<p>Its hard to understand that people would not consider the financial impact. We knew what we were getting into financially at Harvard with my D. Although, we apply for financial aid, we have never received any - pretty much as I expected.</p>
<p>We've got a bunch of people in this country who buy houses where they can barely make the teaser rate on the ARM and don't have a clue what they are going to do when the initial period expires (other than refi).</p>
<p>We've got a bunch of people in this country who buy (or more often lease) vehicles based upon the monthly payment without regard to what equity (probably none) they will have when the payment stream ends (and don't even realize how far out of warranty they will be when it does end).</p>
<p>I'd guess this would be the same bunch who haven't done much planning as to how their children's tuition will be paid either. </p>
<p>Let's just say that we do a poor job of educating our citizenry in basic finance and budgeting.</p>
<p>Need I say more...</p>
<p>Oh yeah, they haven't saved a dime for retirement either...</p>
<p>
[quote]
If your income is $100K and the cost of junior's dream LAC is $48K--you know right away that you can't do it
[/quote]
Yes you can. You can if the LAC meets 100% of need. For a family of 4, $100,000 in income should leave you with an EFC of about $25,000 a year. Kid works summer to make $2000 contribution, and works 10 hours during school year to make money for books ($800) and personal expenses ($1500). You cough up the remaining $20,700, but once you deduct off your savings ($2000 for food and shampoo , extra utilities etc that you previously were paying for your kid when he/she lived at home, plus maybe $700 or so for a tax credit) you are down to only an $18000 payout. Not so bad. Most important is to pick a school with good financial aid!</p>
<p>I don't know why kids take out loans when their parents can afford to pay out of savings. It makes much more sense to have parents pay whatever financial aid and summer/weekend jobs don't cover, and then have the student pay the parents back in increments, accounting for inflation. Interest rates are pretty high and it can add up to a significant chunk of the money borrowed...</p>
<p>A $100K income is about $72K after taxes--if your EFC is 25K, you're going to be paying about 30% of the family income for college tuition. Unless the family has savings or home equity and can take out a loan, I'd say most people at this income level aren't going to take that kind of a hit. Some will, but many won't. Do they complain about it? In my experience (and I live in a town where the median income is $120K, according to the last census) parents aren't really complaining. Those who are sending their kid to the dream LAC are thrilled that their kid was accepted and those who don't see that they can make do with a 30% hit to the family income will send junior to the state U. In my state, for example, a good student (i.e., one with a high GPA, SAT/ACT or state achievement test score) can go to the state university for a fraction of the full cost. Maybe I'm just living in a place where parents make the effort to do what's best for their kids and don't complain about it endlessly. My town is small and my d's graduating class only had 100 kids--most of whom had gone to school together since K. I know most of the parents and I really didn't get a sense that people felt entitled to a free ride.</p>
<p>What would be great is if students could know by the end of 11th grade what scholarships they would receive for college. That would give them a whole year to figure out what they have and need. I have also seen where people expected to get a merit state scholarship and then have it disappear because their EFC was too high. My son received scholarship money a couple days after the college bill was due because of people being slow getting the check made. That was nervewracking.</p>
<p>"In my state, for example, a good student (i.e., one with a high GPA, SAT/ACT or state achievement test score) can go to the state university for a fraction of the full cost". </p>
<p>I wish that was the case in my state. D ranked 4/155, accepted to all her schools. OOS school gave her merit aid which made it more affordable to send her there, than her own state school. OUr state schools arew very stingy with aid.</p>
<p>Ditto here! Son got full scholarship at OOS school and nothing at our state's flagship but it is known for not giving out any merit aid. Son is attending the OOS school.</p>
<p>I thought I would bring an update to this thread since H and I just returned from moving in our son this past weekend. Talk about unexpected expenses. The last time a spent so much at Target/Walmart type stores was when S2 went to college. The cost impact of having a kid so far from home hit really hard, I can tell you. We spent a veritable fortune on this trip, even though the airfare was really quite reasonable in spite of rising gas prices. H and I took a flight out there, rented a car, stayed at a hotel, bought S all sorts of stuff for his room, ate out, drove around the state, bought souvenirs. After all the scrimping and planning and budgeting on the fixed numbers of COA at his school, it is sobering to look at this weekend's costs which are not in that COA calculation. Yeah. A big chunk of change. And we are one of the lucky families who can afford this. For low income families who are sending their children away to college, this can be a huge, huge dent in the budget. For all of us parents, this is a big deal occasion that we want to do right. We want to see, we feel we should go and visit. It is truly expensive to do so when kid goes a large distance from home. More than the numbers given, I can tell you.</p>
