<p>College costs have skyrocketed. If there are 3 or 4 kids in a family 2 years apart, EFC won't be cut in half or 1/3rd per child unless 2 or 3 kids going to college at the same time. Even if EFC is reduced, most colleges are not 100% need based. All of the above means paying $20-25K per child. For two kids at a time, it could be $50-60K per year. Is this true? Can family with 3 or 4 kids comment on this? </p>
<p>I only have two, one year apart. We knew they’d be in college at the same time (well, at least three years overlapping). We’ve set up college savings so that it will cover some portion, our freely available cash (i.e. not emergency savings, targeted savings, or retirement accounts) and a portion of our current income will cover the costs. But there is a dollar limit on each kid, so unless there is significant merit, some choices will be set aside as not affordable.</p>
<p>A couple we know has five kids, but they are spread out in age from college graduate to pre-k. They planned from the beginning, and provide the amount of money for their kids to attend the state university with no debt. So far, three have headed there (or will next fall).</p>
<p>One friend has six kids. When her oldest was accepted to an Ivy last year, I think she was a bit surprised to learn that the Ivy expected her to use all available resources (including her other five kids’ 529 plans). They are high income, so full pay. They have two more headed to college in another year, and as far as I know, they aren’t limiting any of their kids’ college choices. But they can do that because they make a lot of money. Other folks (like the couple with five kids) make other choices. </p>
<p>I’m sure some folks will reply and talk about debt loads or other choices.</p>
<p>We’re a family with four kids, with two in high school right now. Our income is high enough that we will be unlikely to qualify for aid even when we have two in school. We most definitely live in an area that could be described as upper middle class where it is expected by pretty much everyone that students will live away at school. What we have done is figured out what we can pay and each child will have to work within that parameter. Our two oldest have benefited greatly by having cousins who’ll be living at home until they’re at least 30 digging out from under significant student loan debt - we’re very fortunate that both our oldest kids are motivated to graduate debt free.</p>
<p>Our oldest is a very good student, so with her, we’re seeking out merit scholarships. Her stats are such that there are several schools who will give her guaranteed full tuition scholarships if no other scholarship money comes through. </p>
<p>Our second is probably every bit as bright as his sister but lacks her work ethic and focus. It’s unlikely he’ll have the merit opportunities his sister has. So with him, we’ll probably take a different route. He’ll likely commute to our local Penn State satellite campus, at least for his first two years. He knows this is the current plan and he has told me he doesn’t have any problem living home - I suspect he’ll spend many weekends visiting his friends on Penn State’s main campus or at other area colleges. :)</p>
<p>Speaking of which, there are many colleges here in the Philadelphia area. Everybody knows at least one kid (whom most of the country would describe as “rich”) who lives with mom and dad for a fair amount of his undergrad. While starting out at any college as a commuter is definitely not the norm, commuting for at least part of the undergrad degree is somewhat commonplace, particularly for kids who attend Drexel - so I know we’re very fortunate that our son won’t have to deal so much with that “weirdness” of being the kid from an upper income area who commutes. There will be some of it, for sure, just not as much as other kids from a similar demographic experience.</p>
<p>So I guess what I’m saying is look at your budget and then look at your kids. Figure out if there’ll be merit money, if student loans are on the table, what your commuting options are, etc.</p>
<p>Scholarships earned from the schools for being a superior HS student.</p>
<p>The way I look at it is that college is something that can be paid from past, present and future income for both self and student. You save some, you scrimp some and you borrow some, and your kids should do the same. You should have a little something saved for each kid by that time, the kid should have some savings too. Sadly, even in affluent families that’s not often the case. When I was a kid, my parents pretty much forced me to save about half of any money I got, and any wind falls at all. I’d get s savings bond for a number of occasions, any gift money, all of that was saved for college. Half the baby sitting money, and when I was working in high school during the summers, most all of that. These days, if your family might qualify for financial aid, better those savings be put in a 529 or a joint account with a parent’s name and ssn first, so that it doesn’t get hit as hard as it would if it were under the student’s name. So ideally, there is some money saved for an 18 year old </p>
