Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[mamacatnv]

My daughter submitted her co-op choices today- so looks like from Jan 2019-Jun 2019 she will be working a full time job in her field and getting paid and then again in Jan 2020-Jun 2020 same thing. She also submitted for the program she wants to do this summer - if she gets her choice she will be heading to Paris and London for a month long summer class in business fashion worth 8 credits, if she can't get into that one her next choice is Copenhagen. I am hoping for the work co-ops at least one is in NY, if its in Boston she can still stay in the dorm and if its elsewhere they help you secure an apartment near your job-NY would be ideal, just cost her a train ticket otherwise she will have to pay rent etc.

I love the idea of the co-op schools, DD is going to be attending a Co-op and I think its a great concept. I was speaking with a co-worker this morning, her grandson is at Stevens Inst Tech and just completed interview 5 for a spring co-op, we have our fingers crossed.
I had never heard of such a thing. I knew of study abroad in a general sense but really didn't understand or know of co-op schools.
This sounds like an amazing opportunity for your DD, hoping for the commutable options for you as well!

 

[aprilgail]

I love the idea of the co-op schools, DD is going to be attending a Co-op and I think its a great concept. I was speaking with a co-worker this morning, her grandson is at Stevens Inst Tech and just completed interview 5 for a spring co-op, we have our fingers crossed.
I had never heard of such a thing. I knew of study abroad in a general sense but really didn't understand or know of co-op schools.
This sounds like an amazing opportunity for your DD, hoping for the commutable options for you as well!

That is one of the big reasons my daughter liked this school- you graduate with work experience in your field for your resume already- plus you earn a nice income for the two 6 month periods which will then help with tuition.

 

[dreamin_disney]

About a week ago we went to visit DD. It had been a month since our last visit. Its been the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other. She was very different this visit. She enjoyed seeing us and all she wanted to do was talk, talk, and talk! lol! We took her out to dinner on a Friday. We spend two hours at dinner just talking. It seemed like she didn't want to leave and just stay longer with us. I finally said it was time to leave dinner and head to a store for some shopping. We went to two stores at that time it was finally 11pm. We took her back to her dorm for the night. Hubby and I went to parent orientation and aftwards picked her up. We took her to the mall, which she didn't feel like shopping but asked for a treat. We bought her one and we sat and talked. She talked mostly to me non stop. I felt bad for her dad-lol! Then we headed to wal mart to pick up some stuff she needed, Then to .99 cent store. We had dinner and dropped her off at her dorm. She gave us a bug and said Thanks you for everything. Then she sent me a text on Sunday, Monday, Tues and wed-lol!
It was a very nice visit and I felt we all needed it. I hope it helped her. For me it left me sad and missing her even more.


It seems like she's doing better. She is quiet and an introvert. She's nice and draws people to her but she starts to think because she's quiet and doesn't party people don't want to hangout with her. I told her she needs to stop thinking that or feeling that way. I reminded her of our conversation over our visit. She told me she meets with a group of friends everyday for dinner. the same group ask her to hangout but they also respect her not wanting to party so they only invite her to hangout, or go to eat off campus or events etc. There are two other girls in the another dorm building she hangs out with one she has in a class and the other is her friends roommate. Another girl from a different class has a boyfriend and they always invite my daughter to go out to eat with them or the girls boyfriend has a car so when his girl had an assignment to go to a museum she invited my dd to go to since dd doesn't have a car. My daughter told me they went out to eat afterwards and they wouldn't let her pay for her dinner. They treated her even though my dd told them she had money to pay. Antoher time dd needed to walk across campus to go get her TB test for a class and its a huge campus and her friend and the friend boyfriend gave her a ride and told dd its to far to walk so they would give her a ride. I told DD that was really nice of them and she will have to give them something like gift card for dinner or movie tickets. Her friend and friends boyfriend live near campus and grew up in the area so they know DD isn't from there and has no car.

DD is interested in being a RA and recently someone told her she should look into being a dorm mentor. She's going to put in for both and hopefully get one. her confidence seems to be improving about fitting in . Most of the kids are from the area or surrounding areas.



