<p>Glad to see this. Yesterday, in the acting class that I’m taking for fun at the local community college, I met a 30-year-old veteran who is taking classes on the GI bill and hopes to transfer to NYU. He told me that the GI Bill would cover his tuition at NYU. I’m so glad for him!</p>
<p>"More than 300,000 veterans and their dependents are enrolled in American institutions of higher education, their numbers swelling as a result of a new, more generous version of the G.I. Bill that Congress passed in 2008. The veterans and their federal benefits are being embraced by community colleges and huge campuses like the University of Texas, as well as by online schools like the University of Phoenix.</p>
<p>They are bringing to the esoteric world of academia the ballast of the most real of real-world experiences, along with all the marks of the military existence, from crew cuts to frayed nerves to a platoon approach to social life.</p>
<p>Perhaps nowhere is this new wave more striking than at Columbia, which more than any other Ivy League institution has thrown out a welcome mat for returning servicemen and women. There are 210 veterans across the university, integrating a campus whose image-defining moment in the past half-century was of violent protests against the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>The campus still tilts heavily to the left, with many students displaying the arty, jaded aura befitting their Manhattan surroundings. But now, students largely welcome the vets, who are both admired and considered something of a curiosity."</p>
<p>^ 2008 was bad, but avg stock mutual funds did very well in 2009. According to my 529 plan, I’m down about 9% over last 2 years…not good, but not devastating.</p>
<p>What I don’t understand is the feeling that a student who can pay for a college education is desirable only for the tuition he/she brings in. Can’t that student actually be a smart kid? Can’t that smart kid come from a family where education is actually valued, and the parents planned ahead? I call that social responsibility too.</p>
<p>Back in 1973, my DH could not go to Cornell, where he was offered some scholarship, but not 100%. (He was a first generation to go to college so he was just happy to go to college and went to a smaller LAC that paid 100%.) He did fine with a degree from a mediocre school. Getting the degree is the life-changing experience; it doesn’t have to be at a top 20, an Amherst, a Harvard, a Brown. </p>
<p>When he (and I) had kids, he vowed he would make sure his kids could afford to go the school without the limits he had. What’s so wrong with that? Why does it seem that colleges might look down at my kids and only see $$$ ? So why is it that these schools make it seem they are pulling kids out of the gutter with their ‘social responsibility’ talk and then make families like ours sound like we’re the fools, with foolish kids?</p>
<p>limabeans-why would your family be the fools? your kids get to attend school with no worries. That would be amazing.</p>
<p>But there are alot of kids who come from families who don’t support education, who have had the cards stacked against them in every way imagineable, and they still manage to suceed. Money should not stop them from attending a top notch university. That was mr. marx’s point</p>
<p>lima…in many ways we are the fools…apparently. I’ve watched friends and associates who make the same amount of money as I do and live beyond their means…bigger mortgage and car payments, more vacations, ect. The end result?..they get need based aid and get to spend less on college than I do…because I saved since the birth of my kids.
However, this news does put a smile on my face as maybe, just maybe, my kids will be chosen over others because I can afford to pay in full. That would be justice…IMO</p>
<p>Edit…Rocket…I do agree about the poor…but there are many people who just chose not to save and lived the high life</p>
<p>geeps-what about people like my parents-who are very recently middle class. My mom went back to school when I was seven and got out when I was 11. She didn’t get a steady job until I was 12. Up until that point we got state healthcare(CHIP), and sometimes even welfare. Our house is extremely modest, our cars are old, we do vacation but frugally. I’d love to know when my parents were supposed to save, considering they were paying off my mom’s student loans. On paper they make like 80k, but have literally no savings. FinAid needs to account for those differences.</p>
<p>rocket…I agree with what you say. I’m just saying the system is far from perfect. My example is in regards to people I know…same income, same town, same everything…just life choices.</p>
<p>rocket, I should HOPE the schools recognize the type of need you are referring to: real need. But, like geeps, I know far too many people in our community who make a ton of money (HIGH six figures), go on all sorts of exotic vacations, lease cars, and then “cry” poor just to get some FA. </p>
<p>By contrast, we don’t live beyond our means: we drive an 15 year old standard car and vacations are only to visit family. Yet, we are the fools, because we gave these things up so we can pay full tuition for our kids.</p>