Then let’s see colleges make it very clear that IT’S UP TO YOUR PARENTS TO PAY FOR COLLEGE ACCORDING TO OUR ASSESSMENT OF WHAT THEY ABLE TO PAY. If Harvard deems your father who refuses to pay a dime for your college, and your mother who has remarried and your stepfather able to pay, and mom has nothing and step ain’t paying for you—he’s done paying for own kid, you cannot go even if you are accepted to the school. None of this
“no one with need will be denied” verbiage.
A dear friend of mine had this happen with her to kids. In PA, once kid is out of highschool or age 18, child support ends under most situations. Dad plundered the College money—he was named trustee to Coverdell, I believe ; 529s can also be emptied by named owner, and so kids had no college money. They lived with mom, worked part time, commuted to college. They qualified for some PELL, SEOG, some state money and loans. Both were accepted to other schools but couldn’t come up with the money. Daughter was accepted to full need met schools but… Dad refused to even fill out forms, though I doubt that would have made a difference.
So the way most kids pay for college is having parents who are either able to pay for the expenses or are deemed unable to pay by financial aid formulas that the school and government pays for them. With most kids straddling both situations and having to pay themselves. Those are the traditional teens going to college pretty much straight out of high school. The average college student works, goes to school part time and pays most, if not all, of school costs and is over age 22, the age we hope traditional students are done with their bachelor’s degree. Loans feature too heavily in many cases.
My point is that even if they don’t retain all of the material, they at least get exposed to the concepts of personal finance. I see no downside to teaching this course in high school. Being educated shouldn’t just be about learning math, science, and U.S. history.
Yes, personal finance should include not only how to manage one’s own money, but also how to evaluate the terms before taking on debt (i.e. how not to get scammed by rent-to-own deals, how student debt will affect your life later, what are acceptable terms for a credit card, etc.) and how to recognize and avoid outright scams. Many young people, in addition to seniors, are being targeted these days. (My nephew just barely saved a friend who had already agreed to deposit a check from his new “employer” and buy Walmart gift cards with the proceeds. The check would almost certainly have bounced as soon as he’d handed over the gift cards, but he was able to reverse both transactions before it all hit the fan.)
In my opinion, it should also include content about how profitable poverty is for those who monetize it. Both the young people who are trying to escape poverty themselves, and those who are fortunate to have financial security as a baseline, should understand the obscene profits that are made on payday loans, fees on bank overdrafts that essentially serve as routine payday loans for many poor people, companies that pay workers with debit cards that charge fees to access their own money, how people become gig-economy slaves by leasing a car through Uber… it goes on and on. People lose years of economic progress to simple missteps, or become so mired that they never make progress at all. And even students who have no fear of becoming trapped in poverty themselves will never understand the exploitation that is baked into the system that treats them well, if they don’t learn about this stuff.
The head-over-heels race to cram as much supposedly-college-level material as possible into high school is squeezing out so many foundational skills and so much knowledge base that is essential for life. We can say it’s a parent’s responsibility to teach these things, but a lot of parents don’t know this stuff either, which brings us back to how students get inadvertently misled about how college is (or isn’t) going to get paid for.
(Hopefully OP doesn’t mind his thread going off on this tangent now that he has a new thread about his personal situation )
@jerome38747 The answer to your question is that not all schools will be affordable for an upper middle class family (with an EFC of 55K, I’m going to assume that you are in that category). There are a comparatively small number of “meets full need” schools that can be a great deal for low income students who have the academic records to obtain admission. The threshold for admission to these schools is typically high. For an upper middle class family, the amount of need-based support may not fall within their budget.
As you have discovered, there are many quality schools that offer merit scholarships that can bridge the gap for students that don’t qualify for much need based aid. For students like you, those are the ones to target to bring the price down. Typically, it’s possible to get it down to 40K/year; 30K is a bit more of a stretch.
There are OOS schools that offer good deals to national merit finalists in states like Alabama, Arizona, and Florida.
Finally, most schools do not meet full need and may be out of reach for both middle class and low income families. I helped a friend who was Pell eligible with an EFC that was close to zero. The student was solid but not exceptional and would not have been admitted to selective schools that meet full need. Most “aid” packages received were in the form of loans and even in-state options where financial aid was most generous left a gap of nearly 15K to pay for a residential experience. For this family, it might as well have been 100K. The money was just not there and taking loans (even if eligible) would have been foolish. This student ended up commuting and taking the federal student loan. She would have been thrilled to have 30K/year to work with.
Finally, I know a student much like you that obtained admission to a number of selective schools, including many fine LACs. The money didn’t work out and the student went to Barrett and had a great experience, and did very well with graduate school admissions. I know a number of students who were attracted to Barrett for price but ended up enjoying it on its own merits.
I know it’s disappointing to have your hopes raised about exciting schools, only to be brought down to earth by financial limitations. I agree with the poster above who criticized how the system encourages unrealistic expectations. FWIW, I ended up in an honors program at a state school after my parents told me they couldn’t afford the alternatives. It ended up being a great experience.
Florida requires a personal finance course. It was horrible and focused on grocery shopping (only buying what the teacher deemed worthy; he was an idiot). They had to pretend to manage a budget with a car that was no more than 8 years old, had to buy tires, had to get car insurance and health insurance. This was right when Obama care was kicking in and it was impossible to get a quote for an 17 year old, so they had to fake it and be 19, they had to get an apartment but couldn’t share.
It was unrealistic. No one graduating from high school could do all that. This was middle class america so most kids were covered by their parents’ insurance or military insurance. Most kids right out of high school do have roommates if they do live out of their parents’ home.
It could have been a good class but the teacher was an idiot. No time spent on interest or stocks or 401k or student loans. No instructions on a checking account although they had one in their fake budget.
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