<p>I read the comments on the CNN article linked above. I guess I am old fashioned in that I expect to pay back money I borrowed, and I expect my kids to do the same. Many comments there were from people outraged that they borrowed huge sums of money and now were expected to pay it back. That is why we need to consider this BEFORE we commit. I asked my friend how much money her daughter had borrowed and she did not know. She said that she just signed the paperwork every time and that she was surprised at the total when her daughter graduated! The young woman has what I refer to as a “generic degree”, a business degree that enabled her to be a manager in retail locations and not much more. I’m not sure she is feeling the love from her small private school at this time.</p>
<p>I personally do think it is the parent’s responsibility to cover college costs except when the parents do not have the means. I do not think, however, it is the parent’s responsibility to pay for wedding costs. There’s quite a few differences in opinions in this area and no one is right or wrong. I can’t help but wonder what is in the heads of parents who won’t pay college costs but then throw a big wedding celebration. I told my kids that I brought them into this world and it is my job to provide for them to give them a good start in it. But if they can’t afford their own wedding, something you can do very inexpensively, then they should not be getting married anyway.</p>
<p>If you really want to go to Harvey Mudd, apply for private merit based scholarships and see how many you can get. If these can cut down your debt significantly, then go to the school you really want to go to. Otherwise, you should probably stick with UCI since over $100,000 in college loan debt will be overwhelming. Remember that amount of debt is assuming that you don’t wind up with additional debt from credit cards.</p>
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<p>What’s “better” is subjective. “Better” does not necessarily mean most expensive or private. It really depends on the student. Thus, I don’t think parents should be negatively judged simply on the basis of choosing to send a student to a school that’s less expensive than what they could stretch to afford, or choosing public over private. </p>
<p>Saving for retirement, enjoying the fruits of their own labor, and treating themselves to some of life’s pleasures instead of spending it all on their child’s education when there are plenty of very good, but less costly alternatives, is not a crime. It’s not as if the student is being deprived of a quality education, and in many cases, for the individual student, the less costly choice may indeed be the “better” one. Only that particular family can judge.</p>
<p>Thumper1 - There are two types of Stafford loans for students. One is subsidized and one isn’t. Anyone can get the unsubsidized loan but there is a ‘need’ standard for the subsidized one. The interest rates are different (4.5 vs 6.8 for the 2010-11 school year) and the terms are different (e.g., when the interest starts to accrue).</p>
<p>qdogpa - In regards to two of your quotes - “…filling your yacht with diesel fuel…” and “Selfish parents who only care about their reirement then their childrens’s education!..”. There’s a difference between living a lavish lifestyle and saving for the future. Planning for retirement is a responsibility - it’s not selfish. Who’s supposed to foot the bill - the government, your kids? Most of us will live longer than we are able to work.</p>
<p>I am a college bound student and in no way do I agree with the idea that parents should feel obligated to pay for the “best” college experience for their child.
As a student I sat down and looked at my options early on in the process, making sure that I could afford it. I picked a state school that I got a full tuition scholarship from and I will never look back. My parents agreed to pay for my room and board but I never felt entitled even to that.
As an adult it is my responsibility to pay for my education and make the most of what I have. I think that a student that is paying for their own college has a much bigger stake in their own education than one who is not paying anything at all.
I have the utmost respect for parents that choose to do everything they can to give their child the best education, but I also think there is some value in figuring it out yourself. I knew that my parents would not be able to comfortably afford to pay for my college education, and that affected the colleges that I chose to apply to.</p>
<p>^and because of your maturity, responsibility, and lack of entitlement, you are going to have a great shot at succeeding in life. Good luck!</p>
<p>It’s all well and good to say that parents aren’t obligated to pay for their children’s education- indeed, I agree that paying for a less expensive school is often the better move- but the FAFSA expects a parent’s contribution, as do the inflated tuition costs of colleges (barring perhaps CCs). It’s nearly impossible for a student to get a bachelor’s degree- anywhere- these days without tremendous aid from the school, government, or parents, because tuition costs have increased far beyond inflation of wages.</p>
<p>AllieOv26: I applaud you. </p>
<p>My husband and I saved for our kids to get a state school education. Our daughter has been accepted to every school she applied to and as much as she would love to go to Duke, she has accepted a full-ride at a state school. She is very proud of herself for earning enough scholarship money to take care of her undergrad. Does her choice make us bad parents because she could have gone to Duke? I don’t think so. Will her choice make her feel as if she owns her education and will it encourage her to excel? Probably. Will her choice hinder her future? Not on your life.</p>
<p>I think it is less selfish for parents to plan for their retirement rather than spending it on a child’s college and then needing their kids to support them when they get older. My husband and I plan on taking care of our own expenses in our old age and what ever is left over when we die, the kids can have, but they don’t need to worry about supporting us, ever.</p>
<p>@Blackroses
Have your dad check with his benefits administrator. There might very well be a tuition fee waiver or discount for dependents of UCI employees.</p>
<p>Blackroses - look at some loan calculators, and make some budgets.
