<p>If you are the parent of a high school junior who will be applying to colleges next year, now is the time to take a close look at what you will be willing and able to pay toward your kid's college education--and to make sure your kid understands it. You may never have told your kid about your family's finances--now, you must do so, even if you'd rather not. Don't be the subject of a thread next year when your kid says, "My parents told me I could apply to any college I wanted and they'd make it work, but now they're saying I have to go to the relatively undesirable college that's giving me a scholarship."</p>
<p>So, look at some price calculators on college websites, get financial advice, think about whether your kid will have to have scholarships, what you feel comfortable borrowing (if anything), what you will expect your kid to contribute, whether you will expect your kid to pay back any of the money you spend on education, etc. And share the result with your kid. There should be no unpleasant surprises when acceptances come in next year--at least, there should be no surprising changes in your position.</p>
<p>Peruse the fin aid threads too, and you can see some sad stories where miscommunications occurred and there are some very hard feelings. Hunt, great and timely advice.</p>
<p>This is one of the main things I stress when talking to people.</p>
<p>I’ll add, if you tell your kid you can spend $30K/year and they find a number of colleges where they can make that work, but they also get into a good school that’s a relative bargain – say, $15K/year – will you want them to take the bargain? I’m not saying what the right answer is, but if you give your kid a dollar figure maybe include the phrase “up to $30k/year.” And then agree as a family that you’ll reach a decision together.</p>
<p>You might want to discuss what will happen to the “extra” money if the kid chooses a cheaper option. Will it be available to him for grad school, for example?</p>
<p>Another note on this: if your kid is highly accomplished academically, and will be looking at selective colleges, he or she will almost certainly have some attractive low-cost or even free alternatives. These can be very seductive, and every year we see posts from parents agonizing over the choice between a selective private school at full cost and a good state university honors program at low or no cost. You need to think about this possibility NOW. If you will insist on your kid taking the free ride, he needs to know that up front. This can have a big impact on the list of colleges he’ll be applying to.</p>
<p>We combined the wise words of @Hunt and @Youdon’tsay . We said we would pay up to $XX, and if the bills came in below that, up to $YY of the amount we saved would be available for a car. </p>
<p>I would add that parents might also want to run the NPC (net price calculator) on the state flagship and a couple other application contenders and do a FAFSA forecaster, just to get some ballpark figures. </p>
<p>Also educate yourselves about student loans. Your child cannot borrow more than the federal limits without a cosigner. </p>
<p>Hunt- fantastic thread. I would add- don’t wait until next April to sit down with your stack of cancelled checks, two years worth of visa bills, your W2, and your tax returns to figure out “well if the muffler doesn’t fall off and we don’t need any dental work and if we stop paying on our term life insurance we might be able to swing the EFC.”</p>
<p>Do it now. Plug your numbers into a couple of the online financial aid calculators, and see what the colleges THINK you can pay based on your assets and your income. Then do the hard part- if Princeton thinks you can pay 35K per year (and they are among the most generous colleges with regard to aid) and if your budget only shows 10K per year available for college, don’t think that your insane thrift for four years during college is going to make 25K in extra money magically appear. You’ll either have to borrow it, or use your HELOC. Your kid will not be able to earn 25K a year in work study, you heard it from me.</p>
<p>Or tell the kid early enough that s/he knows to aim for large merit scholarships, rather than reach schools that will be out-of-reach due to being too expensive.</p>
<p>True – the parents and student need to find out that the large-enough merit scholarships exist at any given school, and whether they are automatic-for-stats or competitive. If a needed-for-affordability merit scholarship is competitive, then it can turn what is otherwise a “match” or “safety” school into a “reach” school, since admission without the scholarship (i.e. not affordable) is equivalent to a rejection.</p>
<p>I have a neighbor now grappling with a few merit offers who has just come to the realization that 5K here and 8K there doesn’t put enough of a dent in the ticket price to make the colleges affordable. People hear “generous merit” and think they’re getting 50K per year, four years, no questions asked.</p>
<p>However . . . there are quite a few 50k ish per year LACs where a bright kid can get 17-25k merit if not with ease then without doing too much more. If you are almost or just barely full pay and want big merit to lessen the sting have a larger cohort of those types of schools in the mix. It’s hard to know exactly what you will get back from a big merit and decent% but not full need school, but having options in that group is a good thing. </p>
<p>I personally think parents should have a conversation with kids the summer before high school. Parents who have big gap between their EFC and what they can actually afford should tell their kids that for them to go to college their grades would need to be good enough to get a full merit aid at some schools. I think to wait until junior year, it is too late. </p>
<p>A kid may not have much of control of family income or contribution, but a kid could have a lot of control of how well he/she does in high school.</p>
<p>I don’t disagree with discussing this early, or several times along the way. I just think it’s crucial to discuss when the application list is being put together, and for a lot of kids, that starts happening seriously during junior year. Having the discussion may also prevent you from visiting a bunch of schools that you are aren’t able or willing to pay for.</p>
<p>Also, to any high school juniors reading this thread, if your parents refuse to talk about college costs or give only vague assurances, you should assume the potential for the worst case that they will not be able or willing to contribute anything. In this case, unless your family is genuinely low income and assets to be a high/maximum financial aid family, you need to aim your application list toward large merit scholarships. Even if your family is a high/maximum financial aid family, be aware that many schools do not meet need, so the number of additional schools with good financial aid that this opens up for possibilities is not as large as you may think.</p>
<p>Here’s another one: If grandparents say they’ll pay or help with the cost, nail down that number. Grandpa doesn’t realize it not costs $60K/year for some of these schools.</p>
<p>Just share one interesting story. My D’s teacher has an agreement with her kid that for every dollar in scholarship he gets, she will give her 50cents back, Your know the scholarship money does not go to the student’s pocket directly, but the reward from parent will. This has encouraged her son to apply to a bunch of scholarships and the parent may save some money at the end too.</p>