The project itself is done. He's down to 1 more required merit badge-he's meeting with counselor to wrap that up Friday. His project book is nearly complete. I pleaded with him this morning to just get it done tonight. He has to be done before 18 bday but his Board of Review can be after that. Not sure how long it takes to coordinate the review. UGH....so stressful...just want this completed.
We tried printing other things and the printer wasn't working so I drove him to his meeting (he was too crazed to drive) and went and bought a new printer. We did get it printed out thankfully!!! I found out exactly what he needs to do and deadlines so I feel like I at least have a little bit better control of things. He still has that one merit badge to complete for Eagle that he should wrap up today, he has to write a personal ambition statement but that should be easy to do after his college essay, he has to meet with his scout master to sign off on the workbook & application which we hope to do Sunday, we have to PDF the application (signed off by scout master) and send to council before his birthday 1/10. Then we have to bring his workbook to the council (doesn't have to be before bday). After they have the book they will set up meeting for Board of Review. I think we might make it.
)Dd22 and ds20 went/are in in state schools. We co-signed loan, and they will pay them back (they were both given $30,000 which covered one year, and did/will spend two years off campus and working to pay r/b). In state public college here is over $30,000 a year, and our state doesn’t really give anything except free community college for those in the top 10%. Dd22 will start repaying soon (signed a job offer but wants to finish up her CPA first). Fortunately it’s a good one, she wants to pay her loans off in 8 years (but that’s $1000 a month, which won’t give her much wiggle room). I do recommend a private tutor over ACT classes, our last one was only $60 an hour, dd17’s ACT went up 3 points, SAT about 250. Classes did nothing for dd22/ds20.DD announced her college decision over Christmas. We are now trying to figure out how to pay for it. She picked the most expensive state school on her potential list. She was only granted $5000 in loans. After the loan amount it estimated $22,000 per year. We went through this once already with our oldest daughter. We owe $30,000 in loans for her alone. Our middle child was fortunate in that he had great grades and a great ACT score so we didn't pay anything for him. He has some student loans but they covered everything needed.
DD will get $3000 off annual tuition if she gets her ACT score up by 2 points so we are going to try to get her in some classes. She has already taken it 3 times. She thought she was done but we asked her if she would be willing to do it for $12000 in her pocket and she agreed it would be worth it.
We've been able to save abut $12000 though our state's college savings program. I also think that this being our youngest and the two siblings are now completely independent will help. In other words, we are not supporting 3 children any longer, just one.
My husband and I make decent money but are far from rich. We certainly make more than average. When did going to a state school become practically out of reach for the typical middle class family? Sigh. Yes, we could easily tell her to pick a less expensive school. The other two went to this school so I don't know that it would be fair. It is also where I went. My point is that going to a state university shouldn't be out of reach for your typical middle class family.
What is everyone else doing to pay for their kids school besides skipping Disney for the next four years?
(Side note, we have only taken the kids to WDW twice. The last time we did it by spending very little money. I was really hoping to go again in 2021 with just me and the spouse. We will see if we can still make that happen.
Dd topped out at 34, tried for 35 but couldn’t do it (at our big state school that’s a full rid, but they really don’t have her program anyway).
DD announced her college decision over Christmas. We are now trying to figure out how to pay for it. She picked the most expensive state school on her potential list. She was only granted $5000 in loans. After the loan amount it estimated $22,000 per year. We went through this once already with our oldest daughter. We owe $30,000 in loans for her alone. Our middle child was fortunate in that he had great grades and a great ACT score so we didn't pay anything for him. He has some student loans but they covered everything needed.
DD will get $3000 off annual tuition if she gets her ACT score up by 2 points so we are going to try to get her in some classes. She has already taken it 3 times. She thought she was done but we asked her if she would be willing to do it for $12000 in her pocket and she agreed it would be worth it.
We've been able to save abut $12000 though our state's college savings program. I also think that this being our youngest and the two siblings are now completely independent will help. In other words, we are not supporting 3 children any longer, just one.
My husband and I make decent money but are far from rich. We certainly make more than average. When did going to a state school become practically out of reach for the typical middle class family? Sigh. Yes, we could easily tell her to pick a less expensive school. The other two went to this school so I don't know that it would be fair. It is also where I went. My point is that going to a state university shouldn't be out of reach for your typical middle class family.
What is everyone else doing to pay for their kids school besides skipping Disney for the next four years?
We don’t know where DS is going yet but the only in state/public college he applied to is about $26k. We got financial aid letters from two he got into and the one he is considering would be $22k after scholarship and a $5k loan. We have 529s for the kids not not enough for four years of everything. Most likely we will reduce what we’re putting into our retirement while the kids are in college (six years total because they will overlap for two years). Right now we are maxing out. He (and my other DS, as well as their cousins) also just got a substantial money gift from his grandmother and he put it directly into savings, knowing he will have some college expenses. We want to be able to help as much as we can but probably “smaller” things like housing deposits and books will be on him...he also saved quite a bit from working last summer and will work again this summer. That said, I am still reminding him weekly to look into scholarships. Our electric company, of all things, funds four $1500 scholarships each year. One essay and the gpa requirement is very low (for him) so should be easy to apply at least.
Kind of House Hunters style, he pretty quickly told us he had removed Miami (OH) from his final 3. He just didn't feel like it was a good fit for him - he just put it on his final 3 as an in-state choice. He really liked the engineering program at Cincinnati, but didn't like the campus. He loved the Miami campus, so that's why he put it on his list, but in the end, he just didn't think the engineering program was up there with RIT. His final decision now is between RIT and Denver. What he's torn on is that he loved DU's campus (and Denver itself) so much and said he doesn't want to regret missing out on the opportunity to be in Denver, but did say he could always visit or work there one day - in fact, he's thinking he will try to find one of his co-ops out there during his 4 years. He's always been our practical kid.
