What percentage of people pay cash for college?

[yeahdisney]

We bought one semester College Illinois each year after the kids were born. (Which is no longer for sale). Each year I would ask our accountant his thoughts before I would buy again if he thought the program would remain solvent. As another Illinois program had been mismanaged. He was always skeptical.

We bought the remaining semesters before the price increase before they hit kindergarten. It went up in price as the child got older.

All my eggs were in THAT basket! It has worked out.

We saved cash for room and board over the years, in the Michigan 529. One kid inherited some. Kid two, sophomore year in high school I knew we both had to save $200 a month to allow them to live in same dorm as the first one all four years. And DH wished that as a possibility.

kid one -paid cash for room and board, college Illinois for all semesters - they pd cash for 1st semester -masters , luckily just got TA for last semester- they will pay cash for rest - the fees.

kid two- did well on ACT and entered with 15 credits and received mixture of money. Should not graduate with debt. And has chosen to move to cheaper apartment

 

[barkley]

Some companies do. For example, here in Miami Baptist Health will refund fully for employees who stay employed by Baptist for 10 years. I don't know the details -- vesting, when refunds start, etc -- but they'll refund the whole thing.

the government entity i retired from was so desperate for certain classifications of staff that they would pay a salary in addition to all school costs for pursuing specific degrees. the staff member had to sign a contract agreeing to accept a job in that classification and remain within it for so many years upon completion of the degree program otherwise they had to repay the full cost of both the salary and the schooling. we had local hospitals at the time that had similar programs to attract rn's (get hired as an entry level clerk-finish you 6 month probation and go into the rn program. it was a pretty sweet deal).

 

[DisneyHardin]

Could never understand from reading on the dis how one can have a child, then 18 years later wonder how to pay for university.

When a family is living paycheck to paycheck, there isn't extra money for a college fund.

 

[lifesavacation]

We just paid for them as they went along and they all went away to university. One went to law school. We paid 2/3rds of the law school. They have the rest on a loan that is getting paid off.
Could never understand from reading on the dis how one can have a child, then 18 years later wonder how to pay for university.

I don't think it's that hard to understand. College costs have increased exponentially in the last 18 years. Cost increases may outpace a reasonable savings plan. Also, parents/students may be able to afford state universities, but private is a big stretch.

 

[mjkacmom]

We just paid for them as they went along and they all went away to university. One went to law school. We paid 2/3rds of the law school. They have the rest on a loan that is getting paid off.
Could never understand from reading on the dis how one can have a child, then 18 years later wonder how to pay for university.

By the time they are all finished, my kids’ public university education will have cost around $660,000, and that’s after $100,000 in merit. We did not save that much (but definitely have more than that in retirement funds). We are not eligible for financial aid.

 

[JimMIA]

When a family is living paycheck to paycheck, there isn't extra money for a college fund.

I don't think it's that hard to understand. College costs have increased exponentially in the last 18 years. Cost increases may outpace a reasonable savings plan. Also, parents/students may be able to afford state universities, but private is a big stretch.

Valid points, but I'm pretty sure @barkley was talking about parents for whom the thought of paying for college never entered their head until HS graduation -- not people struggling with daily expenses, or those faced with rapidly escalating college costs.

I know a LOT of those parents, including some of our closest friends.

 

[HopperFan]

Also, parents/students may be able to afford state universities, but private is a big stretch.

I always tell folks looking (that ask me for input) to not rule out private schools. They have way more "foundation" money and way more flexibility to offer scholarships. If you have good grades and/or bring something special to their community they can offer sweet packages that public schools can not. Public schools play by strict rules in how they offer any scholarships.

DD graduated high school at 16 so imagine us applying at 15 for college. To cover our bases in case that got her an instant no, we visited about 12 colleges and applied at about 8. A few private, some state programs and a few out of state "state" programs. She was offered scholarship money from all of them the most being the private schools. One private school even came back with a second bigger offer which would have made it more reasonable than than some in state colleges.

 

[barkley]

i'll be honest. i'm 60 and despite going to high school with (not being one) some insanely wealthy kids-i never knew any whose parents paid in full for their college education. it can be said that tuition was much less back in the 80's but i had classmates who went what were even then (considering median cost of living/wages) very expensive top private universities. it just was not the norm (and kind of unheard of) in the region i grew up in. maybe when they graduated their parents privatly paid off their student loans but i'm thinking not based on the student debt they racked up and complained about paying for decades. allot of my peers were not able to begin to think about saving for retirement until much later in life than their parents (who did have a lower percentage of college degrees or had paid for them via g.i. benefits) so saving for THEIR kid's education was not the driving factor in budgeting.

i've got friends who did think about saving for their kid's education as well as retirement, some did so successfully but others took a HEAVY hit when the market tanked in 2008. they've had to make some tough choices. some opted to tell their kids they would have to take on education debt in order to ensure they (parents) had sufficient retirement savings-others have paid in full but largely depleted their retirement accounts (some will never manage to retire).

