The question, though, HRSMom- and I ask this with full respect for your savvy- is: will you do it? With your own knowledge and past experience, will you pay full freight (and skip any student loans, even modest,) when it delays your retirement or means other sacrifices? Some families will, some won’t. The FA threads are full of advice for people to search for merit or to weigh what less expensive college options exist.
You might decide to, because, when all is weighed, you can “afford” to. And OP will need to weigh whether paying full freight is the right decision for that family.
And full pay parents can choose from schools that cost $280,000 for 4 years or options that are less than $100,000. And then graduate school - there are choices that will be another $140,000 or ones where the student can be a GA and will cost very little.
Yes, I will do it. Of course as Austin says, stuff happens, so best laid plans and all. I do wonder if letting S take the annual $5500 loan may teach responsibility? I just don’t know. A person in my shoes can tend to spoil kids in an attempt to shield them from their own experiences. Thoughts?
The pinch hurts more for some than others. And it will probably only really be felt by me when S2 goes. But again, I have no wish to be melodramatic. It is a pinch, not a right hook to the family budget plan. And we are grateful for that. I just think ppl should not discount other people’s situations or opinions out of hand.
Interesting thing: there was no Internet when I was a kid, I actually did not know I was missing out on anything as a kid. I figured it was the norm. Kids I knew were poor. Smart poor kids got to go to State U. (Progress is not good in every way). But this is why I don’t begrudge FA. It is an absolute necessity. I just wish for kids like Rerun, the federal aid was a bigger part of the offering. Those who can’t get into HYP really feel the pinch. It seems a select few hit the FA jackpot, and the rest have to make hard choices. Maybe I’m just getting old and don’t like to see kids suffer bc adults can’t figure these things out.
Someone posted a few pages back “A college education is a luxury”
A college education is no longer a luxury it is a necessity.The moment the US stopped being the premier blue collar manufacturer of goods, where a kid could graduate high school and get a job that would allow them to buy a house a car and retire, a college education ceased to be a luxury and became a necessity.
Well the entire US population can’t be plumbers, electricians, welders, mechanics, HVAC and tradespeople. And who is going to pay for the kids to go to trade schools because soon enough those industries are going to learn that they too can earn more $$$ charging people for the education to become certified and you won’t be able to get your basic tradesman education from a fully publically funded high school.
HRSMom, my experience is that, while in college, the loans are out of sight out of mind. It’s only when they grad and need to make payments that they see them. (And my D2 still isn’t 20/20.)
The skilled trades do require their own post-high-school education and training. It may not be “college” the way that people write on these forums (seeking a bachelor’s degree), but they are called skilled trades and are paid well because one must learn the skills involved in order to do them effectively.
And learning the needed skills does depend on the ability to read, write, and do math, as one should be learning in high school. A plumber or electrician needs to be able to understand the plumbing or electrical code in order to practice his/her trade safely and effectively.
As someone who grew up surrounded by tradesmen and women (daughter of a master plumber, and I attained the level of journey(wo)man plumber myself), I have two observations. 1- it’s not a field for everyone. The trades can be very physically demanding and not everyone is able to take on that kind of work. 2- there is a race to the bottom (as there is in almost every field) and it’s getting harder and harder to make a decent living in one of these trades. Workers’ bodies are often giving out well before retirement age and if you don’t have a degree, you generally can’t move into management positions.
The trades are an excellent option for those who want (and are physically able) to take that path but they shouldn’t be the default for those who can’t afford college because our country can’t figure out how to make college affordable (unlike pretty much every other “developed” country in the world).
I didn’t see posts 166 and 167 before I posted. UCB makes an excellent point. I think many people are under the mistaken impression that getting into the trades is a fairly simple path.
