<p>MaineLonghorn, a woman in my area had this problem. They make too much for fiancial aid, but where we live, it doesn’t go far… She owns a hair salon, lives in a two bedroom apartment–hardly a luxury and her two went to community college. But they also wanted/needed to work and with one car between the two of them, tight schedules and a slow bus schedule, it did not work out well at all. Cost of insurance here and limited places to park a car overnight without paying were issues too. When one went on to the four year college, she had to go where there was public transportation, not where she wanted to go.</p>
<p>My husbands cousins live a good 45 minutes to an our from the state flag ship and with stair step spacing of kids, there were always at least two in college for a long time. They were dropped off early in the morning and picked up at night, because another car was just not in the budget, nor was boarding. They always felt lucky that they had that option as a commuting choice amd could get that degree from a flagship university.</p>
<p>Those who are fretting about enormous tutions? It’s a luxury. Yeah, I’m one of them, but I fully understand that. The solutions for this, if I had my way, would not affect that much at all but my focus would be to make local college affordable and doable for more people. Private schools? Sleep away college? Those are luxuries.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse - I’m not sure where you live, but in Kentucky there are only three schools that offer engineering programs, none of which is close enough to many students to be able live at home. Would you still consider it a luxury for my engineering major kids to attend these “sleep away colleges”? What about majors that are even more specialized that might not even be offered in anywhere in a state?</p>
<p>Also, it might help to define “enormous tuition”. I would define it as greater than roughly $10k per year. A student working part-time would be able to afford to pay this tuition without parental or other help. Using this criteria, most PUBLIC schools charge enormous tuition.</p>
<p>A student working 20 hours a week at minimum wage would earn $7,540 before taxes. That’s not even enough to pay a $10,000 tuition, and we haven’t even talked about living expenses.</p>
<p>California community colleges charge $46 per unit, and that’s a level I consider affordable.</p>
<p>I assumed the student was living at home and able to work 40 hours/week during the summer.</p>
<p>Regardless, if we using your figure of $7,500 for a year’s tuition, even more public schools fall above my working definition of enormous tuition. These schools are not luxuries, they are necessities in the modern world. Somehow we need a better system to ensure that the right students can afford them.</p>
<p>The fairest way is to fund public higher education primarily through tax revenues. The proportion of funding from taxes vs. tuition has shifted dramatically over the last 40 years - students pay a larger proportion of their costs today than at any point in the history of modern American higher education.</p>
<p>We ought to be investing less in tanks, aircraft carriers and stealth drones and more in teaching, research and infrastructure. But now I’m getting political.</p>
Yes, a windfall can make a difference, but if the family is in debt before the windfall, that’s most likely their fault. If it’s not, they can request professional judgement. </p>
<p>Your self employed lawyer cannot in fact pay himself a small salary, unless his firm is incorporated. If he is self-employed, his entire profit for the year is his income. That’s why they have separate calculations for self employed, to reduce the burden. Of course, the smart self-employed lawyer find some expenses to claim while his children are in college, to keep his profits down. There is no company from which to take a loan, because he is self-employed.</p>
<p>The FAFSA is used to calculate how much a family should be able to afford, given its income and assets. If the family cannot afford that amount, perhaps they need to look at where they are spending their money. If we have the same income, and same family size, but your mortgage payment is much higher than mine, perhaps you bought more house than you can afford. Perhaps you spent your money on Cable TV and other luxuries (particularly the kind that many don’t think of as luxuries, but as entitlements). Perhaps I can afford the payment they came up with because I chose to do without the big cable and cell phone bills, and instead saved for my kids’ education. </p>
<p>You ask what would be a fair way to pay for college - how about we drop the price, but eliminate all forms of financial aid. Either you save for your kids education, or you pay for it from earnings. As a society we have decided that it is in our best interest to make a college education possible for those who can least afford it. The government provides that money on the behalf of taxpayers, and this has the responsibility to determine who is to benefit. As others have posted numerous times on these forums, if you think the government should provide more aid for you, are you willing to live on the kind of income it takes to get that aid?</p>
