<p>Go to public school. What I know is some school gives students extra grants (x2) if their parents are low income. Even live on campus still debt-free.</p>
<p>My approach towards my son’s education was nearly identical jrcsmom’s approach. Some of my colleague’s felt that this approach was too intense some did not. Those of us who shared the same experiences have very similar results as jrcsmom. It is interesting that those of us with shared experiences seem to agree that what we went through was quite enjoyable and not a drudge. </p>
<p>My son just graduated with an engineering degree from Cornell with no debt. Our EFC is significantly higher than jrcsmom’s so in order to graduate debt free we also relied on outside scholarships.</p>
<p>I applaud Jrcsmom especially as a single parent for what she did for her son. I am sure that will be the basis for a very strong relationship going forward between the two of them.</p>
<p>I’m presently a graduate student working on a master’s degree. I am also working full-time in a field related to my studies. I will graduate with my master’s debt free in two more years, I just completed my first year of studies (3 semesters). The master’s program I am doing is usually completed in two years with traditional fulltime study…I’m a part-time student just taking two courses each semester for 6 or 7 credit hours. My tuition each semester is almost $5000 at the Florida state university I attend. I receive a grant each semester that pays about half my tuition, the balance I pay out of my pocket. Hopefully I’ll graduate debt free in two more years…I’m debt free so far after one year in graduate school.</p>
<p>I went to a state school and graduated with a BS Computer Science. I have zero education debt because the state law is that a public university cannot charge a member of the National Guard tuition.</p>
<p>Oh, well yes, it’s POSSIBLE but not very likely. I have no problem with living frugally; I lived frugally before, but I intend on studying abroad and the schools I’m going for cost around $50,000. Of course I will go for financial aid and scholarships, and I intend on getting a job, two if I can, but we have to be realistic; it’s not very likely all of us will be completely debt free.</p>
<p>But, I see some people pull it off and I think; Wow, what did they do?</p>
<p>I might be the voice of dissent but I actually don’t think aggressive saving for college helps in the long run if you are eligible for/ reliant on need-based financial aid. FAFSA and PROFILE take your assets into account, especially savings accounts, trust funds, etc that they see as being cash equivalent, and expect you to contribute a fairly hefty cut from it every year (something like 20%??). So to get the most need-based aid possible, you want the lowest EFC possible, and assets like savings will only hurt you. But for people who wouldn’t qualify for need-based aid anyway, you should save away!</p>
<p>I had a modest college trust fund set up by my grandparents when I was born and it completely screwed my EFC-- it was like half of what my parents made annually and would have sucked the trust fund dry almost immediately, leaving me with 3 more years to pay on my own (btw my parents did not contribute a dime to pay for my college education or living expenses, so it was especially frustrating that my tuition was tied to their income and assets until I turned 24… another way in which the system is exceedingly flawed). But then the Great Recession hit and my little college nest egg took a nose dive right about when I needed to use it, so it didn’t end up mattering either way. </p>
<p>When I obtained independent status, my EFC was reduced but I was suddenly eligible for 3x more in federal loan limits. My college expected I’d take out the full amount possible ($12k/year), so it didn’t really make a dent in what I was paying. They also practiced “gapping”, like most colleges, and expected me to pay significantly more (2x) than my EFC out of pocket in addition to the loans. The total was about the same as my State U. All this was including a “generous” merit aid award that covered ~30% of the tuition, but basically I was stuck paying the other 70% with no real help from the college. Merit aid can be really great if it’s a full-ride scholarship, but a lot of schools use it to sway students’ decisions (“I got a $12,000 scholarship, wow, this college is so nice and my ego feels great, let’s go there!”) and then leave them high and dry with regards to need-based or institutional aid.</p>
<p>My solution was to transfer into a more expensive liberal arts college that guarantees to meet 100% of financial need and caps federal loans limits at $16k total for 4 years (the typical amount). They gave me $35k+ in grants each year, plus state grants, work study, etc. They even calculate off-campus living expenses into the total amount covered by fin aid, so my senior year I got a check each semester for living expenses-! Sure, I still had to pay my EFC out of pocket but it was fairly manageable. The majority of my debt is from my first school, the second cost me about as much as community college would have plus ~$4k/year in loans. </p>
<p>So the moral of the story: Saving won’t necessarily help you out that much, merit aid can be deceiving, and a super expensive college might end up being cheaper than your state university. </p>
