Parents of college kids.

[imanangel]

What do you pay for and what does your child pay for?

Boy Wonder has finally seen that going to a college here is a smarter option than Florida.  With what we have saved for him, it looks like he will only have to pay about $200 of his rent for the student apartment, electricity which we are told is usually about $40 a month, gas for his car, and books.  The money we give him each semester will cover tuition and most of his rent.  Does this sound reasonable? 

[Deleted]

I made DD take small federal loans for her grocery, books and incidentals like gas. I wanted her to have some skin in the game. What she covered was about $400 a month of the expenses and I covered the rest which would equate to $1800/month including tuition & board. When she graduated I paid off most of her loans. Just wanted her to be thinking about her expenses as she went along and not overspend, so that is how I chose to handle it.

[973beachbum]

Yeah that is way less than any of DD's options!

Right now she is taking 4 summer classes at the local CC.  That cost $2500 not including books and lab crap.  We had some college savings so the tuition we paid for out of that and all she has to pay this summer are the books, lab costs and gas money.

Her regular school is really close to ten times that for regular tuition plus R&B.  She has some scholarships plus some school aid that brings it down to just over $21K including R&B.  We made her take out the max for SL's and are paying the rest from savings plus cash flowing some.  She is going to be a sophomore so is still going to live on campus.  Her junior year she will have to live off campus so after we get over the nervousness of her finding a safe place to live we, read me, will be very happy to not have to spend that $10K a year.

By that time I am hoping that room and board will all be on her.

[saveinla]

Jul 14, 2015 22:20:39 GMT -5 imanangel said:

What do you pay for and what does your child pay for?

Boy Wonder has finally seen that going to a college here is a smarter option than Florida.  With what we have saved for him, it looks like he will only have to pay about $200 of his rent for the student apartment, electricity which we are told is usually about $40 a month, gas for his car, and books.  The money we give him each semester will cover tuition and most of his rent.  Does this sound reasonable? 

This sounds very reasonable. Go for it. Is he going to take any loans in his name?

[taz157]

My parents are divorced and my dad paid child support. Once I graduated high school (1.5 months before I turned 18), my dad paid the CS to me and my mom matched it. That money was used to pay for college. Since I didn't know what I wanted to do, I went to community college and got my associates degree. During that time, I lived with my mom, in where I was not charged rent and was covered on her and my dad's health insurance. I also had a part-time job that paid for books, car, gas, auto insurance, eating out, fun money, etc.

Once I got my associates, I transferred to a 4 year school to get my 2 bachelor degrees. I still received the CS and still had a part time job, but I lived with my boyfriend (now DH). I was not charged rent, but still contributed towards the house somehow (don't remember too much anymore).

The CS payments to me stopped once I graduated from college. I had a part-time job the entire time I was college except the last semester I was in college. I didn't work then due to conflict with required courses to graduate and also have time/availability for a full-time job after college. Fortunately it worked and I started my 1st professional job 1.5 weeks after graduating college. ?

For me, it worked well and I was able not have any student loans once I graduated. YMMV.

With my brother, he had a similar experience when he attended a trade school the year after he graduated high school. He would have attended the fall after he graduated high school but he was going with a high school friend that had to wait a year before he could go (don't remember the reason anymore).

[wvugurl26]

That sounds reasonable. I had a full scholarship that covered housing and everything for undergrad. I was still on my parents insurance. Dad would give me a few bucks here and there. Last two years grandpa gave me $500/semester. I worked in the summer.

[beergut]

Jul 14, 2015 23:45:24 GMT -5 taz157 said:

My parents are divorced and my dad paid child support. Once I graduated high school (1.5 months before I turned 18), my dad paid the CS to me and my mom matched it. That money was used to pay for college. Since I didn't know what I wanted to do, I went to community college and got my associates degree. During that time, I lived with my mom, in where I was not charged rent and was covered on her and my dad's health insurance. I also had a part-time job that paid for books, car, gas, auto insurance, eating out, fun money, etc.

Once I got my associates, I transferred to a 4 year school to get my 2 bachelor degrees. I still received the CS and still had a part time job, but I lived with my boyfriend (now DH). I was not charged rent, but still contributed towards the house somehow (don't remember too much anymore).

The CS payments to me stopped once I graduated from college. I had a part-time job the entire time I was college except the last semester I was in college. I didn't work then due to conflict with required courses to graduate and also have time/availability for a full-time job after college. Fortunately it worked and I started my 1st professional job 1.5 weeks after graduating college. ?

For me, it worked well and I was able not have any student loans once I graduated. YMMV.

