<p>Our D has a full merit scholarship, so we don’t have to pay for much. We pay for books and clothes. She actually buys very few clothes compared to most girls. She pays for all car-related expenses, cell phone, and any other things she might spend money on.</p>
<p>We are generous tippers for wait service…</p>
<p>and it has noting to do with the K1 and soon K2 tuition etc</p>
<p>we hope the kids start without debt…and so far have paid whatever balance that K1’s U does not cover in aid…</p>
<p>Praying we have the same resources for the next 5 yrs to get both through undergrad school debt free… </p>
<p>I realize we could save $ for our retirement and let them start with debt…however it’s not our choice.</p>
<p>My wife and I allocated a “fixed amount” for each kid’s education. That is equivalent to our state schools’ tuition+R&B. If they get scholarship, the money will be there for their professional schools. If they don’t go to professional or graduate school, the fund will be there when they are ready to buy a house. If they would like to attend a private UG school, they have to borrow to close the gap. Of course, I have a say about which school they can apply.</p>
<p>Tipping has nothing to do with college education. My parents paid for my undergrad, my husband put himself through. We established a budget for the kids (inflation adjusted) that fairly accurately reflected college costs for kids should they attend the state flagship. That was the budget we gave to our kids. If they chose not to attend our public universities then they needed to take out loans or chose a different college. $12,000 would not come close to even covering our slightly lower priced flagship (we have two in Michigan) as I’m sure Romanig will confirm without grants, or a student working close to full time and taking loans or stretching college over many years unless you happen to live with your parents in Ann Arbor or Lansing.</p>
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<p>Seems pretty limiting and unrealistic to me. Our public flagship, Rutgers New Brunswick, costs about 23K a year for room, board and tuition, last I checked. So if someone’s household income is 100K (not all that unusual in NJ), the parents under this “default” would only provide 10K per year, and their student would have a 13K annual shortfall.</p>
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<p>COA ~25k/year. No state funding whatsoever.</p>
<p>Back to the study… it indicated 12K from parents? What about the rest, how do the kids pay if the parent only pays 12 grand? This is an actual question because I’m at a loss…</p>
<p>thumper1–haven’t decided yet. As of right now the answer he is working with is no. Ultimately it will depend on how much extra he needs. He knows this, he has known this from day one. He is ok with it and loves 3 other schools on his list and likes the rest of them. I’m not worried about him at all. The reality is that there won’t be enough money from the lottery school to even consider us needing to take out loans because the total will be more than he is willing to take out. He has a set figure for the 4 years and that will likely only cover 2 years. He still has to get in though too.</p>
<p>mauiluver–our kids got enough merit aid to cover most of the cost of their school. Their remaining cost is under that 12K mark. They are applying for some outside scholarships and waiting to hear on full tuition scholarships from the various schools. If any of this comes forward, they will have net out of pocket costs of under $1000. If they don’t get any of these extra costs, their net will be about $9000. We will pay for some of that, they will have to earn money over the summer as well.</p>
<p>You also have to realize that the 12K is an average. Some parents pay $60K and some parents pay nothing because either they can’t, the student gets a full ride so they don’t have to or they won’t.</p>
<p>We plan to completely fund our kids’ undergrad, including tuition, room & board, necessities, and a reasonable allowance for entertainment. If we can help with grad school, we will, but we haven’t crossed that bridge yet. We’d like to help them avoid debt, if we can do so without jeopardizing our retirement. </p>
<p>What other parents do has no impact on our decision, and I’ve never been overly curious about how other families handle it. However, I do enjoy hearing the reasons WHY parents make the decisions they do. They’re always good and valid reasons, and obviously what they feel is the best choice for their child and family. It’s interesting to see the variety of philosophies and opinions.</p>
<p>I just take all the money the government lets me keep and send it to whatever colleges my kids attend. It’s simple . . . and I’m losing weight.</p>
<p>Wow, what a coincidence! We have the same financial planner.</p>
<p>You only tip 15%, beliavsky? The “norm” these days is more like 18%. And ever since I had kids, I upped it to 20%. Healthy respect for the poor servers.</p>
<p>I’m a 20% guy myself. But I waited tables during my long ago college years. I’m also a coastie. Some of my midwestern relations think 20% is too flashy. I won’t change my tipping policy at the age of 60, nor will I change my financial arrangement with my daughter based on an article or what others do. We pay for tuition, fees, room, board, telephone and medical. She pays for personals, books and travel other than that from home to college and vice versa. Both daughters will graduate without debt, like my wife. I graduated with a lot of debt so I know first hand what the preferred route is, and I’m fortunate to be in the financial position to take it.</p>
