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 ...
USCG,USAF,USN,USA,USMC.
In that order
Maybe he should not go. His tuition costs will break him or you or both of you.
The US Army will cover him. All he has to do is serve a couple years.
Do what I did. I paid out of state tuition to KU. Before my first class, I enlisted in the KS ARNG. Now I have an 8 year contract AND citizenship in KS....took a whole year arguing with KU for IN STATE tuition and they wouldn’t give it to me because my parents lived in NW Arkansas. It took a lawyer and 5k to get a check from KU for the balance.....As soon as I finished college, I went active duty...and changed residency. Friggin college administrators really try to shaft out of staters.
This article is just dripping with yuppie parents angst about the cost of college, how to pay, why didn’t he get a generous financial aid offer from Wisconsin, etc.
Welcome to the real world, parents and child. This is a good introduction to the life dilemmas her son will confront in life. You can’t have everything your little heart desires. Choices have to be made. Sacrifices have to be made to achieve certain goals. Whether this mom knows it or not, her son is learning some valuable life lessons in this experience.
But why did she have to throw in a gratuitous comment about girls in tight dresses at Rutgers, and OMG will her son get hooked up with one of them???? Holy Geez..........
My second son was a National Merit Scholarship finalist when he was 17. When he didn’t get the financial aid offers he’d hoped for from some state university branches, he went into a funk, but he’s now finishing his first year at our local community college with excellent grades (and more maturity).
He’s decided college isn’t all that fun, and he plans to take the Industrial Equipment Mechanics program starting this fall. In one more year of community college, he can be a certified mechanic. He’s big, strong, smart, bilingual English/Spanish, drug-free, and has a clean driving record. He’ll be financially independent by the time he’s 21, with almost all his college savings intact in the event he decides pursue a degree in the next ten years.
If the college wants him bad enough, they will help. If they don't, there are others who will.
I'd love to drive a Hummer, but I found that a Honda Fit serves my transportation needs as well as my budget.
“going 200,000 into debt for a 4 year degree is insane.”
I agree. The prospect of a mountain of debt had a lot to do with my choice to graduate high school, get married to a good man, and start a family. My old friends are only now starting their careers and maybe in fifteen years they might be able to afford a baby. Assuming they ever find an actual man.
I might be a grandmother by then. That’d be much nicer than a diploma on the wall of a quiet, lonely house.
Yes.
All the guys I grew up with that were plumbers and welders all have 2 homes,Sportsfisherman, and more.
College guys, OK but not as well
Simple answer is he can’t go there
If he wants a great education at a reasonable cost he ought to head to the Sourh
If he doesn’t want to go the military route then he can go local and work while he goes to school
A lot of it seems to go to infrastructure. I can’t believe the marble halls of NYU where I occasionally take night courses. I just signed on to my local technical college for an A.A. in culinary arts and even their campus is overly ornate with a huge theater that puts Broadway houses to shame. For what???
Well I applied to buy a 2016 GMC Sierra Denali Premium and I can’t, nor ever could, afford it. What to do? I’m completely stumped.
I was required to serve 4 years active duty, did eight.
Read the entire article. This woman is a moron.
Often you are better off applying to private schools. They have bigger endowments and can offer more money than public schools.
So they didn’t look into what the out-of-state tuition was when he applied??
People get outraged about the absolute stupidest stuff.
If you have assets you have to pay a lot more for college than people who don’t bother to save their money. That’s just the way the system is structured. It’s free if you don’t save for it, it’s very expensive if you do save for it.
Congratulations!
Now he can start, ASAP, looking into various financial help programs the university has. They have advisors at the university who can help him find some and apply.
Good luck and best wishes!
The world needs ditch diggers, too.
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