Just got back from college visit for daughter. 11,000.00 a year for the next 4 years

[greenbriar]

She will be a senior in HS next year.. graduating a year early. Then on to a state college


visited one today. Great campus 24 to 1 classroom to teacher ratio except for Freshman lecture classes, then 70 or so students.

Very nice campus



She is talking about trying out for Pep Band or even the choir...that would be books and tuition as long as she is in it


but mannnnnnnn


we are still paying on our own student loans and she will not qualify for pell because we make good money..

they also said the FAFSA will look into our finances and determine the "parental contribution" (the amount they feel the parents will contribute) before they award her her financial aid..

BWahaha


I said well, on paper it looks like we could pay for it all but we can't

heck I can't even afford to buy the cool washing machine I want and its only a 1000 bucks..


but over all, I am excited but sad for this next stage in our life

[LulaMay]

1. My son goes to Chapman Music Con., got a scholarship for 12 grand, we pay 15 grand on top

and we don't have it...so, loans, etc....

feel your pain

[Taverner]

2. Wife is going to Chapman right now

So I feel your pain my friend...

[Obamanaut]

54. Grandson goes to a non-state school, costs similar to what you

quoted. We help out the daughter (his mom) when we can (former husband not in the picture) - they're making it.

[OhioChick]

3. Isn't it just ridiculous??

One of my kids is going to a school that's in the ballpark of 25K a year. Can't wait until grad school.....that's about 45K right now.....

[TomInTib]

4. You're still paying for your own student loans?

And you have a child who is 16-17 years old?

Heavens, how long do they give you to pay off those things?

You will have to excuse me, greenbriar, as I know nothing about that kind of thing.

But that sure seems like a long-term payment deal.

[greenbriar]

6. well, we went to college late

and had full pells, but took out loans to live in married student housing

plus I just got my masters last year

[Kittycat]

5. Not minimalizing it - but that is not as bad as I was expecting to hear.

Does that include room & board? What state?

[greenbriar]

7. yes it does include room and board

but it is a division 1 school in Kansas


REALLY nice camus


the only Gorillias in the United States



she is looking at ESU also

[MaryCeleste]

27. Double the amount and see if you can still handle it

Just finished up with my daughter. There was a lot more there than I counted on...consider this, could she live on her own for the amount you budget for if there was no tuition and books. Start from there..

Never believe what the school tells WRT to cots.

[JerseygirlCT]

8. In the nearly 26 years since I graduated, tuition has more than

quintupled. It's sort of mind-boggling, b/c certainly, inflation hasn't done nearly that.

I hope you can find a way to make it all work!

[kath]

38. yeah, wages sure as HELL haven't qiuntupled. In some fields, they've barely gone up at all.

[tachyon]

9. 70 to 1 is pretty usual for lecture classes which often could easily be done

equally well with a big-screen TV in lieu of a professor. I had several college classes with 5 or fewer students, if you
can imagine that. Probably doesn't happen these days. (Be assured that is a true double-edged sword :D )
oh I can add something! What I meant was that the good thing was we got a lot of personal attention; the bad
thing was...we got a lot of personal attention. ;-)

[RB TexLa]

10. Yet another reason I'm glad I don't raise children

[TomInTib]

15. Another reason I am glad mine dropped out of High School.

No way would I spend that kind of money on an education.

[annabanana]

18. nurtz. . . . .n/t

[TomInTib]

22. nurtz?

What the heck is "nurtz"?

I always miss out on the cool stuff.

[tachyon]

23. It's old (VERY old) slang for "nuts". Often spelled 'nertz'

I think it's from the 1920s or 30s. Oh here's something about it
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861632869/nerts.html

[TomInTib]

25. Thanks....

Well, I suppose that was somewhat unkind of annabanana.

Yeah, my sons dropped out of school.

So what?

They are happy as hell, without a care in the world.

[annabanana]

30. eep

(didn't mean to be unkind. .I thought you were kidding)

Actually my kid sister dropped out, got her GED the following year - 1973 - and has done fine with her HVAC work..has her own home etc etc

[TomInTib]

33. No problema, anna....

my sons are two of the smartest people I have ever known.

And I always allowed them to make their own decisions.

Never look back.

Tom

[TomInTib]

26. Really?

They are happy as hell, without a care in the world.

Beats the shit out of being a prisoner in a tall building, with mortgage, car and insurance payments, and tuition to boot.

