Is anyone else not saving or paying for college?

[robinb]

I never said the word happy, buti won't feel guilt if my child does have to struggle. I seriously did not think name calling nor personal attacks were allowed. I have done no such thing, but merely express my opinion. I seeno reason for this hostility,

I find it interesting that someone who has lost the ability to send and receive Private Messages continues to stir the pot so vigorously .

 

[LisaR]

Even non "brand" colleges in Michigan are much more expensive than Florida.

Let's take Oakland University, which is just a small regional college in suburban Detroit. It's tuition is $9,938, practically triple that of FSU, which in turn has the much better reputation for a much cheaper price.

The poster you originally quoted was talking tuition only. (FAU 12 credit hours).

24 credits at FSU (2 semesters) for tuition only is $5090 ($212 and change per credit hour).

24 credits at OU for tuition only is $8184.

While FL schools are significantly cheaper, OU isn't triple the cost. It isn't even double. The vast majority of FL schools are raising their tuition 15% a year until they are on par with the rest of the country.

When we moved to FL in 2004 from MI, tuition was around $90 a credit hour here. We were jumping for joy! Now tuition is over $200 per credit hour. Certainly cheaper than MI, but it is catching up. I am not impressed with the quality of education at many of the state universities here. They were worth $90 a credit hour. I'm not sure about $212 and they definitely aren't worth over $300 a credit hour. Of course, that is just my opinion.

 

[anniemck]

But basically in your case, it's the state of Florida that's filling in the parent role here with the Florida grant and scholarship, and paying a big chunk of their schooling.

I think that's great, but not everyone is lucky enough to live in Florida.

Actually, the Florida grant is about $500, so not that much, and that is overage that they actually receive in a check. It is also a separate grant that they had to apply for. Many don't realize it is out there, so they do not apply, we did our research for what would help them. With their grades they are able to keep up their grants/scholarships. Must maintain 2.0 minimum and 67% course completion. If they dropped below that, they would lose it all. Like I said they are A/B students, nothing to worry about.

 

[Janepod]

The poster you originally quoted was talking tuition only. (FAU 12 credit hours).

24 credits at FSU (2 semesters) for tuition only is $5090 ($212 and change per credit hour).

24 credits at OU for tuition only is $8184.

While FL schools are significantly cheaper, OU isn't triple the cost. It isn't even double. The vast majority of FL schools are raising their tuition 15% a year until they are on par with the rest of the country.

Is it typical to take only 12 credits a semester?

My alma mater is a private university and requires 120 credits to graduate. So, 15/semester if you want to graduate in four years. (They do not accept AP scores for credit, only for placement or to waive a requirement, such as language or calculus.) Does this mean you can earn a BS or BA from a FL school with only 96 credits?

 

[TXinmyheart]

I find it interesting that someone who has lost the ability to send and receive Private Messages continues to stir the pot so vigorously .

I have never lost the ability to send and receive private messages. I did not turn it on. I don't understand the term stirring the pot. I am merely responding to posts directed towards me or our philosophy.

 

[LisaR]

Is it typical to take only 12 credits a semester?

My alma mater is a private university and requires 120 credits to graduate. So, 15/semester if you want to graduate in four years. (They do not accept AP scores for credit, only for placement or to waive a requirement, such as language or calculus.) Does this mean you can earn a BS or BA from a FL school with only 96 credits?

No, it isn't. I was just quoting the poster who said her DD was taking 12 credit hours at FAU. You need 120 credits for a BS or BA in FL.

 

[Janepod]

No, it isn't. I was just quoting the poster who said her DD was taking 12 credit hours at FAU. You need 120 credits for a BS or BA in FL.

Thanks!

 

[KDIPIAZZ]

i went to a private university thanks to scholarships and the sacrifices of my my mother. I graduated in 3 years summa cum laude.

My husband graduated with $45K in student loans and we married 4 months after graduation. I still remember the money issues those first couple of years when we had entry-level positions and the strain it put on our new marriage.

The cost of a college education has risen dramatically. I refuse to burden him with a debt greater than the cost of my first house. We're paying of our son's schooling. He took 15 credits his first semester and made the Dean's list. So far, he's not wasting my money.

 

[joviroxx]

It has been our philosophy since our child grew out of the toddler stage. As long as it was not a safety issue, we let our child fail. We let our child struggle. We never "let" our kid win. One of the greatest joys to me as a parent came on the day my kid put me in checkmate in chess.

I see so many parents today who don't want their kid to struggle. They give them cellphones at age 10, they give them cars, pay for insurance and gas. Come back and let them live at home into their late 20's. We believe we are giving our kid a foundation to make the correct decisions.

This hot summer our kid wanted to do a lemonade stand. While we fronted the money for supplies, our kid had to pay us back before counting profit. Now my kid has figured out how to earn money around the 'hood in ways that are age appropriate.