(Note, this is only for plumbing- I don’t know the requirements for electricians but I’d imagine they’re similar). Besides the point I brought up in post 168, the written exams to progress to Journey and Master status are very difficult and most people fail their first time around. I don’t think people realize the amount of information you have to know in order to pass the exams. (I studied more for my Journeywoman’s exam than I did for any test at any level of my education.) Further, the tests are fairly expensive and (at least in my state) are only offered a few times a year and in disparate places. (I had to take the Journey test about an hour and a half from my house.) Not to mention you have to seek out an individual with a Master-level status in order to take you on as an apprentice where you will work several thousand hours (in MI, it’s 6000 hours over 3 years for Journey eligibility and another 4000 hours over 2 years for Master eligibility) before you can take the certification tests. As an apprentice, you’re making very little and it is getting harder to find a Master level plumber to take on an apprentice for a variety of reasons.
Again, I think the trades are a great career path and it makes me a bit sad that they’re often seen as a fall-back option (for those who can’t go to college for whatever reason). I chose an academic path because my body simply can’t hold up to a life as a plumber but I’d have done it in a heartbeat if I had a more functional body
The requirements for electricians are similar, @romanigypsyeyes. The work takes a toll on the body (carpel tunnel and back problems are common complaints), so the trades aren’t simple to get into or stay in.
College is expensive, but I think it’s like a lot of other goods; the more money we have, the more we can choose to spend. My son applied to a dozen or so colleges, got accepted to all of them, and got a range of financial aid packages. Some net costs were laughable, considering our income, but we didn’t get angry at the schools. It’s just business. We tossed them into the recyclables and went our way.
@HRSMom, I was responding to your comment about not putting down people because they made it, which I took to be a dig at me. If that’s not how you meant it, I apologize. I think it’s important that those of us who came from families who struggled remember that many students aren’t in the financial position they’re in because their parents didn’t figure out how to get ahead; colleges costs rose so steeply and quickly that paying is a challenge for many and I think a lot of parents our age were blindsided by the cost. I wouldn’t require your children to carry any of the debt because I don’t think you need to do that to teach them responsibility. You’ve been doing that by example for many years.
College is a business and they will continue to charge what parents are willing to pay. Should the child be aware of the costs and the impact on the family, I think so - because they may have to have an extra bedroom for the parents to move into after they have sold their home to pay for the education. The case of several families I know.
Somebody mentioned earlier that the internet has not helped with this and again I agree. Our kids are aware of so many more possibilities and are all searching for that perfect school that if they don’t go to, they will be unsuccessful. Our kids are so scared of their future. They have seen 2 major recessions with a very slow comeback. They have seen their parents get laid off multiple times and struggle to find the next job. They think they have to go to the best and be the best for them to be successful and have some stability. I am always reassuring my OD with a 3.75 in CE who has found 2 prior internships and many possibilities for this summer, that she will find a job and she will do well. She does not go to a top 10 school, but to one next door that gave her money. She is competing in the same market with the supposed best and is doing well but is still insecure.
Maybe having this insecurity is not a bad thing because in our society today, you could be the best and laid off tomorrow. My father worked his entire career at 1 company and was able to retire at 55. The instability of the work force since 2000 has been eye opening for me as well. My children will always have to be updating skills, networking, looking for other opportunities and evaluating the status of their own companies. Getting the degree is just the start. Getting that degree from a top 10 college will help in the beginning but most of the work and success will be based on their efforts after graduation. I think my D not going to a top 10 school is learning some of these life lessons earlier and is taking advantage of every opportunity and not relying on the name of the school.
@austinmshauri …no no, not at all! As you say, stuff happens. And people encounter different things. Kids who require the parent home, or who need home schooling or extra medical care, a parent in need of extra care, these also can throw a wrench in the best laid financial plans along with job losses! So many things can happen. I don’t judge.
I really appreciate the compassion and sensibility of the last several posts! Clearly there are a lot of parents who are working hard to provide opportunities for their children while their own financial circumstances are all but certain.
Paying for a college education is not an easy endeavor for most, and economic appearances can be deceiving.
Romani… has chalked up some more this person is interesting cred, an academic and a journeyman plumber, very cool!