 

[design_mom]

Could never understand from reading on the dis how one can have a child, then 18 years later wonder how to pay for university.

I know a couple of those:
-- One was convinced from a young age that their son would be getting a full-ride athletic scholarship until it became painfully obvious that he wouldn't be. (Multiple people tried to tell them that sports scholarships are more rare than you'd suppose, but they didn't believe it. This is a family member -- and she had a very skewed vision of her student's athletic talent, I think. He didn't make varsity till senior year, and wasn't a starter then... and this was in a program that had no cuts for the sport. They were always convinced that he had stupid coaches who didn't recognize his talent and were unfair to him -- to the point that they tried to get both the JV and varsity coaches fired, unsuccessfully. I'm sure the AD is really glad he graduated.) They have a daughter who's currently a high school sophomore -- and they're convinced she's going to get a full-ride academic scholarship. She's a good student but has neither the grades, test scores, nor course rigor, that mine had...and while mine have been offered decent academic scholarships, neither has been offered anything close to full-ride.
-- A number of others just do not think that college tuition falls under a parents' duty to pay. And quite a few of these are parents who probably could have afforded to save. But, "Nobody paid my tuition and I did it just fine, so my kid will, too." Or "there's no way I can pay that much... he'll have to take out loans, and what's a little bigger loan?"
-- A lot of people didn't keep up with the changing cost of a college education. I found my college ID not too long ago (from the mid-1990s). It has my "fees paid" sticker on the back. My son's costs are about 6 times what mine cost (and that's after his scholarship). I think a lot of parents start saving, but don't realize HOW MUCH they need to save. They're still basing their savings on what they paid 25+ years ago, and have sticker shock when they start looking at schools for their student.

 

[lifesavacation]

I always tell folks looking (that ask me for input) to not rule out private schools. They have way more "foundation" money and way more flexibility to offer scholarships. If you have good grades and/or bring something special to their community they can offer sweet packages that public schools can not. Public schools play by strict rules in how they offer any scholarships.

DD graduated high school at 16 so imagine us applying at 15 for college. To cover our bases in case that got her an instant no, we visited about 12 colleges and applied at about 8. A few private, some state programs and a few out of state "state" programs. She was offered scholarship money from all of them the most being the private schools. One private school even came back with a second bigger offer which would have made it more reasonable than than some in state colleges.

Definitely don't ever rule out private schools. My 4 adult kids all went to private colleges on scholarship. Without the aid, we could never have afforded it.

Private school tuition for my kids: around 60k per year for 4 years for 4 kids comes out to 960k. We've paid around 60k total, I think. DD18 wants to transfer after this semester so we're trying to figure out the money portion. A full scholarship is hard to walk away from, but her college won't allow her to be a student athlete and major in what she wants. It's such a shame.

 

[leebee]

Well, I feel like a total loser, reading this thread. DH and I didn't have the income to put away money for college for DD regularly, and although she should have qualified for a merit scholarship, her guidance counselor didn't get her transcript submitted in time, so no money for her; that cost us about $16K. She went to our state university, flagship campus. Every semester she got "small" scholarships (think <$3K), we paid some, sometimes DH taught on campus so there was a 25% tuition waiver, she paid some OOP, she borrowed some. She graduated in 4 years, summa cum laude, with about $25K in debt (lived on campus 3 years, in an apartment senior year). DH and I have been making those loan payments; we couldn't afford to save much "back in the day" but can afford to make the payments now. Unfortunately she just took a $15K loan for grad school. It's defeating, it's unsubsidized, and... whatever. She just got an assistantship that will cover her tuition and pay a stipend for the rest of her program (4 more semesters) so we are just moving forward.

 

[cvjw]

Graduating debt free is also influenced by the college choices you make. My son and a high school classmate ended up getting the same undergraduate and graduate degrees. Bachelors of accounting and masters of taxation.

My son got into UGA and had zell miller - he paid $1100 each semester for fees only. He was a graduate assistant for UGA for his masters, so it was totally free. He graduated debt free.

Classmate didn’t get into UGA, so went to auburn, which is OOS and $50,000+ per year. When she graduated, she had $200,000 + in student debt for the exact same degrees.