With my brother, he had a similar experience when he attended a trade school the year after he graduated high school. He would have attended the fall after he graduated high school but he was going with a high school friend that had to wait a year before he could go (don't remember the reason anymore).

I commend your father for continuing to support you when you went to college. Unfortunately, there are a lot of divorced fathers who think their obligation stops once you turn 18.

[imanangel]

Jul 14, 2015 22:43:48 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Jul 14, 2015 22:20:39 GMT -5 imanangel said:

What do you pay for and what does your child pay for?

Boy Wonder has finally seen that going to a college here is a smarter option than Florida.  With what we have saved for him, it looks like he will only have to pay about $200 of his rent for the student apartment, electricity which we are told is usually about $40 a month, gas for his car, and books.  The money we give him each semester will cover tuition and most of his rent.  Does this sound reasonable? 

This sounds very reasonable. Go for it. Is he going to take any loans in his name?

Yes, I was planning on doing what @rockit had mentioned above.  We talked about him taking out $1000-$1500 to put in savings to help cover gas, books, and his groceries.  He will be in student housing, but he will not have a meal plan since it is one of the apartments.

[andi9899]

Mine pays to put gas in her car. I pay for everything else.

[alabamagal]

I have 3 kids who were 4 years apart in school. 2 are done and 3rd is still in college.

We paid for kids private school through grade 12 (only viable option where we lived) and did not have a lot of college savings.

They all got full or nearly full tuition scholarships. The Georgia hope scholarship is paying less and less though so it is down to 50% of tuition and fees for 3rd. They took out federal loans for living expenses. First child took out private loans for summer school but she was able to finish in 3 years so total loan amount was the same as max federal for 4 years.

I paid for health insurance, car insurance, cell phone. They had a car to use that was bought used when they're were 16. Car was given to them upon college graduation. Value of car is $2k at that time.

[beergut]

Jul 15, 2015 6:50:17 GMT -5 imanangel said:

Jul 14, 2015 22:43:48 GMT -5 saveinla said:

This sounds very reasonable. Go for it. Is he going to take any loans in his name?

Yes, I was planning on doing what @rockit had mentioned above.  We talked about him taking out $1000-$1500 to put in savings to help cover gas, books, and his groceries.  He will be in student housing, but he will not have a meal plan since it is one of the apartments.

Can he still get an on-campus meal plan even though he is off-campus? The first year I was in college, I lived off-campus and I starved my first semester because there was never enough food. Second semester, I got a part-time job to pay for extra groceries, and that helped. Second year, I moved on-campus, and the food plan was a godsend. Being able to go and get all-you-eat three meals a day really made my life easier. We had the option of being able to buy a meal-plan when we were off-campus, too, although I didn't realize that until researching it while on-campus. 

If he is going to be spending most of his day on-campus, it might prove to be cheaper to let him buy ten meals a week, so he can grab something to ear without having to go back off-campus to his apartment for meals. Just a thought. 

[tractor]

My son starts at a state university in the fall. My wife and I intend to pay for everything. He might end up with a few student loans before its all over, but since he's not 18 yet, he can't take anything out. We have set aside about $2,000/month to pay for his college. We will expect him to pay if he doesn't put in any effort or keep his grades up. Based on his high school years, I don't expect either of those to be s problem.

[imanangel]

Jul 15, 2015 7:25:30 GMT -5 tractor said:

My son starts at a state university in the fall. My wife and I intend to pay for everything. He might end up with a few student loans before its all over, but since he's not 18 yet, he can't take anything out. We have set aside about $2,000/month to pay for his college. We will expect him to pay if he doesn't put in any effort or keep his grades up. Based on his high school years, I don't expect either of those to be s problem.

Yeah, Boy Wonder knows if he doesn't work hard and get good grades, bank of mom and dad closes.

[imanangel]

Jul 15, 2015 7:17:45 GMT -5 beergut said:

Jul 15, 2015 6:50:17 GMT -5 imanangel said:

Yes, I was planning on doing what @rockit had mentioned above.  We talked about him taking out $1000-$1500 to put in savings to help cover gas, books, and his groceries.  He will be in student housing, but he will not have a meal plan since it is one of the apartments.

Can he still get an on-campus meal plan even though he is off-campus? The first year I was in college, I lived off-campus and I starved my first semester because there was never enough food. Second semester, I got a part-time job to pay for extra groceries, and that helped. Second year, I moved on-campus, and the food plan was a godsend. Being able to go and get all-you-eat three meals a day really made my life easier. We had the option of being able to buy a meal-plan when we were off-campus, too, although I didn't realize that until researching it while on-campus. 