She sent me a video the other evening of her hanging out at the beach pier
with two friends. It turned out two friend from home/high school drove out the 2 hours to go visit her. She looked so happy in the video. I told her see people care about her and she's a good friend. I'm so glad they drove out to see her. I told hubby before our visit I got a feeling maybe she was feeling homesick but wasn't telling us. I think I was right.

btw- my first care package I sent was a success. It was a pumpkin head and she loved all the goodies. I probably wont do a Thanksgiving theme one since she will come home for Thanksgiving. Her Bday is in Dec so I will make a bday package with the one little present to unwrap per day until her bday. I cant remember who posted but it was someone from this board. Counting down til veteran's day. we asked if she want to come home or wanted us to go out there or just wanted to chill with her friends and she would love for us to come out. Hubby and I will stay in a hotel and she can stay with us or stay in her dorm. Not sure what we plan on doing yet.

 

[bjscheel]

@dreamin_disney that sounds awesome I love the long talks with my DDs and your DD is definitely making some good connections there.

DD had such an action packed week of fun that she hardly knew what to do with herself last night when no one was around. So she talked to me for 1.5 hours. There was a glow run Thursday night and she got a medal for 3rd place so that was cool.

Did any of your kids get significant scholarships besides the advertised automatic merit? DD16 would really like a private 4 year college but it's going to run at least $20,000/year after the automatic merit. She will audition for music and/or theater scholarships but I think that's only a couple thousand at most. I expect her to end up with a 4.0, possibly salutatorian, and with an ACT in at least the high 20's. We've started looking at outside scholarships but most are for seniors and current college students so she can't try many yet. Just wondering if there's much hope of getting the price down more. There's a public university here with a small college feel that runs $14,000 after merit but she thinks she doesn't like it. Currently she doesn't think a lot of debt is going to be a problem so I need to convince her it's important to minimize it even if it means not going to your first choice.

 

[yeahdisney]

DD went back to work another the U of I game and she found her bike there, where she had locked it up. Now she has two. She said she must of got turned around in the stadium and was still upset with the lady being upset with her and she couldn't find the bike.

 

[yeahdisney]

I forgot last week notice went out to sign up for next year dorm rooms. DD does not know if she wants to live where she is because she has not found any other engineer students in her building. She does like the dorm she is in and she would prefer her own room again. She talked to one of her roommates and they picked to room again next year The other girl will be in a sorority next year and I am unsure about the last roommate.
If she does not live there she is just out the fee to sign up.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

DD went back to work another the U of I game and she found her bike there, where she had locked it up. Now she has two. She said she must of got turned around in the stadium and was still upset with the lady being upset with her and she couldn't find the bike.

I've done this so many times at the mall! I got a giggle out of your story. I'm glad her bike wasn't really stolen!

 

[sk!mom]

@dreamin_disney Did any of your kids get significant scholarships besides the advertised automatic merit? DD16 would really like a private 4 year college but it's going to run at least $20,000/year after the automatic merit. She will audition for music and/or theater scholarships but I think that's only a couple thousand at most. I expect her to end up with a 4.0, possibly salutatorian, and with an ACT in at least the high 20's. We've started looking at outside scholarships but most are for seniors and current college students so she can't try many yet. Just wondering if there's much hope of getting the price down more. There's a public university here with a small college feel that runs $14,000 after merit but she thinks she doesn't like it. Currently she doesn't think a lot of debt is going to be a problem so I need to convince her it's important to minimize it even if it means not going to your first choice.

In my experience, your best bet for better scholarship dollars is to look at schools where you will be an attractive candidate. For my DD21, that was not the state Flagship or runner-up although she was an auto admit, they don't offer much merit aide. She choose the artsy state tier 2 school and gets about 75% tuition. However, that still left room and board which runs about $12,000 per year and the remaining 25%.

How much are you prepared to pay? We let DD know that $20K per year, all in, was our max. She understood the importance of avoiding debt. Plus, the artsy liberal school was the best fit for her. One semester left!

 

[aprilgail]

Just got back from parents weekend- what an experience. Friday was great, had dinner with my daughter and played bingo at the college, I won her a 80.00 sweatshirt! Saturday weather was perfect and we went to the big fair they had at the college then I met her boyfriend for dinner. Sat night she went out to a Halloween party and Sunday morn we had breakfast and it all went to hell after that. By the time I was going to leave the storm was coming in so I drove from Boston to a hotel closer to the Ferry- so I decided to stay overnight and head home this morning. Well at 9pm we lost power in the hotel, didn't get it back before I checked out this morning. Went to drive to the ferry and all street and traffic lights were out. Loaded onto the ferry and the seas were O rocky I thought I would going to hurl- the waves were crashing up on the windows of the ferry- it was horrible!!