<p>Then you have to look long and hard at your spending and budget. The college years for our kids have been austerity years for us, as we also took the private school route for high school . Some can mitigate the cost with an extra job, maybe SAHM now can take on something as the kids are older to help pay the college costs. We did nothing with our house other than maintain, and spent as little as possible THings are looking up a bit now, but even with my DH’s hefty salary, we felt the pinch. But that was entirely because of our choices in terms of where and what house we chose, and the private school decision. So everything else had to be budgeted down to pay for what we wanted, and with the cost of colleges skyrocketing, we could not come up with what many private school are charging. </p>
<p>One can also borrow. There are the PLUS loans, and if you start paying on them right away, you can see when they get too be too much. Where a lot of people get in trouble is that they push the payment schedule back as late as they can even as those loans are charging up that 7% interest that adds up quickly By starting the repayment even as you take out the loan, you can keep some sort of control there. Borrowing can be useful as long as you are realistic about what you can afford to repay.</p>
<p>The student should be well aware of the options that are affordable. Going away to a sleep away college, a private college might not be affordable Local state school, community college and some local privates even might be doable options, and for some of us the state flag ship can be managed. If you don’t qualify for enough aid for school, merit awards are something to pursue. Student should also plan on working during the school year (fin aid will often make them do so as part of the package anyways) Most students arel allowed to borrow $5500/6500/7500/7500 from Direct Loans at slightly less than 4% interest, and that is something to consider too. </p>
<p>Don’t just look at the EFC. You need to look for schools that would meet 100% need. Otherwise even you have the same EFC for all 3 kids combined as 1, it may not be affordable.</p>
<p>My kids went to a Catholic high school so a number of their classmates came from families with 4+ kids. </p>
<p>The more affluent families are just paying…these are mostly families where parents are doctors or business owners. </p>
<p>The “comfortable, but not rich” larger families are doing a variety of things…some kids are doing ROTC or military academies, some kids have high stats and are grabbing large merit, but many/most kids are just commuting from home and going to the local state univ. </p>
<p>
All my 4 kids started out with community college and then transfer to either the in-state public school or the local private school. All of them got financial aid in last two to three years of school and we paid the rest with student loans and our savings.</p>
<p>The key for us to pay for college is two years of community college!</p>
<p>I only have two, but they are in the same grade so going at the same time. Cutting the EFC in half did nothing for us because neither school is meeting need. The only difference it might make is whether the Stafford is subsidized or entirely unsubsidized.</p>
<p>I set a limit at the cost of the state university and they have to pay or borrow the rest. One is way under the limit because of awards and grants, and one is probably right at the limit, and will have to figure out her spending money on her own.</p>
<p>Community college is a GREAT savings and way for kids to explore without worrying so much about grades or a quick timetable to graduation. At our nearest CC, they have a culinary program and GREAT food, plus free parking and small classes. We only had two kids, but D was in CC for 3 semesters, which helped reduce the overlap time that she and her brother (2 years older) were in 4 year private college at the same time.</p>
<p>IF the kid qualifies for and gets great Merit Awards, it can be better for the kid to start in 4-year U from onset instead of CC, but for other kids, CC is a great place to begin the transition from HS to 4-year college. </p>
<p>We just saved and saved and saved from the time they were little. It turned out to be our little inside joke - if the kids asked for something at the store that we were going to say “no” to, like Cheetos or Twinkies or whatever, we would always say “No, but we’ll put the extra $1.50 in your college fund for you!” Our goal was to have $60k saved per kid by the time each finished high school, and we figured we could cash flow the remainder, but the first two got full ride merit scholarships, so we hit our goal sooner than expected and have the money for the youngest all ready for him. We stayed in the same house, drove cars to 150,000 miles, didn’t buy cars for our kids, and took domestic vacations. Our kids all had summer jobs from age 15 to pay for their entertainment expenses, like movies with friends. We have relatives who cannot afford to send their kids to college, but their kids have been skiing every winter, have all been to Europe several times, and were given cars. That was their choice. Bbut now they snidely call my kids the “rich cousins”. Oh, well.</p>
<p>We have three. Even in the one year all three were in college at the same time the EFC would only have given us small amounts of loans. Luckily, we knew we had three kids ever since the last one was born so we saved up for their education. We did not have a huge house or fancy cars or expensive vacations but put our money where out priorities were. The dayour last one graduated from college was such a relief. We did it. Put three through college with no loans.</p>