If he is going to be spending most of his day on-campus, it might prove to be cheaper to let him buy ten meals a week, so he can grab something to ear without having to go back off-campus to his apartment for meals. Just a thought. 

No, a meal plan is not available to him.  He will be living across the road from a state university, but he will actually do a semester or 2 at the community college down the road.  

[bookkeeper]

We have had two sons go through the University system.

We paid cell phones, used cars, car insurance, health insurance and pop up expenses.

The boys took Stafford loans each year. One son had a full tuition scholarship. Our other son stopped taking classes for a few years, paid off the debt he accumulated, and went back to school at age 24 with a Pell grant.

Our son who had the full tuition scholarship graduated with $31,000 of debt. That did include a study abroad semester and an internship semester in a foreign country, so all in all pretty reasonable in my opinion.

We help them both out as we can. I recently put chunk of money down on ds#2's student loans and gave ds#1 some cash for summer school.

We are fortunate that we had the means to help them both, but they needed to have skin in the game as well.

[Phoenix84]

When I was in college, parents paid for tuition, and room and board. I paid for books, and any additional extras.  I didn't have a car on campus until my junior year. Once I did, I paid for gas.

[happyhoix]

The deal with DS was that if he got good enough grades to maintain the HOPE scholarship, which paid for tuition and a little towards books, we would pay the rest of his expenses.

If he didn't manage to keep the HOPE scholarship but still had decent grades, we would pay for his tuition, but he was on the hook for everything else - he either had to get a job or he had to get a student loan.

If he crapped out completely, he would have to get a job, we weren't paying tuition for a poor GPA.

I gave him my old car when I got a new one, but it only lasted his freshman year. Fortunately sophomore year he started working an internship (every third semester he worked full time) and earned enough to pay his car note and dating expenses. Graduated in five years (due to working the internship throughout) with no student loans, kept his Hope scholarship through out.

I think, even if the parents can afford to pay for the full ride, that they shouldn't. College students need to have some skin in the game.

[garion2003]

Jul 15, 2015 7:25:30 GMT -5 tractor said:

My son starts at a state university in the fall. My wife and I intend to pay for everything. He might end up with a few student loans before its all over, but since he's not 18 yet, he can't take anything out. We have set aside about $2,000/month to pay for his college. We will expect him to pay if he doesn't put in any effort or keep his grades up. Based on his high school years, I don't expect either of those to be s problem.

He should be able to get Federal student loans even if he's under 18. There is a specific part of the higher education act that exempts the infancy defense from federal student loans.

But if he doesn't need to borrow now, so much the better!

[imanangel]

Jul 15, 2015 8:04:37 GMT -5 garion2003 said:

Jul 15, 2015 7:25:30 GMT -5 tractor said:

My son starts at a state university in the fall. My wife and I intend to pay for everything. He might end up with a few student loans before its all over, but since he's not 18 yet, he can't take anything out. We have set aside about $2,000/month to pay for his college. We will expect him to pay if he doesn't put in any effort or keep his grades up. Based on his high school years, I don't expect either of those to be s problem.

He should be able to get Federal student loans even if he's under 18. There is a specific part of the higher education act that exempts the infancy defense from federal student loans.

But if he doesn't need to borrow now, so much the better!

Yes, he should be able to.  My DSD started college at 17 and she was able to get student loans.

[tractor]

He can get a Federal student loan for $5,500, not enough to make a dent in his $28,000 yearly tuition bill. He is not able to qualify for anything else due to our household income. We will be establishing a student line of credit for him as soon as he turns 18. Until then no one will touch it.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

I went to a 5 year coop engineering school (Drexel). The work portion helped with money. Since I was working for the Navy they paid some tuition and books in addition to a salary. Of course the extra year added to the overall cost. I think a semester cost about $500 back then even for a private school. Hey it was the 60's. I also worked part time while at school washing dishes at the girls dorm.

[jeep108]

My daughter is getting her tuition paid from the Honors Scholarship we have money in the 529 for her books.  We'll be paying for her car insurance, gas and food.

[souldoubt]

I think what's reasonable is what you have set aside without you the parent taking on any loans.  My plan is to save what we can and when future kiddos start college they'll know what we've been able to set aside for them.  Anything beyond that they're responsible for.  As scary as it is at 18 they're adults and responsible for their own decisions so if they want to go to an expensive 4 year they have to live with the financial ramifications of that decision.  I found out a family friends daughter got accepted to a local 4 year school.  She got scholarships which are helping with the cost greatly but the tuition per year including room/board is 52K which is ridiculous.  It's a good school but it isn't some big name school that's known for some great program(s).     

