<p>I just want to see the parents' perspective of having to fork up 30k-50k a year to pay for their child. Because although I got accepted to a good college(only one in my family that got into a UC first shot) i feel bad that I will leave my parents in debt in their old age. I'm the youngest of 6 children and because of that my parents are 50+. I'm scared for them, I want them to enjoy life...not work until 70+ paying for my college education with could potentially be 50k a year. They tell me don't worry about how their going to pay for it with a smile on their faces...but I feel as if in the back of their heads they stressing out about how their gonna pull this off. Should I just go to community college? I want to be a doctor(not for the money) and its recommended that i go straight into a four year. I'm currently doing all i can to try to get scholarships as well.</p>
<p>Why is a UC costing you 50k a year are you a OOSer?</p>
<p>unfortunately…yeah. I should have known how strict they were with this before moving here junior year ;(.</p>
<p>Unless you have that kind of money sitting in the bank in a fund dedicated solely for your college education, it sounds like you can’t afford this university. If you don’t have any other options, go to community college for the first two years so that you can reduce your expenses.</p>
<p>Medical schools don’t care if you start out at a community college! Lots of people follow that route because it is affordable. Medical school is ridiculously expensive. Save your debt for then.</p>
<p>Would it be possible to sit down with them and see what kind of money really exists? Maybe they’re loaded, and this is no problem at all for them. More likely they’re so in love with their baby that they’ll do anything to make you happy no matter the cost to them. If the latter is the case, I’d recommend starting at CC. Or there are probably in-state 4-year colleges still accepting applications. (And of course there are the rumors about UC tuition hikes.)</p>
<p>As far as my plans, we will pay what we can out of current income and college savings, and the rest is up to him. We will not take from our 401Ks, we will not even stop contributing to our 401Ks, and we will not take loans. We’re really cheap/frugal (never had a new car, never refinanced our house for cash out, rarely eat out…), so are in the unusual position of thinking we can afford what the EFC thinks we can afford, at least for the first two years where we have a college savings account.</p>
<p>You’re a good kid for being concerned about them. Good luck!</p>
<p>luck,</p>
<p>It sounds like you are residing in CA now? You just missed the time cut-off for being a "legal’ resident of CA according to the UC system?</p>
<p>If that is the case, you will have the burden of taking care of $50K for one year before paying in-state tuition and fees after the first year. Given that, you may want to think about the real ability of your parents as mentioned upthread, along with your ability and willingness to assume responsibility for assuming the loan(s) yourself when you are able at a future date.</p>
<p>The CC route is good to consider if your main concern is to budget and not go into excessive debt. If you enter a CC, you are guaranteed entry into a UC as a CA. resident, right?</p>
<p>It depends how much attending UC from the get go means to you vs. how much taking on debt is aversive to you and your family (particularly you since your parents seem “less concerned” than you).</p>
<p>Also, there is the issue of “substantial” increases in tuition in future years at the UCs (and CCs) because of CA’s budget problems (as discussed in another thread in this forum).</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice happymom and geekmom! Really gets me thinkning of what i should do with my life. I really don’t plan on my parents supporting me once i get a BS, so if i choose med school thats all on me. I just need help for undergrad. @geekmom, your an amazing parent! im sure your child appreciates what you have given him/her. @happymom thank you for the advice, honestly that just justifies that i need to check out local community colleges and see. from what i heard CC college in my area is pretty crowded and it will be a struggle to transfer, but i’m definitely going to talk to a counselor about this. Thanks!</p>
<p>How do I feel about paying for my children’s education? We began saving for our kids’ college educations the day each was born. We knew we could not afford both private K-12 schools and college, so our children both went through the public schools. I feel occasionally irritated that the cost of attending college outstripped inflation over the years. There’s a gap between what we saved and what they need, but overall, I feel fine about paying for my children’s college. We’ve covered the difference over the past three years by replacing more expensive vacations with family camping trips. There have been other cost-cutting measures as well. We should have had a new roof four years ago, for example. (So far, no leaks though!)</p>
<p>Maybe your parents feel fine about paying too; it isn’t completely clear from your post.
Sit down and have a frank conversation about how much they can realistically pay toward your education. Then consider various options. Community college is one option, but you may also receive merit money from a 4-year private school that would be even better.</p>
<p>I believe it is a parents obligation to pay for their children’s education,100% if possible, and if not, whatever can be afforded,but give until it hurts ;0</p>
<p>@CalAlum thank you! i’m definately gonna ask them whats up when they visit for graduation. And yeah the budget cuts are really stressing me out.
@All you parents! you guys are wonderful parents. To be honest, i feel as it is not the parents’ obligatoin to pay for their child’s education…because seeing all the kids at my school whos parents decided to leave them in the dust once they graduate, I’m truly grateful that my parents decide to stand by me…and im sure your kids are too! One thing i know 100% is that once I get a job, i will spoil my mom and dad like crazy.</p>
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<p>We are gladly paying $50-$60K annually for DD undergraduate education. We would pay upto another $150K for DD MBA(Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg) or MS (MIT, Stanford) right after BS if she decide to pursue it.
