<p>My s is applying to schools within 3 hrs from home. One state schools, one oos school that offers the WUE, and one in-town Private. He is trying to avoid getting into debt. I'm proud of him for thinking ahead!</p>
<p>Its forcing me to apply where I can get merit based aid because right now I dont qualify for financial aid, but may need aid in the future. added USC to my list because of their generous merit aid</p>
<p>My son is only applying to financial safeties.</p>
<p>My D has added CUNY to her list of other NYC law schools. Not a happy camper, but I've told her that loan money might not be available. We paid her way through Barnard but expect her to do law school. However, if loan money is not available, we could pay the tuition of CUNY no problem.</p>
<p>LegendofMax, I've read a lot about students in Finance in the newspapers. What are you and your classmates thinking? How has it affected your possible decisions as to careers etc?</p>
<p>mythmom,</p>
<p>Did your D hear the echoing sound that was coming from my house? We had the same conversation as she had to toss in a SUNY and a CUNY Law school into the mix.</p>
<p>Tablecl0th - With a brother in school and a twin going as well, you may qualify for a good financial aid package depending on your family's income and assets. Your family should run some financial aid calculators now.</p>
<p>I have to tell you people. This bailout is a bandaid at best. It buys time, but does NOT cure the disease. The ONLY cure is a massive deflation of home values and likely stock values. You may not be a part of the over extended consumer or homeowner crowd, but its going to affect everyone. </p>
<p>VERY FEW PEOPLE are lucky enough to have the cash to pay for college in a private school. But even the uber wealthy will get a huge haircut. </p>
<p>If I were you, I would prepare for the worst. Just the facts.</p>
<p>i'm counting on the current economic crisis to eliminate some of the competition in the ED round.</p>
<p>Hi, this is my first post. D. is a senior who could actually make serious money attending school in state where she will probably be eligible for merit aid in addition to tuition discounts. She wants to attend an Ivy, and will probably be accepted to at least one of the various schools to which she's applying. Although we shifted college savings to bonds three months ago, that won't pay for four years at a private school, especially if one of us winds up unemployed. So the bigger picture that we're stressing is: apply to a wide range of places (Ivies, prestigious publics, National Merit Scholarship places) and see what the offers are. And I'm not at all sure what will happen with the gap year plans, given the uncertain economy.</p>
<p>welcome EngProfMom--sounds like a good plan.</p>
<p>I had several conversations with my S about the realities of college choice from a financial point of view. He went with (in 2007) a private where he got the best merit deal. His school "guarenteed" the merit by increasing the merit with the percentage increase in the cost of attendance. </p>
<p>He has mentioned that he has recently heard from HS friends who went IVY and no merit and their parents are talking transfer due to losses in the market and jobs. </p>
<p>One of his HS friends is seriously worried that the parents will sink themselves rather than admit they can no longer afford $60,000 a year plus (after tax) for the dream school, plus the increase in transportation costs to and from school.</p>
<p>D never considered any college that would not give her substantial Merit $$. She is a Sophmore now, however, if she was applying now, it would be the same, meanning that her college list would have not changed because of current situation. D never considered any elite coleges despite graduating at the top of her class.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal has an article today: Colleges scramble as Fund is Frozen. It seems that a fund run by Wachovia in which about 1,000 colleges and private schools have invested short term cash assets suddenly froze withdrawals. Apparently Phillips Exeter was getting good financial advice (no surprise) though because in the last paragraph, their CIO is quoted as saying they pulled their money out of the fund about a year ago -- "In times like these you want cash".</p>
<p>This past spring, I asked my ex to take her college funds into cash. My reasoning: We didn't need the money to grow, we just needed it not to shrink. The day before the first big market loss, I asked him if he had, and if not would he do it that day. (Wall Street should hire me.) He said he had moved one but not the other, and would move the other one that day. He didn't. Not sure yet how many paid years of college were lost. Very frustrating from my vantage point.</p>
<p>Heron--same situation here, almost exactly (although not the 'ex' part of hub). I begged to move 529 into a bond fund instead of inappropriate stock-heavy portfolio. I was told I 'don't understand' how the market works, you 'just don't move' money like that. Somehow when we made the 529 I was not put on as the 'main party' (who can make $$ decisions--even though most of the $$ was from my savings) so I couldn't do anything. Whatever.</p>
<p>Grr, how many of us were considering utilising money in a mutual fund for something- like use $10k towards XYZ; money in a mutual fund that has been virtually the same value for several years- up a little, down a little, but about the same total.</p>
<p>And now it is down 25-33% :(</p>
<p>Is it always the guy who wants the money in the market and the woman who wants the money "safer?" I had put aside a few hundred dollars from an over time assignment and my DH hounded me to invest it rather than leave it at 2% in the bank. So I did, now is way less than the basis plus 2% :D</p>
<p>somemom, it is so true, and they never learn!</p>
<p>Against H's wishes, I put a "good until cancelled" sell order on the stock in D's UTMA account back last winter, and one day when I opened Outlook I was greeted with a message "You sold XX shares of YY at $ZZ". That felt realy good, especially the fact that it was sold very close to the top. If only H did the same with some of our other investments!</p>
<p>I'm not sure if D's college search would be much different this year vs. last year. However, our downsizing plan is definitely on hold.</p>
<p>I think it is generally guys who are more aggressive... my DH is in the financial biz, and he occasionally nudges me to put more of my retirement into stocks (currently 60%). I tell him no, I sleep well at night.</p>
<p>When DH turned 40, I looked at his retirement portfolio. It was 90% equities. I asked him if he had a client who was 90% in stocks, would he consider that to be well-diversified? He said of course not. I replied, well your retirement is 90% stocks, maybe you should take your own advice. He reduced his stocks to 80%, and about 6 months later the market took a tumble. I haven't looked at his account lately...</p>
<p>If I had ONE piece of advice to give someone with young kids who was just starting to save for college, it would be AGE-BASED investments. You don't have to think about them, they start out fairly aggressive but become more conservative as time passes. As I said earlier, our 16 & 19 year old's accts are age-based, and both have YTD earnings of almost zero (plus or minus less than 1%). Exactly what they should be doing in this market. But if it were left to hubby, those accounts would have been invested more aggressively...</p>
<p>I'd add to that good advice, Lafalum84, to make sure that the general account doesn't have a certain percentage of stock that doesn't change. Our 529 for son was supposed to be 'age-based' as well. However, it was aged based within the context of an 'aggressive growth' porfolio. So, the stocks because, purportedly, more conservative, but were still stocks. </p>
<p>What I learned---educate yourself, even if it's not your forte.</p>
<p>oh well, same here. I'm praying every day that the market doesn't lose its fundamentals so we can get our ROI. We're young so we can wait 10, 20+ years... But of course the college choice for my D is greatly affected. She needs to go to a state college or get a lot of merit aid for private college.</p>