DD announced her college decision over Christmas. We are now trying to figure out how to pay for it. She picked the most expensive state school on her potential list. She was only granted $5000 in loans. After the loan amount it estimated $22,000 per year. We went through this once already with our oldest daughter. We owe $30,000 in loans for her alone. Our middle child was fortunate in that he had great grades and a great ACT score so we didn't pay anything for him. He has some student loans but they covered everything needed.
DD will get $3000 off annual tuition if she gets her ACT score up by 2 points so we are going to try to get her in some classes. She has already taken it 3 times. She thought she was done but we asked her if she would be willing to do it for $12000 in her pocket and she agreed it would be worth it.
We've been able to save abut $12000 though our state's college savings program. I also think that this being our youngest and the two siblings are now completely independent will help. In other words, we are not supporting 3 children any longer, just one.
My husband and I make decent money but are far from rich. We certainly make more than average. When did going to a state school become practically out of reach for the typical middle class family? Sigh. Yes, we could easily tell her to pick a less expensive school. The other two went to this school so I don't know that it would be fair. It is also where I went. My point is that going to a state university shouldn't be out of reach for your typical middle class family.
What is everyone else doing to pay for their kids school besides skipping Disney for the next four years?
(Side note, we have only taken the kids to WDW twice. The last time we did it by spending very little money. I was really hoping to go again in 2021 with just me and the spouse. We will see if we can still make that happen.
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