<p>And no, we did not make huge amounts of money but did stress what we valued. Luckily the three are very grateful for it. </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This can be true. </p>
<p>But if the student qualifies for huge merit as an incoming frosh, then that child should go to a four year college from the beginning.</p>
<p>I just have the two kids 4 grades apart. We’re looking at 8 years straight of college payments but no overlap (we’ve told our eldest she only gets 4 years from us financially.) We do know several large families and there really doesn’t seem to be any one way to handle it. Some have the finances to manage it comfortably. Others find a kid or two getting free tuition to the local state schools. Some go the community college/transfer route. Some take advantage of the middle college programs allowing high schoolers to get up to two years of college complete for free. Others find that not all their kids choose to go to college.</p>
<p>What I have noticed is that in big families, the kids seem to have a better idea of family finances and what they should expect come college time.</p>
<p>Because ours have been in private school for high school, we already have that amount earmarked in our budget and just gets transferred over to the college payments. Plus, with a kid gone, there are some savings at home, so some more money can be scraped from that. It’s still a tough go,when our kids pick schools at the top of what we tell them we can pay, which most of them have.We’ve had some rough years, and yes, I don’t shop much, have old furniture, junky cars, don’t go out much, no lavish vacations, rely on free and cheap entertainment, no house renovations. As compared to others who live in our community, DH’s peers at work, we just don’t have as much, do as much at that level. Something has to go.</p>
<p>Our neighbors were having fits about this some years ago. Their kids all go to the pubic school, and always have. They did not expect to get scholarships, fin aid to any of the many, many private schools around here, nor did they even think about sending them to boarding school. They would shake their heads that we were sending ours to private schools, as a crazy expense, given the excellent public school district we have and that horrible cost. Why it suddenly became urgent to send their kids away to public college, I don’t know. But seriously, had they had their kids in private boarding school the step up in cost would not have been so extreme. That’s about what it costs for room and board away for your kids, and the tuition rates are right out there. The other option is to commute to any number of options, pubic and private around here, or go to the state schools that in our state are not so ueber priced. Otherwise it’s scholarships to reduce the price somewhere that the student has to get. Our state schools pretty much guarantee to give full need as defined by EFC for the tuition and fees part of the cost of college. Not room and board, or discretionary costs, books, transportaion, supplies, misc. The DIrect Loan just about covers the tuition for those who do not qualify for fin aid, but whose parents can’t or won’t pay. That seems fair to me. </p>
<p>Should private schools, sleep away options be entitlements? WHy at college and not at high school levels? The awareness and urgency for those explode at the high school college level for many families.</p>
<p>Living in Georgia helps! Most students here qualify for the HOPE scholarship (85-90% tuition) or the Zell Miller scholarship (full tuition).</p>
<p>3 kids 2 years apart. We chose to have me give up my secretarial job when our kids were born to stay at home with them (the cost of daycare would have eaten up the salary) so we had to do without extras and didn’t save for college. I did/do make a small salary when I went back part-time to work. When choosing colleges, we told our kids that this salary ($10,000) would go to each of them for college but they would have to pay the remainder through scholarships or loans. We were very lucky as all 3 of them were able to get merit scholarships to pay for tuition. Of course it helped that they are smart, had good ACT scores and great GPAs. It also helped that through CC we were aware of those schools that gave scholarships and applied to them. </p>
<p>We’ve had 3 in college for the last 3 years and have a junior in hs so tuition seems never ending. Other than Stafford loans we don’t qualify for aid so we’ve covered the costs in various ways. Saving since they were little, going back to work full time, DH and I driving 17 year old cars, and living well below our means have helped. We also made it very clear to the kids that merit scholarships were of huge importance and not to even look at a school that gave no merit. So far all 3 are loan free, and I think as they realize how burdened some of their friends are with loans, they appreciate that we steered them to affordable choices. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In theory, they could have been saving the money that would otherwise have been spent on private school to apply to the kids’ college costs. But it sounds like they just spent the money.