<p>She is in a 2 yr program for a Physical Therapy Assistant degree. So just next semester and next year to deal with financially. She started out at the state school before getting into this program. One year of classes, 4 transferred, making this program a little easier.</p>
<p>I think she will graduate with about $16K total in loans. Most of them are subsidized. I don’t think that is going to be unmanageable; income should be around $35K to start.</p>
<p>She is the youngest in the program. All the others are older, have worked in healthcare, or already have degrees. So this was truly an incredible opportunity for her, and the reason I am more willing than DH to deal with the expenses. </p>
<p>I think she also appreciates this, as she did the FT job hunt during the summer, and realized she was never going to make enough money to live independently. </p>
<p>Does her program go on in the summer also, or can she work more then and during winter break? Is her job the type where she could pick up more hours easily, or would she have to get a 2nd job and coordinate hours at 2 jobs? If feasible to work more at these times, then you might talk to her about saving money from those paychecks in a dedicated account for the car, for example. Since the car is used, even if repaired recently, she should expect more repairs as well as routine maintenance. If the car breaks down, it needs to be repaired immediately, so the money has to be available. This would get her used to saving money for a rainy day. Whatever is left after auto expenses could go towards starting her independent life after college. Security deposit, furniture and household goods. It would be good financial training and may appease your husband. </p>
<p>^I hope that she is NOT driving car that is on somebody else’s name.
If she is driving somebody’s car, that person will be financially responsible in case of accident.
We switched D’s car to her name right after she was not minor any more (18 or 21, I do not remember). For minor, it does not matter, the other party still will go after parent. We have burnt when S. got into bad accident driving our car, no more of that…</p>
<p>For my insurance, they said it is fine as long as my D’s name is on one of the cars owned by the family if they are all under the same insurance company.</p>
<p>Our DS1’s school separated out a student contribution from the parent contribution. They expect students to contribute about 2K freshman year, and a bit more each year after that from summer earnings. We asked our S to pay that. We also expected him to pay for textbooks and personal expenses out of his school-year earnings. He lived on campus, but if he hadn’t been, we would have either helped with his commuting expenses (gas, car maintenance) or earmarked his summer earnings toward that rather than directly toward tuition. </p>
<p>Is your daughter able to work more hours during the summer? If so she should be able to earn enough “extra” to cover your family’s EFC if it remains in the $2K range. So I would suggest that for next year, you tell her that you expect her to earn a certain amount ($2K or whatever you think is reasonable) toward her tuition and/or books, in addition to covering the personal expenses that she covers now. </p>