Live at home for four years. Always work part time during the school year and full time during the summer. Pick a school with lower tuition (community college, in-state residency, scholarships, etc.).
You just avoided $60-80k in college debt.
Clearly not as fun as four years in residence (I know since I did it). But paying off the loans isn’t fun either.
And there are very very very few places in the U.S. that are so remote (and very very few academic programs so specialized) that you can’t follow this plan for 2-4 years. Kids/families simply decide they don’t want to buy this college experience.
The college room and board are the killer incremental and avoidable expense. It is $10-15k for just 8 months a year and the parents recognize little savings by putting the kid up at school. The parents still have to pay the same mortgage on the same house 12 months a year since the kids are still at home for a third of the year or more. Way cheaper to provide the incremental dinner at home vs. away.
I love how people throw out the idea that there’s big numbers of people who are not located near any of the 1,738 two-year schools and 2,968 four-year schools currently in operating in the U.S. Come on.
Colleges are not as numerous in the U.S. as Starbucks or McDonalds. But they are almost as numerous as Taco Bell or Wendys.
You may not be excited about attending it. But chances are there is in fact a college located close to where you live.
Where I live, there’s at least 3 state universities, 3 community colleges and four private colleges within 25 miles. Plus lots more available online. What’s near where you live?
We’ll pretend for a moment that every single person who has a university within commuting distance can actually commute there (ie- has a car or public transportation… something that is very much NOT true but you know…)
There are between 600 and 700 public 4 year universities in this country (there are 4500 Walmarts so I’m not sure how that comparison holds up).
I happen to live in one of those places that has multiple universities nearby. In fact, I can name about 10 public Us that are technically commutable. I commute to one in fact (it’s an hour commute and yet it’s my nearest one).
On the other hand, my partner is from a suburban area in west Michigan and only has one public university within commuting distance- which is about a 45 minute drive and then even more time using transportation to get to the campus.
There are places that are considered suburbs that are easily an hour to an hour and a half drive from the city center depending on where you’re at. IMO, it is NOT realistic to expect students to take 2-3 hours every day to commute.
Again, I am at about an hour commute which is the very most I’d ever recommend. That is 10 hours out of your week… that is a HUGE chunk of time. Heck, that’s often the most we recommend students work each week.
The idea that everyone has a commuting option (either in theory or reality) is a lovely, pervasive myth on CC… but it is just that- a myth. There are so many logistical problems with that and often, people find that commuting is actually not that much cheaper than boarding when all is said and done.
The comparison to Walmart was with regard to the number of colleges in the US, not the number of 4-year public universities.
Regarding the commuting time, although it’s unheard of in many places, those who commute to jobs in NYC from NJ, CT, Long Island, or Westchester, routinely have daily, one-way commutes of 1.5 hours or more. Although it’s not optimal, it’s “doable” for a student to commute an hour or more each way to a university, particularly if that is their only financially feasible alternative.
“Again, I am at about an hour commute which is the very most I’d ever recommend. That is 10 hours out of your week… that is a HUGE chunk of time. Heck, that’s often the most we recommend students work each week.”
I agree. My one-way commute for four years was about 55 minutes. My commute to high school was longer and definitely a drag (although I was able to study on public transit). All of my siblings did about the same for their college careers too. The cost to my parents of a beater car or a transit pass was a fraction of college room and board. My beater car also enabled a lot of options for employment during the school year and the summer. It would have been great to live on campus, but that would have required a lot of college debt for me and/or my parents.
Almost everyone in the U.S. can commute to a college for at least 2 years. An overwhelming majority could commute for 4 years. Truth not myth.
Commute as in walk? Because public transportation is not available to many, cars/gas/maintenance costs money (and insurance is expensive). Riding a bike is not always an option, especially in the winter. It is very easy to assume the rest of the country has what you and I take for granted. The truth is, it is not that simple.
In northern Michigan, there is very often NOT a low cost CC option within an easy commute, even if a student has a car available to him/her. My friend is a professor at a CC in northern MI (lower peninsula), and not only is the tuition relatively expensive (certainly compared with CC tuition in the Detroit metro area), but there are other issues. Few classes, and offered at odd times, at a campus that is not exactly close by for many. Just one example.
I have certainly seen my share of people who borrowed too much money when they had other, less expensive options available that were do-able. I don’t feel bad for those folks. I DO feel bad for the kids who live in the UP (upper peninsula), on the farms, or even in an area of Detroit too far from any school for walking … and don’t even get me started on the fact that public transportation cannot be relied upon even if it is available in the area the student may live. I can guarantee that what I see in my own area is duplicated in other areas all over the country.
Four years of room and board at college will run you 40-60 grand. Living at school is always the higher priced option. In many instances, the majority of the college cost-of-attendance is room/board rather than tuition.
Much cheaper to buy and drive a beater car and live at home. Especially since the car can be used to help you hold down employment while in college.
If you are really poor and unable (financially or logisitically) to commute by beater car or public transit, then you probably should do online.
Racking up debt for room and board is usually a choice not a requirement. Except in extremely remote places like northern Michigan. But few people live in places like that.
One of the reasons I moved from Michigan 20 years ago was the dismal state of public transit. It’s a reason I don’t consider moving back.
