[GVnana]

Kids these days are facing enourmous debt. Perhaps my family's experiences illustrate the changes. My father went to law school after WW2 on the GI Bill. He and my mother lived on my mother's salary as a bookkeeper. He started a law practice without one nickel of debt.

I went through college having my meager income supplemented with grants, and a $15,000 student loan.

My son, who is active duty military, has completed an AA degree, a para-legal certification and is nearly complete on his bachelors, has done all this on the GI bill but it's part-time and taking years and years. My daughter starts at Smith in the fall. We estimate she'll graduate owing $60,000.

[CatoRenasci]

My daughter starts at Smith in the fall. We estimate she'll graduate owing $60,000

Love those STEP loans @ $15,000 per year....

Well, Smith is a choice, and a pricey one at that. It's a good school, one of the seven sisters of old WASP establishment fame, and probably still good for the connections. If your daughter was good enough to get into Smith, she could undoubtedly have gotten scholarships to your best in-state public university. That could be a hard choice, depending on the state (in Viriginia, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, California, or Wisconsin, the top state schools might even be preferable; in Arkansas or North Dakota or Idaho, Smith wins hands down, in between, it gets harder)

[CatoRenasci]

I see you're in California.... why not the Big U (Berkeley) or UCLA?