<p>student, the tuition at my PUBLIC STATE university is $460 per credit hour. That’s almost $14k JUST in tuition to go to school 15 credit hours/semester.</p>
<p>I work full time year round and I barely make a dent in my tuition. I am lucky that I have good FA and merit scholarships or else I’d be SOL as my parents don’t (and can’t) contribute anything. And working near-full time year round (or more in the summer) sucks. It really just SUCKS. Understand the financial realities of schools before you tell your child to just make it through on their own.</p>
<p>And you can afford to give your kid an overpriced laptop but not contribute to his education? <em>smh</em></p>
<p>If you tell your kid to pay their own way, you are basically limiting them to the very cheapest in-state public colleges that are available. That may be OK for them, or it may be a great waste of potential.</p>
<p>a. Parents are poor enough that the student gets a lot of need-based financial aid (however, not all schools are generous enough even in that situation).
b. Student receives a large merit scholarship.
c. Student goes to a military service academy or gets a large ROTC scholarship.
d. Student enlists in the armed forces or waits until age 24 or marriage to go some place more expensive than community college, in order to avoid having the parents’ income and wealth being used against him/her by financial aid offices.
e. Student “works his/her way through college” (less available now compared to when today’s parents were in college, due to higher college costs and poorer job prospects for those who just have a high school diploma).</p>
<p>Of course, not all options are available or desirable for all students.</p>
<p>He’s got some merit scholarships, and has been working since the summer before his Freshman year of highschool, mostly saving it for college. We payed for most clothes, food, whatever in high school. We will be paying for books, a laptop, and housing/ basic meal plan. If he needs it and has proven to be actually interested in his education, we might be open to helping him out now and then, but we’ve always made it clear to all my kids that college was mostly on them.</p>
<p>I work (as I’ve said in other threads) in the res-life department at a medium sized state university, and I know what parents are paying for in college. If I had a couple bucks for every rich brat that I end up having to talk to about selling drugs, or having alcahol in the dorms, or deciding to punch through the wall, or whatever, who is also fully payed for by their parent, plus a generous allowance that goes towards their beer consumption, I would be one of the wealthiest people in the world. It’s sad what college has become.</p>
<p>I’ve seen parents come in and tell me that it was not fair that res life confiscated their son/daughter’s vodka that was in the dormroom, because those same parents had given their kids the money. Kids try to blame their parents for giving them the money to party, some even got a party allowance. College has become a joke, it’s a place to party for four years, then come out with a ‘Japenese culture/Aneme’ degree that cost their parents 20K/year. Until students respect college and appreciate it, this will continue to be the case. How do you do that? Make them pay for it.</p>
<p>I think you’re letting the faults of others influence your decisions about your own kid. </p>
<p>Sorry, but imo, it shouldn’t be that way. Just because there are “rich brats” in the world, doesn’t mean your son is one of them or should be treated like he’s going to become one… unless he already is. </p>
<p>I have no problem making students contribute (obviously as I am doing it myself) but there is a WORLD of difference between making them pay for it and having some skin in the game. </p>
<p>I don’t know any full pay kids who act the way you describe. Maybe you’re sending your son to the wrong U (if he’s going to the one you work at).</p>
<p>ETA: Why would you pay for housing but not tuition? Wouldn’t it make more sense to pay for tuition and have him commute to avoid those problems? Just curious.</p>
<p>Roman I know a lot of rich brat kids that are given the privilege of going away to college… I know what poster #45 is expereincing. My kids have told me & they are friends with some of these brats… They grew up with parents who are afraid to dish out punishments. Ugh. I have a friend who would threaten her kids to send them to my house if they were bad… thanks a lot</p>
<p>But I do think you there are many full pay kids who are wonderful too. IMHO They are usually from low key, modest, intelligent , somewhat religious families.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to tell your kids what you will be providing right off the bat. My mom told me from freshman year (of high school) that she would provide me with a safe, reliable car with insurance; a roof over my head if I chose to commute; and food if I chose to commute. She made it very clear that she would not be paying a cent of my tuition.</p>
<p>Because I was on reduced lunch my Junior year, I was able to apply to all of my colleges for free, which was extremely helpful (I saved about $400 there, between sending scores - AP and SAT - and application fees). I turned college visits into road trips with my friends (who were serious about it and helped me, since they’re already in college. We would then visit friends in the area and go out for a cheap dinner or something to make it more fun. :))</p>
<p>I am attending Bentley University this Fall, full ride, including room & board. I received about $40,000 outside scholarships, all merit, and $34,300 annual merit from my school. I’m a tad short each year (maybe up to $5,000) but I cover that with need-based aid. Living at Bentley costs about $50,000 a year.</p>
<p>It is possible to go without mass debt. The main thing is for your kid to understand what will be expected so that he or she can save, apply to scholarships, find co-ops, etc.</p>
<p>And we chose to pay for room and food+books, so we know they can’t use the ‘I didn’t have money for books’ excuse, and we could be sure that he has a safe place to stay and food available to him. </p>
