<p>Ours earn their own spending money and are taking out unsubsidized Stafford loans. This is partly to give them a sense of accountability, but also because we want to convey a realistic sense that our finances are not a bottomless pit; we need to save for our retirement, and it will be a gift to them not to have to worry -- as I did -- about aging parents who did not plan for the future. </p>
<p>For them we think the Stafford loan makes more sense than a campus job, because they will be paying it back when their earning power is greater and for now they can concentrate on their studies, ECs, and college fun.</p>
<p>In addition to the fees, we do pay for their trips home and cell phones, and we give them spending money when they are home on breaks. We bought their laptops and buy their books and supplies. And there's almost always a "CVS run" for toiletries when they are home on breaks, as well as a trip to the hair salon/barber.</p>
<p>I like the virtuous circle thing. We pay tuition, room, board, travel, and books. He pays all incidentals and entertainment and clothes. Also gas for the car when he has access to one in the Summer - not an trivial expense as his Summer job involves a lot of miles on the car. He has a merit scholarship which helps a lot and loans. he also had some money in a trust a family friend left him. Dad did not do the best job of investing that money and will probably pick up the college loans if his grades are good but is not telling him that.</p>
<p>I consider school a job and the merit money his contribution. His payback is to produce an heir and put his kids through college. BTW I told him if he decides he would rather bat from the other side of the plate that is up to him but he still has to come home for Christmas and produce an heir.</p>
<p>I consider school a job and the merit money his contribution</p>
<p>Ours will take the Stafford loan as her contribution. Her summer work will provide spending money for the school yr. Her current job is only part-time. If she does work study, that should help with travel costs, etc. Her school offered her an additional loan that is better than a PLUS loan. If she does well freshman yr, we will pay it off for her. If she gets caught up in the partying, then she will have to pay it. She also needs decent grades to keep her merit scholarship. I don't expect her to have a problem since she's always been a hard worker and doesn't party now - but I've seen too many "good" kids who lose their focus when they get to college (my first roommate was a minister's daughter who didn't know what freedom was until she went away).</p>
<p>Our son is responsible for his tuition, books, spending money and any other academic fees. We pick up room, board, health insurance, and travel costs. This division of costs required him to make some very important decisions during the admissions process and understand that life is about making choices. We set the ground rules, he accepted them and used them as a starting point early on during his junior year in high school.</p>
<p>He is happy with how things worked out and gained an appreciation that happiness cannnot be achieved without personal effort, some compromise, setting priorities and gaining a measure of maturity to successfully reach a goal with the resources at hand. </p>
<p>In addition he has a personal investment at stake in his education and at the end of four years he will have learned that, yeah-I was able to find a way to pay for that $120,000 tuition bill.</p>
<p>I am with the parents who had their education paid for by their parents and are doing the same with the next generation. However, there is a huge difference between my state school and my daughter's opposite coast private (Ivy) school. But a deal is a deal. </p>
<p>I strongly agree with those who say school is work and it needs to be acknowledged that achieving the best grades possible is the kid's part of the deal. My DD has been working hard on scholarship applications however to take care of what the school is saying is the student share. She just about has it covered. Any additional scholarships would reduce the grant that was provided by the college and not the EFC. </p>
<p>I plan on providing a monthly spending allowance and her Godparents, truly gifts from God, are also providing her a monthly allowance by virtue of a credit card with a certain limit on it. She has money she has saved over the past year from her part-time job. I also expect her to take advantage of work study opportunities provided by her school after her freshman year. She and I make up a two member household and she has always been mindful of our financial situation.</p>
<p>My D is working during the school year on a research assistant position. She earned a small scholarship and also works during at least half the summer...can do that by getting a job at a decent rate for the first half, also through the school. She is also taking out loans that should not be too onerous by the time she graduates. The work during the school year is about 7 hours/week. Not bad, I think.</p>
<p>My parents pay for tuition, room, and board. I will pay for books, expenses, traveling. I've been working all through high school though, so they don't really expect me to work during college, except summers. Or I can take summer classes.</p>
<p>We do consider it all one "pot", but through merit $$ and athletic scholarship D is already "paying" most of the $160K hit. I pay for cell phone, computers, health insurance, travel home, and whatever is left on room & board. etc. She works summers because she wants to, and she spends that on books and supplies. </p>
<p>If she didn't have any scholarship money, we would have to work as a team, because I couldn't afford to pay that much in tuition without some help.</p>
<p>My parents are paying for everything... They signed up for the VA pre paid college plan years (6? more?) ago, so the money they put into that was enough to pay the tuition for 4 years at the time they started the plan, which is significantly less than what it is now. They also pay for my car insurance (we're still a 2 car family, 1 of my parents doesn't drive at all), cell phone bill (some kind of family thing, I bought the phone), and I get some spending money. I don't spend much of the spending money, most of it I plan on saving. Mostly what I spend goes to that addicting Wawa...</p>