Our kid may struggle working at a minimum wage job or may figure out that sacrificing a social life to babysit every weekend as possible from the age of 12 can allow big money for savings and spending.

We won't feel guilty if our kid does struggle though when it is time for college. We will be able to live the life we feel we have earned. It will be awhile before our kid will be able to do the same.

Learning they can't always get what they want as kids is , IMO, completely different than struggling to make ends meet and going into debt in order to get an education to better themselves. I certainly don't think not having a cellphone, babysitting to go to the movies and letting them make their own decisions as struggling.

I don't see giving my kids cell phones, video games, expensive sneakers and the like as a parental responsibility. I DO , however, see providing my kids with the resources to get an education as my responsibility. And while they are doing this, I will provide them with everything they need. NOT everything they want, but everything they need.

 

[cmwade77]

DW pays about $3,045 for California State Dominguez Hills per semester. We have housing and food costs anyway, so that doesn't matter.

Books can be some cheap through rentals, ebooks and used books. We have even found books at thrift stores or dollar book store. On average, each semester of books runs about $100, at most.

CSU has some of the most expensive schools in the nation, so I don't understand some of the numbers on here either. And the education is a good one, so all in all, you should be able to do a 4 year education for around $25,000. Which would be about $6,250 per year.

 

[LisaR]

It has been our philosophy since our child grew out of the toddler stage. As long as it was not a safety issue, we let our child fail. We let our child struggle. We never "let" our kid win. One of the greatest joys to me as a parent came on the day my kid put me in checkmate in chess.

I see so many parents today who don't want their kid to struggle. They give them cellphones at age 10, they give them cars, pay for insurance and gas. Come back and let them live at home into their late 20's. We believe we are giving our kid a foundation to make the correct decisions.

This hot summer our kid wanted to do a lemonade stand. While we fronted the money for supplies, our kid had to pay us back before counting profit. Now my kid has figured out how to earn money around the 'hood in ways that are age appropriate.

Our kid may struggle working at a minimum wage job or may figure out that sacrificing a social life to babysit every weekend as possible from the age of 12 can allow big money for savings and spending.

We won't feel guilty if our kid does struggle though when it is time for college. We will be able to live the life we feel we have earned. It will be awhile before our kid will be able to do the same.

At the age of 12, the likelihood that your child is going to get a babysitting job for every weekend of the year is hilarious.

But let's throw an example out there.
$8 an hour x 4 hours a week x 40 weeks (realistic) = $1280 per year x 6 years until she is college age = $7680. Not bad! Not bad at all.

Let's give her a raise as she ages and call it an even $10,000. Terrific start!!

But wait, you have already stated that you aren't paying for her car, insurance, gas, cell phone, and I am guessing you aren't going to pay for her to go out with friends. Where will she get the money for those things? Car insurance will eat up a couple thousand dollars per year.

I'm thinking she is going to be out of money before she leaves for college. And don't forget, she isn't going to have a whole lot of time for her job since she is going to be working so hard to get that sports scholarship.

 

[anniemck]

Is it typical to take only 12 credits a semester?

My alma mater is a private university and requires 120 credits to graduate. So, 15/semester if you want to graduate in four years. (They do not accept AP scores for credit, only for placement or to waive a requirement, such as language or calculus.) Does this mean you can earn a BS or BA from a FL school with only 96 credits?

My daughter is taking 12 this semester as it is the final semester she has classes. Before this some semesters she did 15, others 12. However, she has also worked full time the entire time since graduating high school in 2006. She at one point took a couple of semesters off while earning her AA as she needed to regroup and figure out exactly what she wanted to do (change in degree). She is completely happy with her choice now, is manager at her job and excited to graduate in May.

12 Credit hours is minimal to be considered full time student, 9 for 3/4 time and 6 for part time, which is the minimum for any type of financial aid. I would rather my kids take 12 credits per semester and continue to be A/B students, while working, than burden themselves with 15 or 18 and drop to being B/C students and stress because they are doing so much school they can not work. They have car payments to make, car insurance to pay. They do pay $150 to their dad for rent as well, and part of the groceries, so not like they are socking all their money away.

 

[Betsy82]

We don't intend to pay for ALL our kids schooling or even tell them that they have a college savings account. They'll be expected to work to get scholarships, work to pay their way through school, and we will help based on the money we manage to save.

They're toddlers and have about $4,000 each so far. We've recently cut down our monthly contributions as we have a new goal as a family we hope to meet. We'll contribute more, or less, as our finances allow.

 

[hellow]

Lol, I hear ya!! From the day DH & I first had a talk about our future family, we have always, always planned on having 2 children. Because that's what we could comfortably afford. But then life happened and our second little bundle of joy turned into two bundles of joy. And it is most definitely more of a struggle to take care of a family of 5 than it is a family of 4. We were definitely right in only planning for two!