<p>BTW: He isn’t going to the college I work at. He is out of state, so commuting is not an option.</p>
<p>Spoke w a mom today whose S transferred from a $54K private school to a lower second tier school. S liked but didn’t love the 1st college (even though this school is super tough to get into the past few years), parents persuaded to kid not to spend all that $$$. </p>
<p>Now S will be a jr. living away at 2nd tier school, having a fine academic expereince, small classes & was able to get a big merit award for transferring in. Annual cost $24K. Indeed parents are pulling back on spending.</p>
<p>A friend of a friend was rather proud of the fact that he and his wife had saved enough for their kids to go anywhere they wanted. Child one is a rising senior at Very Expensive LAC and parents are tapped out. Second child will be attending State Directional U.</p>
<p>Mommusic, we had a similar silver lining with our S. He didn’t get in to his big name private reach, but was accepted to his close 2nd choice with really good merit aid. Husband and I feel we dodged a bullet.</p>
<p>When you factor in the U.S. economy, the rising costs of tuition and the job outlook, I think parents need to analyze what they can/should pay for their child’s college education. I have posted this before and I’ll say it again, right now, there are about 6 or 7 college majors that a student can get a decent “return on investment”:</p>
<p>Any major outside of the above and personally I don’t think it makes sense to spend nothing above the cost of your state flagship school. I don’t see the reasoning behind spending a ton of money at some private LAC and the student decides to take Anthropology as a major.</p>
<p>Furthermore, it makes even less sense to spend all of that money for a 4-year degree when some employers/industries (mine is software engineering) will hire fresh grads from the Top-10’s, Top-50’s, Top-100’s and 2+2 programs are all group together and starting off at the same level.</p>
<p>There is a real shortage of seats in nursing schools. Tens of thousands of students are turned away from RN programs every year. At a number of colleges, nursing is the hardest major for admittance. Even at University of Va, nursing has the lowest acceptance rate of all undergrad programs.</p>
<p>I’ve read some cautionary tales about many types of computer work being outsourced overseas. Most of the IT work at my office is done remotely by a consultant who could just as easily be in Bangalore. I don’t claim to understand the IT trends, but in a perfect world, you would find a job that cannot be outsourced. That is why one guy I know became a physical therapist - he said it is one job that can’t be done in India or China.</p>
<p>Hi
My Pell grant for fall 2012 sem says 2775 at CUNY First (i am at queens college) would i get the exact amount or not im fincially unsatable i need to know so tht i can drop out if thts not the amount and my tap is 2500
SOMEEEEEEEONEEEEEEEEE PLZZZZZZZZZZ help</p>
<p>From what I can tell of this article, it talks about merit-aid awards and rankings based on US News and World Report data.</p>
<p>From the linked article:</p>
<p>“Some are even in denial. Boston College offers 1% of its freshman aid.”</p>
<p>If we actually go to the US News site, we find the following statistics:</p>
<p>Students who applied for need-based financial aid: 48.6%
Students whose need was fully met: 100%
Students who received need-based financial aid: 43.2%
Students who received need-based scholarship or grant aid: 38.3%
Students who received need-based self-help aid: 41.2%
Average percent of need met: 100%</p>
<p>I spoke to a student fundraiser recently and he told me that 12% of the endowment went to aid.</p>
<p>It is possible that the writer of the linked article at collegebubble.net is referring to only merit aid and that only 1% of BC students receive merit aid. The Boston College Admissions page states that “Boston College is committed to need-based financial aid and, therefore, offeres very little merit money. The Presidential Scholars Program offers our only merit-based scholarship and is awarded to the top 15 students each year.”</p>
<p>That’s fine.</p>
<p>But this statement: “Boston College offers 1% of its freshman aid.” is flat out wrong. I’m not familiar with collegebubble.net but I’d take what they write with a lump of salt.</p>
Yes, there are many wonderful full pay kids, just like there are many ungrateful FA students. My kids are really nice and considerate. We are not at all religious, not sure if we are low key, modest or intelligent, we just live our lives the way we want to. </p>
<p>Paying for your kids’ college education doesn’t turn them into brats, not taking the time to raise them turns them into brats. It’s a personal choice on how one wants to spend money, but don’t make assumptions about other people’s kids.</p>
<p>I went through about a quarter of the original report (a good chunk of
it is basically an ad for the services of the sponsors of the report)
and couldn’t find an answer to a part of their analysis. It states
that a certain percentage of respondants were saving for college for
their kids. It also stated that a percentage of respondents were
saving for big-ticket items. Those are two separate populations.
Those respondants without kids wouldn’t be saving up for college for
their kids because they don’t have any.</p>
<p>I had a look at the methodology section and they do ask about children
under 17 and college intentions. Interestingly, the number of
respondents that expected to send their kids to college was 10% higher
than the previous survey.</p>
<p>I think that I’d want to see the base data on the original survey before
trying to draw conclusions. It appears to me that the Huffington Post
article jumped the gun on that one.</p>
<p>One other thing: we have a four-year tax credit worth $10K to parents
today. Back in 1997, there was the Hope Credit but it was only for
two years and the income limits were a lot lower than they are today.
That credit can go quite far where Community College courses are
inexpensive (like California).</p>