Both got jobs with Big 4 accounting firms after graduation, but only 1 is indebted for years and years due to her choice of college.

 

[VandVsmama]

I always tell folks looking (that ask me for input) to not rule out private schools. They have way more "foundation" money and way more flexibility to offer scholarships. If you have good grades and/or bring something special to their community they can offer sweet packages that public schools can not. Public schools play by strict rules in how they offer any scholarships.

DD graduated high school at 16 so imagine us applying at 15 for college. To cover our bases in case that got her an instant no, we visited about 12 colleges and applied at about 8. A few private, some state programs and a few out of state "state" programs. She was offered scholarship money from all of them the most being the private schools. One private school even came back with a second bigger offer which would have made it more reasonable than than some in state colleges.

I agree. Some private schools can end up being about the same or sometimes cheaper than an in state school.

We are going to encourage ODD to consider Univ of New Mexico and NMSU since they have an AZ reciprocal scholarship (merit) which makes total cost of attendance $44,000 cheaper over 4 yr than paying for 4 yr of NAU, ASU, or UofA.

Graduating from undergrad with as little debt as possible means that you can take your dream job that doesn’t pay a boatload since you won’t have a ton of student loans to pay off.

 

[mrs. magoo]

We are making it a priority for our children to graduate debt free. We have been successful with the first 2 and my daughter it getting her master's degree for $300 total. She is a grad assistant. We have 2 years left for the 3rd and the youngest is just in his 2nd semester. The third has a very nice scholarship so we are just paying her room and board. the youngest was on a full athletic scholarship but things did not work out and the experience has really soured him on playing a sport in college. He left the school after the first semester but he did very well academically so he has choices of where he can transfer. He is going to only take a couple of classes at our community college this semester to preserve his eligibility and then find a new home for next fall. He understands what we are willing to pay so that is a part of his decision.

My parents were able to help me graduate debt free. I also had to pay money toward my tuition every year. My husband had debt that we worked to pay off in 5 years. We decided that if we could we would pay for our children so we have a college savings that we have been contributing to since the youngest was 2. My children know how lucky they are and actually thank us quite often when they see the debt some of their friends are carrying.

 

[HopperFan]

Well, I feel like a total loser, reading this thread. DH and I didn't have the income to put away money for college for DD regularly, and although she should have qualified for a merit scholarship, her guidance counselor didn't get her transcript submitted in time, so no money for her; that cost us about $16K. She went to our state university, flagship campus. Every semester she got "small" scholarships (think <$3K), we paid some, sometimes DH taught on campus so there was a 25% tuition waiver, she paid some OOP, she borrowed some. She graduated in 4 years, summa cum laude, with about $25K in debt (lived on campus 3 years, in an apartment senior year). DH and I have been making those loan payments; we couldn't afford to save much "back in the day" but can afford to make the payments now. Unfortunately she just took a $15K loan for grad school. It's defeating, it's unsubsidized, and... whatever. She just got an assistantship that will cover her tuition and pay a stipend for the rest of her program (4 more semesters) so we are just moving forward.

NOT a loser at all - every family situation and expectation is completely different. It sounds like you all did it quite well for your family. We told our kids since they were old enough to think about college we would not pay for tuition but would cover the other expenses (within reason). Both DH and I paid our own way through college by staying at home and working full time. Giving them ownership of their tuition had them doing the math with each school they were considering. It was important to us that they participate in the financial planning and responsibility.

 

[Sinder]

Well, I feel like a total loser, reading this thread. DH and I didn't have the income to put away money for college for DD regularly, and although she should have qualified for a merit scholarship, her guidance counselor didn't get her transcript submitted in time, so no money for her; that cost us about $16K. She went to our state university, flagship campus. Every semester she got "small" scholarships (think <$3K), we paid some, sometimes DH taught on campus so there was a 25% tuition waiver, she paid some OOP, she borrowed some. She graduated in 4 years, summa cum laude, with about $25K in debt (lived on campus 3 years, in an apartment senior year). DH and I have been making those loan payments; we couldn't afford to save much "back in the day" but can afford to make the payments now. Unfortunately she just took a $15K loan for grad school. It's defeating, it's unsubsidized, and... whatever. She just got an assistantship that will cover her tuition and pay a stipend for the rest of her program (4 more semesters) so we are just moving forward.

