<p>My parents paid for me to go to college and I always assumed I’d pay for my kids. My husband’s parents paid for most of his education - he had a small loan which we paid off within a couple of years of his getting out of grad school. My parents even paid for me to go to grad school (in architecture). My husband had a comfortable stipend for his PhD. work. We’d have had a hard time paying for our kids, but we inherited some money that should cover two college educations. I didn’t think twice about using it for that.</p>
<p>My parents are paying for college for me and my brother. They feel that it’s their responsibility to pay for their children’s college educations. Other parents feel differently. Of my friends, I don’t know anybody who is paying for college without their parent’s help.</p>
<p>Our story sounds the same as many who have already responded. My parents paid for me to go to college (I paid for my own grad school with traineeships/work and loans). We saved for our kids educations since the day they were born, and were fortunate to ba able to stash away a fair amount that gave them the flexibility to look at schools without financial restrictions. We were willing to pay “full freight” if need be, and we did for most of older s’s school. That said, both kids did apply to many in-school and outside scholarships which helped defray the costs somewhat. Younger s decided to approach things differently than older s, and was fortunate enough to get a large 4 yr scholarship plus an additional smaller scholarship that will allow him to save much of the money earmarked for college for him to use for an advanced degree/ professional school.</p>
<p>Even if you have a lower GPA, you still may be a very attractive candidate, perhaps to a lower tier school, so dont sell yourself short. And look carefully at the many opportunities on the scholarship websites. Ther is a lot of scholarship money to be had out there. Hopefully your parents will also revisit their financial situation and will contribute to your education. Your EFC is very manageable with these options combined. Good luck!</p>
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<p>Yes. My daughter is fortunate enough to have parents who can and will pay the full cost of college including tuition, room, board, textbooks, travel, and incidental expenses. She realizes that she is fortunate and is appropriately appreciative.</p>
<p>I think colleges EXPECT parents to pay for college expenses. That is the logic of factoring parental income into financial aid calculations.</p>
<p>My parents paid my tuition at a state school, requiring two years at a local branch before hitting the main college campus; room and board and probably books I paid for myself; wife completely funded her own. </p>
<p>We told our kids we would fund them to the best of our ability for undergrad, provided they had an academic track record that proved them capable. We had no other stipulations, including choice of major, but poor collegiate performance would result in a withdrawal of funding.</p>
<p>We covered books, tuition, room and board, and travel home, professional association membership fees and journals required by their respective majors. </p>
<p>We also required them to take Staffords in their names. Both had the academics and or talent to allow them to take advantage of substantial merit awards, which allowed them to have their choice of top picks within their fields. </p>
<p>Both knew they would be on their own for grad or further professional study.</p>
<p>I think there are parents who can’t help pay, but there seem to be quite a few who could but choose not to. I suppose some of them have good reasons for this philosophy, but I think some of them don’t understand how the economics have changed, and they still have the idea that a student can work his way through a really good college education. Without aid, though, it appears to me that a kid can only work his way through an OK to pretty good college education.</p>
<p>^ Hunt has it right, I think. Most parents step up. Some parents step up with a budget–that is, they agree to pay so much for a college, but no more. I grew up in a neighborhood in which a number of my brightest classmates were admitted to quite selective colleges, but had to drop out when their parents refused to pay their full expected family contributions and the students were unwilling to rack up huge personal debts. Most of those students completed their degrees eventually (one after volunteering to join the military) at my alma mater, our state’s state university. Children whose parents don’t step up can usually still go to college, but their college choices become more limited than their choices would be if only the students’ academic ability were considered. </p>
<p>I’ll step up to pay the full EFC for each of my children, somehow, at some college of their choice. It’s up to my children to decide on a list of colleges to apply to and at which college to enroll if admitted to more than one college.</p>