I never even saw the inside of a High School until I was probably 40 years old.

[canoeist52]

11. As far as I can see, there is no financial aid

we make 48,000 a year and all we get for our student for "aid" is 5,000 in federal stafford loans a year at 7.50% Have to take out private loans for the other 18,000 a year!

[Submariner]

12. I must have been real lucky

When I got out of the Navy the GI Bill sent me a check for $261/month for 4 years, and Massachusetts waived all my tuition because I was home state vet. I feel for you folks paying through the nose now, because I probably could not have been able to afford it otherwise.

[jody]

13. Children are the future, perhaps the only future parents have. You live through your descendants. nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I still say all education should be publicly funded. Period. (Like healthcare)

[AP]

44. I think there should be some cost to it, so that people use their time wisely in college, but it

should definitely be less expensive than it is now (but I also think it's expensive now mostly because so many companies are willing to loan so much money, thanks to unbelievable government support of their businesses -- eg, you can't get rid of student loans in bankruptcy, according to federal law).

I think the UK has the perfect system for financing education.

The cost is reasonable, so that students have the right incentive to think of it as an investment and so that universities have resources (between tuition and state support) to provide decent educations.

There are no loans, so there's no interest accumulating on student loan debt. No companies are making a buck off people trying to be middle class through college education. Students get money from the government and they have a lifetime to pay it back. They only have to pay up to maximum of something like 10% of their salary, and they don't have to pay anything in years they make less than the median income. So the government has a huge incentive to make sure that the economy results in jobs for college graduates that pay at least above the median income.

[GreenPartyVoter]

52. Yeah, we went bankrupt and still had the student loans to contend with. Really, my theory is

that if people didn't have these insane loans to deal with they could buy a house a lot earlier in life. (We're going on 40 and still in a trailer.) Of course, we would have to straighten out the housing market as well. Even without student loans, home ownership is out of reach for people.

[AP]

57. I think a lot of these problems with home prices, price of education, and getting into and staying

in the middle class (and out of poverty) come back to debt.

People are totally on the hook with insupportable debt these days, and it influences their choices (and their social and political power). The ability of everyone to get loans (easily) to pay for education and homes drives up the prices of homes and education for everyone. All that debt is collecting interest for very powerful banks, and it's turning people into wage/debt slaves too.

If there weren't such easy credit, prices would be lower, there'd be lower profit for the financial companies, but we'd all be freer and more in control of our lives and money, and we'd all be happier.

[GreenPartyVoter]

59. Yeah. And it isn't always luxury shopping either, although we have done that too if you

look at a new TV or computer as a luxury based on our income. But where we got into trouble was back when hubby worked a barely better than minimum wage job that kept cutting his hours back and back. Before you knew it we were paying all of our bills/rent/gas/grocery shopping with credit cards. It was quite literally, a house of cards. So delicate, and yet it crushed us when it collapsed.

[sarcasmo]

16. Why do you feel you have to pay for your child's College education?

[greenbriar]

17. I don't but the financial aid lady said part of their formula is parent contribution

bwahaha

[sarcasmo]

19. Interesting, I told my son his room and board were free that was our financial contribution.

He has a job and a loan for school. Good luck, it's way to much money for me to take on.

On Edit: I will give you a Nom, because of the sure insanity in higher education costs.

[MaryCeleste]

28. In my case I chose to. I did not have to pay for mine, I felt obligated to pass that on

I view it as the student's job is to do the best they can in school. Mine got a free ride until she left for the workplace. 7 years thru a masters. I don't want to think about what it cost.

[Diane R]

20. We've just finished paying for 3 kids, 13 years of Undergrad, 4 yrs of Dental School.

And, we're lower middle class. Costs started @ $12,000 a year 9 years ago (University of Washington), and now they're about $18,000.

Even though all kids graduated from H.S. with top honors, no scholarships. No grants. No help.

And, we've taken no vacations and bought no new cars.

But...we did it. We'll have a Dentist, an attorney, and a kid in the Peace Corps. Worth every penny.

[YDogg]

24. You rock.

Seriously. :thumbsup:

[redwitch]

56. I second that!

You did a great job!

[aikoaiko]

21. If you graduate from a GA high school with a 3.0, all tuition at GA universities is free

as long as you keep a 3.0.

Out of state residents can move here, prove themselves by paying 1 year of tuition, and then the next three years are free.

