Parents paying for college

[dreamin_disney]

My Mom was a single parent. I started working at age 16. I only did about 2 years of junior college and paid for it myself.

My DD's dream school is a private university and super expensive so she opts for a state school. I told her I would pay for housing/dining plan. She would be responsible for tuition and spending money. She took a lot of Ap's classes and had really good grades and earned 3 scholarships. She had a kids saving acct she used to pay for college and some grad money and only had to take out one loan(entire year is covered now). We are able to help her out with what we can and I think the support will help her get through school without so much stress of $$$debt. If she had picked a school closer to home and didn't need housing I would have used the money I'm paying for housing toward her tuition. The school closer to us I know she wouldn't have been happy going their so I'm glad she picked a school that she will be happy in and has a lot more to offer. I know not everyone can help with their childrens education, we will be on a budget for the next 4 years but I'm ok with that. We don't want our DD to be in so much debt trying to better herself in getting a career. Luckily we are financially better off then when she was little. I tried starting a college fund for her but was only able to for a year but times got hard and we had to dip into it.

 

[CarolAnn856]

I had a merit scholarship, and my parents paid for most of the rest, including housing, books, and dining. There was a loan that they took out that I chose to take over after graduation. My husband's parents paid for all sxhool expenses. We both had summer jobs that went towards extras, including fraternity/sorority dues.

Our son starts college this fall with some very nice merit scholarships. We will pay the remainder of his school expenses. He does have a summer job at a Cub Scout camp, but it doesn't pay much, so we'll be happy to help supplement his extras. We will be paying for our daughter's college, too, in a few years. My husband and I always knew that we planned to provide our kids with their college education.

 

[AustinMommyofThree]

My parents paid for my B.S. and graduate degree (I was one of four and they paid for my siblings, as well) and my husband's parents paid for his B.S. and graduate degree (he was one of three children). We intend to pay for our children's colleges out of savings and income, as need-based aid isn't on the horizon for us.

 

[georgina]

No, my parents did not pay for my college. I was allowed to live at home for a year when I did not have enough money to live elsewhere. I was the youngest of a large family so by the time I got to college age my father was in his peak earning years and I did not qualify for need based aid as many of my siblings had. (They did not help any one with college expenses)

Yes, we did help pay for college for our 3 kids, with some help from my mother in law. (2 of them had academic scholarships also.) My children all graduated debt free and understand how much of a gift this is. I hope to be able to help my grandchildren someday as my MIL helped our kids.

 

[AnnaS]

We paid for the kids' college education.

 

[aprilchem]

My parents didn't pay anything for my college - they had saved a little bit of money, but I ended up earning a scholarship that covered tuition, room, board, and books for all 4 years. I went to grad school in a STEM field, and you don't have to pay for that (they pay you a stipend to go, and in return you teach courses and do research). So I was fortunate to be able graduate with zero debt (and a small amount of money saved, since I lived frugally in graduate school).

I am a college professor, so our 3 kids will go to college for free, if they choose to do so - my institution has a tuition-exchange program with a number of other schools so they don't have to go to my school. Since the tuition exchange doesn't cover room and board, though, we have savings accounts for all 3 kids and are planning to have enough in each one to cover room and board for four years.

 

[Nick6300]

My parents supported my 2 brothers and a sis, but not me, for tuition. But I also didn't need help. I believe they may have contributed between $10-20k Ea of the 3 siblings, and also gave Ea of them a hand me down car or helped pay for a used one under $3k. I got a used purple station wagon, that friends called the party wagon. Wrecked the car in the first icy MI winter. But in my defense a kid crossed over into my lane head on. They once told me that they'd give me the college $ anyhow to invest in the stock market for later, in attempt to be more fair... but they spent it on a cottage- and "you get to enjoy it"

From an early age, they emphasized the importance of college, but that we needed to work harder then the others beforehand to do well in school, and save on our own. They said "they'd help if they could, but remember there are 4 of us." But don't get me wrong, my folks adopted 3 of us from S Korea at astronomical financial costs- saved us really. My siblings were from different situations but we were homeless and later orphans, and past the deisreable age for adoption at nearly 7.

They helped motivate me to do well in school by rewarding A's - started out as $50 (or video game) per report card that were all As (which later became too expensive), and that sparked my competitiveness, and the habitual desire to do well from grade school carried over. I think habits play an important role - and they nudged me in that direction. It was more than though, as I had a strong desire to fully capture the 2nd chance at life. I worked on farms earning as much as $100 a day during the summers - as a 7 yr old kid that probably looked like a migrant worker, who barely spoke English. I worked through high school (wknds and a few wk nights+ summers) while still playing sports/studying, and full time work while enrolling full time in college so that I could pay my mortgage (bought a starter home in college).

