<p>Okay, what the Hell is a directional state university?</p>
<p>Something to do with having north, east, south, or west in the name. Sort of like regional.</p>
<p>Bedouin, your advice about financing college is riddled with political nonsense. REALITY…there are thousands and thousands and thousands more students graduating from public universities, and lower tier privates than graduating from the elite privates…just do the math…those schools simply don’t have the number of grads as those other schools added together. This country is filled with folks who have become successful due to their own drive and motivation, not the NAME OF THE SCHOOL ON THEIR DIPLOMA or the cost of their undergraduate education. </p>
<p>Your posts imply that prestige and cost translate into success for the college grad…I do NOT agree. </p>
<p>Your posts imply that the successful folks make the choice to go to more expensive schools, possibly with loans, where the facilities and opportunities are better…and they will be the successful ones. Everyone else will have to claw theyr way up. I challenge you to find the data to support this nonsense…it is nonsense. There are state schools with fabulous research facilities…and yes, with opportunities for undergrads too.</p>
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I think you need to provide data to support these rather daring conclusions.</p>
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<p>True enough . . . What I should have put is “I hate to think how much, including interest, he’d have ended up paying on a loan of $100k.”</p>
<p>“You won’t be the one to offer a job to student who threw away a chance at Penn or NYU to go to some directional state U for 4 years.”</p>
<p>Let me tell you about the Penn graduate who worked for me recently, who sat across from me and cried because she was not earning enough at her entry-level job to pay back her student loans and cover other expenses, and who was depending on her parents to help supplement her income. It was heartbreaking. I was never sure of the exact total amount of her loans, but it seemed like her monthly payment was a few hundred dollars. She seemed pretty unprepared for the reality of living on an entry-level salary and handling a large debt payment at the same time. It seems like a tough way to learn that lesson.</p>
<p>I went to an inexpensive HBCU. H went to an ivy. We met at the same medical school. 20 years later, he is still paying.</p>
<p>Both husband and I graduated from Tier LOW schools…with no debt. When we went to get the mortgage for our first house (not long after DH graduated), the loan officer asked…any car loans (NO), any credit card debt (NO), any college loans (NO)…she repeated…“you have NO college loans…either of you?” NO. We didn’t have a nickel of debt. It was a wonderful way to start our marriage and we hope to give our kids the same gift.</p>
<p>P.S. We got the mortgage.</p>
<p>This thread certainly has taken a turn. First it was graduate debt free, now it’s go to the “top” school regardless of the cost.</p>
<p>I just haven’t seen that job prospects are different for people graduating from state schools and people graduating from places like UPenn, (since that was the example sited earlier). Most of my friends from high school went to state schools and they’ve done better than I have career wise, (I was lucky enough to get to go to a private college).</p>
<p>I think there is some middle ground here. Some debt is worth it in exchange for a college education. Remember a lot of people borrow to attend state schools. Too much debt isn’t worth it, find a less expensive option.</p>
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<p>Anyone who does this is loopy. No one should spend $60,000 on a car if they have to finance it.</p>
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<p>Student loans don’t make the difference between someone driving a BMW or a less expensive model. They can make the difference between someone being able to afford any car at all.</p>
<p>mclaxton – I feel your frustration but I think your ex-husband should be helping to pay for his daughter’s education. It would ease your burden and it’s just as much his responsibility as it is yours.</p>
<p>Trust me-it is a wonderful way to begin life whether a marriage or just out of school ^^. And it is called living well within your means…</p>
<p>Momofthreeboys: Exactly… my point is that public or private education should be a choice, not a decision based on lack of funding. Again, the elite of this country continue to control the mainstream by limiting choice. If grants were given to each individual person and not the “public education” system, more students would have more options.</p>
<p>Naturally — The point of my statement that going into debt for education is a personal choice, BUT that I would prefer to see someone in debt for their education rather than being in debt for pointless and materialistic goods. People shouldn’t get married or buy houses until they are truly ready to accept the responsibility that goes along with that, but they shouldn’t make a choice on their education based on those issues.</p>
<p>Pea —
“Anyone who does this is loopy. No one should spend $60,000 on a car if they have to finance it.”</p>
<p>I don’t know where you live, but if you live in OC Cali, this is very, very NORMAL… </p>
<p>I just think that education is worth it and that it is a personal choice, people shouldn’t squash dreams because of their own beliefs, it is good to educate but not to use fear. Who knows, maybe Rebecca will end up being the next Meg Whitman and run a multi million dollar corporation or maybe she will become a top attorney… one thing I think is that if someone doesn’t feel good about where they are studying, they will not go far… therefore, what would that education be worth?</p>