A friend from work did two years of cc, then moved in with aunt and uncle for two more at a state U. When he graduated, he got an apartment and his brother moved in with him to finish the last two of his four.
There isn’t always an easy way, but that’s different than there not being any way at all.
How about all these people going to med school or law school. The average med school debt is $150k. Most med schools cost around $60k a year for 4 years, that’s $240k. Add to that 4 years at a prestigious private undergrad that some parents/kids think will help them get into a top med school. If they didn’t get any financial aid, that’s another $240k. That’s a total of $480k in student loans.
Once graduated from med school, the student has to do up to 8 years of residency which pays $45k a year, barely enough to live on, can’t even feed a family. Meanwhile the interests on the loans begin to accrue. Not all medical fields are that well paid either. Primary care/internal meds/pediatricians are lucky to make $180k a year. A surgeon makes anywhere from $250k to $700k a year depending on the specialty. It isn’t surprising that some doctors are still paying off their college loans when their kids start college.
As bad as that sounds, things are even more dire for law school grads. Many law school grads are now lucky to make $50k a year. The NYT recently had an article about Ivy League law school grads finding themselves unemployed, and are working as LSAT tutors - so they can help others join the heavily indebted, unemployed lawyers’ line.
The College Board has a website called “You Can Go”. You put in your zip code and it gives you the 20 closest 2- and 4-year schools. To Kelsmom’s point, I picked 2 random towns in Northern Michigan, with the following results:
Cheboygan MI - Closest school is N. Central Mich College in Petoskey. 37 miles / 50 minutes
Harbor Beach MI - Closest school is St. Clair CC or Baker College, both in Port Huron. 62 miles / 1:20 minutes
I’d love to figure out a way to determine how many zip codes in the US have no schools within, say, 30 miles.
The fact remains that most college students commute to college. Not every student lives near a college. Online courses have become more popular because many either don’t live near a CC or univ or don’t have transportation.
I don’t believe that most/all of those with massive debt are ones who didn’t have a CC or univ near their home.
On some other threads, parents have mentioned researching for several years before s/d was a HS junior/senior. Parents who educated themselves about AP and dual enrollment.
Our local university had both my kids’ college degrees available, but the other in-state schools they attend are better education for their degree. Since they have the money for room/board, and very good scholarships, they were able to go away.
I know a young man that went to our overall expensive flagship school, and owes them money after his first year. He has now been living at home and making money to build up enough to go back, but not saving enough to pay off the debt. Instead of one low pay job, he should have supplemented nights delivering pizza or another such job - really be a busy bee go-getter. He cannot get his transcript of courses completed to continue at local CC or state university. Parents made a big financial mistake themselves - didn’t have health insurance because they didn’t believe they would need (!) - and this was with a kid still in HS! Dad now has a incurable cancer (but is stable and able to work), but actually has done well with chemo including an experimental drug where he was one of the first to receive (phase I or II clinical trial) - he had a huge node on his neck that went down so dramatically after the experimental drug, it was amazing; he has a brother that had cancer before him (another reason to have the health insurance), so they had big time denial going. Dad and mom’s decision to not carry even catastrophic health insurance has totally ruined their finances. I believe they own a home but probably never can retire.
Heck, in Michigan you don’t even have to go to the UP to find those towns. The city where my roommate was from is only about 45 minutes out from a pretty major city. Nearest public 4 year? 45 miles/45 minutes. Quite a commute.
Not that it would have been commutable anyway. Her family couldn’t afford a car and public transportation doesn’t really exist in Michigan- even in big cities. In the summers, she walked to work so that she could make money for college.
Not ideal, but many schools take AP&CLEP credit and some take online and dual-enrollment transfer credit. Classes in a major may have to be taken on campus, but to someone motivated, this is a path, and 2 years of in-state costs at a sleepaway college (or even better, if they can get a full-tuition scholarship) is better than 4.
Some may have chosen an expensive residential school over an affordable one.
Some disdain public colleges, or their in-state public colleges. This is evident on these forums, where some are unwilling to attend their in-state publics (particularly for New Jersey residents), much less start at community colleges. This often removes some of their less expensive options.
Some may have the misfortune (for college cost purposes) to live in a place like Pennsylvania, where the in-state public options are expensive with poor in-state financial aid. Using http://www.collegedata.com/cs/search/college/college_search_tmpl.jhtml to search for public colleges with student loan debt over $35,000, Pennsylvania public colleges make up 11 out of the 22 colleges that show up.
Some of the lowest average borrower-debt at graduation rates are at private residential colleges with high sticker prices. Princeton’s per-borrower average debt at graduation is under $6K. Harvard’s is about $13K.
The College of New Jersey’s is over $30K. Penn State’s is over $35K.
I don’t know what the typical scenario is (if there even is one) for heavy borrowers. I suspect the problem is more common among students who do not have (or who do not seek out) good FA options, but who are unwilling to commute. We may not be talking about the student who turns down a UC or TCNJ for an Ivy. More likely (I suspect) it’s the student who turns down a nearby directional state university for the state flagship. Whether that’s because they otherwise cannot get the programs they want, or just want a certain “experience”, I don’t know. It’s hard to understand why presumably less-than-rich people would willingly take on $30K, $40K, or more in undergraduate student loans.