From this I experience I'd like to adopt a similar approach that my parents used. I'll save for my kids future college expenses but I wouldn't ever tell her/him the amount of savings or that everything is going to be handed to them. I'd say that we believe your education is important and we'll help you if we can but that you need to work hard to achieve your dreams. And it's never more rewarding than if you yourself paddled hard upstream in order to succeed.

 

[Colleen27]

My mom couldn't afford to pay for college, so I "followed the money" to an unsuitable school for me. I hope to avoid repeating that mistake with my kids, and we do have some college savings for them but not nearly enough to pay full price for four years for all three of them. We'll pay every dime of our son's college - he's going for a two-year trade degree at the local community college - and help the girls as much as we can, but some of it will be up to them. If they take loans for core expenses (as opposed to taking them for extras), we also plan to help with repayment after they graduate.

That was nice when you could work a summer and pay for college SO not so anymore though- my daughter is starting college in Sept- her school is 67,000 a year (and no, it is NOT an ivy league school)- luckily she got enough financial aid and grants that it will only cost just over 7,000 a year to me! The big thing people told me was to have her apply to the more expensive private schools, they give WAY more aid than the state schools and that was so right. If she went to a state school and dormed there it would have cost me over double what the private school (including dorming) is costing.

That's the best advice we've gotten so far as well. Several of the schools on DD's list expect little or no family contribution from a middle-income family. State schools, on the other hand, would basically cost us full sticker price because their merit aid is such a long shot (at one, there are 5 sizable scholarships awarded each year with freshman classes of 7000+). I probably wouldn't have thought of it on my own because we make too much for the Pell grant so I didn't think need-based aid was going to be on the table, but most of the private schools she's looked at have far more generous guidelines for their institutional aid.

 

[amberpi]

100% need based- my daughter is an excellent student, high honors, all AP classes, great ACT scores but they don't give a lot of merit aid at her school, more need based.

So funny how different school to school is. I disqualified for any needs based aid, but got merit based scholarships only. State school.

 

[okeydokey]

My parents paid what they could and I had a small scholarship and took loans for the rest. I also worked part time in College.

My daughter is covering her in-state tuition. She gets some scholarship money and the rest comes from her savings (although FL Bright Futures will cover tuition for her this year -YAY). We pay her rent and she has a job that pays her expenses. We can most likely get her our of Undergrad debt free.

My son will most likely have scholarships that will cover cost of attendance, so what we have saved for him thus far he can use in grad school.

 

[DVC-Don]

My wife and I both paid for our own college. Both of us did community college and then transfered to a four year and we both communted so saved on the room and board things. With our son we paid for his community college and he did not want to go on. With our daughter we paid for three years and she paid for the fourth year and is now paying for her masters. We all went to state colleges to keep the costs down.

 

[Nick6300]

That's great for your daughter. But, unfortunately, for us, it's merit aid or nothing. And, that's with two in college (twins) at the same time. Literally, even schools costing more than $70K said "you pay all" for BOTH. I'd love to know where they think I've got a spare $140K a year laying around, because I sure can't find it. LOL.

So, for us, we've got to depend on merit aid at mid range privates to bring it "in line" with high quality publics (in state) or they will be taking our loans, which is so not smart and so not worth it. Better to attend a decent public than end up in debt for what might be a only marginally better education. Now, if you get needs based aid, go for it, but that is not in the cards for us at all (nor most people, unfortunately).

Have you guys exhausted all sources of awards, starting with school of choice of course, talking to the high school counselors to apply for all of local ones, then the local Kiwanis, social/civic clubs charitable orgs and private family scholarships, and only resorting to the national/global last? I made it a goal to apply to min. 1 per week my senior yr. researched at the library, called places like the Moose Club or a developer who has made contributions in the past, to ask if they were offering scholarships, if yes-what they looked for in a recipient, wanted them to remember my name when they saw my app. Wrote many essays that many kids are unwilling to do, even drawing/creative writing contests to win computers/$.

 

[nene0182]

My parents didn't pay for any of my schooling. Unfortunately the money just wasn't there. I graduated with way too much student loan debt but thankfully have no problem making the payments every month. Of course this means that along with saving for retirement, I won't be able to help my son either. His dad does have a college savings account for him. I'm not sure how much is in there as I feel that's his business, not mine.

