I So Agree With This

[tinapbeana]

a lot of it depends on the household and the school you're looking at.

where i went to college, i was one of the few who weren't being paid in full by parents. the mindset amongst my 'peers' was that their parents 'owed them' a full ride to college because they'd brought them into the world...

not saying it's right by any stretch of the imagination, just saying it's a mindset that's out there...

[disneysteve]

What is a reasonable amount of money for the parents to pay?

I think the answer is, "what they can comfortably afford without negatively impacting their own financial well being."

So many people today are socking away money in their kids' 529 plans and Coverdell accounts and UGMAs but aren't fully contributing to their retirement accounts or are carrying lots of high interest credit card debt. I think they need to rethink their financial priorities.

[fairy74]

I want to pay for my kids. I also don't want them to flunk out so I'll probably make it grade based. That if they pass it's paid for. If not they can handle the school loans they used to party with instead.

Fabulous Idea! Love it

[crabbypatty]

What is a reasonable amount of money for the parents to pay?

I think that it is a judgement call... how about tuition and books? Let the student pay for real life expenses, like housing, food, etc. At any rate it takes a special kid to finish college. Go Cougars!

This is what my parents did. I got 4 years at a local commutable state school. If I wanted an apt or to live on campus, all my costs of living were my own. If i stayed at home, no rent and they paid the cable bill etc. If I went over the 4 years of tuition, I had to pay for it.

Granted, I live in a community with about 11 different commutable colleges. I realize that this is not the case for many people.

[thekid]

I entirely agree with the predominant view point in this thread. There is no reason why kids can't work part-time (full time in summer) to pay at least 50% of their college fees and cost of living. With student loans, that proportion could be much higher.

In Quebec, my home province, I actually don't think anybody needs ANY parental help to get through college. The universities are high caliber and tuition costs only approx. 4k$/year (yet students still take to the streets to fight proposed increases in the hundreds of dollars). Student loans and student work can largely cover that and living expenses. I was lucky enough to have parents pay my tuition and books. Notwithstanding, I always worked anywhere from 20 to 40hrs/week -including night shifts- (during the semester -save for exam period where I would take a few weeks off). My grades did not suffer at all (I would probably have just blown the extra time anyways). I managed to graduate near the top of my law school, get in to a leading UK university for a post-graduate law degree and find work prior to graduation with a leading law firm. The money saved during my law degree plus student loans -and some parental help- where enough to cover high tuition and living costs in the UK. I then paid off my student loans within 2 years of starting work (about 20K$).

I know everybody's situation is different and that our low tuition costs in Quebec help tremendously, but still I cannot understand why students can't work decent hours during the semester and full time for most of the summer. With that work and student loans, parental contributions help but should not be necessary (at any rate, not more than 1/3 to 1/2 of total costs).

I'm extremely high on education and want the best for my kids (them future kids), but I also believe that a major part of proper upbringing is installing hard work / no sense of entitlement to them. I fully expect them to do their share and work hard, notwithstanding whatever my means would be.

[tinapbeana]

while i can appreciate thekid's experience, i would again interject that it completely depends on where one is going to school and their regulations.

my scholarship covered tuition, but not room, board, or books which amounted to about 8k per year when i lived on campus (which was required freshman year). my university didn't allow freshman to have a car on campus, which meant i was restricted to working on campus. i didn't qualify for work-study, which meant i couldn't find a campus job until my second semester. even then it was at $5.50 an hour restricted to 20 hours per week for a total of $1320 per semester before taxes...

by my senior year i was working one full time job and two part time jobs and sometimes sleeping every other night. it was, to put it mildly, harsh and i went through a pretty serious downward spiral. if my parents had been able to help financially they would have, but it wasn't possible.

i'm just saying there's a difference between teaching your kids financial responsibility and watching them slip into a deep dark hole when you have the wherewithall to prevent it.

[thekid]

i'm just saying there's a difference between teaching your kids financial responsibility and watching them slip into a deep dark hole when you have the wherewithall to prevent it.

I totally agree. The point is not to watch them sink or swim -at great cost- from afar, but rather to ensure (as much as a parent can) that they don't lose motivation and develop a sense of entitlement. Personally, should they have high motivation/drive/hard work ethics, I am more than willing to help in anyway possible. I have really high paternal instincts and seeing them have sucess in their lives -as they would define it- would be my highest priority in life. I just don't want it to be a given as I fear that can sap their will.