We decided way back to pay for DD MD so she should come with in the original estimate with a MBA or MS.</p>
<p>luck, Good for you to remember your parents. 
I believe it is reciprocal. Take care of your kids and the kids should be caring for parents in their later years (both can try their best and within their own means).</p>
<p>your parents are very fortunate to have such a thoughtful child!
When my son applied for colleges, we encouraged him to apply to as many as possible (ended up being 15…which was a COST!) in hopes that some would come through with financial aid. We had set a # in our mind that we would pay ($24k per year) - even though, no, we really can’t afford it. It will eat up all our liquid savings, and we will have to take out loans. He worked harder than anyone ever expected in high school and accomplished much. He has earned the best education we can possibly give him - we do take that as our responsibilty. He will be expected to help pay a part of any loan debt we incure once he is out of school and working. He will work p/t while in college. He has also applied for numerous scholarships - but that will be considered frosting on the cake at this point (can’t plan on them coming through). Sounds like you’ve already thought this through and will be helping repay your college debt…I call that great karma! Good things are in your future - go get em!</p>
<p>luck, if you took a gap year, and then reapplied, would you be considered a California resident by then? Something to consider.</p>
<p>You are very thoughtful to be concerned about your parents. For us, we didn’t start saving for our kids’ college nearly early enough. When they were in 4th and 6th grades, we downsized, and took the difference in what our old home sold for, and what we paid for our new house, and put those funds into 529 plans for our kids. (Unfortunately, those 529 plans lost 1/3 of their value when the market took that severe downturn a few years back, but that’s another story). Anyway, besides that, I went from being a stay-at-home mom to working - and I saved every penny I earned into a college fund. We now have a fund that has 100% of the money we need to finish paying for college for both of them. It’s important to me to pay for their undergrad education, but I would not touch retirement savings or home equity to do so. Fortunately, we do not have to. It depends on your parents’ set of circumstances, how close they are to retirement age, and what their level of debt tolerance is.</p>
<p>You’d get different answers from H and I. I feel like it’s what you do, at least up to a specified dollar amount and you tell your kid what that dollar amount is. I will not, however, be willing to go into debt myself to do this, hence that part about telling said kid what the dollar amount is well in advance of senior year. </p>
<p>H would probably never part with a dime for college. </p>
<p>For you, dear OP, if you do not want to burden your parents with your college debt, is there a more affordable colllege option for you?</p>
<p>I admit that I’m stressed. Each child has a tidy 529 fund but there are three of them so the funds had to be divided. We can pay for D’s school so long as we keep saving as much as we have in the pat for education. However, due to the economy and the industry I’m in, my income has declined by 20-25%. I worry about paying for school if there are more pay cuts in the future.</p>
<p>I have always been DELIGHTED to pay for my kids’ education. That’s what the money is for, and I always counted the day on which we paid tuition among my happiest days of the year. Of course, there was never a time we really couldn’t afford it - the colleges have been very generous with us, for which I am grateful. </p>
<p>Now that it’s coming to a close, I’ll have more money to give away (and since I am the Board Chair of a a newly formed NGO, it will come in handy), but I don’t feel that any of it has gone to waste. (And since I happily drive a 1995 Saturn, and have no debt, it hasn’t been particularly stressful.)</p>
<p>How do you parents feel about paying for your child’s education?</p>
<p>Like several others here, we are happy to pay for our childrens’ education. We have saved for it most of their lives and are grateful that they have reciprocated our commitment to their education by studying hard and planning ahead. </p>
<p>Your thoughtfulness towards your parents is lovely - but I would also recognize that if they have made good financial decisions in their lives, then perhaps they’ve earned the right to make this call as well?</p>
<p>Sorry, I haven’t read all the posts … so maybe this has been mentioned. The OP’s parents are looking at $50K for Year 1, followed by instate tuition for Years 2,3,4. For most UC’s, this is a pretty good deal.</p>
<p>As for the thread titie … it’s largely irrelevant how parents feel about this. The student works within the financial framework the parents provide. As for motivation, does it really matter whether the support is due to love, duty, experience, or insanity?</p>
<p>We paid full boat for an expensive private for our S and are proud that we could do it. We have one kid and had saved since his birth, so could afford it. Also paid for step-grand S to go to instate (he had some finaid; we picked up the balance) and proud that we could do that as well.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, things change and the financial crisis affected us. Had it come earlier, we probably would not have paid full freight for 4 years at a $40-50K school. Our retirement is tougher (and we are already that age; I still don’t regret what we did, but would have done it differently had I known the financial future).</p>
<p>You should, yes, sit down with your parents and find out just what they can afford without harming their retirement. That they should not do.</p>
<p>If they will be robbing their retirement to pay oos $50K for UCB you should choose another option imo. CC to UC to med school is a fine path, and would save a lot of $$.</p>