You shouldn’t feel like a loser because of what other people could do as opposed to what you could financially.
As parents we all do what we can for our kids, that’s what is important.
Look at what she accomplished academically, that comes from having support from family. Don’t discount that just because it wasn’t in the form of money

 

[disykat]

Well, I feel like a total loser, reading this thread. DH and I didn't have the income to put away money for college for DD regularly, and although she should have qualified for a merit scholarship, her guidance counselor didn't get her transcript submitted in time, so no money for her; that cost us about $16K. She went to our state university, flagship campus. Every semester she got "small" scholarships (think <$3K), we paid some, sometimes DH taught on campus so there was a 25% tuition waiver, she paid some OOP, she borrowed some. She graduated in 4 years, summa cum laude, with about $25K in debt (lived on campus 3 years, in an apartment senior year). DH and I have been making those loan payments; we couldn't afford to save much "back in the day" but can afford to make the payments now. Unfortunately she just took a $15K loan for grad school. It's defeating, it's unsubsidized, and... whatever. She just got an assistantship that will cover her tuition and pay a stipend for the rest of her program (4 more semesters) so we are just moving forward.

NO! You did exactly what I consider best case scenario. You helped, you had great strategies, and she graduated with a reasonable amount of debt!!!

I think the problem comes when people just assume they have to take out loans for everything and come out with with ridiculous numbers like 100K or more in debt. It's a story you hear over and over and I have a hard time understanding it. Where do they even get those loans??

I don't think it's unreasonable to have some debt for college. The federally subsidized loans are set up to be something a student could probably afford to pay back - less than some car loans now.

I had a relative who did the worst case scenario. Small private expensive school, got married and had a baby during college and used some of her loan money supporting that lifestyle, got a degree with no job prospects and now spends her time as a SAHM - whining about how her student loans are "unfair." THAT is what people are talking about as poor planning.

 

[HeatherC]

College is so ridiculously expensive now that it makes me angry. Since it is basically a prerequisite to any white collar jobs, I think corporations (FAANG, Forutne 500, etc.) should be paying for it all for their future employees to go- it's basically their training program for their jobs. just like all the other 1st work countries do.

But since FAFSA has brainwashed/forced parents that they should pay $30,000-$70,000 per year per kid (Expected Family contribution on FAFSA), we started saving a decade ago for our kids in 529s. Unfortunately, our state flagship is hard to get into and our other state public colleges are crap, so I don't know how it will work out for my kids.

It is so expensive. BUT kids do not HAVE to go away and do the whole college thing. They can enroll online, go to a Community College, work and take evening classes, etc.. It can be done. But people don’t necessarily want to take that route and therein lies the student debt crisis.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Some companies do. For example, here in Miami Baptist Health will refund fully for employees who stay employed by Baptist for 10 years. I don't know the details -- vesting, when refunds start, etc -- but they'll refund the whole thing.

There are a wide array of companies who pay all or a portion of tuition but often it's only in specific degrees which make sense because from a business standpoint it's what helps the company directly.

The insurance company I worked for did have tuition assistance but it was quite narrow the fields and type of degrees it would go into because it was an insurance company. My degree was in psychology and if I had started there psychology would not have counted towards tuition assistance, naturally though.

These days a large commitment like 10 years is ridiculous. 2-3 years sure but an entire decade in these modern times?

 

[RangerPooh]

Having sent over a decade working in higher education I am sometimes astonished by parents writing checks/swiping cards to pay for their child's tuition. I have had many students who have been open during appointments about not having to work to pay for their college education. That they're seniors or in grad school and have never had a job before as their parents pay everything. This includes medical school. I used to find it shocking how many students flaunt their families' affluence/parents being top level executives of company xyz as if I was to cowtail to them, but now I just roll my eyes. While I am envious of some families' ability to pay their child's way, I appreciate those who recognize that college is not cheap and respect their families contribution or their own contribution towards their education.

I paid for my community college courses. At the time courses ranged from $11-13/credit in California. Which meant that my part-time job was able to pay for my classes, fees, and books. I was basically on my own, so I had to pay for rent as well. When it came time to transfer to a CSU to complete my bachelors degree I discovered that I only qualified for roughly $1500 in financial aid/scholarships even though I had a decent GPA. My parents made too much for me to qualify for grants of any sort, even though they struggled financially and were housing insecure. This meant that I had to take out student loans. Student loans got me through the remainder of my undergrad and grad school. There was college fund for me.

My own kids do not have college funds, but we are fortunate to work in higher education and have the ability for our kids to receive a hefty tuition discount. Plus when we couple with state merit scholarships they should be in good shape. Further, we're fortunate to (finally) be in a place in our careers where we should be able to assist with their college expenses.