@ucbalumnus — yes, D has some skills and ability to work independently. She can and does help with editing some folks’ scripts and films. The folks she helps are often working at low paying jobs themselves and will pay if able $100 here or there. She also helps with graphic design and websites.
It’s still really us supporting her but we are glad she has some marketable skills and continues to work with her medical team.
Well, it had been something in the back of my mind, but this thread made me redo my spreadsheet and assume 5 years at each of the schools DS has been accepted to. He is very strong in math and science, but I am a little worried about his organizational skills and time management combined with his love of gaming going unchecked in college. He may very well surprise me and rock it from the get go, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he struggled for a bit at first and had to learn a few things the hard way. Even though I’m totally anti-loan I’m thinking of having him take out the subsidized loans offered each year the first 4 years, setting it aside and hanging that over his head as being he has to use them to pay for the 5th year if he ends up needing to do that to help motivate him, while still having enough in the budget to pay for 5 years without loans.
If you end up doing more than 4 years, due to an illness covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, then colleges should cover the extra year or semester or whatever, including housing and food. The colleges we have dealt with did exactly that. Just wanted to add that one point.
Some majors have a 5th year build into them. Parents need to be mindful of that when creating a budget. For example accounting is a 5 year program. You don’t know how many parents were shocked to hear that at my daughter’s high school.
A bachelor’s degree in accounting is typically a 4-year program, but the CPA exam requires 5 years of college credit (including a bachelor’s degree).
A major where a bachelor’s degree is typically a 5-year program is architecture (for an NAAB-accredited BArch program).
There are, of course, co-op-based programs that take 5 years, but they have only 4 academic years of school (paying tuition) built into them. Living expenses for the co-op terms may be a concern if the co-op job pay is insufficient to cover them.