“This is also a large part of the problem. Our kids were born in 2001. Is it reasonable to think that most parents could have forseen and planned for this kind of inflation? Is it any wonder that parents are now shell shocked and upset?”
Actually during that time period it was common knowledge that college costs would be 150k for public and 250k or more for private 18 years later. My first kid was born 2002 and we were well aware of the future costs of college.
With that said, I think the larger point was that some families, like the OP, chose not to have a plan for paying for their kids college education and are now shocked that OOS colleges are out of reach.
The good news is you will have some in-state options, or even community college, and then transfer. Good luck.
Actually, I don’t remember it being common knowledge back then. Personally, we didn’t plan for any specific tuition. We just saved as much as we could. We were very lucky that Grandparents did the same and now have some excellent options. But I would certainly not be judgmental about a family that couldn’t swing this.
I grew up in a town with a college. When I started it was $330, and that included books. Most just paid as they went.
In Florida, many, many parents bought the pre-paid tuition plan, putting a set amount into savings. Those parent chose a 4 year tuition plan, or a 2 year community college plus 2 year university plan. Yes, the had to decide if the new baby would be a smartie and need the 4 year college or even if they’d go to college at all . Since then, the Bright Futures has changed many times and now many with the savings plans get to keep the money or use it for grad school.
In states with really low instate tuition, savings was never that important as they could pay as they went.
I am sorry if I opened up a can of worms or offended anyone with my earlier post. Coming from a very low-income family and then raising my two kids as a single parent, their education and how the heck I was going to pay for it was always a concern for me. I started saving in a 529 when I first heard about it, when my first was in elementary school, I think $25/month, then as the raises came, eventually it was $100/month. It wasn’t even close to being able to pay for tuition of $70K/year and as luck would have it, merit was a life-saver (and that pricetag was never on the table) but those monies helped and certainly took the edge off when the semester bills arrived. Didn’t hurt that kid #1 chose the military instead of college but that was his choice to make.
In terms of not saving for college, when my kids were babies/toddlers, we were spending the equivalent of private college tuition on daycare, and assumed (and we know how that goes) that if we could pay for daycare out of income then, we’d be able to pay for college out of income later, and directed all we could save into retirement funds, and later daycare money started going into private K-8 school when it became apparent that public was a horrible fit for them. Who knew that college costs would rise so much faster than incomes? Honestly, we weren’t paying enough attention as that trend began. And yes, we also always imagined that our kids would get merit scholarships. Maybe there was an unwarranted conceit in that statement, but all 3 did end up being good students and great standardized test takers (as were their parents), and honestly, this was fairly apparent early on. What we didn’t know or understand then was that the “top” colleges typically don’t give merit. But we learned and found ways to make things work for our family.
OP - Without knowing exactly what your daughter wants to major in and what her career aspirations are, it’s hard to give an opinion about whether it could be detrimental to go somewhere that doesn’t offer her exact field of study.
I think it is truly a rarity to find someone who is not in the 1% who has had such incredible foresight that they have been able to not only predict what college costs are, but to be completely prepared to pay them. We had a plan. We maxed out retirement savings early on. We opened 529s and put a little bit in each of them each month. We saved diligently and paid off our mortgage, thinking we’d be able to take that monthly payment and put it towards college. What we didn’t expect was that CSS profile schools would require us to pay 5% of our home equity towards college costs each year. And that was impossible for us since it’s over 2x what we were paying towards our mortgage each year. We didn’t realize that the pre-tax dollars we put toward funding our retirement would go back into our income for the purpose of calculating college costs. Despite our best efforts, we still fall short of being able to afford a lot of schools out there. It’s hard not to feel like a failure when you see your child getting into prestigious schools that you can’t afford to send them to. This time around DS is only applying to one CSS profile school, and with the knowledge that unless he gets good merit it ain’t gonna happen.
Lots of us couldn’t save one cent specifically for college, because, well, life. So if that is your situation, welcome to the club. Your kid’s options will be different than you might have liked, but guess what? Your kid will probably turn out just fine. Go have your cry. Then pull yourself together, look at the real numbers, and get honest with your kid about the options.
Use a computer spreadsheet application to find the state that provides the highest ranked in-state public university(s) with the most desirable programs, the lowest tuition and the lowest overall cost of living. Move there, pay 100% of the in-state tuition and take up golf with all the time and money you will save.
Given how many schools will give merit aid for B/B+ students, I don’t think its unrealistic to assume some reduction in list price. Its also fair to assume your student could attend a state school – not necessarily the flagship. A student who performs so poorly in high school that he can’t get merrit anywhere and can’t get into any state option probably needs to think about options beside going straight into a 4 year institution.
That student still has 4 year college options unless he doesn’t have a nearby UC or CSU, and/or his parents won’t pay much or anything towards college.
Such a student would probably get a merit offer from a lower UC or from a number of the lesser-known but very good colleges in Calif. My niece had lesser stats (sub 30) and was offered a very generous merit pkg from St. Mary’s of Calif, a very good school. Also a nice offer from Whittier, Redlands, and USanFran.
If that student can go OOS, then also many options…some New Mexico schools are quite generous for those stats. I think Texas Tech is as well. At Bama, the student would pay less than instate tuition. There are others.
Our real estate holdings would prevent our kids from any aid, so we chased merit. Our strategy was that we’d help them as undergrads and help them as grad students. Having gone to a mid-tier with generous merit hasn’t held them back at all. We also paid for private K-12.
The treatment of home equity varies. It’s not the same across the board. You can research which CSS schools take into account all your home equity, which CSS schools cap the amount of home equity considered, and which CSS schools do not consider home equity at all. Start with this list:
According to this article, these schools are the worst offenders for how they treat home equity in their FA formula:
American University
Babson College
Bentley College
Boston College
Emory University
Holy Cross College
Lehigh University
Loyola University Maryland
Northeastern University
Sarah Lawrence College
Tulane University
Also, in the article linked above, there is a link to a spread sheet that lists more colleges and provides more details.
Look at schools like Iowa state university… Great merit. Miami of Ohio… Same… Kids from Illinois are flocking to University of Alabama… Why… Great merit for now…
One option since it seems you have a nice income is going to a community College for a year or two to get the basics out of the way and put away the savings you would of used for a more expensive college and use it for year 3/4 as a transfer to a 4 year college. There are many options. If you local 4 year is a viable option you can afford them just do that.