We call it the Hope Scholarship. Its a great deal and I encourage DUers to take advantage of it.

[canoeist52]

34. But be advised, tuition at most schools is becoming a small

percentage of the total college bill. They have what they call "fees" which in many cases represent 1/3 of the bill.

[aikoaiko]

35. What you say is true, but HOPE also pays fees

So called "Hope Approved Fees", but it usually covers everything at my school.

[canoeist52]

36. sounds like a great program then!

[aikoaiko]

37. Hope is one of the reasons why some GA Democrats still have love for Zell Miller

Regardless of what he did at the 2004 Republican convention.

[DFW]

43. NOW you tell me!!

My younger daughter just graduated cum laude (political science/public policy) last May. It cost us about $50,000
a year (luckily left to me when my last parent died, and it ALL went for my children's education).

But it was a good investment. Our younger daughter is now in her first year of law school, and was selected as
one of just two students from her school to be part of the UN war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone this summer.
Scary and heady stuff. But this is what it's all about. Like one of the other posters said, our kids are the
biggest legacy we leave the world. If she comes back alive and malaria-free, she'll feel (and probably correctly)
that she can do anything.

[YankmeCrankme]

46. If I remember correctly,

Georgia was one of the few states that actually used lottery money for education correctly. They aren't allowed by law to cut tax money for education and make it up with lottery money like other states do. Their lottery money is separate from tax dollars and goes to paying for college education for qualified students and, I think, buying computers for the public schools.

[aikoaiko]

53. Its true. eom

[NJCher]

49. aaargh

If you graduate from a GA high school with a 3.0, all tuition at GA universities is free as long as you keep a 3.0.

Leads to grade inflation.

As a college teacher, I've worked at universities that do that and the pressure on the instructor is unbelievable. It turned the kids into vociferous little sharks who would do anything for the grade. I even had a group of them gang up on me and threaten to go to one of those college prof rating places and slime me if I didn't up their grade from a D to a B. ...Which they did, and as far as I know, there's no way for a teacher to get that unfairness addressed.

I spoke with my colleagues about this situation and they all readily acknowledged it--most said they just handed out grades no lower than "B." I couldn't bring myself to do that, so I left that particular teaching job.



Cher

[aikoaiko]

55. As a college professor at a GA university w/ a wide caliber of student - I have never been pressured

At least not by my Department Head or Dean.

I won't deny that I am sympathetic to students who tell me that if they don't get an A or B in my class then they are going to lose HOPE, but doling out unearned grades is completely unethical and counterproductive. Its never one class that does a student in and many come back with a renewed work ethic.

I am empathetic to you and your colleagues but not all universities pressure their faculty to cave in. Plus tenure is nice safety net for any implied pressure that does occur.

Hope is a good program.

[alcibiades_mystery]

60. I agree...a "B" average in many schools is actually more like a C

I hold the line at A's (only about 2-3 students in a class of 24 usually earn an A, with a couple of more A-), but I have to admit that my C's creep into B-'s, and my D's into C's. It's disgusting. Some expend so much energy trying to get out of work during the term and then fighting for the grade at the end that they should have just turned that energy toward the work and earned an A. Oh, and maybe have learned something. Actually learning something is a low priority in this grade environment...

[Madam Mossfern]

29. Sending our 4th through college

at UVM - well over $35,000 per year. We started saving the day they were born, bought bonds etc. Most of my salary over the past ten years has gone to college tuition. Thank goodness we were able to do that. Looking at how we're doing now, I don't think we could have pulled it off, my husband's business has taken an incredible beating in this economy.

[Zoigal]

58. My university tuition is around 35,000 per; when i went in the late '40s it

was $125 per semester. Yes, that's right. Granted that was a long time ago.
A fairly high ranked institution, too. z

[tularetom]

31. Do they ever understand the value of education?

Both our kids received full scholarships -daughter an academic award from a local donor, son a full ride athletic scholarship from one of the lesser Division 1 schools. Neither one graduated, due to early unplanned motherhood and injuries respectively.

Now in their 40's they both have good jobs and are reasonably successful but both of them regret not hanging on and finishing up the degree work. Son dropped out 12 units short of his BA.

[laureloak]

32. #1 Rule: Apply to schools with generous financial aid even if

the acceptance rate is very low because you just might get lucky. Duke (and others) meet 100% of need and recently agreed that students from households earning less than $60m would graduate debt free.