<p>My parents have always made it clear to me that my focus should be on academics, and that I would not need to worry about money, and I definitely realize that I am lucky in that regard. I'm trying to bring my refereeing down to school this year, but I have to get special permission to have a car because I wont' be a jr or sr. The refereeing can pay $25-30+ an hour, so it's not bad for a weekend of work. I'm trying to move up to officiating high school, I can definitely spare some weeknights that I would normally be watching tv or wasting time online reffing soccer.</p>
<p>In the summer... it's work or classes. This summer I chose classes.</p>
<p>S will have about 25K in loans and will have to pay for books and spending money out of earnings. No allowance. We pay car ins., cell phones, computer. We told him up front we can pay 20K and would split the difference on a higher priced school. (some from savings, some from earnings) Grandmother has generously offered to pay off a chunk of his loan when he graduates, but I asked her to hold off telling him as so many things can change in four years, and I don't want him to rely on that.<br>
Both H and I paid off our own loans and never got a penny from our parents as they did not have it, so we strongly feel he should invest in his own education as well.</p>
<p>Avalon -- my son paid for 50% of all his non-tuition/non-room-&-board expenses. He put his summer earnings in a bank account, and we matched them. This covered his books, supplies, entertainment, other incidentals. (He put in about $1500-$2000 each year.)</p>
<p>My daughter contributed what she could, mainly from school-year earnings from working in a shop, on the order of $200 per month after her first year. Otherwise, we covered all her costs.</p>
<p>My parents couldn't afford to pay anything. My parents are separated now and I live with my mom now. She pays for our apartment and a car for me to drive (my dad paid for the car before the separation). I pay for all tuition, books, gas for commuting to school, and miscellaneous spending. I'll probably have around $45,000 in loan debt when I graduate (5 years as an undergrad....2 years Ivy League plus 3 years out-of-state public school).</p>
<p>I would love to be able to pay for my kids education in the future but I will make them pay for their own books and spending. I could give them spending money for their freshman year but after that they will need to have internships like me to earn their textbook and spending money.</p>
<p>Although my parents could pay, my dad refused to pay for anything when I was in high school and even refused to allow me to apply anywhere except State U with the requirement of living at home or "you don't go to college at all." When I called his bluff (I was NMF), he agreed to allow me to go to one small school provided my mother went to work to pay my first year's tuition and I pay the rest. I strongly feel that this limited my choices throughout my career.</p>
<p>So, the day my D was born, we started scrimping and saving and put everything in a 529 as soon as we could. We took the attitude that we wanted her to have every option available to her so choice could be based on other factors...and we'd live in a one room efficiency if that's what it took. It didn't take that, but she won't have to pay a penny for undergraduate school (grad school may be a different story). She works her tail off at school and her art. And she socked away about $26K of her own she won. She doesn't know this, but we plan to let her use that for grad school.</p>
<p>quiltguru -
I was limited to colleges where I could live at home or with a relative. In my case, big mistake. I sympathize. </p>
<p>In our case, its the all one pot scenario. We will all work hard and take loans - probably about 15,000 for DS, and 50,000 for us. And no kitchen remodels in the near future, LOL!</p>
<p>We have saved an amount equivalent to four years of the current tuition, room and board at our state public university for each of our kids. We haven't talked about books and living expenses, but I expect to pay for that, within reason ($200/month?). Because the cost of college is rising much faster than the interest rate being paid on these college fund savings accounts, we are still making monthly contributions to keep up. Ouch.</p>
<p>We have told son that if he gets a scholarship, any leftover money from what we have saved is his. We have suggested that using that money for a masters degree would be a good idea, if he is interested in pursuing that.</p>
<p>Should either of our kids choose to attend a private college that would exceed the amount we have saved for them, they will have to cover the difference.</p>
<p>I would like to be able to send them to any college they wanted to attend. Unfortunately, we must now turn our full financial attention to a little issue called retirement planning.</p>
<p>We pay only what it takes to keep undergrad D at school. D pays for everything else and we've never sent her any $. Just the big check to the LAC. She has a 4-5 hr/wk work study job. She has proud and generous grandparents who keep sending little notes with $ in them. Drat! They never did that for me! Grad S had the same undergrad deal, but he is now on the hook for some of his grad school tuition (subsidized Staffords, $8500 x 3).</p>
<p>Brown is expecting $2150 from summer earnings and about 30% of my son's savings. They will expect him to borrow about $25,000 for four years. This is a bit more than the other schools from whom he received aid packages. I am not sure it is possible in our area where jobs are minimum wage at his age, and where they are difficult to find, that he will reach the expected amount. But I think he's going to try. That money will be used to pay for living expenses and books. We will pay for travel and tuition room and board. (I also send great care packages, which is fun for me and keeps my kids' living expenses down a bit.)</p>
<p>MoT, the jobs in your area are one big reason that many students relocate Elsewhere after college. The old "go to college, come back home to work" model is dubious to the point of vanishing.</p>
<p>The college education is our gift to them...however, we require they are invested in the outcome by taking out the unsubsidized stafford loans each year (about $17,000 total). If they need it, we will help repay inasmuch as we are able.
We pay all expenses from the school including books, give a generous allowance to cover rent and utilities and food, etc. and for the one with a car, maintenance bills, insurance and EZpass. The one with the car needs it for co-op and has significant merit aid.</p>
<p>Oh, and if they do not finish their degree, they owe us all we have invested thus far.</p>