<p>I just checked on D's Texas Tomorrow Fund and it has turned out to be a great investment. If I remember right, we bought it (public 4-year) when she was in kindergarten for $9,000 and she's now a rising junior. It should be worth about $7,500/year when she starts college. The great thing about the Texas plan is that you can use that amount on any out-of-state school or she can use it for Texas publics and get the in-state rate, even though we've moved from the state. BTW, this particular plan was discontinued, as other states have done, when it turned into "too good of a deal".</p>
<p>I had a friend who got what was called an "I-bond" (I'm from Illinois) I think, around birth. Really cheap at the time, and now doesn't pay tuition at UIUC. Of course here I think they could only be used with in-state public, so that limited his options. But it did work out really well for him. Like you, it seems the state has since changed the plan to not be as good a deal.</p>
<p>I bought the Florida Prepaid plan for my son when he was in first grade. The cost was around $5000. He didn't use it and went to a private university out of state. Once he graduated (and I hadn't cashed it in) he went on to a state law school in Florida. I wrote to the prepaid plan asking if I could use the $5000 toward law school. I have the letter that said I could not. The only way I could use it would be to cash it in and use the money. I waited, which was good, because after the first semester my son received a check from the state for $1200. It seems the plan was put toward credits in law school, and has continued each semester. I was given the wrong information. We did cash in my other son's plan before we learned of this, and he is going to go to the same law school. It's unfortunate that I was given the wrong information.</p>
<p>We also had the Texas Tomorrow Fund and for the last 3 years, they have paid out the average Texas state tuition to us since my S is on scholarship. It turned out to be a very good investment and they are very easy to work with. It is discontinued though. It was great, because there was really no way to lose. It could be used anywhere.</p>
<p>We also bought the Florida Prepaid Tuition Plan for our 2 sons back in 1994 or so. We paid about $5500 apiece at that time. S1 used his at UF. Combined with Bright Futures and his National Merit scholarship, everything was covered. S2 is attending Rice and the Florida Prepaid plan pays the average FL state tuition per credit hour to Rice. It has worked out to about $2500-2600 per year. We haven't regretted the investment, either.</p>
<p>Threekids, I'm glad they applied your plan toward law school, but I'm surprised they didn't pay the average tuition to the OOS private. Did you ask?</p>
<p>I had purchased credits in the PA Guaranteed Tuition program as soon as it became available, and have been very happy. For a cost of about $20K when the program was initiated, my kids are now obtaining about $45 to $50K in tuition value. </p>
<p>The account substantially increased in value every year as the tuition rate increased faster than inflation, while the stock market dropped (not to mention tax-free appreciation) I'm grateful that I didn't put the kids' tuition savings into a stock mutual fund. Of course, I might have felt like an idiot if the market had flown during the same period. PA's program is great, since you can use the monies at other schools (including out of state schools) although the tuition credit rate is tied to whatever PA school you purchased -- in my case, I purchased Penn State credits, and Penn State's tuition has substantially increased since my kids were small). You can also transfer the credits you've purchased to another kid, in case one of your kids chooses not to continue their education at all. I believe they are now charging a premium for the guaranteed-tuition credits to try to close the gap between inflation and investment returns, but it worked out great for our family. A purchase of 12 credits guaranteed the value of a semester's tuition at PSU's cost whenever the credits are used, no matter how many credits over 12 that the kid actually takes that semester.</p>
<p>We bought into Virginia's prepaid tuition plan when it was first instituted, in late 1996 or early 1997. With D beginning sophomore year at the most costly state school, we are very pleased with the investment. It pays mandatory fees as well as tuition, and it pays promptly.</p>
<p>Great minds, Toledo. I also called this week about S1's TGTP. I really had forgotten how it would work and now that we're approaching needing it, I thought I had better find out. I am thrilled. I assumed (I swear I was told) that if I took the money out in case of needing OOS or private tuition I would only get the principal, so I was delighted to learn that wasn't the case. And now that s1 is thinking of a master's as well, I'm hoping he gets great undergrad scholarships and can use this for his graduate work.</p>
<p>We purchased Florida's also. S1 went out of state private. In 2006, we asked for the total amount (equal to 4 years tutition at a Florida State college) be applied to S1s tution at private college. It covered only 1 quarter's tutition there. :)
But it was something. Younger S has a plan and will also probably go out of state. So we will do the same. All in all we are glad we invested. We felt secure that should anything have happened to us, our children's tutition would have been paid in full for some very good state schools in Florida.</p>