[tskeeter]

As one of five kids and educator's pay checks, Mom and Dad paid for tuition if I got decent grades.  Room and board, books, fees, clothes, car expenses, and pizza and beer were on me. 
 
Watchng the behavior of my friends, for most of them, the more their parents paid for, the less they valued their education.

I think that kids place more value on what they earn than on what they are given.  So, I think a college education should be earned.  Not funded by Mom and Dad. Nor by student loans.  A lot of the skills and knowledge that differentiated me from other job candidates when I graduated were not acquired in the class room.  They were acquired on the work site.

As a hiring manager, I found that my most successful hires were usually kids who grew up in small towns.  Why?  Because they'd had jobs from the time they were six or seven years old.  Chores to do at home.  After school/weekend jobs while in high school.  Part time jobs while in college.  On graduation day, they already had significant work histories.  And skills (sometimes really useful ones) to go with the work history.  And they knew what it meant to hold a job.  And when the world of work turned to garbage, they changed their plans and helped to fix things.  And they weren't prima donnas, who thought that a little bit of education made them special.  They had the savvy to value the experience and skills of their co-workers, many of whom were not highly educated.      

[murphath]

We didn't want the kids (3) to have student loans for undergrad so that they would have better options upon graduation: either work or continue with post grad. Thus, we cash flowed their tuition, room & board, books, cell phone and car insurance. They were responsible for personal expenses. First two years were at comm. college so they needed the car. When they transferred, they were not allowed to take a car with them. They lived in dorm their junior year and didn't need one. We allowed them to live off campus their senior year so gave them the car at that time--except for DD2 who transferred to a school in Hawaii.

Son was last to graduate in 2012.  For all three, we estimate we spent a total of @ $65,000.  Other than room & board, tuition is pretty reasonable here in Calif..  DD2 received multiple athletic/academic scholarships which made the Hawaii school possible.

[murphath]

tskeeter:

Not all kids are like that. Mine appreciated their paid for education. One is a medical doctor, the other a physical therapist, and the third an insurance underwriter. Teaching kids to appreciate what they are given begins when they are little. We spent a ton of money on their private school education K-8 (and thru 12th for one), but we didn't spoil them with toys, gadgets, etc.  None of them had a cell phone until they transferred to 4 year college.

[alabamagal]

My son started college at 17 away from home. There was no issue with Federal loans.

Lesson learned though. There are some things you can not do until you are 18. Like buy cold medicine. I know from experience. I had to tell him to find someone with ID to buy for him!

[murphath]

alabamagal: Could your son have gotten it from the college health center?

[tskeeter]

Jul 15, 2015 11:27:02 GMT -5 murphath said:

tskeeter:

Not all kids are like that. Mine appreciated their paid for education. One is a medical doctor, the other a physical therapist, and the third an insurance underwriter. Teaching kids to appreciate what they are given begins when they are little. We spent a ton of money on their private school education K-8 (and thru 12th for one), but we didn't spoil them with toys, gadgets, etc.  None of them had a cell phone until they transferred to 4 year college.

True.  And that would be why I used the word "most".

[973beachbum]

Jul 15, 2015 11:09:44 GMT -5 souldoubt said:

I think what's reasonable is what you have set aside without you the parent taking on any loans.  My plan is to save what we can and when future kiddos start college they'll know what we've been able to set aside for them.  Anything beyond that they're responsible for.  As scary as it is at 18 they're adults and responsible for their own decisions so if they want to go to an expensive 4 year they have to live with the financial ramifications of that decision.  I found out a family friends daughter got accepted to a local 4 year school.  She got scholarships which are helping with the cost greatly but the tuition per year including room/board is 52K which is ridiculous.  It's a good school but it isn't some big name school that's known for some great program(s).     

Just for the record including R&B that is about the price of a private college today.  And the middle of it not the high end.  We toured a few private colleges that were much higher.  Drexel which was mentioned by ken a.k.a OMK is almost $50K a year just for tuition and fees.

While that is a lot of money it actually ended up being almost the same for my DD once the private schools threw in some school aid and scholarships.  I actually put all the schools and their costs minus aid and scholarships on an excel spread sheet.  DD had two private and two state universities on the list for her.  Once all fin aid and scholarships was subtracted all the schools ended up within $2000 a year of each other.  The one she ended up going to was her fav by far but ended up only $300 a year more than the cheapest state univ.