 

[mjkacmom]

Have you guys exhausted all sources of awards, starting with school of choice of course, talking to the high school counselors to apply for all of local ones, then the local Kiwanis, social/civic clubs charitable orgs and private family scholarships, and only resorting to the national/global last? I made it a goal to apply to min. 1 per week my senior yr. researched at the library, called places like the Moose Club or a developer who has made contributions in the past, to ask if they were offering scholarships, if yes-what they looked for in a recipient, wanted them to remember my name when they saw my app. Wrote many essays that many kids are unwilling to do, even drawing/creative writing contests to win computers/$.

Our school has a large list of all of the local scholarships and who can apply. Both of my kids received two each, for about $2000 total. However, many kids apply, so when you have 300+ kids applying for 50 scholarships, many with specific requirements (music majors, future teachers, etc.), you are not looking at much.

 

[MomofKatie]

My parents paid for college for me and my older brother. My mom got a modest inheritance when we were younger and invested it, which enabled them to cover our state University costs for 4 years. This was back in the early 80s, when a state University education was still very affordable. I didn't realize it at the time, but as I get older, I know how great it was to be able to graduate with no student loan debt.

DH ended up with about $20k of debt, which took him 20 years to pay off. It impacted our ability to start saving for our DD's college fund.

DD is an outstanding student- she qualified for a full tuition 4 year scholarship from a major University, and an additional $$ departmental scholarship that covers books and fees. We pay about half of her room, board, and spending money (our savings and both sets of grandparents' college funds for DD) and she has loans for the rest. She will end up with about $20k in debt when she graduates, unless she gets a co-op or internship while in school to help pay down some or all of that amount.

She will go into a pretty high paying field, so she shouldn't have a tough time paying her loans off within a few years. We bought her a car that she will be able to drive for at least 6 to 7 more years, and we haven't ruled out helping her with loan payments, as well. At first, I felt guilty that we couldn't pay for all of her expenses not covered by her scholarships, but now I feel that her education will mean more if she has some "skin in the game".

 

[SC Minnie]

My parents paid for all of my college. DH's parents paid for a small part of his and he had loans for the rest.

We paid for most of DD's. We started a prepaid tuition plan when she was 4 so had her tuition paid for by the time she was a junior in HS. She got a merit scholarship that paid for 90% of her housing, during fall and spring semesters we paid the additional $1000 needed. She did go to summer school because she was working so took out student loans for those terms (we were initially going to pay for summer school until DH lost his job). She graduated with less that $10,000 in loans. She is a Hosp/Tourism Mgmt major and was working at Disney as well as for one of her Hospitality professors so in the long run worth staying during the summer. The extra summer classes also allowed her to add in Marketing and Spanish minors.

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

I was VERY lucky that my parents paid for my college. My husbands parents paid for his as well. We've already got our daughters college fund going.

 

[tvguy]

My Grand parents paid my parents college costs.
My parents paid my college costs.
DW's parents were divorced when she was nine, but her dad sent her a $100 savings bond every month for college after the divorce. That covered all her costs . Her mom did not pay any of her college costs.
We paid our kids college costs. That was something we discussed and decided before our kids were conceived.
To both of us, paying for college is just like paying for diapers, it's what parents do.

 

[mjkacmom]

My Grand parents paid my parents college costs.
My parents paid my college costs.
DW's parents were divorced when she was nine, but her dad sent her a $100 savings bond every month for college after the divorce. That covered all her costs . Her mom did not pay any of her college costs.
We paid our kids college costs. That was something we discussed and decided before our kids were conceived.
To both of us, paying for college is just like paying for diapers, it's what parents do.

So if you don't pay for your kids' college, you are a bad parent? And at what cost? Here kids in the top 10% of their HS class get free CC, and in state tuition without room and board is around $15,000 a year, so technically the $30,000 we are giving each child should be enough. However, I expect their final costs to exceed $100,000 each, even attending in state schools. A half a million is a lot of money, especially 15 years away from retirement (which we have, but will be putting it towards retirement).

 

[Nick6300]

Our school has a large list of all of the local scholarships and who can apply. Both of my kids received two each, for about $2000 total. However, many kids apply, so when you have 300+ kids applying for 50 scholarships, many with specific requirements (music majors, future teachers, etc.), you are not looking at much.

Great that they won those, and it sounded like you have bright kids, congrats btw. Our school had maybe 20 for 130 kids, and like you said, there's specific criteria. Which is why I went after the other local county sources not on file at school, and various other competitions. our salutatorian rec'd 1 scholarship from his college, never put in the effort to find more, and took on loans.