<p>Thanks for the understanding comments…</p>
<p>I’ve told my child of course that we will contribute strongly financially to her education…We’ve told her she’s “earned” at a minimum the full published cost of a state school with her outstanding performance in high school and as a kid. We stretched that number a little bit for her to $150,000.</p>
<p>If she goes to a very good “free ride full boat” school, we’ll give her the 150k-- she’s earned it.</p>
<p>She has to figure out if having $150,000 in hand at graduation to buy an apartment and a car, and live debt-free while looking for a grad school-- with a good degree… is a better option than</p>
<p>Paying rent, riding the bus, and paying off $100,000 in debt – admittedly with a “great” degree…</p>
<p>It’s not so easy— and a position I thought more people would be in.</p>
<p>I’ve got her applying for the (very awesome looking) bridge year program – partly because it would be a awesome experience and partly because it would per her and her sister in college at the same time, saving our shared “family unit” an estimated $50,000. Which is a lot of money to me. Unfortunately they don’t make decisions on this until after the 1 May cutoff… </p>
<p>Argh-</p>
<p>The things you don’t know when you’re young… The 1 thing I could have done to cut college costs the most was have my kids in a bunch— preferably twins… To me that’s kind of insane. Why should someone with 3 kids gets hundreds of thousands of dollars more in aid because they were born close together than someone who has them spread out??</p>