<p>Our daughter has basically a full ride. We would have paid for the whole thing, though. We’re full pay, financially, anyway, and when a dyslexic goes to college, even if they are gifted, the work load is very different than for someone who is not dyslexic. There’s a lot of natural “skin in the game” for a dyslexic to even continue their education. The motivation is really intrinsic and we are happy to support that goal for her in whatever way we can. :)</p>
<p>No financial “skin in the game,” but both of them knew that their opportunities to do the things they wanted to do immediately after graduation depended on success during the preceding four years. This seemed to be enough.</p>
<p>"We asked them to each take the Stafford loan simply because it improved OUR cashflow while they were in college. </p>
<p>This was a consideration for my family, as well. Also, at D1’s school, if a family that is offered need-based aid declines the loan, it cannot later petition for an increse in the grant award (we were unaware of this provision until we had to request finaid review b/c of unexpected med expenses).</p>
<p>And, when D1 enrolls in grad school, we will help as much as we comfortably/reasonably can.</p>
<p>We pay for tuition, health insurance, cell phone and transportation. DS pays for everything else via merit scholarship, summer jobs, part time work and eventually co-ops.</p>
<p>Our financial support is based on completing his coursework within 4 years and graduating with a 3.4 GPA. He can maintain his merit scholarship with a GPA of 2.9 with a certain course load. He is an engineering student.</p>
<p>Graduate school will be on his own dime. If this is his goal, he needs to demonstrate academic excellence in his field.</p>
<p>DS worked hard in HS but did not achieve his academic potential, much less academic excellence until the very last quarter senior year.</p>
<p>So far. So good.</p>
<p>I think it needs to be a very individual thing. DH and I each paid our own way through college with no financial aid (other than student loans) and no parental assistance. I don’t see that as being a possibility for our kids - tuition at the college I attended is now over 20 times what it was when I attended. We will not qualify for any need-based aid, so I feel an obligation to pay for our kids’ education, provided they are doing their part to do well in school. D1 is a diligent student. She’s mostly looking at state schools (both in-state and OOS), and she’ll qualify for merit aid at a couple of the schools she’s considering. I don’t expect that we’ll require any “skin in the game” from her other than keeping her grades up and continuing to qualify for any merit aid. D2, on the other hand, is a terrible student and does not have a good work ethic where school is concerned. She has a few years of high school to go, but if she were graduating today, I would not pay for her to attend anywhere but the local community college, and I would expect her to pay for any courses in which he didn’t achieve a satisfactory grade. Sending her to an expensive 4 year school is not an investment I’d be willing to make at this time.</p>
<p>D asked yesterday what she was going to be expected to pay. I think she did because while earlier in the year we were talking about GI bill, now I had spent the whole morning plus a good portion of the afternoon doing financial aid forms. I told her we still expected her to pay only the personal expenses of college. She is very thrifty and I don’t think that will be a problem. I informed her that we were doing the forms so she can potentially get student loans to help with cash flow issues. If she is using the GI Bill, the VA has been at times delaying payments and also the housing is paid monthly after the fact while her bill comes due before the fact. SHe would then pay back the loan almost immediately once she receives the money.</p>
<p>I don’t need to do anything with this child to have her be responsible. Generally, I have the opposite problem with her. Trying to get her to stop doing some work and relax a bit is the difficult part,</p>
<p>I think it is realistic to expect a student to cover about $10K/year from a combination of loans and earnings (roughly half and half). Very good students who don’t qualify for need-based aid should be able to find a school that will award about $5K-$15K in merit aid per year. This probably will not come from the most selective schools on their lists.</p>
<p>Enjoyed reading all of your thoughts on the matter. No offense was intended. Of course all of our situations are unique, as are our offspring (feel weird now that they are almost adults to call them children). Have a great weekend and best wishes to all.</p>
<p>DD1 has to maintain her GPA for merit aid and we pay R&B and books. She gets other expense money from her job on campus.</p>
<p>DD2 chose a college where she had little chance at full merit so she has to take up some of the gap. She has a Stafford and an on-campus job while we pay R&B, books and the delta cost from the Stafford.</p>
<p>If neither one had the merit scholarships they would be going to more local schools that are less expensive rather than LACs.</p>