<p>We were always frugal–kids got scholarships to decent schools and we paid the rest, which didn’t cost an arm and a leg and allowed us to educate all 4 of them. :)</p>
<p>Kid #4 in fact is on full ride plus co-op so he will come out of college with money for a car (could buy one now if he needs it for OOT co-op) or a house downpayment.</p>
<p>NPR just had a piece on college graduates who are saying huge amounts of debt are a damper on relationships. They just don’t want to take on someone else’s 80K or even 120K (!) debt as they get married.</p>
<p>^^^Funny you said that mommusic, S1 is 25 years. He’s been dating a young woman for about month but not super seriously. He recently told us that he liked being single and is free to handle his income however he sees fit. He went on to say that several of the guys he works are married to women who took out loans for college but then dropped out after a couple of years and are now working at minimum wage jobs or staying at home with children…leaving their husbands loans to pay off but no college degree to show for it. After hearing them complain about it, S1 is very leery of ending up in such a relationship situation.</p>
<p>Since the in-state cost of attendance at UIUC runs from over $29,000 to nearly $34,000 a year, depending on major (with my D’s major of course being at the top of the range), even that restriction is a pretty pricey option. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say we’re pulling back, since we told D to choose her school without regard to finances, but we’re spending significantly less than many friends/classmates of D12, a lot of whom are heading to $55,000++ privates with no aid. D12 was fortunate enough to get a full tuition scholarship at an OOS public, which ended up being her first choice without regard to the merit aid, so we’re paying only room and board for her. D14, who is a totally different student, will most likely start at community college. D18 is a ways off - who knows how stratospheric college costs will be by the time she’s looking.</p>
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<p>I paid off DH’s 6 figure school loans when we got married. Suffice it to say it was a wise investment, financially and otherwise.</p>
<p>I think the issue of debt from a potential husband or wife varies a lot and would probably make for another thread - it has been discussed here before. Son has a lot of cash that he’s earned and he could always ask us on an issue like this and I’d guess that it would depend on the person.</p>
<p>It can matter what the loans were used for - something that’s highly marketable would be different from something that isn’t. If you have confidence in your earning power, then six figure loans might not be a huge issue for you.</p>
<p>The overall question is was the borrowing a wise thing to do - and the answer to that varies widely.</p>
<p>There has been a lot of mainstream press about student debt with college grad job market, more kids living at home, and loan interest rate legislation. I welcome the general increase in awareness. I think it is wonderful that more people consider better value solutions to college (cc for a year or two, getting credits through summer/or high school APs, following the merit money versus the big-name, etc.). It’s just not smart to borrow a lot in most cases.<br>
I wonder if being full pay at schools without big endowments is going to be a stronger hook going forward as the applicant pool considers value more and more.</p>
<p>Momof2kids to your point full pay applicants will have an easier time getting into schools that were once untouchable for a B+/A- student just a few years ago.</p>
<p>While on the flip side schools that are lower priced i.e. state schools, and private schools that did not go the $50K+ route (i.e. Elon) will go up in rankings as the college consumer becomes more price aware. </p>
<p>I think this is where the schools (not in the top tier) that have a full $50+K sticker price and were relying on giving out large discounts will get left with empty dance cards. Is it silicon valley bust or the housing bubble?</p>
<p>" … schools that are lower priced i.e. state schools, and private schools that did not go the $50K+ route (i.e. Elon) will go up in rankings as the college consumer becomes more price aware."</p>
<p>The state schools will be pressured by state budget problems and will have problems related to that.</p>
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<p>This would be amazing to see. I remember looking for a house in 1998 and I thought things were overpriced then. Then they went up and up and up and up and I knew it would crash - it was just amazing when it actually happened.</p>