<p>We pay everything for an instate school: room, board, tuition, spending money etc. We will pay the same for OOS which means they need merit to bring down the cost. My kids both work in the summer and use that money when they are home socializing. They also buy much of their own clothing ( not all). I refuse to take out loans because both of my kids will need grad school- their majors will not allow them to work in the field with a college degree. We have been putting money away for years in their 529. No financial aid for us, and we are not wealthy.</p>
<p>The amount you pay for tuition should reflect the level of service you get at home. Everytime the kids “forget” that water refill is one less semester you need to cover.</p>
<p>A few people in this thread have mentioned the character-building that comes out of working as a student—I thought I’d offer my own perspective as an undergrad. (Sorry, parents, for intruding!)</p>
<p>Freshman year my parents paid for anything the university billed (dorming, meal plan, tuition, various fees) and I paid for everything else (entertainment, going out for food with friends, my spring break trip). I was working 40 hours/week the summer before, which gave me a nice amount of leeway to be able to do this. As a sophomore I’m paying for groceries as well (off the meal plan). I’ll probably continue this (possibly pay rent if I can get better summer jobs).</p>
<p>Spending my own money v. spending allowance money makes a huge difference in my attitudes towards money management and so on. Since I have a fixed amount of money from working summers, I need to plan my spending much more carefully. I think it’s a much different attitude than if I knew I was getting some money every month from my parents. It gives me some amount of financial flexibility (I don’t need to justify a $800 camera to my parents if I really want it but they’re dubious about the cost)—but then all those decisions I need to think about, and figure out if I can still do those and pay for groceries for the rest of the year, and whether those purchases are really more worthwhile than the other things I can do with my money. I’ve always been kind of a spendthrift, but college has made me a lot more frugal and careful.</p>
<p>Of course, my parents also firmly believe it’s their duty to help me financially through college. But I ran the math and my total COA is still a reasonable amount for me to pay post-graduation…5 years of debt, max.</p>
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<p>Agree with you. What would you do if you discovered that it would jeopardize your retirement? For example, would you be willing to work an extra 5-10 years so that they don’t have any student debt?</p>
<p>Greekfire –</p>
<p>You sound like a very financially responsible student. Kudos!</p>
<p>We came up with $35K a year for 3 of our kids as what we could pay. It has been a stretch and $25-30 would have really been a more realistic figure, given our commitments and the way we live. But that keeps us from borrowing much and it keeps us from touching the retirement money, yet gives us a very nice life style by most any standard. We are not scrimping to send our kids to college in that we continue to live in an expensive area in an expensive home. We live very much more like those in our income bracket than those below, but we can’t spend the way many who make what we do can. No additions and renovations to the house. We have to plan and stage any repairs unless absolutely urgent enough to have to borrow or break into savings to pay for it. No large purchases without much thought and scrutiny, and our living expenses are what those who make half of what we do have, simply because of what goes towards tuitions and student loan payback. Very few vacations and no luxurious ones–we almost always stay with friends or family. </p>
<p>But we have not remortgaged the home (couldn’t anyways), or moved to a cheaper home, and we manage to pay what needs to be paid. </p>
<p>That is our comfort or discomfort level. We also really contribute more than that,as our college kids live with us holidays and summers and we visit them, and they do get handouts that are not in that figure. What we can give and what they can get from the household is probably a significant hunk of change. </p>
<p>My graduate is still being funded by us in that we bought him clothes, we let him stay here, we take care of a lot of basic needs, like laundery, food, pay for a movie or two, gifts, inclusion in famly and other events. So are our college kids. They use our car, pack lunch from our fridge, feed their friends here, use our utilities, etc, etc. </p>
<p>But the hard cash towards college amount is $35K a year.</p>
<p>Greekfire, I have seen the same with my daughter. She does a GREAT job of managing her accounts. She also worked 40+ hours in the summer. I think she is proud of herself for never having to ask for money during the school year. And I think it makes her feel more free when it comes to making decisions about her own spending. Just as you’ve said.</p>