$110,000 at 5% would take 10 years at $1,166/month. If you start at $80K (which is pretty good), you will have around 4.2/K month in income. Spending a third of it on education loans will make life very,very hard. You’ll be delaying things like buying a house and having a family. $30 or 40K would be a stretch, but doable.</p>
<p>My son has a full ride to Carlson School of Business U of Minnesota and has been accepted in the honors program. He has also been accepted to Yale. He will be recieving the Byrd Scholarship, the National Merit Scholarship (the award-not anything from Yale) and a few other merit awards - he doesn’t qualify for any financial aid. Full ride to U of M Carlson School of Business or Yale?</p>
<p>@pollyw what does he want to do with the business degree? Typically I always go for the low cost option unless the student wants to go into investment banking or high-end management consulting (where starting pay is around $200k a year). Would you be expecting him to pay the cost of Yale, or would you be paying?</p>
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<p>Even the majority of Wharton MBAs don’t have that kind of entry level salary. For undergrads, this chart will tell you something entirely different from what you know, even if you only look at the top income earners adn ignore the rest <a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/wharton/surveys/Wharton2009Report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/wharton/surveys/Wharton2009Report.pdf</a></p>
<p>^I know, but the majority of Wharton MBAs don’t get hired by McKinsey or Bain, only the top grads. I’ve known a few Ivy League undergrads that got hired by McKinsey right out of school (I used to work with them). One in particular, lived with his parents in Chicago for several years and saved up the cash for Harvard Medical School in a few years. But these are extreme cases, and I wanted pollyw to answer that question before I had a definitive opinion. That’s the only case I would I recommend someone spending the money for a prestigious expensive school, and you’d have to be confident that you would be at the top of your graduating class, something that would be really hard to predict.</p>
<p>I’ve really appreciated all the comments here. Our daughter is also in a similar situation. She’s accepted to Tulane and has a full-tuition scholarship. She would have to borrow $8500 this year, and presumably that or a bit more each year after that given that costs will likely rise some over the 4 yrs. </p>
<p>She’s also been accepted to U of Idaho and has a NMF full-ride there, so would graduate with no debt (other than if she was to do study abroad, which she really wants, U of I does not cover any of those costs). </p>
<p>She’s planning to major in chemistry or chemical engineering. Tulane appears to have great alumni support and connections for internships and job opportunities. Is the debt worth it over the state school that as far as I know is pretty unheard of? (She already knows that she would rather attend Tulane.)</p>
<p>hsmom4, only you and your family can decide how much debt is too much. For our family, my husband and I made this decision without our daughter’s input because we feel that an 18-year-old really has no conception of how her future life would be impacted by large amounts of debt.</p>
<p>As a guideline, we used the federal student loan limit amounts, so she will have a total debt of $27,000 by the time she graduates.</p>
<p>LasMa, that makes sense. I would add my 2 cent caution to this. 27K is no big deal for a ChemE as it comes out about 1/2 of her entry level salary. But 27K could be a big deal for a do gooder (entry level in non-profit type organizations, for example). So, the potential earnings should play a role in this consideration.</p>
<p>True, and thank you for adding that.</p>
<p>If your mother is a doctor and your father teaches at UCI and you are the only child they will be putting through college in the next four years, go to Harvey Mudd. They should be able to afford it.</p>