<p>"I’ve told my kids to not get emotionally attached to any one college - keep a completely open mind until you find out what the net cost will be, so you can compare. " - Charlieschm</p>
<p>My daughter is about to enter her sophomore year of college. During the search she was sure that she wanted a small LAC and we looked at many and liked almost every one we visited. Fortunately for our finances DD responded very favorably to the schools that were in the camp of “we’d love to have you here and are offering you this merit package”.</p>
<p>My parents are of the “We’ll figure it out camp”. I do have the ‘mom school’ which I have to apply to (where I would feel totally out of place and my mom didn’t actually visit) because it costs less and has a guaranteed scholarship if you are a member of NHS. Past that, I can look at colleges that actually offer the programme I want…</p>
<p>As much as I would love for my parents to throw some money at me, I completely agree with their policy of kids paying everything left after financial aid and scholarships. If I’m old enough to vote or join the army, I’m old enough to be responsible for my finances (or at least for making reasonable choices regarding them).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, college financial aid offices will use your parents’ income and wealth against you until you are 24, married, or a military veteran. Not too much of an issue if they are poor enough to have EFC close to zero, but could be a problem if they have a high EFC but are unable or unwilling to contribute that much.</p>
<p>How many people are considering schools with 4-1-4 schedules? Those schools usually only require 32 units (or equivalent credits) to graduate. So you can take 9 units each year and 5 units over 2 summers and easily finish in 3 years… </p>
<p>Some of the 4-1-4 schools will actually let you do 5-1-5 at no extra cost, which would mean you could do it in 3 years, with no summer courses/tuition(use summers for internships) or graduate even sooner if you take summer classes.</p>
<p>So you finish sooner and have an extra year or more of work experience on your resume and an extra year of earnings to accumulate with one less year of college expenses.</p>
<p>I know a girl who did this. She went to a 4-1-4 LAC, took advantage of a 5-1-5 schedule at no extra cost. Then in the summer she went to her local public and was able to take 3 courses in each summer session, which transferred back to 6 units in 2 months:</p>
<p>Her calender looked like this:
Freshman Year: 4-1-5 - 10 units
Summer B/n Freshman & Summer: 3-3 - 6 units
Sophomore Year: 5-1-5 - 11 units
Summer B/n Sophomore & Senior Year - Internship
Senior Year: 5-0-0 - 5 units
Graduated in 2.5 years. So it was only 2.5 years LAC expenses, plus 6 very inexpensive summer courses at local public. Worked well because there wasn’t a lot of pre-req’s in her major.</p>
<p>One of the worst things a parent should do is to threaten their retirement income in order to send their kids to an expensive college. Your retirement needs to come first. </p>
<p>One parent said to their kids - Oh, sure I can take out PLUS loans to pay for you to attend Prestige University, but then make sure you have a spare room for me in your house, because that is where I’ll be living after I retire. Oh, and I’ll demand that the thermostat set at 78 degrees.</p>
<p>We did. We were all “bright eyed and bushy tailed” with our first and would have paid anything and everything for him to go where he chose to go. </p>
<p>We now have a cap on what we can contribute. Still more than we can comfortably do, but it basically rules out any of the most expensive private schools unless they come up with merit awards or the student commutes to one and makes up the slack as well.</p>
<p>I have said this before…sort of glad S1 didn’t get into the “big-name” school (that doesn’t give merit awards) because we would have had a terrible dilemma. How could we afford it when we have 3 others to educate? But how could we turn down the chance for him to go to ____?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure we would have turned it down, but it would have hurt. LOL either way it would have hurt!</p>
<p>If my kids want college, they know that they will pay their way through. We will give them some help (We gave S1 a Macbook for his graduation gift) and will help with housing and food.</p>
<p>I definitely believe that if the student is paying for it him or herself, they are more likely to appreciate that it is more then 4 years of partying (and going to class once-in-a-while). If my kids want to persue a vocational school (such as plumbing, whatever) we might be a bit more lenient and help with tuition, but not for college. My nephew is going on his 7th year at a major public university, and has no end in sight, we will not make the same mistake with our son.</p>