[jIM_Ohio]

Here's an article on this subject

New breaks make top colleges more affordable - Mar. 22, 2007

[fairy74]

One other thing that has not been brought up is kids who work during college actually have a work history and are more employable after graduation. Many employers are slightly leery of a 22 year old, who has never held a job in his/her entire life. Especially, if you can get internships in your field prior to graduation, you are several steps ahead of the game.

[jIM_Ohio]

One other thing that has not been brought up is kids who work during college actually have a work history and are more employable after graduation. Many employers are slightly leery of a 22 year old, who has never held a job in his/her entire life. Especially, if you can get internships in your field prior to graduation, you are several steps ahead of the game.

YES! YES! YES!

I graduated college with 3 years experience in Mechanical Engineering- you may have heard of Xerox or Ford- those were among the places I worked. My starting salary was around 3k ahead of others hired at same time at my company. I interviewed 15 months prior to graduation, had my offer letter 12 months prior to real graduation and started 9 months before I got my degree.

My older brother did not have any experience (he chose to lifeguard all his summers) and did not get a job in his field for another 6 months after he graduated. It was a government job, and it paid very little... he's since done well for himself, but the first 4-5 years were a slow start.

My younger brother has a 4 year degree, has been out of school for 3-5 years, and has not worked a day in his whole life. Still can't get a job.

My baby sister is working after finishing college, similar issue to my older brother- little experience in her field, I think she's doing OK in Long Island, but nothing to brag about.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I totally agree. The point is not to watch them sink or swim -at great cost- from afar, but rather to ensure (as much as a parent can) that they don't lose motivation and develop a sense of entitlement. Personally, should they have high motivation/drive/hard work ethics, I am more than willing to help in anyway possible. I have really high paternal instincts and seeing them have sucess in their lives -as they would define it- would be my highest priority in life. I just don't want it to be a given as I fear that can sap their will.

The kid, one thing you need to consider is that in Canada education is subsidized at the unversity level by the government. Here in the US it is not. So the costs are very very different. It's cheaper for a student from the US to go to University of Toronto, McGill or waterloo and pay non-resident tuition than go to the US private schools

[TBH]

One other thing that has not been brought up is kids who work during college actually have a work history and are more employable after graduation.

Did I ever learn this the hard way. I graduated at age 20 with only one job behind me--tutoring. I worked retail for a couple years before I said the heck with this and went to grad school.

I wish I'd done a more practical major (I was a literature major) and worked while I was in school.

[thekid]

The kid, one thing you need to consider is that in Canada education is subsidized at the unversity level by the government. Here in the US it is not. So the costs are very very different. It's cheaper for a student from the US to go to University of Toronto, McGill or waterloo and pay non-resident tuition than go to the US private schools

Agreed. That is why in my first post I said that I don't believe that any help is necessary in Canada, while partial help would be in the US.

[Scanner]

My older brother did not have any experience (he chose to lifeguard all his summers) and did not get a job in his field for another 6 months after he graduated.

Hey now! I beach lifeguarded for 3 summers and want my sons to follow in their old man's footsteps - don't get carried away here!

Actually, my junior and senior year were during the first Bush recession so "internships" were not plentiful. Some of you'all may be too young to remember but there was a real unemployment problem then - that probably prompted me to get more education than anything else. I bet I would have made different choices if I had graduated 3 years later.

I was in amazement when 3-4 years later during the Clinton years, college grads were getting multiple job offers and I was still in school.

[tabbycat31]

I worked my way through college (public college, took me 6 years due to class schedules), and I feel I learned a lot that way. However when it came to job interviewing, employers viewed it as a liability and not an asset.

I had one employer ask me all kinds of questions about activities that I participated in (I was a commuter student who worked full time, I had no time for activities), and when I explained that to her, I might as well have told her I was a convicted felon.

Part of me wants to lie, tell them I went to Harvard, and the thing I learned the most was my (alcohol) tolerance level. At one particular interview, that might have gotten me hired.

It also hurts when many companies only will hire college grads who had an internship during the summer. Many of these internships are unpaid, and it almost creates a caste system, shutting out people who financially were not able to have an unpaid internship.