<p>It’s a lot of fun making babies. Unfortunately, many parents don’t think beyond that and realize they have to support babies.</p>
<p>But I’ll let you in on a little secret ---- there’s a magic pill you can take after you conceive a child. Once you take that pill, you shape up & tighten up and begin to save money. The pill also gives you advanced warning that the fetus will become an 18-year old who goes to college, and that costs money.</p>
<p>Not everybody takes the pill. They just have fun making the baby and call it a day. If parents knew (or were informed) ahead of time what it would be like, most would probably take the pill.</p>
<p>A good way of getting credits fairly inexpensively is to take them at CC & then use the credits toward the U they transfer to. That’s the approach our D took to help reduce the huge cost of the U she is attending (4 years there would have been very tough for all of us, she she transferred in with 3 semesters of CC + summer school). Our S was able to get significant merit aid that helped fund his education.</p>
<p>Don’t discount the value of CCs & their credits–many of the CC instructors D had taught the SAME course in a much larger room with more students at the flagship U for many times the tuition she paid at CC. They got to know her much better at the CC & she brought her grades up to make her attractive to Us as a transfer.</p>
<p>My mother paid a small amount for my first year. Merit money, a small loan and work took care of the rest. I got a professional job after a year in college and a few companies paid for the rest of my undergraduate degree and all of my graduate degree. Companies were far more generous with benefits back in the 80s and 90s. I think that they had tax benefits to pay for higher education too. Education was far cheaper compared to what you could make at an job that required little in the way of skills a few decades ago. BC was somewhere in the $3,000+ area - it’s scary to see what it is today.</p>
<p>Yes,we pay, instate public school price only.</p>
<p>The OP said s/he was planning to get a CNA at the local CC. In my area, the hospitals and nursing homes will pay for the CNA course. Then, if you are a full time employee they will pay for further education. You sign on to work for them for a certain amount of time. They will pay for LPN, RN, Radiology Tech- lots of things. My friend’s daughter is going that route. The parents will help out as much as they can- which isn’t very much. It’s worth looking into.</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter is going through her CNA and it’s taught at the local hospital - I think that they are covering the expenses. One of the nearby Community Colleges also has a lot of scholarship money for their nursing program but it is difficult to get into the program.</p>
<p>I don’t even want to be a CNA. It’s just my only choice of guaranteed employment wherever I go to school. But getting into Hospital/Nursing programs are really hard a luck of the draw. The one in my town had 80 applicants for 20 positions. I did not get in. I have to wait until winter at the CC for a chance to get in, and take a orientation in September (that I had to sign up for in June). We have high unemployment in my area (like 14%, my dad has been trying to get a job for four years).</p>
<p>I’m probably going to major in something art related, so finances is a really big concern for me… especially after I graduate. I already don’t have a lot of money, so big loans are dangerous. Both of my parents dropped out of high school, and they never took an interest in my education at all, which is why they don’t really care if I’ll go into debt. The certainly didn’t pay for my brother. He’ll be turning 24 next year and can finally get started on community college seriously.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships cover S’s tuition at our State Flagship. We help with rent money and books.</p>
<p>Why on earth do you pay for your kids? Its practically unheard of in the UK, you either take out a loan or you dont go.</p>
<p>College/University is supposed to be a time to grow and mature as an adult, how can you do that if you’re cocooned from the realities of life by your folks’ cash?</p>
<p>Universities in the UK are considerably cheaper than in the US. And many people I know in the UK do pay for their kids to go.</p>
<p>So? Take out a bigger loan. And the people you know are certainly in the minority, i have never heard of such a thing.</p>
<p>The UK system is very different from the US system and, as noted above, generally much, much cheaper.</p>
<p>Also, what’s with the “snot-nosed” comment? Seems unnecesssarily antagonistic.</p>
<p>It appears to me that prices in the UK are roughly what I was paying in the 1970s in the US or even less. With those prices, one could work a full-time job in the summer and part-time during the school year and cover their educational costs. I guess our friend from the UK could try to imagine paying 15 times the amount for his house and whether or not that would fit in his budget.</p>