Did anyone else buy into their state's guaranteed tuition plan?

<p>We bought the Michigan Education Trust when S was a baby. I believe it was less than $8,000.00 at the time for 4 years of college. It pays for tuition and fees at any Michigan public college or university. S is now at Michigan State University and MET is paying more than 10K a year. Best investment we ever made! My H made the decision to buy it and I was upset about spending that much money at the time!</p>

<p>A couple of years ago the State of Michigan changed the MET so it can not be used outside of Michigan.</p>

<p>We considered the Michigan plan when the kids were little. We had enough money to pay for four years for all three kids. After examining the plan, and not knowing where we would be living when the kids finally got to college, my father suggested we invest the money ourselves. Now that all three are done, with perfect 20/20 hindsight, we would have invested in the MI plan for only the youngest.</p>

<p>First child went to a small public MI school. The money we invested more than covered all four years tuition and room and board. The Met would have covered only tuition.</p>

<p>Second child went to Umich with a full tuition scholarship. Our money paid for room and board. MET would have been useless.</p>

<p>Youngest went to Umich. We paid all four years of everything. Should have bought the MET.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, unless you know exactly what your child is going to do when he's an infant, it's hard to say.</p>

<p>If a kid gets a full tuition paid scholarship from a school then MET would have refunded the amount of an average tuition in Michigan to him. That would have really helped on room and board.</p>

<p>Yes. But instead of that, the money we would have put in the MET we invested and still have it.</p>

<p>I guess what I'm saying is that the MET pays the amount of average tuition. So if your child goes to a school with average tuition, you come out even. If they go to a school with above average tuition (umich with no scholarship) you come out ahead. Basically, investing it ourselves was better unless we had to pay Umich tuition.</p>

<p>We can see here how all the plans are different. Now I'm really curious about reciprocity. It sounds like Indiana and Michigan have an agreement. Anyone else know of any others?</p>

<p>Another nice thing about the Texas Tomorrow Fund, that some of the other state plans may also offer, is the ability to transfer benefits to a sibling. They also offered a plan for private colleges. It was based on the average cost of tuitions at Texas' private schools. Not many people signed up for it. We thought it was a little riskier (more variables) plus we knew that we could apply our public average to a private school.</p>

<p>Has anyone used the Texas Tomorrow plan at a Fla. school?</p>

<p>Toledo: Do you know if the Texas Tomorrow fund can be transferred to a sibling that already has a Texas Tomorrow fund (i.e., to pay for room and board?)</p>

<p>cpq, call to be sure, but I would think you "cash it out" -- the rate this year is $216.97/credit hour -- and then you could use that money for the room and board.</p>