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 ...
That’s the kind of deal parents can work, if they’re willing to make the effort. My oldest boy also had a lot of liberal arts colleges after him (his math was better), but he wasn’t interested in moving off to the wilds of New England or the Upper Midwest.
He did two and a half years at our community college, and then went into the business school of UNC-Charlotte (local branch) as a junior. He’ll graduate this summer with his degree in Marketing, and then *leave home*!!!
He probably would have loved a liberal arts school, though. His transcript is full of things like Literature of Modern Latin America and Perspectives on British Colonial India. It’s all fodder for someone in marketing!
I’m in my early 20’s. I know lots of people my age who are already a quarter million dollars in debt.
And unemployed.
I currently have 2 jobs, 5 valuable properties, 0 mortgages, 0 car loans, 0 credit card debt.
When I can afford to hang something on the wall that cost me a quarter million, maybe I will. But it won’t be a diploma from a progressive indoctrination camp.
LOL, and his parents are paying property taxes in the stratosphere, too! They should all move to Wisconsin, their son could work his way through. Or send the boy to recruitment office and let the Army pay for his education.
We moved to New Mexico when the boys were 8 and 13.
New Mexico provides FREE tuition at a state university to residents. There are some conditions, but they are pretty easy to meet and keep.
Great reason to move here.
Anyway, one finished but has decided to go back for a more specialized degree. He has to pay for it and it will cost about $20K.
My youngest is finishing his freshman year. Has received the state scholarship and Pell grants. He refuses to take out loans. After his brother’s educational escapade, he is much more focused and taking it more seriously.
Have him go to a college he CAN afford. 2 years at a local community college can often be had for less than $15,000 if the kid stays home. At that point, if he does well, he can transfer to just about any college he wants.
But before he does, have him move to that area and work there for 1 year using his associates degree to work full time, save some money and get established in the community. At that point in time, he will be a resident of the state and will pay in-state tuition.
The cost of college is way out of whack ... but that is no excuse to apply to a college you cannot afford.
Also, it is not smart to go deep into debt for a college education. They aren’t what they used to be, despite the price inflation. It is just not a good value for the money, borrowed or not.
But if you have to move and get housing, how is community college any cheaper? Surely, the point of cc is that you stay in your OWN community.
Not necessarily. The tuition at many CCs is one fifth of that at a state or private school. Many students I know want to be on their own and share an apartment with one or two other students, much like a dorm. Some work part-time and go to school part time. The cost is still lower than room, board and tuition at a four year college.
For the parents in the article posted, yes living at home for the student is probably the best answer.
Like the order!
I was accepted to the Air Force Academy and Annapolis, but chose to go to the Coast Guard Academy.
Got injured and sent home, but I still brighten up when I hear "Semper Paratus"!
Have him come across the southern border as an illegal alien.
Otherwise, “No. We can’t afford this college. Maybe you can go the local college, get the credits needed, and finish there.”
Our son had to turn down three Ivies because we just couldn’t afford it. He ended up getting a 50% scholarship for a special 5 year program at BU. It worked out and he finished Phd with no debt. The middle class isn’t wanted at most of these schools.
Good for your son! He should do very well out in the world.
“She freaked out when she saw college girls dressed in tight, short clothing, as if that doesn’t happen on all college campuses.”
I have occasion to drive through the University of Maryland College Park campus, and I was pleasantly surprised at all the long-legged college girls in short skirts that seem to walk around in packs...
My daughter has told me that, when she would tell people who asked that she didn't have college loans, she was met with disbelief. That was 88 thru 92 at an in state land grant university main campus. I agree that I couldn't do it today.
Well, yeah, I wanted to live away from my parents at 17. I also wanted to star in a b’way musical but I didn’t sing like Streisand. Luckily, my parents ignored my fantasies and made me commute to a very good private college. I didn’t get into trouble with ‘campus rapes’ or become a member of the radical left.
I do realize that cc is much cheaper than four year universities but I still think it should be local. To fly across the country to attend community college seems very weird to me. But America has gotten very weird!
I think he’ll be a success. He’s held several retail jobs - currently works at a grocery store deli - and learned a lot from them. He has an unpaid internship at the Charlotte Museum of History. He loves it, and they love him, but there’s no chance of a paying position.
Marketing for one of the big local hospital chains is a good possibility when he graduates, though. He knows someone from the university who is leaving a position. His long-term goal is a job in the automotive or fashion industries.
I worry about him living on his own. He’s the kind of bubble-headed blond who leaves the gas on when his attention wanders!
The solution for many of these situations is:
1. You tell the kid the money you have and the colleges you can afford. If the kid doesn’t get scholarships or a job to help supplement that cost, the kid doesn’t even bother applying to schools that you cannot afford.
2. You tell the child that the college admission depends on financial aid like grants and scholarships, and if the kid is accepted somewhere, they ONLY go to the school they can afford.
For all the other parents:
3. Stop romanticizing the Ivy Leagues and out of state schools, because the top 2% do about as well ANYWHERE, so don’t pay extra for the big names. If your kid is decent, he’ll do fine anywhere, including state school down the street, and if you can’t afford the fancy school, send him local.
4. Don’t even let the kid go on a multi-state tour of colleges, where the kid risks falling in love with the buildings and “experience”, where each year is the price of several cars.
5. Make them go for a degree that has marketable value, instead of taking a college program based on interests and wasting 40K+ on a hobby that won’t yield 40K a year in annual income. If they have a passion for something, find a way to monetize it or apply the degree they are good at in that area, but for the love of all that is holy, you don’t get the junk degrees for 100K in debt to work in a job that doesn’t require a degree. The borrower is slave to the lender, and if you love your child, you don’t let them go into 100K+ debt for the useless liberal arts degree.
“I didn’t get into trouble with ‘campus rapes’ or become a member of the radical left.”
Yes, a definite advantage for living at home.
My grandson was offered a position on the shooting team at the University of Arizona but he turned them down because of the cost and is going to one of our state universities.
Why did he even apply to a college he can’t afford? Did he know in advance that he would be getting scholarship money? Did he understand that he might have to borrow to make up any difference? Or did he just expect me to pay for it, in addition to the two kids I’m already putting through overpriced colleges?
I guess it goes without saying that as the son of two journalists he’s a liberal pussy and would never consider trying to get an ROTC scholarship or joining the National Guard to help pay for college. That pesky service obligation and having to learn to shoot an icky gun...cry me a river mom.
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