So what do you do when you have a child that wants a career in a field that not many colleges offer? And the colleges that do offer that major are running around $35,000 for room and board and fees? Not counting transportation?
My daughter has wanted to be an entomologist (study of bugs) since she was 2 years old. Not many schools offer it. The only state school we have that does offer it will still run us $28,000+ per year. I highly doubt we will qualify for any "free" money. My daughter has been working hard in school so that she can try for scholarships, and is in the top 10% of her class, but she has to actually work for her grades, so schools may not look at her as scholarship material since she has not been "straight A's", although she does take honors courses. Our state school is also very competitive, and has already stated to us that it may not necessarily take local college course credit because their curriculum is much tougher, and it would not be fair to the student. Out-of-state schools that she is looking at offer no guarantee that her community college credits will be accepted. This is a bummer, since my daughter is going to high school in the morning and community college in the afternoon, hoping to graduate high school with 20 credit hours, thinking this would help in affording college. Even if her credits were accepted, we would still be looking to pay over $90,000 for 3 years!
Perhaps we made a mistake because my husband and I felt it was most important for him to work long hours so that I could stay home with our children. I don't regret this at all, for my joy in life has been raising my daughters (and their friends that rely on me since their own parents are not always fortunate enough to be able to take off of work). I have helped the family where I could, dog walking and working as an outside
travel agent, but still, my husband's income is what we live on. We have always lived frugally, no McDonald's, rarely eating out, I don't shop at Nieman Marcus or Von Maur, we drive 10 and 11 year old vehicles, we have the smallest home in our subdivision, but we live in an area with a good school district, so we are ok with that.
We may have made another mistake in thinking that family trips were important. I felt it was beneficial for us to spend time away from the stresses of school and home life and enjoy being together in different places. I have shown my children many parts of this world (not just Epcot
) so that they can realize they are part of something bigger than just their own little part of America. From so many posts here, I was wrong to make staying home and vacations an important thing in our lives. Yet, I have 2 daughters that know geography and understand the political systems in many countries and realize that "one size fits all" does not always work in government, and most importantly, my daughters understand that what they do can have an impact on others, be it a smile to a small child sitting next to a stall on a dirt road in some far-off country to recycling in hopes of saving the Arctic ice for the polar bears (which is what my youngest plans on doing for her career). But being aware of one's place in this world does not pay for college, unfortunately!
I have two daughters. One after the other will be off to college. I do not know how we will afford this. I believe it is wrong to be expected to take all my equity out of my home and drain our savings to pay for one daughter's college, then having nothing left for the other daughter. There is something wrong when people that make their family a priority are unable to send their daughter to a school that will provide her with an education in the field that she has been dreaming of since she was two years old!
I do not know what the solution is. We have friends that are already sending their children to college, and they tell us to empty our bank accounts and put the money into pop-up campers because you can always sell those. Not feasible where we live, but it works for that family! Another family tells us to take the money out of savings and put it into a safety deposit box, or give it to my parents and have them hold it in their name. I don't know. We have some money saved for both girls, we always thought college would be more affordable (it has been years since DH and I have attended!) and that the money saved would be there for our girls when they graduated, to help them begin their lives. We were wrong.
So my DH and I sit here, worrying over college for our daughters. Yet, we continue to live as we have been, saving where we can but yet using some money to enjoy our lives and spend time with our daughters while they are still home. A few of our friends say that they paid their own way through college, their parents didn't help, and they appreciated their education that much more. Guess we could do that. Nowhere is it written that parents must provide an education beyond 16. Yet, that doesn't seem like the perfect answer for us, either.
Many times, I wish the U.S. school system valued their children and the education system more. I come from a country where college is free. However, you pay big taxes to provide that (and other things). I live in America though, this is where my children were born, and struggling to provide your children with a good education so that they can have a good future is the American way now. At least, that is how my friends and I look at it. I wish it was easier, I wish I had answers for school, I wish my daughter was valedictorian!
Instead, I shall keep hoping that someone here finds the answer.
She knew she had to live at home because room and board was out of the question! 2 more classes to go and she'll be out of college with no student loans 
although we would have taken them out if that was our only option.
