<p>My kids’ education is my gift to them, as was my education my parents’ gift to me. That said, I have no idea what your parents actual financial situation is, they may well appear better off to you than they actually are. Many parents don’t have the choices we have had. We live a comfortable middle class life, but the only reason college is affordable is a well-timed inheritance. </p>
<p>If you are going to architecture school I highly recommend attending the school as near to the community where you expect to be working. You’ll make better connections that way. Summer or term time work is incredibly important to having any chance at all of getting hired. And architects tend to hire local talent from schools that they are familiar with.</p>
<p>Rankings aren’t that important. I doubt the higher rankings of Auburn or Clemson will matter at all…at least not enough to justify much, much higher costs. Rankings are not based purely on the “program” so rankings are not a firm guide for how strong a program is or isn’t. </p>
<p>Go to the Arizona school with the higher Arch ranking if that stuff matters to you.</p>
<p>While I’m not making my son repay me, I probably would feel differently if he were insisting on going to a significantly more expensive school without a good enough (to me) reason.</p>
<p>No, and I never even considered the possibility.</p>
<p>If they have kids, though, I hope they will pay it forward.</p>
<p>My parents, despite somewhat dicey finances at the time, were able to get my sister and me through our undergraduate years without either of us having to take on any debt. Later in life, I appreciated what a huge help this was to us in starting our adult lives. It was a pleasure to be able to do the same thing for my own kids.</p>
<p>No expectations of repayment here, either. I expect our kids will pay it forward, though I am worried about how they’ll be able to. What will college costs look like in 2035?</p>
<p>Heard a story on the news this morning that current unemployment rate for architecture grads is 13.9%, which is one of the highest for professional educations.</p>
<p>^That may be true, but once you are licensed it’s a profession where you can start your own small firm. I actually tend to get busier when people can’t sell their houses, because additions and remodeling picks up. I also do a lot of bread and butter work fixing up missing C of O’s and legalizing work done without a permit. It’s not glamorous, but the hours are flexible and the work is varied. The hard part is getting your foot in the door and connections are enormously important for that first job. (Studying at Columbia and looking for work in Los Angeles was a huge mistake I made.)</p>
<p>*Heard a story on the news this morning that current unemployment rate for architecture grads is 13.9%, which is one of the highest for professional educations. *</p>
<p>Yup…I know a young lady who graduated from Texas A&M over 2 years ago and still doesn’t have a job. She went OOS also. Parents are lamenting that because she could have gone instate to Auburn for pnuts with a scholarship, but she wanted to go OOS.</p>
<p>No surprise, given what sectors got hit the hardest in the economic downturn. Of course, a lot can change in four years… (just ask any architect or civil engineer who started college in 2005 and graduated in 2009)</p>
<p>My kids each have a tuition fund. They all got scholarships but if their scholarships didn’t cover full tuition, their college fund was used. If that ran out, it was up to them to get their own loans for school which they will pay back. I would have loved to pay it for them but we are just not in a position to do that.</p>
<p>“Other than a change in geography, there’s really not a difference between the schools academically…so I would take the cheaper route and bloom where I am planted.”</p>
<p>That’s my feeling, too. Does the difference in ranking really translate into more and better job opportunities in the region where you want to live? Architecture is such a demanding major, and accredited programs of necessity so similar, that the education itself is unlikely to differ much from one flagship to another. It’s not like a social science major where you may find yourself surrounded by motivated kids at one school and total slackers (with professors who have to slow things down) at another.</p>
<p>I paid for my daughter’s undergraduate education. When it came time for graduate school, the deal was that she would be responsible for her room and board (in her case, an off campus apartment), and that I would lend her tuition money with the expectation that she would pay it back after she was employed. Of course, I reserve the right to forgive the loan.</p>
<p>I don’t know your parents reasoning, but I can tell you mine. It was my view that graduate school needed to be important enough to my daughter that she was willing to make a significant contribution to the cost. She could consider my tuition payments as a no interest loan, with a very flexible payment schedule, which is a lot better deal than she could get from a third party. She knows me well enough to know that I’m not going to make her repay the loan, if I make her repay it at all, until she’s employed, and then only in an amount that she can reasonably afford.</p>
<p>In my view, her’s was an adult decision which comes with adult responsibilities. There are many kids who don’t have this option, because their parents couldn’t afford to pay for a college education. This, to me, was far less onerous than making her borrow the money from a bank.</p>
<p>The deal in our house is that we pay for three years of tuition, four years of room and board and all college related expenses, i.e. books, travel. This is really only a theory so far. But generally, it is a no interest loan and they have a few years before they need to begin repaying. If they want to attend graduate they can suspend payments. It is not meant to be harsh or overly burdensome. We did not limit their choices for school and will invest 200k for each. </p>
<p>They have known this is our policy for over ten years. Why do we do it? We just can not wrap our head around no skin in the game. We put ourselves through public universities 30 years ago. That has probably factored into our decision.</p>