They need to get a scholar for tuition. I will cover housing, books, school fees, maybe a small stipend. They will need a job to pay for going to bars with their friends and eating pizza at 2am with friends.

That's who I did it. That's how it will be done.

I think it's a deservice to your children to not require them to work longer than a summer internship and then have go into the job market not knowing what it is really like. Those are the most insufferable people at my job.

There are few exceptions of course. Like a nursing student who is not allowed to work. They would be given more resources because of the nature of their program.

My parents had a high income and did not prioritize paying for my education. I had to take out high interest loans to get through school and by the time I graduated, I owed nearly double what I had taken out.

Meanwhile, when I was a sophomore, my parents purchased a time share that cost as much as 90% of the entirety of my tuition/room/board. Here's the kicker, they have never once used it. They preferred to throw money away than help me.

I can't forget what that feels like and I would never do that to my kids. So yes, we are going to pay for their college education. If you have a high income, it's your responsibility to do so, otherwise you're giving your kids a really difficult start to life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll pay for a useful degree. If my kids wants to waste four years on a degree that won't land them a job afterwards, well, then they can pay for that themselves.

That is so incredibly controlling and sad. How do you know what will land them a job or not? I have so many friends with liberal arts degrees who have gotten very wealthy.

Not PP, but most people I know with lib arts degrees that have gotten wealthy had either a) a degree from an Ivy or b) family connections. So yes, the well connected can do well regardless of degree. The other thing I will add is that the world in not the same. 40 years ago Peter Jennings could walk into a newspaper office and get a job as a journalist, now they won't hire you as an assistant even with a masters from Columbia. So if my kid says he wants to major in journalism, I want him to understand the impact of his decisions. We don't have connections.

I am not well connected but got an MBA from a top school and have done well despite my liberal arts degree. I know plenty of successful people from my college.

have done well thanks to my liberal arts degree

^^^Fixed that for you.

It was an intentional statement given the attitude of the PP. No correction necessary.

And to the PP who noted that I required an MBA - I can assure you it paid off far more than an undergrad computer science degree would have. Are you implying that graduate degrees are unecessary for kids who aren't liberal arts grads? I suspect that's not the case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It's attitudes/fears like yours that embolden colleges to hike up tuition rates several times general inflation. I hope more people become savvy consumers of higher ed. Colleges and Universities have been looking at kids as clients/customers for years.

That's 100% opposite of the truth. It was the enlargement of the student loan programs that allowed colleges to increase tuition so quickly. Letting an 18yo burden themselves with debt allowed colleges to charge more and more. If students and parents had to come up with the money at the start of school, administrators would be forced to keep costs down. Tuition rates skyrocketed with student loan programs. You can find a number of articles out there discussing this.

Amen. College would only be affordable to maybe 5 percent of high school graduates max. The more the government lets you borrow the more expensive it gets. Similar to mortgage loans. If they made college loans illegal tomorrow very few people could make their tuition payments and something would have to change rather quickly.

I will pay for the kids colleges because they can then do the same for my grandkids. They know that we are not super rich by DCUM standards, but we kept our COL small. My kids have been raised to be responsible as well as know about finances. So, I am not worried about them not having skin in the game.

Student loans are crippling debts. It totally messes up all your choices in life. Not worth it for my kids to go through that. My eldest in college got full tuition merit scholarship and the money we had saved for him will go towards his first car out of college, so that he has no car payments when he starts working.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It's attitudes/fears like yours that embolden colleges to hike up tuition rates several times general inflation. I hope more people become savvy consumers of higher ed. Colleges and Universities have been looking at kids as clients/customers for years.

That's 100% opposite of the truth. It was the enlargement of the student loan programs that allowed colleges to increase tuition so quickly. Letting an 18yo burden themselves with debt allowed colleges to charge more and more. If students and parents had to come up with the money at the start of school, administrators would be forced to keep costs down. Tuition rates skyrocketed with student loan programs. You can find a number of articles out there discussing this.

My husband was an English major who also did pre med and is now a doctor. He thought it gave him an edge. I don't understand the terror of liberal arts education on this board.

Anonymous wrote:We are covering $20K per year, per kid. The rest is up to them.

Right there with you, PP.

No. I have enough money to pay April's rent. In savings I have $1200. That's all the money I have in total. So I won't be able to pay for DD's college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

PP, you can't be serious? A dumb ass liberal arts major, pursuing graduate studies in "math" or "science"??? Yea...right.

Can you not read?

People CAN and DO pursue graduate work in math and science after having studied the humanities as undergraduates. They do it all the time.

This is a FACT.

We can read...just dont believe.....sorry

Yes. My parents paid for mine, and I was very grateful not to have loans to repay. It gave me many more career options.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unsure. I graduated debt-free, which I realize was a gift, but that made me refuse graduate school b/c my parents didn't plan on paying for that and I was terrified of going into debt. I was incredibly uncomfortable with that. But I'd probably be better off financially if I'd just done it.

This seems like an illogical reaction to me. If the fear of debt kept you from attending grad school, then the solution to that isn't to pile on additional undergrad debt.

Sure, not saying it's logical. But I think that had I been a little more comfortable with the idea of debt, it may not have seemed so terrifying. Of course, I could've freaked outa bout piling it on, but I'm not sure. Maybe if my parents had had an in depth conversation with me about debt I could've made a decision informed by facts and odds instead of just fear of any debt.

My DH is a professor and has a very generous tuition benefit for his dependents and it can be used not just for the school at which he teaches.

If he gets tenure, we'll be paying for all of the kid's college education through that benefit. If not, he'll probably get a similar benefit at his fallback school, and we'll pay for whatever that benefit allows. We're still setting aside some money in case something happens.

Even so, I strongly believe that every person should hold a service or construction job at some time in his or her life, and so we'll ask for our child to pay for all non-tuition expenses, within reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

PP, you can't be serious? A dumb ass liberal arts major, pursuing graduate studies in "math" or "science"??? Yea...right.

Can you not read?

People CAN and DO pursue graduate work in math and science after having studied the humanities as undergraduates. They do it all the time.

This is a FACT.

Anonymous wrote:Our kids don't know about their trust funds, so we plan to have them take out a portion of their educational costs in loans. Assuming they graduate and do well, the loans will be paid off (but they don't know that). A little skin in the game, whether real or perceived, is a good thing, I think.

+1 except ours kids (4) each have their own real estate property. Once they graduate, we'll sell it and pay off their loans.