<p>Patsmom:</p>
<p>When our older son went to college in 2002, we had never heard anything about the prepaid plan paying toward out of state schools. I don't know why we didn't have any information about that. We also were thinking that we'd save it for graduate school, or use it for our daughter, since we had only bought the prepaid for the older two boys. When we bought the plans, we didn't know we couldn't use them for graduate school. Then, when we received the letter, we cashed in the second plan. The first son won't use all of his, since he can only use a certain amount per semester. There will be a little left for our second son. He's still waiting to hear about getting off the waiting list in an oos law school, but I'm hoping he goes to FSU at least for the first year. And, it turns out, our daughter is going to an oos school for undergrad.</p>
<p>^^ Well, I'm glad it worked out well anyway. You won't have lost anything. And I didn't realize it could be used toward law/grad school, either. Thanks for the info (and congrats on having 2 lawyers in the family :) )</p>
<p>We purchased one year at any Maryland public way back in the mid '90's. Boy am I glad we didn't purchase more. </p>
<p>It's a pretty strict plan and difficult to take the full value OOS or to a private. As it looks now, that's where S is headed. </p>
<p>The rest of our college savings are in 529 investment plans, thank goodness.</p>
<p>We bought Illinois' guaranteed tuition years ago before the price skyrocketed, and I am so glad we did. My son (a rising senior) most likely will not go to a public university in Illinois, but this guaranteed tuition program translates to about $9,500 a year (as of today; it grows) that can be used at any private or public school nationwide. That amount is the current weighted average of public universities' tuition in Illinois. While it would be more "efficient" to use it at the top public U here (U of I), for us, it has turned out to be simply a great guaranteed investment -- one that has done much better than most mutual fund college savings plans or stock investments have done the past few years.</p>
<p>Bought the South Carolina PPT plan years ago for both DD and DS. The state no longer offers it. Turned out to be a fantastic investment. One of the few smart financial decisions we've ever made. DS went private and gets reimbursed the "Avg rate" each semester. DD will likely go to In-State public university.</p>
<p>We had the Virginia prepaid. Unfortunately our son chose to go to the University of Southern California. We had the money, plus interest, returned to us yearly and we applied it towards the cost of USC. Extra added bonus: we were able to deduct $2,000 a year off our state taxes up to the amount we paid.</p>
<p>He was accepted to UVA. I figure 1.5 semesters at USC equaled 8 semesters at UVA with the pre-paid plan. Alas.</p>
<p>We bought the Texas tomorrow funds for our kids when they were little. Now my oldest is a rising senior and is probably going out of state; possibly to Florida. I think I remember reading something somewhere about reciprocity between the states with pre-paid plans. For example, Fla. would accept our Texas pre-paid tuition plan. Does anyone know how this works? I assume that our "tuition freeze" doesn't affect Fla. tuition and that we'll have to pay current OOS tuition. The current value of our Texas plan probably wouldn't pay for a year of OOS tuition in Fla. I've done a little research, and this thread came up, but not much more.</p>
<p>just trying to subscribe to this thread</p>
<p>We considered it when our first was born, but decided against it. Frankly, because I had just quit working, we couldn't afford it. I have friends who did it, and they have been pleased. The only issue I see is that they refuse to allow their kids to consider out of state or private in state schools. They could get the average tuition at in state schools to use at another school, but they won't do that. They insist their kids go to one of the two most expensive schools in the state (our well respected flagship or a very up & coming popular state school). I don't know ... that seems strange, but then again, I have no qualms about paying what I can toward education.</p>
<p>Bought the Prepaid College Illinois Plan when it first came out. Knew the actuaries must have been very conservative. Great investment. More than doubled what i put into the plan. Guaranteed average Illinois public tuition to any college in USA public or private. Yes it pay $9.500 this year and is indexed for inflation because it's based on tuition rising at Illinois public colleges. I had to come up with $270 plus books when DD went to university in Michigan.</p>
<p>We looked at the program that our state had longtime ago, I-Bond thing. It looked too good, and was oversubscribed. After a year, program was discontinued because it cost the state -> taxpayer -> me, money in additional taxes or reduction of services or increased user cost. We at that time had sights at OOS, private although there was nothing fundementally wrong with the instate schools. We just want the kid to have a different experience. </p>
<p>We wanted to get into the Independent 529, credit purchase, but there was an exclusion period of where there was no guarantee. </p>
<p>For every plus in a tax program, there is a corresponding limitation of freedom of use. Sometimes that limitation can outweight the plus. No free lunch.</p>