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<p>How large would the grants be? And what do you mean by “not the ‘public education’” system? I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but are you suggesting that college would be more affordable without public education? </p>
<p>Bear in mind that in order to keep up with inflated college costs, they would probably have to rise each and every year. When Senator Claiborne Pell’s Act was passed in the early 1970s, the Pell grant covered 72% of college costs. Despite Congress’s generous attempts to support this entitlement, it now covers only 32% of the cost of a 4-year public college. Even the most recent efforts by President Bush to create supplemental grants like the ACG still haven’t been able to catch up to even public schools, much less private ones.</p>
<p>I personally believe Rebecca can become that successful attorney or perhaps run a multimillion dollar corporation WITHOUT going to an expensive college.</p>
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<li><p>As you already know, life is not fair. Parents are the first people in line when it comes to paying for their child’s education. If your ex husband is making a conscious decision not to pay for his child’s education, he is essentially saying let other people’s parents pay for it (for the most part that is where the endowment $$ comes from).</p></li>
<li><p>The good bad and the ugly is that the FAFSA treats pretty much every one the same. It looks at the income and assets of the custodial parent, whether it is a single parent, married parents or a custodial and a step parent.</p></li>
<li><p>THe EFC whether federal or institutional is based on how much a school or the federal government thinks a family could afford to pay based on their income and assets not what the family wants to pay. There is often a big disconnect between what the school/government feels the family can afford and what the family thinks it can afford or wants to pay.</p></li>
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<p>4.If you had a couple of more kids, unless those kids were in college as undergrads at the time your daughter was getting ready to go to college, your efc would probably not change. SO your having 3 or 4 kids coming down the pike would not matter for financial aid purposes unless they were already in college (the exception would be made for profile schools, if you were paying for secondary education, or services for special needs children. But then those schools would also look at your ex-husband’s income and asset and would not care that he does not want to pay.)</p>
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<li>Sometimes you have to sit down and take a realistic look at yoru financial picture. If you have a non-custodial that is nto willing to pay, then you may have to take schools that require the income and assets of the non custodial parent off of the table. These are often schools that have lots of institutional aid. You may have to look at FAFSA only schools, but you must look at them with the mind set that most FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need. The only thing that the FAFSA essentially does is qualify you for federal aid. No one is getting a “freebie” at a FAFSA only school, unless they have a “0” EFC, attending community college and living at home as the maximum pell grant is ~5500 and not enough to cover someone living on campus. </li>
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<p>You may have to even make some lifestyle choices to make college happen. If you are a stay at home mom, you may have to take on a part or full time job to make your or your child’s college choice work.</p>
<p>I think ITE, it is especially important that families cast a wide net and use a bottoms up approach. First and foremost they should have a safety school under the belt that fulfills the following:
a. be a school that your cchild can be admitted to
b. If admitted s/he would be happy to attend
c. is a financially feasible option for your family.</p>
<p>I think that every family should talk with their kids up front before application season how much they are realistically willing to pay or borrow for college. It is wrong and hurtful to tell your kids apply where you want when the decisions come in, we’ll make the $$ work.</p>
<p>Gardna
No, I am not saying that college would be more affordable without public education, what I am saying is that grant money should go to the student, regardless of the institution he/she chooses to attend, public or private.<br>
I go to a public university myself (a UC) and with the fees rising and classes cut, the average graduation rate is 5-6 years, which if you add the costs up can be nearly equivalent to that of a private institution.<br>
All I am saying is that it is a personal choice…</p>
<p>Thumper…
You are correct, my point was that if Rebecca is not happy, she will not be successful.</p>
<p>“If grants were given to each individual person and not the “public education” system, more students would have more options.”</p>
<p>God help us if we start another entitlement program to add onto all the rest. Entitling people to go to college at taxpayer expense, not just public schools but expensive private ones? Not everything is life has to be completely fair, sometimes you just have to make do with what you have.</p>
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<p>If the student is eligible for a Pell grant, the pell grant does go to whatever school the student decides to attend (whether public or private).</p>