more expensive.

Yes, dh's university has one of those agreements. If dd had gone to another school, they would have paid up to 1/3 of dh's university's tuition. But we told dd she had to look at state schools because we could get 10k from DC TAG for out-of-state tuition. Ultimately, dd decided to attend dh's school for free. But because it's DC, it's not like she's home at all. She really has the experience of being away at school if she wants it.

Anonymous wrote:Yup. I've been working for a university for 14 years, and they can go there, pick one with reciprocity, or take out loans (the latter which I would discourage). A near-free college education is a great benefit.

How does the reciprocity work?