 

[mamacatnv]

@dreamin_disney that sounds awesome I love the long talks with my DDs and your DD is definitely making some good connections there.

DD had such an action packed week of fun that she hardly knew what to do with herself last night when no one was around. So she talked to me for 1.5 hours. There was a glow run Thursday night and she got a medal for 3rd place so that was cool.

Did any of your kids get significant scholarships besides the advertised automatic merit? DD16 would really like a private 4 year college but it's going to run at least $20,000/year after the automatic merit. She will audition for music and/or theater scholarships but I think that's only a couple thousand at most. I expect her to end up with a 4.0, possibly salutatorian, and with an ACT in at least the high 20's. We've started looking at outside scholarships but most are for seniors and current college students so she can't try many yet. Just wondering if there's much hope of getting the price down more. There's a public university here with a small college feel that runs $14,000 after merit but she thinks she doesn't like it. Currently she doesn't think a lot of debt is going to be a problem so I need to convince her it's important to minimize it even if it means not going to your first choice.

Have you visited CollegeConfidential.com? I have found them to be a great resource. There is a group of regulars that are guru's for all things college. This is how we found the large merit package that DD received from Alabama and DD has been browsing looking for scholarship information from other sources within the school to cover what her package doesn't cover. Our goal is for her to be 100% debt free. I am on the fence in what I believe is actually out there in regards to scholarships that don't come from the schools. DD picked up a very "nice" award from one of the universities but when you start at $65K, 32K in offerings really doesn't make it that much more affordable when the budget is $10K

The bolded was my issue with where DD's head was at, she just did not understand what significant school debt means to a young adult. She seems to see the picture a little better now, especially after we said no, and she is sitting at home for a gap year.

 

[bjscheel]

Have you visited CollegeConfidential.com? I have found them to be a great resource. There is a group of regulars that are guru's for all things college. This is how we found the large merit package that DD received from Alabama and DD has been browsing looking for scholarship information from other sources within the school to cover what her package doesn't cover. Our goal is for her to be 100% debt free. I am on the fence in what I believe is actually out there in regards to scholarships that don't come from the schools. DD picked up a very "nice" award from one of the universities but when you start at $65K, 32K in offerings really doesn't make it that much more affordable when the budget is $10K

The bolded was my issue with where DD's head was at, she just did not understand what significant school debt means to a young adult. She seems to see the picture a little better now, especially after we said no, and she is sitting at home for a gap year.

I've started looking there a little. I did see that there are some attainable offerings in Alabama and Mississippi for full ride/full tuition but that's way too far away for us and we don't want a big school. (When I do the net cost calculator for Alabama State, it gives me -$1200 even without entering her GPA/ACT so that's weird.) I'm looking at Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota.

I don't know how much we'll chip in. DH would say very little, but I want to make it manageable for her. He paid for himself but it was a partial year of trade school so not the same! Us paying $10,000 a year would be absolute max. If she went to the $14,000 school (and maybe got a music scholarship and a few other small ones), her debt wouldn't be so bad. Not to mention the $14,000 school provides all books and a laptop for that price. Lots of kids we know go there and everyone is very pleased with it...ugh I'm just frustrated with her being set against it.

She wants either a theater/communications major or a vocal music education major, all the more reasons to keep the debt down . I prefer the education major but am being careful about advocating for it for now so it's still "her idea" and not me pushing. And she wants her school colors to include green or purple! She is so different from her sister sometimes!

 

[mamacatnv]

I've started looking there a little. I did see that there are some attainable offerings in Alabama and Mississippi for full ride/full tuition but that's way too far away for us and we don't want a big school. (When I do the net cost calculator for Alabama State, it gives me -$1200 even without entering her GPA/ACT so that's weird.) I'm looking at Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota.

I don't know how much we'll chip in. DH would say very little, but I want to make it manageable for her. He paid for himself but it was a partial year of trade school so not the same! Us paying $10,000 a year would be absolute max. If she went to the $14,000 school (and maybe got a music scholarship and a few other small ones), her debt wouldn't be so bad. Not to mention the $14,000 school provides all books and a laptop for that price. Lots of kids we know go there and everyone is very pleased with it...ugh I'm just frustrated with her being set against it.

She wants either a theater/communications major or a vocal music education major, all the more reasons to keep the debt down . I prefer the education major but am being careful about advocating for it for now so it's still "her idea" and not me pushing. And she wants her school colors to include green or purple! She is so different from her sister sometimes!

