<p>FYI:</p>
<p>[The</a> $50K Club: 58 Private Colleges Pass a Pricing Milestone - Student Affairs - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/The-50K-Club-58-Private/48989/?key=S2MiclRnbCpIN3VnLiAceyIBPH57dEh4OSRAYngaZV9T]The”>http://chronicle.com/article/The-50K-Club-58-Private/48989/?key=S2MiclRnbCpIN3VnLiAceyIBPH57dEh4OSRAYngaZV9T)</p>
<p>She sounds a lot like those 9 million Americans that bought homes they couldn’t afford and then sang the “I am a victim” song – or the automobile companies that signed labor contracts they couldn’t afford or wall street firms that bought and sold mortgage backed securities that were unsound. Heck, she is in NYC, maybe she will get a bailout from Washington, D.C…</p>
<p>Getting yourself into 90k worth of debt for a bachelors degree is a little inane especially considering you do not know what kind of job opportunities you’ll receive after you graduate. I’m sure many of you would disagree, but an education is not worth the stress of debt for practically half of your life. Not every education is the same but if you cannot afford one school then you should really look into another. You go with your budget in life when purchasing apartments, houses, cars, entertainment, why not with education?</p>
<p>I feel a bit sorry for her since she is young and clearly does not understand the complexity of taking out that much debt. Most 18 year olds do not understand how loans work and financial planning since it isn’t something they’ve had to do growing up.</p>
<p>I’m one who worked his way through college, taking on no debt… and yes I took the community college and state university route… but that was a LONG time ago. </p>
<p>I am looking at my tax return for one of those years - and I made (warning laughter may ensue) $7946. From that money, I paid my share of the rent, all food, book and tuition. </p>
<p>Since I also have access to a pay stub that is in that tax folder, I can tell you I was making $4.35 an hour - and that was way above minimum wage as I was the main chef in a mediocre restaurant. I averaged 35 hours a week although I worked two jobs in the summer so was probably more like 56 hours a week in the summer and 30 in the school year.</p>
<p>A cook in a similar restaurant today would make $12-13 an hour or about $22,000 before taxes a year. Take out $2000 for taxes and you are at $20,000. </p>
<p>My same crummy 400 square foot apartment (now in much worse shape given the pathetic maintenance) now rents for $1295 according to the complex website. Find a roommate you can live with (I ended up marrying mine) and that is $650 a month or $7800. 12,200 left.</p>
<p>Tuition and fees 5,200 today - $7000</p>
<p>Books $1700. Now down to $5300</p>
<p>Food - $10 a day, 365 days a year - $1650 left</p>
<p>Muni Fast Pass - to get to school and work - $55 a month or 660 a year - $1000 left</p>
<p>So can it be done? Sure … but as you can see from the above, it was really far from easy - and I essentially had no life between school, work and homework. </p>
<p>As a result of having lived through this, my wife and I saved for our kids - and they will get large portions of college paid for. Am I spoiling them? Perhaps - but I know that those two years of my life were absolutely horrible and I would not inflict them on anyone I love.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Well, I don’t recommend anyone in undergrad work 35 hours a week today. I think that more homework is required today than when I was in school. Plus, I can’t believe how many “non-science” classes now have a “lab requirement” which means that a typical 3 credit class may no longer be 3 hours a week - it could be 5 hours per week. My DS2 has a 2 credit hour class that requires 4 hours a week. </p>
<p>As demanding as colleges are now, and considering how much more difficult it is to get a “decent” schedule, I’m not even sure a student could be certain to have enough blocks of time to work anywhere close to 35 hours per week without seriously jeopardizing his grades.</p>
<p>And…for the above figures…a man might be able to get away with such a minimalist life, but not many college girls are going to not buy clothes, shoes, or hair cuts for 4 years. What about gifts? And what about “some” entertainment. Granted the poster had “live in” entertainment, but a lot of kids don’t.</p>
<p>And…I think only subtracting $2k for tax deductions is a bit off. Fed, state, FICA, SDI, etc, will be higher than that. There might even be some healthcare deductions, too.</p>
<p>rocket – You are doing what you need to do.
But when you start talking about “getting things from Mommy” and kids not appreciating the education they are not paying for . . .well, that gets offensive. Sure, there are kids like that, but many are not.</p>
<p>NotMamaRose:
Thanks for posting that link.</p>
<p>I remember the '80s, when it seemed like houses would never pass the psychological barrier of $100,000 – or when people thought gas could never go over $1.00.</p>
<p>From the Chronicle article:</p>
<p>Dozens More Colleges Pass the $50,000 Mark This Year</p>
<p>These 58 private colleges and universities published rates for tuition, fees, room, and board totaling $50,000 or more in 2009-10. Last year only five institutions did so.</p>
<p>Source: Chronicle ranking of unranked figures from the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges 2009
Sarah Lawrence College
$55,788
Landmark College
$53,900
Georgetown U.
