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My Son Was Accepted to a College He Can’t Afford. Now What?
Money ^ | 05/03/2016 | Deborah Caldwell

Posted on 05/03/2016 1:19:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

In early April, my son Dan arrived home from the University of Wisconsin’s Admitted Students Day holding a Wisconsin windshield sticker—and immediately affixed it to our car above his older brother’s University of North Carolina sticker, with a smile I can only describe as vengeful younger-brother joy.

He, too, was going away to a prestigious public university in a storied college town and with a cult-like alumni following.

A couple days earlier I’d photographed him, lanky and beaming, at Bascom Hill, and posted to Facebook: “On Wisconsin! Dan’s a Badger.” Congratulations poured in: 58 “Likes” and 17 comments. He performed the teenage equivalent, recording Snap Stories for his buddies.

All along, he had been clear that he didn’t want to attend a private school because of the price tag: “$70,000 a year! That just makes me angry!” And then he’d laugh at the ridiculousness of those costs. Above average but not a rock star student, he labored through five Advanced Placement classes, including calculus, biology, and statistics; and earned a weighted grade point average well north of 4.0, as well as a very high ACT score.

He’ll graduate next month from a public high school in a New Jersey suburb, one of those places where 98% of the class attends a four-year college. Some go to Ivies or near Ivies, many to prestigious liberal arts colleges, and another group to public research universities. That’s my kids’ peer group. So Dan and I exulted our way through April.

Then, two weeks after we put down the deposit for Wisconsin, we got the financial aid package. We were stunned when he got zero—nada—in aid. Unless you count the $5,500 in federal loans we were offered.

“This must be a mistake,” I thought.

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: college; tuition
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To: redgolum

Where is the money going? Bloated administrations. Financial aid to politically privileged minorities. Luxury dorms.


141 posted on 05/03/2016 4:41:15 PM PDT by omega4412
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To: MeganC

I have a brick in one of their sidewalks. : )


142 posted on 05/03/2016 4:48:30 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: SeekAndFind

What’s wrong with two years of junior college and then transfer to a four year school? Why pay all that money?


143 posted on 05/03/2016 4:50:08 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Gamecock
She freaked out when she saw college girls dressed in tight, short clothing, as if that doesn’t happen on all college campuses.

Same thing when I took my son to check out Virginia Tech the year he was applying. Classes were just about to start. It was warm fall weather. The girls were swarming. I seriously considered enrolling for a master's degree. Wow!

My older one did one CC class in biology when he was 14, trying to get into an advanced high school program. Ended up doing regular high school, but took honors and AP classes whenever he could fit them in. Several at once.

He ended up with over a 4.0 GPA due to this modern weighting system. Went to Virginia Commonwealth U for mechanical engineering. They found him a 4 year scholarship and we didn't even have to ask. (We did know the recruiter lady from our participation in the FIRST Robotics program.) He went for 2 years until his USMC Reserve unit was deployed to Iraq. And that was that.

Younger boy went to local CC and got a two year AAS degree - welding and machining. Only making $38K a year (plus overtime) as a machinist, but no debt.

144 posted on 05/03/2016 4:56:34 PM PDT by USMCPOP (Father of LCpl. Karl Linn, KIA 1/26/2005 Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq)
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To: TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed

Try in-state community college for two years at $6,000/year then transfer, the Degree will read the same. If you can’t afford steak you eat pasta. This is a good life lesson for your child.


145 posted on 05/03/2016 5:20:06 PM PDT by Babba Gi
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To: Tax-chick

Thanks again. I’ll share your comments with him. I suspect his interest in HVAC is driven by the fact that we run our a/c most of the year down here and it has become increasingly difficult to get a trustworthy contractor down here. I have a real gem but, like all of us, he is getting older and is talking about retiring.

Grandson said he has begun to notice that his creative design and artistic ability has begun to leave him as he has “gotten older”. Sometimes it’s a hoot to talk with him at the ripe old age of 16. He seems to have taken on a serious side this last year though - probably some due to the fact that he and I talk a lot about the state of the world and politics. Other grandson is ten years older and I find it interesting to contrast and compare the life of my son and both grandsons when they were each 16. Everything has changed so much over the course of their lives.


146 posted on 05/03/2016 5:23:40 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Grams A

We all change a lot from our ‘teens to our 50s. That’s one reason I think it’s unreasonable to expect 18-year-olds to choose a life plan and invest huge amounts of money in it. If you spend a couple thousand on a trade course, you can work at it until you decide on the next thing, and realistically believe you got your money’s worth.


147 posted on 05/03/2016 5:38:28 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("We like us the way we are. That makes us real, true friends." ~ The Undead Thread)
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To: joesbucks

It will be on the transcripts. I have been asked about a calculus class I took one summer at a CC twenty years ago.

There are many employers looking into all of your history. I had a recent interview where my organic chemistry grade came up from the fall of 1996.


148 posted on 05/03/2016 6:16:48 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: joesbucks

It will be on the transcripts. I have been asked about a calculus class I took one summer at a CC twenty years ago.

There are many employers looking into all of your history. I had a recent interview where my organic chemistry grade came up from the fall of 1996.


149 posted on 05/03/2016 6:16:53 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: joesbucks

It will be on the transcripts. I have been asked about a calculus class I took one summer at a CC twenty years ago.

There are many employers looking into all of your history. I had a recent interview where my organic chemistry grade came up from the fall of 1996.


150 posted on 05/03/2016 6:16:54 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: redgolum

[Where is the money going?]

Pensions.


151 posted on 05/03/2016 7:29:28 PM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Psalm 33:12)
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To: StoneWall Brigade
I would not want my kid or grand kid going to a major public university especially when smaller colleges and universities can provide a better education often minus the PC brainwashing for much less.

My grandson got a full scholarship to a smaller church affiliated university. Two major universities turned him down on athletic scholarships because they didn't offer track scholarships and offered minimal scholarships academic merit wise. Actually I'm glad they did due to the prevailing PC on larger campuses.

His long term goal is to be an Orthopedic Surgeon. He does have the brains as well as the fine motor coordination it requires. My other grandson a few years till graduation will likely head to a smaller technical college for Civil Engineer career. He'll likely go there on an academic scholarship. Both boys are working part time jobs as well. To get scholarships from what my daughter tells me takes a lot of time and advanced planning as to what schools offer what.

152 posted on 05/03/2016 8:30:34 PM PDT by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: miss marmelstein

Find out what he is really really interested in and then get a job in that area.
Not be a journalist as it does not pay for that college debt. Unless it is engineering or medical he does not need college. The experience will help more a great deal then a classroom taught by another student while the professor is planning protests against the United States.
I cannot see paying $200,000 for college. You can buy a house for that! You can invest in the stock market and be set for the future.

The article sounds like the writer wants the taxpayers to pay all the costs. Their taxes would go up and I bet they would not be able to put 2 and 2 together.


153 posted on 05/03/2016 8:31:12 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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