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>One difference is that there are fewer colleges (even community colleges) than there are high schools*, and college academic offerings are much less standardized, as are student choices in course work. Most high schools have broadly similar courses and curricula (at least in theory, though in reality, quality does vary), and most high school students take relatively similar schedules with relatively minor variation (e.g. may be advanced or may take honors courses). Both colleges and college students diverge relative to the high school situation, so it becomes less feasable to offer everyone the desired college academic options within convenient commuting range. So from a public policy standpoint, looking at the idea that a better educated work force produces a larger and stronger economy, the issues and tradeoffs regarding access to college education differ from those regarding high school education.</p>
<p>*In California, counting public schools only, there are 1,304 regular high schools and 201 K-12 schools, plus a few hundred more continuation and other high schools. In contrast, again counting public schools only, there are 112 community colleges and 23 bachelor’s and master’s degree granting four year universities, and 9 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree granting four year universities.</p>
<p>Be ready to tell your kids that they cannot go to any school they want - unless they can earn the merit aid (if any offered) to go and you are able to help fund their living expenses up to a certain point that will not put your kids or yourselves into debt. And then don’t feel guilty about it whatsoever.</p>
<p>You are not obligated to finance your child’s dreams to the tune of tens of thousands, or, in some cases, a hundred thousand or more, just so they can go to some name-brand school - especially if doing so requires you to take out PLUS loans. Sure, wouldn’t it have been nice to have saved up tens of thousands of dollars, and many have been able to do that through focus and sacrifice, and many have done that but then lost those funds due to catastrophic events (unemployment, severe illness and medical bills, etc) But even so, if you had been able to save up $120K per kid (assuming out of pocket of $30K a year), does it make sense to hand over all of that money to a college? Ok, maybe an Ivy League, but even then, I would think twice. If I had $120K per kid, I would allocate some to a good university, and the rest I would gift them to start their adult lives.</p>
<p>If you help your kids do what they need to do to be top scholars, and be competitive for merit aid, you don’t have to have $120K per kid for them to go to college. Even if your kids are not top scholars, but good, decent students, they don’t need $120K to go to college. There are so many less expensive ways to accomplish the same goal of obtaining that BA/BS, including community college, state universities, living at home while commuting to school. Does it make sense to take out loans so that your kids can live in fancy, resort-like dorms?</p>
<p>I have one going in the fall, and twins going two years from now. The oldest was blessed with merit aid (thanks to the CC community), and the twins already know that their only chance of following him to that particular school will be if they earn the same awards. Fortunately, that one school is not their only option. There are many options out there, and they will figure out what works best for them, and we will financially support them in ways neither my husband’s nor my parents were able to do, but we won’t do so beyond what we can cash flow. There will be no PLUS loans, no money pulled out of the 401K, no home equity loans. We have been upfront with them, and have been positive with them, and they are fine with it. They don’t feel neglected, nor deprived. I would not stand for that anyway, because I paid my own way through school (yes, tuition was less expensive, but I still worked hard to make it happen.) My husband went to school full-time and worked the graveyard shift full-time and had to live with some crummy roommates. So my kids are way ahead of what we experienced, and I expect them to be grateful for any assistance, and they already are.</p>
<p>My husband and I will continue on the rice and beans plus regimen we have been on for years (we both mastered the starving student lifestyle and carried some of that into our lives ever since), and we will not be buying ourselves new cars anytime soon, so not much will change as far as our lifestyle. I have my fingers crossed that my favorite minivan will make it past the 250K mileage mark, closer to 300K would be better. We will see our kids through their BA/BS degrees, and when all is said and done, the hope is that they will be able to begin their professional lives built on a foundation of an excellent college education and free of debt. What would be the saddest scenario for me, personally, is if they graduated with debt and then my husband and I were carrying more college debt on their behalf, and all of us would be spending the next ten years living lives limited by the monthly loan payments. Life is too short for that. No university is worth that kind of price. None.</p>