DD is going with UAH (Alabama Huntsville) unless something better comes along and since she has not applied for any competitive merit, UAH may be it. She is a stem kid, so this school is not a bad fit, its the "nerd" school - strong in stem with lots of opportunities for a co-operative. Also small population etc. We live in Texas - smack dab in the middle, the where was not a major concern to me, except when the where was Hawaii, I admit, that to me was too far.

We will only contribute what her scholarship won't cover - a $3,500 annual dining plan and a plane ticket to school, home from school for Christmas/Summers - Her Grandparent will give her monthly pocket money and she will cover her own incidentals with a part time job. We have told her she can go elsewhere but this is what we are willing to contribute and we WILL NOT sign a parent loan or Co-Sign a student loan - we will not - she can take her Fed loan if she chooses but that still limits where. IMO these extreme college costs are out of control and unless the parents have the ability to outright pay the bill (no plus loans) then everyone is digging a hole.
DD figured out that she can attend UAH - its well rated, small which she wants, has all individual rooms for dorms and is a stem school all for the cost of books and a dining plan. She can use her Fed Loan money if she chooses to study abroad etc. When the numbers were presented to her, she has begun to see the logic of not having large amounts of debt.

She has also applied to Howard as she is waffling between sciences and education - Howard is well known for their generous merit. With her ACT of a 34 and her grades, she had something to "sell"
If she was to stay the course of Secondary Ed, Howard would be an excellent choice. Howard is in D.C. where DD would love to hang out for a few years.

Huntsville is as close to the "south" as we could convince DD to apply - she went with Huntsville due to the demographic of the city and would not apply to "Bama", Birmingham or Alabama State - she refuses to "live there" same for anything in Mississippi or Louisiana - all three states had some excellent merit packages from various schools as did several Texas schools but she will not go, so Huntsville is the compromise.

Your $14K school sounds like a sweet deal - does that include housing or is it local?

 

[sksjasams]

I've started looking there a little. I did see that there are some attainable offerings in Alabama and Mississippi for full ride/full tuition but that's way too far away for us and we don't want a big school. (When I do the net cost calculator for Alabama State, it gives me -$1200 even without entering her GPA/ACT so that's weird.) I'm looking at Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota.

I don't know how much we'll chip in. DH would say very little, but I want to make it manageable for her. He paid for himself but it was a partial year of trade school so not the same! Us paying $10,000 a year would be absolute max. If she went to the $14,000 school (and maybe got a music scholarship and a few other small ones), her debt wouldn't be so bad. Not to mention the $14,000 school provides all books and a laptop for that price. Lots of kids we know go there and everyone is very pleased with it...ugh I'm just frustrated with her being set against it.

She wants either a theater/communications major or a vocal music education major, all the more reasons to keep the debt down . I prefer the education major but am being careful about advocating for it for now so it's still "her idea" and not me pushing. And she wants her school colors to include green or purple! She is so different from her sister sometimes!

If you are considering Iowa, you should consider Iowa State. It is MUCH more affordable and Ames is a great college town. My son is a freshman there this year and very happy. He applied to 6 schools and in the end, Iowa Sate had the best price, even though it was out of state for us. He got an auto scholarship of $6500, another $3000 from the school of business, and $2500 from my employer. We did get some grant fin aid as well. Total cost for tuition room and board came in under $13k for the year. No green or purple though!

 

[SmallWorld71]

Just got back from parents weekend- what an experience. Friday was great, had dinner with my daughter and played bingo at the college, I won her a 80.00 sweatshirt! Saturday weather was perfect and we went to the big fair they had at the college then I met her boyfriend for dinner. Sat night she went out to a Halloween party and Sunday morn we had breakfast and it all went to hell after that. By the time I was going to leave the storm was coming in so I drove from Boston to a hotel closer to the Ferry- so I decided to stay overnight and head home this morning. Well at 9pm we lost power in the hotel, didn't get it back before I checked out this morning. Went to drive to the ferry and all street and traffic lights were out. Loaded onto the ferry and the seas were O rocky I thought I would going to hurl- the waves were crashing up on the windows of the ferry- it was horrible!!