<p>I absolutely do not believe that student who has successfully competed two years of a local college who wants to go onto a four year college in a program not offeredl locally is asking for any luxuries in wanting that opportunity and feel that such a student should get every opportunity to do this. I’ve written about this in many earlier posts. That is a situation where as a parent I would borrow to send my child away to school. I think it’s a crime that those in such a situation do not have more funds available. </p>
<p>In my post I was thinking about the highest private boarding college costs that are over $50K these days with some schools now sporting COAs well over the $60K line. But I wasn’t thinking in terms of setting any limits. There are states where going away to a program at a state school means an outlay of $25K or more which is a hardship for a lot of families. Our state schools are at the $20K mark, but there are anumber of them that have cheap off campus options which would lower the cost considerably if the student took that route. But that still means a gap of about $10K that parent and student has to come up with if the family is not PELL eligible. Our state does have state aid for families beolow the $80K mark ot alleviate some of that, but I know states where that is not the case. </p>
<p>In the case of engineering or other specialized majors, some states also have tuition exchanges. Won’t help you if Kentucky does not have them. And it is a problem when you can’t get into the competive state program. My son’s fiancee could not get into a very competitive master’s program and so is paying through the whazooie to get her advanced degree privately. So it is with a number of programs that have a great chance of paying off in terms of good paying job opportunities upon graduation. When your kid gets into one of such programs, but only at a private or OOS or away school and it is over what the family can pay, it causes a true dilemma. And no, it’s not fair, and that is an area that I would want addressed. But as sympathetic as I feel when parents and kids are lamenting that they cannot afford the high cost of the $60K LAC that is just so beautiful and wonderful with personal attention (yeah, I want and wanted my kids in that environment too) or most OOS/away/private venues, that isn’t where I feel the attention and funds should be funneled. My son had to let go of his acceptances to some such schools, and i will always be grateful and respect him for the ease with which he did that because my heart hurt for him. </p>
<p>Hopefully, Rmidad, you have come up with some alternatives for those who are facing those very choices your kids and you have. I know some suggestions would be welcome. You are describing some of the very areas that I feel are emphasized and directed funds are not provided.</p>
<p>I will say, that Momfromtexas, who put together an excellent thread of how to get full ride scholarships, did come up with lists of a number of ITs, tech and engineering type schools that are unknown outside their immediate areas, and have some not so impossible to get full ride or close to that, type scholarships.</p>
<p>Right now, most all students are eligible for a $6500 Stafford Loan as juniors. For those transferring to a 4 year state school with a $20K COA, that means about $13500 has to be found. That means the student has to work summers and at schools to come up with some of that money, and the famiy has to pitch in some too, in loans if there are no savings and income is all claimed for living expenses. As I said earlier, this is a situation where borrowing might be in order, or the student will have to work after getting an AA from community college through the end of the year. That way he can net the full $6500 loand toward the second semester tuition and have only $3500 to come up with which is doable from the half year of full time work and some part time jobs at school, if parents have virtually zilch to throw in there. Actually if a parent’s fiancial situation is so bad, that he is denied the Parent loan, the student would have more than enough for that second term. Saved money plus more working during the summer would maybe net enough to for the student to get through a full year the subesequent year, especially if living expense away at school were kept to a minimum. Then the last term or last year, can be funded with work. All of this is assuming that there is work to be found which is not always the case either. I know so many kids who can’t get the hours they want at any job. </p>
<p>This is not the frat kids, Spring break, road trip, carnival type of college that is so often advertised to kids. It’s the model that many other countries do have, however, where students have to find a place to live in boarding houses, renting a room, work part ttime for meals. More our grad school model, and it does take kids who are truly directed to get through this way, Perhaps right out of high school is too young for most of them, and a few years of working and saving money are in order as well.</p>