Go to collegeboard & research the % of need met by the schools your daughter is interested in.
http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=535&profileId=2

Google "EFC calculator" and do a dummy financial report to see approximately what your Estimated Family Contribution will be.

My son is a h.s. senior this year and is interesed in engineering. He's been accepted to Va Tech, Clemson and NC State and waiting to hear from two others. Financal aid packages should begin arriving any day now.

The whole process of getting into college is ridiculous and terribly stressful. There's gotta be a better way. The colleges talk about getting a record number of applicants this year but they continue to recruit, recruit, recruit. I have three large shopping bags of mailings and our email is flooded daily. What a waste of money. Harvard is accepting 9% and UNC 33%.

BTW, you're wise to get those visits out of the way early. By the end of August you should have made a list of deadlines for each school that your daughter is going to apply to. Be sure to check out scholarship deadlines - some are as early as October. Oh, and your daughter should be prepared to write essay after essay after essay.

[Starry Messenger]

39. .

recently agreed that students from households earning less than $60m would graduate debt free.


I think you meant $60k?

[KatyaR]

40. The daughter of a friend of mine just got her scholarship letter from

a private university here. She's going to major in music (education as a fallback, but she's really an instrumentalist), and the scholarship based on talent alone was over $97,000 for 4-1/2 years. That doesn't count toward housing and expenses. She hasn't heard anything about funds based on her grades.

Her parents are ecstatic but terribly worried at the same time. I can't imagine school costing that much. I was a music theatre grad student at that school back in the early 80s, and it didn't cost anywhere near that much.

I don't know how anyone can go to college these days.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. State college tuition has run way ahead of inflation

and private college tuition even more so.

When I was a freshman in 1968, a commuting student could attend the University of Minnesota for $375 a year, or 300 times the minimum wage. A student could earn that and not need scholarships or loans.

If that were still true, it would cost $1875 a year to attend the "U." Instead, it costs nearly about 6 times that much.

Thank stingy legislators and administrative bloat.

[Echo In Light]

42. College is a racket

[riderinthestorm]

45. $28k per year for my daughter, all expenses, state college.

She's really smart (also graduated a year early with straight As) so I made her a deal, if she graduated in 3 years I'd give her $5,000 when she graduated. I was pretty sure this wasn't going to be a hardship for her.

She did it effortlessly (graduates this May), again with a perfect GPA (going on to get her PhD, she LOVES academics). I will gladly pay her the $5k and save myself many more thousands in the process. She came into her freshman year with a lot of AP class credits (she was almost a sophomore when she went got there, credit hours wise) which made it easy.

We required our daughter to pay for 1/3 of her education as well so she's worked this whole time too and since she worked so damn much she only has approximately $5k in student loans right now. I don't know what she'll do with the $ in May - pay off her loans or take a vacation. I know she's taking the summer "off" although she'll help us out at the farm.

If your daughter is that smart, and driven, you may want to consider an early graduation bonus.

[Junkdrawer]

47. My alma mater just raised yearly tuition to $50K...it was $2.5K in 1972...

That's some inflation...

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

48. My youngest son was just accepted to 2 state colleges at $13,000 per year. The tuition is only $5M

the rest is housing etc.

We just can't afford this and will be applying for FAFSA. If it's a no go there, he'll have to go to community college for 2 years, then switch to a 4 year college to finish up. We will hopefully be able to afford it then. The community college here is excellent.

[NJCher]

50. I will tell you something interesting

It only applies if you're in a large metropolitan area, though.

Higher education relies inordinately on adjunct teachers. What's interesting is that you'll find adjuncts making the rounds of schools: all the way from community colleges to the best universities in the state, both private and public. They teach in all these places.

So bottom line is you could be paying high tuition dollars at a name school and the same instructor who's teaching that class is also teaching a similar course at a community college.

Now, is there pressure from the school to make sure their course is worth the extra tuition money? Yes, I would say so--but not always.



Cher

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

51. I'm in a suburb of NYC and this is one of the wealthiest counties in the country.

The community college has drawn excellent instructors. They also have excellent programs and internships. My son unfortunately has his heart set on going away to school, and that's where lies the rub.

[better tomorrow]

61. is she going into a career where there is a shortage? if so,

they might forgive the loans. that is always a way to get that first education until they can get a job and then get another degree on their own....just my two cents.