That was some scary wind last night! We lost power, but it just came back on few minutes ago. They're saying 72 hours for some areas.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Have you visited CollegeConfidential.com? I have found them to be a great resource. There is a group of regulars that are guru's for all things college. This is how we found the large merit package that DD received from Alabama and DD has been browsing looking for scholarship information from other sources within the school to cover what her package doesn't cover. Our goal is for her to be 100% debt free. I am on the fence in what I believe is actually out there in regards to scholarships that don't come from the schools. DD picked up a very "nice" award from one of the universities but when you start at $65K, 32K in offerings really doesn't make it that much more affordable when the budget is $10K

The bolded was my issue with where DD's head was at, she just did not understand what significant school debt means to a young adult. She seems to see the picture a little better now, especially after we said no, and she is sitting at home for a gap year.

Thanks for the link. I will check it out. High school scholarships were easier to find because the school gave a list but now in college we are kinda lost. DD was accepted to 7 colleges and 2 were private at $60,000 a year but even with a scholarship they offered still not enough. DD has always been good with her budget. We started her with a kids savings account at 5 years old and by 7 she knew taxes and used coupons-lol! She chose a college that's $22,000 a year and we help with dorm/meal she's responsible for tuition. Luckily she got 3 scholarships so $1500 debt only. Hopefully she can find some scholarships. She feels bad that we are paying for her dorm/meal plan so she's looking in to being an RA or dorm mentor for free housing/meal plan

 

[sk!mom]

I've started looking there a little. I did see that there are some attainable offerings in Alabama and Mississippi for full ride/full tuition but that's way too far away for us and we don't want a big school. (When I do the net cost calculator for Alabama State, it gives me -$1200 even without entering her GPA/ACT so that's weird.) I'm looking at Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota.

I don't know how much we'll chip in. DH would say very little, but I want to make it manageable for her. He paid for himself but it was a partial year of trade school so not the same! Us paying $10,000 a year would be absolute max. If she went to the $14,000 school (and maybe got a music scholarship and a few other small ones), her debt wouldn't be so bad. Not to mention the $14,000 school provides all books and a laptop for that price. Lots of kids we know go there and everyone is very pleased with it...ugh I'm just frustrated with her being set against it.

She wants either a theater/communications major or a vocal music education major, all the more reasons to keep the debt down . I prefer the education major but am being careful about advocating for it for now so it's still "her idea" and not me pushing. And she wants her school colors to include green or purple! She is so different from her sister sometimes!

DD's artistic choice of a major also contributed to her search for a debt free option. While not crippled by the debt from his 1985 degree, DH and I realized that the repayment certainly slowed us down financially. College costs now can make the debt load crippling if careful choices aren't made. We were not willing to take any parent loans or to cosign on any student loans. DD understood, to a degree, as a senior and focused her search on school choices that made debt free possible. Now, with graduation looming in May, she is hugely grateful that we helped guide her to this choice. She and her boyfriend and thier friends are starting to make post grad plans and budgets and those who took on debt are seeing their options limited by debt repayment.

 

[bjscheel]

Your $14K school sounds like a sweet deal - does that include housing or is it local?

Includes housing, it is 2 or 2.5 hours away.

If you are considering Iowa, you should consider Iowa State. It is MUCH more affordable and Ames is a great college town. My son is a freshman there this year and very happy. He applied to 6 schools and in the end, Iowa Sate had the best price, even though it was out of state for us. He got an auto scholarship of $6500, another $3000 from the school of business, and $2500 from my employer. We did get some grant fin aid as well. Total cost for tuition room and board came in under $13k for the year. No green or purple though!

Iowa State is huge. If we were to do a public university in Iowa, it would be UNI due to size (and purple LOL). Glad it worked out for your son though!

DD's artistic choice of a major also contributed to her search for a debt free option. While not crippled by the debt from his 1985 degree, DH and I realized that the repayment certainly slowed us down financially. College costs now can make the debt load crippling if careful choices aren't made. We were not willing to take any parent loans or to cosign on any student loans. DD understood, to a degree, as a senior and focused her search on school choices that made debt free possible. Now, with graduation looming in May, she is hugely grateful that we helped guide her to this choice. She and her boyfriend and thier friends are starting to make post grad plans and budgets and those who took on debt are seeing their options limited by debt repayment.

