Debt Dumpers 2025

[afan]

It is nice to have the private school name on your resume...... but only for getting your first job. After that your work experience is what matters more.

The biz college of the cal state school I went to is accredited the same as Harvard. All of my classes for my major or general education, had actual professors or people that worked in the industry they were teaching about. Only my science labs had grad student tags. Most large universities have a lot of ta's teaching.

Having Harvard on my resume would just say I spent a lot of money for college. It doesn't say the education was better.

 

[barkley]

I'm also going to try verrryyy hard to steer my children way away from private colleges, that is crazy town. 2 years of CC and transferring to a public 4 year to finish is what I did.

The biz college of the cal state school I went to is accredited the same as Harvard. All of my classes for my major or general education, had actual professors or people that worked in the industry they were teaching about. Only my science labs had grad student tags. Most large universities have a lot of ta's teaching.

I was lucky enough to live within a fairly reasonable commute (depending on the time of day and traffic ) to 3 community colleges when I lived in northern california. I availed myself of the community college system and ended up with some of the identical professors teaching the identical lower division classes they were concurrently teaching at the much costlier uc berkeley and uc davis.

 

[piglet1979]

We do about 25% of annual income in retirement, not counting personal brokerage and other stuff, but yes I get what you're saying! We don't have any consumer debt, just the mortgage.

I'm also going to try verrryyy hard to steer my children way away from private colleges, that is crazy town. 2 years of CC and transferring to a public 4 year to finish is what I did.

Both of my kids applied to both private and public schools. Oldest is at a private and youngest is at a state school. Sometimes private schools come out to be the same as state schools because they have more money to give out. Oldest got around $25,000 in merit scholarship and youngest got $6,000 for merit. What we found that made the biggest difference is staying home. It was roughly $15,000 to live on campus. Both kids went to the school that they had to pay the least amount for school.

I suggest applying to both and see what comes out to be the cheapest.

 

[barkley]

Both of my kids applied to both private and public schools. Oldest is at a private and youngest is at a state school. Sometimes private schools come out to be the same as state schools because they have more money to give out. Oldest got around $25,000 in merit scholarship and youngest got $6,000 for merit. What we found that made the biggest difference is staying home. It was roughly $15,000 to live on campus. Both kids went to the school that they had to pay the least amount for school.

I suggest applying to both and see what comes out to be the cheapest.

I'll second this suggestion and add that the same practice result can apply to community colleges vs. state colleges. when our oldest was in high school and considering community college I suggested at least applying to/doing the general ('all in one') scholarship application for the very local to us state university b/c since we were local we were constantly seeing/hearing of their fund raising activities for scholarships. sure enough, when the acceptance was received it was quickly followed by an offer that basicly eliminated any cost difference between the university and the community college (and was good for 2 years). opted for the university b/c that's where he ultimatly planned to end up. an additional advantage was being able to get into a student job in freshman year which established a track record when it came to competing for the more desireable student jobs in junior and senior years. community college offered nothing scholarship wise.

housing for college is OBSCENE-the one local to us did not require it when oldest went but does now for freshman (fortunately for locals there's an exemption). I was curious so I just looked and their cost is over $15,000 for a shared room/community bathroom/bare bones meal plan (that no one opts for-too meager). safe/well kept apartment complexes (like the one my oldest lives in) near the university (with a bus stop outside that has a direct to/from the university route) charge around $1000 per month for a 1 bedroom full apartment (so private bathroom, living room dining area/kitchen) that also includes a washer dryer in each unit (no paying per load) and free secure parking (so no exhorbitant parking fee on campus). the kicker is you have that apartment for the full duration of your lease so unlike the dorms you don't have to find alternate housing during the almost month long winter break (and 3 months during the summer).