<p>Another suggestion for graduating debt-free: go to school outside of the US. Canada has much more reasonable tuition rates (especially in Quebec), even at the ‘international student’ rate. If you can get residency, it’s even cheaper. Several EU countries offer free tuition to EU residents; Sweden’s universities used to be completely free for anyone (of course you’d have to know Swedish!).</p>
<p>The actual moral of your story is that college savings should not be in the student’s name, unless in a 529 account. Savings in the parents’ name or in a 529 account are counted at only 5.6%, not 20%.</p>
<p>So instead of being reduced by 20% each year, it’s reduced by 20% over 4 years. Still kinda crappy, especially if you have more than 1 kid in college.</p>
<p>But you are right, don’t put anything in the student’s name. My parents/ grandparents didn’t know better and had no idea how to play the financial aid games. They thought they were doing the responsible thing by saving in advance. </p>
<p>And perhaps the real moral is even if you do save, it could still be unexpectedly wiped out regardless of whose name it’s in.</p>
<p>But your stats also beg the question of why independent students are expected to pay significantly more of their income and savings than parents? I just put in identical information in an EFC calculator (total income $60,000, total taxes $9000, total cash/savings $10,000, total investments $10,000). The parents’s EFC is $2776. The independent student and spouse’s EFC is $12,690. How is that reasonable?</p>
<p>I had a nice fund set up for me, until the stock market crashed.</p>
<p>Things don’t always work out. So is life. If anything, being in debt and eventually paying it off will hopefully give me more financial awareness for the remainder of my life.</p>
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<p>That’s it. We’ve grown so accustomed to this that it is beginning to seem normal. But it isn’t.</p>
<p>
that is College Savings 101.</p>
<p>I think it is great that some of you micromanaged your students admissions process. Have had no such luck with my dd if I even bring it up she rolls her eyes and stomps off and she is leaving for college in three weeks. Those of you who did a lot of managing, how are your students managing now that they are out on their own?</p>
<p>October- I may be one of the parents you are asking about micromanaging the college process, as I pointed to myself up thread. I was heavily involved in the college process. Helping my child research scholarships, schools, setting up visits, etc. However I would not call it micromanaging her. She wrote all the essays for the scholarships, the interviews were all done by her and the grades and tests scores were earned by her.</p>
<p>I was there to pave the way to college choices. Her numbers and writing skills could land her at a great number of schools but we could not afford 50-60 a year. So helping uncover choices was something I took on. In my mind that was what I could contribute to the process.</p>
<p>She is half way through college, and just as in high school, she is very organized, involved in clubs, on the Dean’s list each semester and has a social life. She is 3K miles away from home and doing well. </p>
<p>In short I guess I am really saying, I helped manage the process but I did not have to manage her. :)</p>
<p>Hello, All!</p>
<p>Thank you for all of your amazing posts in this thread. We are starting to apply to colleges (tomorrow Common App opens!!), and are very worried about the debt that our four children will end up with by the time they graduate. This is our first time filling out apps, FAFSA, etc. We live in NJ where everything is exorbatant in cost (sigh). We have informed all of our children that we will help them in any way possible, but we do not have any extra even for savings, so they need to plan how they are going to pay for college. Fortunately, grandparents saved some for each child, so they are able to shop.</p>
<p>We checked out several of our state schools, but D just did not feel good about attending any of them for various reasons. Going to see Rutgers next week, but I am prepared for her to not like that either because although it is an amazing school, it is HUGE, and spread out all over New Brunswick (not the greatest area). Community college is on the list, but not sure if that’s the best option because she is applying for nursing and a five year physician’s assistant program (her hope!), and I have heard it is hard to transfer to these already competitive programs.</p>
<p>One idea we had was to offer that they could stay home for a year or two (depending on their marriage prospects at the time), live rent/expense free and utilize all of their first earnings to pay off any debt they have.</p>
<p>I have been researching since she was in 9th grade. LOL I have charts and everything! I would consider myself type A-, ha ha. Fortunately, my D is so thankful for all of my research, but it is not really translating into any extra cash to date. She has applied for various scholarships but so far no funds. Almost won a writing contest! Because we live in NJ and have large family, our costs of living is very high, so in the end we will end up with a high EFC no matter what we do. Sigh.</p>