<p>^Student Loans just do not make sense for us, the cost has increased by a lot for next year, D. has received notification already. Home equity is way lower and tax deductible. But as I ahve mentioned, everybody should see what is working the best for them.</p>
<p>I am not an expert, but I don’t see anything wrong with MiamiDAP’s current financial plan. S/he has debt-free cash flow from current employment, a home owned free and clear, and what sounds like well-funded 401(K) plan.</p>
<p>And no savings account…no balance in her retirement funds and now that she says she never plans to retire, no accounts that don’t have a mandatory withdrawal which means HIGH taxes on the income coming out of those funds in retirement. One major expense away from losing everything…</p>
<p>Old enough to take out tens of thousands in student loans, but not old enough to drink… guess we need to leave the drinking for the parents who understand just how big a crisis this is.</p>
<p>Interesting point,OneGoldenRay.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m with you! This whole “borrow the amount of your house” to put your two boys through college is definitely weighing on my shoulders and my husbands! I wonder if we’ll even survive the stress physically! He’s had an angiogram since the borrowing has started and just this week I thought I was having a heart attack! My own mother has no sympathy because she says “oh we borrowed money to send you guys to college!” And yet she has medicare, social security, and 2 pensions (my dad died) to live on! My husband’s mom lives in Independent Living where they are taken care of for sure until they die if they get in. We were able to find jobs when we graduated and were expected to live independently. My mother has never paid for a single utility bill of mine! I don’t know a single person on my block whose recent college graduate isn’t living at home right now! I just don’t like the idea of my grown up boys turned men living with us, with all that debt between the four of us, we might just end up killing each other over who has to fill the car up with gas! It is making me sick physically and mentally. The middle class are screwed in the US and nobody gives a damn!</p>
<p>Seriously, most students can live at home and go to a local CC for 2 years and finish up at a local college and they can work some hours while going to college. That is certainly what both my spouse and I did. Fun 4 years. Umm…no. No one cared if we had the “perfect college experience.” Get the degree and go to work. Grad school?..earned at night on the companies nickel.</p>
<p>vocemom: I hope it works out for you. That’s a great deal of stress and it is hard on your health.</p>
<p>I have no sympathy for those in massive debt. Go somewhere affordable. No need to take out massive loans. Have the courage to say no to your kids. They’ll survive. Heck, they’ll probably thank you for not letting them graduate with crushing debt.</p>
<p>romani - All those massively-indebted students/parents are going to look pretty smart if the government does for them what it did for the banks a couple years back. Circumstances change, often unpredictably. </p>
<p>When DW and I moved to SF in 1980, the area had just completed a ten-fold increase in value of homes. Persons who leveraged themselves to the max owned many homes … all with a personal investment of perhaps $10K. We decided to rent, and when we moved out five years later home prices had barely budged. Buying was the “right move” in 1975, and the “wrong move” in 1980. Such is life.</p>
<p>New, I hope beyond hope that they won’t be bailed out.</p>
<p>I don’t really want sympathy. It’s just that you try telling your boy who has been accepted into several fine engineering programs, and even his safety school, that he has to go to community college after he’s worked really hard for 4 years at an enormous competitive public school (GPA 3.92, number 171 out of 890), and all his friends are going to Carleton, Grinnell, Michigan and U of I, etc. He just won’t do it. I know him. College is expensive. Where are the affordable ones that will train an engineer?</p>
<p>With those stats, along with decent test scores, he should get some great merit aid at fine schools. There is a HUGE spectrum between top 50 schools and community college. It’s not one or the other.</p>
<p>I would think that it would be easier to find a reasonably priced engineering school because nearly every state has an engineering school. Ohio University has engineering and has some nice $$$$ for good SAT scores.</p>
<p>Even with Merit Aid from the schools he’s been accepted to it only equals the state flagship school tuition which is pretty much $30,000. a year! His brother is already there, and he doesn’t even qualify for work study. We are going into a hole that we will never come out of! And my mom has no idea how good she had it before they did away with social security (only a matter of time and I am young enough that even Obama suggests cutting it!) and pensions and tuition wavers (I work for a state university that is currently cutting our waivers). My last hope is financial aid! I’ll keep you posted just for those people who actually do have to borrow the money to send their kids to college who are reading this thread.</p>
<p>When I was at Iowa State in the seventies, it was cheaper for Illinois kids to come to Iowa and pay OOS than it was to go to Illinois schools. Sounds as though that may still be true, vote mom. (my spell correct will not let me post your name right!)</p>
<p>Could your DS commute & go to local U for 2 years before transferring? Our D went to 3 semesters of CC before transferring to a 4 year U. It helped us save a LOT of $$. It does all add up. Her terms at CC were practically free and gave her a lot of credits that were used at her U. S got a LOT of AP credits that applied to his U, as well as significant merit aid, but you are right, college IS expensive, especially if the kid lives on or near campus rather than commuting from home.</p>
<p>We all went to state U & commuted (there were a LOT of us). Our folks allowed each of us to have a term or year at an OOS U. That really helped & gave us a broader college experience than wholly commuting. It worked for us. We went to OOS Us for grad school.</p>
<p>We have this idea stuffed down our throats that education is the only way for anyone to make a living wage. It’s all that you hear from the kindergarten years on up. Then you go to college and acquire a ton of debt, and does that degree really get you a job that makes the debt something that is ever manageable?</p>
<p>How many graduates have enough debt that they could be paying a mortgage? How many of that lot are using their degree’s for a better job? There are certain degree’s that relate to very specific jobs, such as doctors lawyers, and engineers. While others are so vague that all they offer to the graduate is something to show a possible employer that they have the dedication and brains to stick it out for four years but no actual job skills.</p>
<p>Maybe the fact exists that one of the biggest moneymaking industries in our country is the university machine. Students pay enormous amounts of money to take classes that they will never need. They put out new book editions every year so that students must keep buying new books instead of use old ones. The whole thing just looks like a money making empire that we are all convinced is really important. Maybe the fact that it keeps a lot of our economy going is why it is so important.</p>
<p>Vocemom, we don’t know you, so would you be willing to answer a question? How much can you afford to pay per year for your son’s schooling?</p>
<p>Also, you listed grades and rank, but what are his scores (ACT or SAT)? Any leadership, EC’s, etc?</p>
<p>"Americans owe more on their student loans than on their credit cards or car loans, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.</p>
<p>I blame the new for profit schools that have sprung up such as the University of Phoenix & other diploma mill type schools. When the United States Military will not recognize a degree granted from UoP but will take credits from any community college, one has to wonder the value of a degree & the institution providing it. </p>
<p>There are too many schools out there that don’t provide quality education & the other problem, is that these same schools have mediocre & subpar students in its program so that learning from your peers isn’t possible. </p>
<p>Is having a piece of paper that states you have a degree THAT important (especially when most can’t find work in today’s economy)? If so, wouldn’t it be equally important where that piece of paper is coming from?</p>
<p>Quietguy, I so agree with you. And these schools like Phoenix that just take advantage of kids is so distressing.</p>