<p>My s applied to 9 colleges. We didnt want to spend $ to go visit them, so we waited to see where he got in and went to the one that offered him a presidental scholarhip ($100,000). Although it is still costing us more than our state u (the #1 party school) I think its worth it. He is a focused child majoring in physics and knows what he wants to do with his life. He would have done fine at state school too, but he worked hard for this chance, and I think we as parents owe our children a college education. So we are scrimping on things, but I feel proud of what we are doing, and he is very appreciative too. He worked all summer and already (first week of school) has a research position lined up.</p>
<p>The major reason why we considered financial side of undergrad. ed.was that we wanted to help D. thru Grad. School. At the same time she is happy where she is, and we are happy to pay only part of R&B as a total cost, whole tuition + a little more is covered by merit $$ at state school.</p>
<p>Sounds good...my current high school senior definitely wants to go to Grad school, or Pharmacy school...or medical, dental, etc.</p>
<p>I'm hoping that she gets some good academic merit aid offers.</p>
<p>"I thought I would bring an update to this thread since H and I just returned from moving in our son this past weekend. Talk about unexpected expenses. The last time a spent so much at Target/Walmart type stores was when S2 went to college. The cost impact of having a kid so far from home hit really hard, I can tell you. We spent a veritable fortune on this trip, even though the airfare was really quite reasonable in spite of rising gas prices. H and I took a flight out there, rented a car, stayed at a hotel, bought S all sorts of stuff for his room, ate out, drove around the state, bought souvenirs. "</p>
<p>What you describe is an example of why I don't understand why so many people posting on CC don't consider the costs of sending their kids far away to college. I continue to be surprised at how so many students posting here plan to apply -- apparently with parents' approval -- to colleges from coast to coast.</p>
<p>They don't seem to consider the costs of attending parents' weekend, graduation, having a kid come home for Thanksgiving, spring break, three-day weekends, family emergencies -- and the cost and inconvenience of getting a student to and from college at the beginning and end of the year.</p>
<p>Add to that the stress and inconveniences that are caused blizzards, hurricanes, and financially distressed airlines canceling flights impede the students' travel plans. </p>
<p>In this country, the average college student attends college within 250 miles of home. In general, it's mainly on CC where parents and students don't take under consideration how colleges' distance away from home will affect the finances and other factors.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What you describe is an example of why I don't understand why so many people posting on CC don't consider the costs of sending their kids far away to college. I continue to be surprised at how so many students posting here plan to apply -- apparently with parents' approval -- to colleges from coast to coast.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sometimes you live in a place that is different/isolated and you do want your kids to experience a wider world. I would love for my kids to go to college out of state. But I do not live in NYC :)</p>
<p>What about in cases where parents don't want to talk about finances with their kids? </p>
<p>I was given the initial directive, "apply anywhere [i.e., Northwestern, Harvard]", even though I know that my parents couldn't afford to foot that type of bill. They gave me little-to-no cost guidelines, even when I asked, though my general personality lead me to search out merit aid anyway. Flash foward to November when I recieve an EA acceptance from a top choice with a $46,000+ price tag! My dad says he can't pay that and what was I thinking apply there?! (Subsequently awarded merit aid brought that price tag down to around $24,000 [around our EFC], but it still would have been tight for my family).</p>
<p>I ended up with a lot of merit aid offers due to a combination of luck and the fact that was one of my main factors when ruling colleges out--post-merit aid yearly COA's ranged from about $26,000 to $600, and I picked the lowest of those (it was one of my top choices throughout the process--ironically because of two different programs that I ended up switching out of due to really bad experiences in both! Fortunately, the social environmental factors that drew me to the school were even better than I expected, and I found a new academic path that I felt comfortable with).</p>
