The title pretty much says it all:
Did You/Do You/ Would You Pay For Grad School?
I always thought my obligation ended at undergrad graduation (assuming this is done in 4-5 years). I’ve been surprised by how many posts I’ve seen from parents indicating paying for grad school (terminal masters, law, medical) or providing support through grad school.
I’m curious what the majority opinion is here on CC.
We’ve always said we will pay for undergrad.
They’re doing technical undergrad degrees (engineering) so theoretically their grad studies would be as well. Our opinion is that grad school should be funded for that area of study other than by taking out loans. If they were headed for law or med school we’d likely feel much differently.
Personally, my kids will get their 529 plans if they need some $ in grad school. We aren’t tapping them for undergrad so they could choose to use those balances for grad school.
@missbwith2boys If they end up not using the 529 plans for educational purposes, won’t they need to pay a 10% penalty on the earnings plus tax on the earnings at your rate (or their rate in some states). And, if you deducted your original contributions on your state taxes, you would need to report state recapture income.
@My3Kiddos DS1 is planning to go to grad school in physics or CS, so that would be funded by the university. DS2 recently said something about being pre-med. I think we would cover at least a good portion of med school, but we would hope he would choose an undergrad on the less expensive side if that is his plan. That’s all still pretty hypothetical.
Nope, no money here.
I suppose if I had the cash I’d help them out to a degree.
My younger daughter is in a funded Ph.D. program, so I don’t pay for grad school, but I do help her out financially on occasion, just as I help her older sister with some expenses.
We paid full costs for undergrad. We offered to help with living expenses in grad school…because we can.
We are paying for D grad school but 1) we can 2) she is in Pharmacy school, so Grad school starts after 2 years of undergrad
I think if you can’t then that’s something you discuss with your student before they make that decision to go to grad school and if you can afford it and choose to do so it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a very personal decision and you should do what’s best for your family not what everyone else is doing
BTW, I would not be able to pay for grad school for my children. But my parents paid for law school for me, and I’m ever grateful that they could and did do so. So helping my adult children now, to the extent I can, feels natural and right to me. I do balance helping them with saving for my retirement, not because I have a desire to live high on the hog when I’m elderly but because I don’t want my daughters to have to support me then.
Plan is to have X amount for each of them for HS/undergrad/grad/investing with different levels I’m willing to pay for different schools/degrees/majors/programs.
@Ynotgo They can also choose to save them for the next generation. That’s what I’m hoping they do.
My D attended a 5 year program at a SUNY school which terminated with a masters in special ed. I paid for it for several reasons:
It was only 2 semesters of grad costs, the first semester was charged at UG rates.
She had scholarships that helped keep her UG costs down
She was an RA for 3 years, which also kept our costs down.
I don’t know that any of my other kids will pursue graduate or professional school.
No we would not pay for grad school. No real reason other than we planned for undergrad and paid for that for all three kids and we have a very short amount of time to ensure that we are set for retirement those two things, an undergrad education and not having to worry about our old age finances are a huge gift to the kids.
first thought was hell No. but as i read here if the boy brings in good upperclass scholarship money or becomes an RA. why not? He’s getting what i budgeted/saved for him since birth - all of it but not a dime more
Nope.
Yes , we’ve paid for 3 professional grad schools and are planning on the fourth. It would not have been possible but DD2 and DD3 attended a school with extremely generous merit scholarships and where their undergrad degrees cost less than one year at our state flagship. Their undergrad scholarships also carried through into grad school. DD1’s degree was a 6 year degree so we felt like we should help all the way through , and her scholarship also carried through the final 2 years.
Thanks for all the responses. It’s interesting to see a wide variety of opinions (even with so few responses).
No, I am not paying for Grad School since we covered all Undergrad. DS1 will go on TA stipends and loans this time. He is welcome to live at home, free of charge.
After our D graduated with a biology degree, she was not admitted to dental school. We paid for her to go to art school (3 years)in Europe instead. We have 7 kids. We plan to get them all through college with no debt. We were only able to pay for D’s art school because her two younger brothers, (kids #3 and #4)who were in college at the same time, had full-rides-- and because we live very frugally. (D also had about 2/3 tuition merit scholarship for undergrad).
I don’t plan to pay for any "further education " after BA/BS again. Paying for art school was H’s idea. Water under the bridge now --D graduated last year, is employed – but we need to think more about our own retirement and our younger kids.
Your younger kids are probably very aware that you did it for the oldest… it could back to haunt you later on. I certainly still resent (30 years later) that my dad blew the savings he had for college on an OOS public for my oldest brother (who was the least academically capable of his kids, I might add).
I was a double co-terminal master’s student. I finished the bachelor’s + first master’s in slightly under 4 years, so both BS and MS had the same parent and FA contribution as undergrad. I finished the 2nd degree while working full time, so there was employer contribution. I’m not sure how my parents would have felt about contributing to something like med school vs me taking out huge loans. Fortunately, it did not come to that and I was able to complete all degrees without debt.