<p>I find myself agreeing with ring<em>of</em>fire…but only to an extent. It is the parents’ responsibility to help their children with college. However, that does not mean they have to pay $220k over 4 years for that responsibility. If they have the means and are willing, that’s great. Otherwise, whatever they can afford within reason. That was not the case in the past, when only 5%-15% of adults had college degrees. But in this day and age, college degrees have become an expectation and can no longer be viewed as a luxury. I am sorry folks, 50% of generation Y will have college degrees. How is something that 50% of the population has considered a luxury? </p>
<p>However, that responsibility goes both ways. If a student comes from a middle income or even upper middle income family and has the option between attending a top 30 BBA program for free or Duke at $50+k per year, it is the student’s responsibility to go for the full ride. We are talking about a quarter of a million dollars. that’s a significant sum, even for a wealthy family. Many parents have a soft spot for their kids and will spend irrationally on their education thinking it will somehow improve their chances for success. In those situations, it is the students, as young adults, that must rise above it and make the right decision on behalf of their parents.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, almost every state has a reasonable in-state option for students, so even families with limited resources have options.</p>
<p>Duke is not worth it. It’s not that great. There are plenty of middle class people who don’t qualify for financial aid. Believe me, family money is a system. If your parents don’t have enough to retire comfortably, YOU will be picking up the tab–unless you’re a monster. To figure out if your parents have enough money to retire, do this calculation: for every ten thousand dollars of income they will have annually when they retire, they will need to have 25 times that amount in savings. In other words, if they want to have $50,000 a year (above social security) they will need to have $1.25 million in savings. Are they set for that? Or do they have very secure pensions? You don’t want to live in their basement–and you sure as hell don’t want them living in yours.</p>
<p>I have a D who would kill to be able to attend Duke. Even so, she clearly recognizes the value of money and would never expect, demand, or even assume we’d go beyond what we could afford to send her there. In fact, even if we could pay full boat she’d be more apt to take a full ride at a suitable alternative before draining a quarter million into a Duke undergrad program. In her mind, the qualitative difference between Duke vs a top 30 school wouldn’t justify that kind of financial investment. At the end of the day, Duke would be great, but she knows her ultimate success has much more to do with her individual talent than college branding. The fact she has that kind of attitude motivates me all the more to help her anyway I can. However, if she thought as selfishly and short sighted as some of the kids here on CC I wouldn’t even bother.</p>
<p>Precisely the point I was going to make. Duke is a wonderful school. Many, many friends there and some family graduated there. Wonderful job placement…in the best of times…in IBanking firms. But the New World Order is not yet clear …and we really don’t know if that is a viable option here or not.</p>
<p>So, it really depends on the objectives of the OP and what kind of job he/she will be looking for. “Business” encompasses marketing, finance, accounting, and sometimes manufacturing, and/or entrepreneurship schools. </p>
<p>Further, we are far too credentialist in this country and put too much emphasis upon it, which lead to…you guessed it, the Big Crash of 08. (The SMARTEST birds in the nest were shorting the market like crazy from 07 forward…and made a KILLING!) </p>
<p>We don’t know how this circus ends just yet. There are glimmers of hope out there, but also some major storm clouds still in the offing (the vast majority of ARM mortgages will come due for reset interest rates/payments in late 09 and early 10, and we don’t know yet how that pans out and the effect, if any, it will have on the real estate market, the stock market or the national economy.) Someone on CNBC opined yesterday, “what next?”…meaning where will the next wind of optimism or buying frenzy come from? There are some doubts out there about green technology being able to shoulder the burden of lifting us out of the doldrums, or the development of chinese consumers in Red China. Optimism and pollyanna-ism may make you feel better, but will disappoint bitterly if your feet are not firmly planted on the ground.</p>
<p>That being said, “never look a gift horse in the mouth.”</p>
<p>Hello, i think that you need to discuss this thoroughly with your parents. Maybe, it would be better if you attend the smaller university now and save the money for a better graduate school. Though, I’m sure your parents won’t mind paying for you because education is a best form of investment. Choose the uni you won’t regret not having gone to.</p>
