I think you’re assuming money is there and families just aren’t doing the calculations to find it. I think parents are looking, but the money just isn’t there. How many bills, other than car insurance, are calculated by the number of people in the home? Cable isn’t. Internet isn’t either. Utility costs don’t change much with one kid gone either.
Food costs would change some, but even if we dropped the insurance on kiddo’s car and accounted for a dip in utility and food costs we’d still be short ~$15k/year for direct costs to our state school. Even after the direct student loan and ~$3k summer work earnings there’s a ~$7k/year gap, plus the costs of getting each kid to/from school 3x/year.
The ~$7k/year gap is only if those costs ALL disappear when one of our children is gone. They don’t. Our kids were all out of the house last summer. We weren’t suddenly able to bank an extra ~$600/month per kid. We don’t have an extra ~$28k for each kid to attend a residential college, and it’s not because we didn’t look for it. It’s just not there.
Also remember that your parents will no longer be paying to feed you for 9 months of the year, and they were probably already spending money on you while you lived at home, so that should free up a little cash to help pay for some of your expenses.
The total cost of attendance includes books, personal expenses, transportation, AND tuition, fees, room and board.
There aren’t that many schools where the billable costs of tuition, fees, room and board exceed $75,000 a year…which this student has if they add $5500 to the $70,000 in free money this college gave them.
If the student takes the $5500 Direct Loan, they aren’t short $10,000, they are short $4500.
Plus as noted above…if this school is that wonderful, it might be worth taking out loans.
Has the OP even returned to the thread? What major, what college? What CAN parents contribute? Does she have a job? Did I miss the answers to those questions?
I understand the threads where the student needs to come up with 70K a year themselves. But 10K or 5K is reasonable. College is not free. Loans are no fun but they are expected by my family. 30K spread out over 10 years is not a large monthly payment.
I understand something was posted about possible medical school but that’s a when and an if. Many start the premed track and find themselves in a different direction.