<p>My costs have gone up a bit (to a little over $8k this year but that includes $800 sorority dues), though I've tried to compensate (i.e., getting a cheaper on-campus meal plan to help defer the costs of sorority dues, having money from my on-campus job this year go to my parents/tuition). </p>
<p>I feel bad, honestly, that my parents are having pay more (or at all) for my education. I can tell my dad really doesn't like it, though he won't say it when confronted... The only way, really, they could pay any less at this point would be for me to have transfered home last year and lived with them while attending our state flagship, which would still cost around 5.5k a year, more if I wanted to join their chapter of my sorority. (To boot, I didn't particularly like flagship state u when I visited it as a senior...)</p>
<p>I wish I could talk more about college finances with my parents, especially as grad school approaches! I'm looking at MSW programs (1 year programs), and my parents (who are happily--as far as I can tell--married) are on completely different pages with financing. My mom says that they'll pay for everything (especially law school--they want me to be a lawyer, though I don't at all), my dad says that I should pay out of my savings and than <em>maybe</em> they'll help with the rest. He says I should get a "scholarship," even though most MSW programs are unfunded (if I go the psych PhD route, it will be a different story, of course).</p>
<p>I'm as confused as heck, and I really, really want to talk to my parents, but every time I bring up money, they shut down... How do I consider finances in my education, if no one will talk to me about them????</p>
<p>Question_Quest,</p>
<p>Summer jobs, loans (The average college student borrows a total of about $17 k to pay for their undergrad education) would help reduce your college costs. </p>
<p>Taking some time off after college and working and saving your money would help with graduate school costs. Many people send themselves through graduate school.</p>
<p>In addition, you could apply for fellowships. MSW would probably lead to better job prospects than would a psych Ph.D. It's easier for MSW holders to get jobs. The graduate program is shorter, too. Saying this as someone who holds a doctorate in psychology.</p>
<p>"They don't seem to consider the costs of attending parents' weekend, graduation, having a kid come home for Thanksgiving, spring break, three-day weekends, family emergencies -- and the cost and inconvenience of getting a student to and from college at the beginning and end of the year."</p>
<p>Well obviously if your child is going cross country to school, they may have to forego three day weekends at home. That would seem self-evident to me.</p>
<p>I won't qualify for subsidized loans and really don't see why I would take out loans if my parents can and are willing to (well-deserved mumbling aside) pay. I had a summer internship last summer, but everything went to leaving expenses, and my parents seem really hesistant about me even forwarding the money from my TAship to them. Basically, they valicitate between "education is our gift to you, and we're happy to pay for it" (and I'm very thankful, if maybe a bit entitled--I always sort of expected they would pay something toward my undergraduate education, though I certainly didn't expect them to pay for, say, a $50k private school) and muttering about costs... </p>
<p>I'd like to get a clearer picture of where I stand financially, now that I'm looking at grad schools, but I'm getting two different stories...</p>
<p>Northstarmom, there is a lot out there encouraging families to consider schools outside of the their geographics and they don't seem to go into the costs of such choice. I don't mean the three trips a year to the school and back, which are sort of included in COA and can be budgeted. I mean the many other costs that go into doing such things.</p>
<p>For instance, if S had gone nearby, a lot of the stuff we bought could have come from home. I have all sorts of stuff here that could have been used, but at that distance and the fact that it has to either be mailed or carried in a suitcase, did not make it pragmatic. Also, you can't just bring it on the next trip. So you have to shop in a compressed time span for many items and at stores you don't know that may be more expensive than places you usually frequent. Also if your kid is staying on campus during 3 day weekends or other times when the locals go home, dining hours can be sparse or non existent meaning eating off campus. </p>
<p>As upper middle income parents, we wanted to move our son into his room and go to the parent orientation and events which is what was another heavy hit. Our choice of course, and we certainly spent more than we had to spend, in terms of meals, recreation, etc. But when you are that far from home, you might as well look around the area and imbibe a bit in the specialties. These are the sort of things that a family pinched for money may have to forego or spend too much for their budget in partaking. I noticed that we wanted to be much more generous in terms of supplies and money with S being gone for so long (we won't see him again till Christmas, the way it is planned) and being so far away. I am also wishing that one of us could go to Parents' weekend which is only 6 weeks away, but this would involve at least $1000 in costs, I know, and we already blew the budget with our trip this past weekend.</p>