Poll: Who is paying for college?

My kids have all graduated from college, but we helped as much as possible and they got scholarships and worked. I am currently promoting (and trying to get published) a book on how teens can better qualify for scholarships.

Well with the cost of college now I can’t pay for my daughter for 4 years of college. And expecting your kids to take out the loans they start life with $40,000 or more of debt right off the bat. However, if they don’t go to college, they can’t get a job.

Here is the best part, if you tell your kids your not paying for college, and they are going straight out of college, they still can’t get financial aid. And the amount of money they can get for college is still dependent on the parent. The government and college look at the parents income, even if the child is over 18 and lives on their own.

Did you know that right now, colleges are only getting admission on 70% of who they accept, or less. But at the same time, the best you can hope for without an education isn’t much at all. So the question isn’t who is planning to pay for college, the bigger more important question is HOW is anyone paying for college?

I may be in the minority here and I am not an uncaring mother. However, I do feel that college is a personal choice made by each individual. When your child goes off to college they are an adult making an adult decision to make something of their lives. As they leave I know I have done my job, I am teaching the importance of a good education and hope that they choose to attend college. But lets face it college is expensive. I finished school 10 years ago and my oldest son only has 5 years to go till he can go. I am still paying off the debt for my loans and to take out loans for both of my children to go, well I would be paying for college for almost my whole adult life.

Trisha, I understand what you are saying and for the most part I agree. I don’t plan to take out any loans, but if I can help my child I will. It would be great if they didn’t have to take on such debt for education; however, if they have to, it is better for them to take on this type debt. They have there whole life ahead of them to work on paying it off. It wouldn’t make sense for me to take on such debt at this point in my life. I’m looking at enjoying my retirement.

Excuse me if I sound a little selfish, but I’m providing them with the necessary tools to be successful. I’m able to offer them some help, which will be considerable more than my family could give me at this same point in my life. We all have to find our way, some will have it easier and some harder, that’s just a fact of life. What’s the old adage, if it doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger.

Like many couples, my husband and myself have advanced degrees and I had children a bit later. Trying to pay back undrergrad and grad loans, and raise a family AND save for retirement has taken much of our resources. We tried the 529 plan in our state to help our kids, but we just closed it out because of losing, on average 25%. We did pay off all our school loans over many years; now we have decided to stop putting into our 401k in favor of using that money to help out with our kids’ tuition/expenses. However, school loans are a must for the kids to get through.

Even tho our son is 18, the FAFSA looks at him as a dependent and takes our finances into account. I told our son at the beginning of his senior year (which the end of is fast approaching!) that his new full-time job was filling out scholarships! We fall right in the problem area – enough income to not qualify for alot, no way near enough income to pay it all! He’ll be attending a public, state college and the estimated cost for the year is over $18,000! After the shock, I looked at it and realized they were figuring over $1000 for books and over $3500 for personal expenses and transportation. I told him that we would look for used books before he heads to the school book store and gets new, and that his personal expenses we would take care of just like now. The expense of college will be his and ours – he will be responsible for the tuition and room/board, we’ll cover the personal expenses, transportation costs, and books. He has received some scholarships, he will do work study, and he will have student loans. He’s majoring in education, so he will look into TEACH grants also. When I went to college I was totally unaware of the financial part of it – my parents paid for it all. I look back and realize how wrong and totally spoiled I was by that. I was a horrible student because it didn’t mean anything to me – I want our son to have a sense of responsibility and to understand the consequenses of not doing well. I’m 43 and still look back and can’t understand how my parents didn’t wring my neck for basically wasting alot of their money to just have fun for three years before dropping out!