DD can see this with her cousins. One, along with his wife, had a combined student loan debt of $120,000 (now down to $90,000!). They are holding off on having children and approaching 30. Another at age 25 is living at home and working at McDonald's because she hasn't found a job in her field. One is paying out of state tuition for a degree in dance. In contrast, my sister's kids started at cc living at home, and transferred to that cheaper school. The younger one was in PTK at cc and will have hardly any tuition to pay at the transfer school with his scholarships. If anything, him being there could be a selling point to get DD to go there. When he goes next year I should send the girls down for a weekend and he will show them a good time

 

[bjscheel]

Thanks for the link. I will check it out. High school scholarships were easier to find because the school gave a list but now in college we are kinda lost. DD was accepted to 7 colleges and 2 were private at $60,000 a year but even with a scholarship they offered still not enough. DD has always been good with her budget. We started her with a kids savings account at 5 years old and by 7 she knew taxes and used coupons-lol! She chose a college that's $22,000 a year and we help with dorm/meal she's responsible for tuition. Luckily she got 3 scholarships so $1500 debt only. Hopefully she can find some scholarships. She feels bad that we are paying for her dorm/meal plan so she's looking in to being an RA or dorm mentor for free housing/meal plan

Do some internet searches for scholarships- I've been looking for DD16 and found that tons of them are for seniors and/or current college students.

http://www.thescholarshipsystem.com...-scholarships-to-apply-to-by-the-end-of-fall/
This blog will have a list for each season.

I don't know how good the chances are on these national ones you find on the internet, but DD19 did win a national one for $1500 renewable. I think we found it on Sallie Mae. The blog above says that the scholarships that are just for current college students are less competitive because so many students stop applying once they get into college. Also, does her college have their own scholarships for future years? I've looked at lots of colleges' websites and some of them at least had a foundation or other endowed scholarships that were for sophomores and up. DD19's community college has a foundation scholarship app and she can apply every semester so she will. She got $500 for her first semester and we're waiting to see if she got anything for next semester. She also applied for a couple more national ones but I'm not going to have her spend much time on those when the foundation is much more likely and her tuition bill is low anyway.

 

[sksjasams]

Iowa State is huge. If we were to do a public university in Iowa, it would be UNI due to size (and purple LOL). Glad it worked out for your son though!

Oh, I thought you initially meant Univ of Iowa (also big!). UNI seems like a great school!

 

[mamacatnv]

DD's artistic choice of a major also contributed to her search for a debt free option. While not crippled by the debt from his 1985 degree, DH and I realized that the repayment certainly slowed us down financially. College costs now can make the debt load crippling if careful choices aren't made. We were not willing to take any parent loans or to cosign on any student loans. DD understood, to a degree, as a senior and focused her search on school choices that made debt free possible. Now, with graduation looming in May, she is hugely grateful that we helped guide her to this choice. She and her boyfriend and thier friends are starting to make post grad plans and budgets and those who took on debt are seeing their options limited by debt repayment.

Includes housing, it is 2 or 2.5 hours away.



Iowa State is huge. If we were to do a public university in Iowa, it would be UNI due to size (and purple LOL). Glad it worked out for your son though!



DD can see this with her cousins. One, along with his wife, had a combined student loan debt of $120,000 (now down to $90,000!). They are holding off on having children and approaching 30. Another at age 25 is living at home and working at McDonald's because she hasn't found a job in her field. One is paying out of state tuition for a degree in dance. In contrast, my sister's kids started at cc living at home, and transferred to that cheaper school. The younger one was in PTK at cc and will have hardly any tuition to pay at the transfer school with his scholarships. If anything, him being there could be a selling point to get DD to go there. When he goes next year I should send the girls down for a weekend and he will show them a good time

$14K to include R&B is not a bad deal as most schools the R&B is at least 10K if not higher.


DD has several friends whose parents are extremely concerned over the debt that they and their kids are going to have. DD has a friend who went to Berkeley as an OOS student with no merit/scholarship or family savings, they are financing the whole thing. (The kid got into Berkeley, how can we say no? mentality) Another friend is at Berkelee school of Music and the parents are paying about half, her friend is still financing via co-signed loans well over $100K when all said and done - IMO that is crippling and crazy. No one wins in that type of scenario. The loan system makes it easy, no payments etc until the kids graduate etc and for some reason the selling point is they are going to make enough money straight out of college to pay exorbitant loan payments.

My DS has about 150K in loans after completing his Doctorate of Physical Therapy - his undergrad carried about 15K in debt, the rest was grad school BUT he walked out of school into a 100K a year job - we knew his earning potential would offset the loans and he is currently working his hiney off with a full time job plus PRN work to get those loans paid - he is only 27, IMO he had a plan to offset the cost of his schooling. Its still not ideal but it beats my DD who wanted to spend $200K on a liberal arts education with no real idea of what she planned to do, it was all about where she was going to go. Until Mom and Dad said no