<p>hey guys…thanks for all your replies…really appreciate it…the business college is babson, and it’s a full tuition scholarship…so I would actually have to pay about 13k for room and board there </p>
<p>and of course…pay full at duke…which one would you guys choose?</p>
<p>I figured it was either Babson or Bentley. ;)</p>
<p>If business is a pipe dream where you don’t have a clue whether you would really would like it I would suggest Duke as the school has some many programs to explore. If that is not the case, I would strongly suggest Babson because of the following. </p>
<p>If I’m interviewing two guys out of college for a job in business (my line of work is consulting but I’ve spent a bunch of time in Fortune 100 companies too) and one is a Babson grad with a business major/minor and a Duke grad in something else. I’d ask the business Grad why Babson. If he told me that he was fortunate enough to get a full academic scholarship for 4 years at Babson, it would be music to my ears. I don’t know what the Duke kid is going to tell me about how the course work at Duke prepared him for the job he is applying to. </p>
<p>So, I would do well at Babson, get a job, work three years and go back for your M.B.A. If you’re smart enough to get accepted at Duke, you will be smart enough to land at a very fine M.B.A. program. </p>
<p>Have the talk with your parents. Ask them if saving money on college they could see there way to helping you down the road on grad school expenses. Now, that would be a win/win. Either way, you don’t have to be able to figure out some complicated cash flow analysis to understand that 160K is a ton of cash. </p>
<p>ilikeorange–I cannot even believe that you are asking this question. and you want to go to business school? are you serious? considering all your options, does going to duke make good business sense to you? i am sure getting accepted to duke is a major high, but maybe you need to take a step back and look at this situation with a little less emotion, and a little more financial sense.</p>
<p>"
I would help my mother out as much as I could but it is her responsibility to take care of herself. By having children, she should have known in advance that she would have to save up money in order to raise them and send them off to college. This is her RESPONSIBILITY as a parent."</p>
<p>Wow what a little…this is disgusting.</p>
<p>You don’t deserve to go to Duke on someone else’s dime, once you are 18 you are an adult and adults should make ADULT like decisions.</p>
<p>well…honestly I don’t really know 100% if I want to do business…all my life, people have been telling me I should do business because I can communicate really well…</p>
<p>I think I want to ultimately end up in politics…business would be a great foundation for me to build relationships, experience, skills, etc. </p>
<p>I abhor cold weather…I know weather shouldn’t matter much…but a 6 month winter makes me feel depressed a lot </p>
<p>also this is too complicated to explain…but I would probably only have to pay full at duke for 2 years…</p>
<p>vociferous- I don’t know who said that…but if I go to duke…I was planning on taking out lots of loans and working every day…my parents would pay about half</p>
<p>vociferous – it was ring<em>of</em>fire who wrote that by having a child, a mother owes a duty to send a son to a school like Duke regardless of the financial repercussions … not OP.</p>
<p>ilikeorange… working every day would barely put a dent in your loan requirements… go into excel or onto the web to do a repayment calculation on the loans you are contemplating. go see what $75,000 in loans at 7% or 9% or 11% looks like in monthly repayments for 10 years.</p>
<p>the plan for paying for duke my family and i worked out was
parents contribute 30k
I take out 20k
I pay my other living expenses by getting a job next year
to clear up some confusion- I wasn’t planning on working next year to repay loans…just to cover my other living expenses </p>
<p>I will repay loans when I graduate and hopefully get into my career</p>
<p>You’re a future business person. If you had $220k, would you spend it on the difference between Business College X and Duke? If you decide yes, then go for it. But consider what alternative uses there would be for $220k. How about a 20% downpayment on your first million-dollar home? Start up capital for your own business? More than enough to pay for an MBA? Money for your first campaign for Congress?</p>
<p>1) your parents are out $120,000 diverted from their retirement
2) you are in for $80,000 in loans.</p>
<p>forgetting issue 1) for a moment, do you realize how much of your paycheck will need to go to repay $80,000 in loans over a ten year period?</p>
<p>Dude, who would hire a businessperson with such poor judgement about debt? Maybe you can go into sales, but stay far away from accounting/finance.</p>
<p>Retirement advisors generally advise parents not to raid their retirement funds to fund their children’s college - the thought is you can borrow for college but you can’t borrow for retirement.</p>
<p>I have capped what I will contribute to my son’s college expenses at a certain amount and he will need to fund the rest through his work or loans.</p>
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