But I take no offense by the comment.

Exactly the situation I experienced. My husband really felt we could only afford 1, I really wanted 2, and we ended up with twins the second pregnancy. We had 3 kids under 3 when they were born, and both my husband and I had to work full time to afford them! You will survive this. Mine are 22 now and a joy to be with.

 

[EllaM]

The sad thing is college tuition has skyrocketed in comparison to the Cost of Living in the last 20 years setting many families up for failure. When I and my siblings were college age, our parents paid for us to attend state university to get our undergraduate degrees. Grad School we were on our own. Only my brother got a partial scholarship. But back then it was $100 per credit hour. Now it is over $300.

There just isn't the same amount of money for my siblings' kids to go to college. They know they will have to get scholarships. And they are looking at cheaper schools to work their way up in their chosen fields.

Having been in the University system myself, I am very doubtful most degree programs are worth the $60,000 price tag. Too much professor tenor, too much crazy budgeting, and too many unrealistic perceptions of economics have inflated that cost. The system has to change.

There was an article about Texas about a month ago. The governor challenged the colleges to come up with a college degree program for $10,000. Amazing what can be done when you cut out the chaff of higher education.

 

[Robbi]

Like so many other threads, I think this is a parental/family decision. Some parents will pay willingly and some choose not to pay at all. Personally, we have. I won't judge those who won't pay and I don't expect to be judged because we did.

 

[teller80]

DW pays about $3,045 for California State Dominguez Hills per semester.

CSU has some of the most expensive schools in the nation, so I don't understand some of the numbers on here either. And the education is a good one, so all in all, you should be able to do a 4 year education for around $25,000. Which would be about $6,250 per year.

Where did you hear that CSU is "one of the most expensive"? I think $15,000 per year for tuition is a starting price in Ohio.

 

[Caradana]

Your strategy is to build character in your daughter through adversity, and send strong messages about capitalism and work ethic (i.e. no lemonade stand unless it is profitable). Ok by me.
My strategy is to build character in my daughters by providing a safe environment to play, experiment, be creative, and articulate their ideas (i.e. lemonade stand sounds fun, let's make a bunch of different-colored lemonades and talk about why). I anticipate zero discussions about money until they are pre-teens. Money as a topic stresses out little kids, who intuitively sense worry (if they keep talking about saving money, maybe there isn't enough? Maybe bad things could happen to Mommy and Daddy?) and they quietly stew in it with zero power to change the situation.

Your daughter will very likely come out of this with exemplary character and $50K+ of student loan debt. Ok by me
She will be side by side in the workplace with my daughters, who will have a good sense of how the world works, the same degrees, and $0 in debt.

Who can go to grad school if she wants?
Who will be financially ready for marriage and babies first?
Who will likely buy a house first?
Who will feel less stress?
Who will be able to use her paycheck to cash flow going out to dinner with friends, travel, live it up a little, really enjoy her 20s?
Who is going to be sitting on her couch with a TV dinner and writing huge checks to banks until she is in her 40s?

Flipping it around, why would I WANT to put my daughters behind the 8-ball with debt if I can prevent it? Why would I disadvantage them by choice?

It'd be ironic if I invested as much in them as I plan to (lessons, braces, camps, enrichment, dermatology if they need it, special academic help if they need it) and then thrust them out into the world deep in the hole??? To compete against girls without that disadvantage? I don't think so.

Opened the 529s the day I found out we were pregnant.

p.s. sometimes I theorize that the people most resolute about NOT PAYING are the ones who are subconsciously angry that despite their hard work, life didn't turn out in a way that equipped them to pay. They are often the ones who have felt unfairly treated by life.

 

[SC Minnie]

Where did you hear that CSU is "one of the most expensive"? I think $15,000 per year for tuition is a starting price in Ohio.

That's the starting rate in SC for tuition too.

When DH and I got married he said out children would have to pay for their own college because he did. He graduated college in '76. After DD was born and we were discussing a college fund he brought up the 'he paid his on way ....'. Then I showed him the tuition to Univ of S Carolina. That made him compared to what he had to pay in '76. Needless to say we looked into various plans and started one for DD. She's now in her second semester and doing great- made the high honor Dean's list for first semester.

 

[Tinijocaro]

For those who feel it is their obligation to pay for college for their kids, why are many of you only paying for undergrad but not grad school.

So many fields today require a Master's degree to be able to get a job. I realize not all do but a Bachelor's degree is a dime a dozen. It's comparable to what a high school diploma was years ago-expected. A Master's degree can really set an applicant apart from those with just a Bachelor's degree.

So why do you set your kids loose when it comes to grad school-isn't that part of your obligation too?