$52,161
New York U.
$51,993
George Washington U.
$51,775
Johns Hopkins U.
$51,690
Columbia U.
$51,544
Wesleyan U.
$51,432
Trinity College (Conn.)
$51,400
Washington U. in St. Louis
$51,329
Bates College
$51,300
Vassar College
$51,300
Parsons the New School for Design
$51,270
Carnegie Mellon U.
$51,260
Vanderbilt U.
$51,228
Skidmore College
$51,196
Bard College
$51,180
Harvey Mudd College
$51,137
Connecticut College
$51,115
Tufts U.
$51,088
U. of Chicago
$51,078
Claremont McKenna College
$51,035
Haverford College
$50,975
Boston College
$50,970
Barnard College
$50,969
Colgate U.
$50,940
Bowdoin College
$50,900
Bennington College
$50,860
Eastman School of Music, U. of Rochester
$50,856
Middlebury College
$50,780
Pitzer College
$50,770
U. of Southern California
$50,732
Fordham U.
$50,598
Mount Holyoke College
$50,576
Scripps College
$50,550
Oberlin College
$50,484
Hampshire College
$50,450
Union College (N.Y.)
$50,439
Stevens Institute of Technology
$50,420
Franklin & Marshall College
$50,410
Smith College
$50,380
St. John’s College (Md.)
$50,352
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
$50,340
Babson College
$50,324
Bucknell U.
$50,320
Colby College
$50,320
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
$50,310
Lafayette College
$50,289
Boston U.
$50,288
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
$50,245
Dickinson College
$50,219
Carleton College
$50,205
Tulane U.
$50,190
Northwestern U.
$50,164
Cornell U.
$50,114
Dartmouth College
$50,084
Bryn Mawr College
$50,034
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
$50,025</p>
<p>It seems pretty strange to include Olin on the list, given that no Olin student pays that much. Kind of lazy on the part of the Chronicle.</p>
<p>I was surprised not to see some of the Ivies on that list. So I checked – Brown, Yale, Princeton and Harvard all come under $50,000 when tuition, room, board and fees are added up. What’s missing are books and personal expenses, which add another $3000 or so to the total. So when looking at that list above, remember to add another few thousand to cover those expenses. (Which brings Sarah Lawrence awfully close to $60,000.)</p>
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<p>Oh I totally agree with you on all of the above. </p>
<p>35 hours a week was nuts even in those days. The saving grace was because I was a cook, Dinner shift ran from 3 to about 10 - so I could take morning classes and then go to work. </p>
<p>Entertainment was where you could find it - I went to a lot of student films, plays and the like. Minimalist is a good description for the lifestyle - and imagine if I didn’t have a girlfriend already :)</p>
<p>Also beware that these cost are taken from the institutes which actually give the average cost and individual cost might be different.
DD cost for the first semester without board was $23050 for 4 months. Include the food for the semester with a minimum $2000 and $2000 for books and other expenses, the cost is going to be upward of $27000 for the semester making it $54000 for the year without summer and MIT is not on the above list.</p>
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<p>I’m another one. That was quite a while ago, and the economy has changed. Because I knew I would have to do that going in, I probably over-regarded list price of the colleges I looked at. Today, I advise my children to apply widely, see where they get admitted, and compare offers of need-based financial aid and “merit” scholarships. They will surely all have to work during college to get through college, but I hope they have more choices than I had at the same age.</p>
<p>I put myself through school, but that was back when it was still possible. It never even occured to me to take out a loan. My parent’s could have paid, but that never occured to them, either. But I don’t really think it’s possible now since the cost of schools is so inflated.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Exactly. that’s why it can be a bit annoying when some parents won’t even consider helping their kids pay for college when they say, “I paid for myself; my kid can, too.”</p>
<p>The costs just aren’t the same anymore.</p>
<p>No, I know Mom2, but there’s nothing to be done about it. I feel awful when I hear about that, as well. :(</p>
<p>My favorite is, “I didn’t go to college, why do you think you need to?” That’s even better!</p>
<p>The OP article about her debt load is scary! Plus, NYU was one of the schools my D had dreams about attending. While she understands that NYU doesn’t offer good aid, I think I should show her that article to reinforce that point. It’s easy to not worry about how much money one borrows until that person has to start paying it back at over $700 per month.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Bundle, plus NYU has super expensive housing - much higher than other colleges.</p>
<p>Bundle – definitely print it out and show it to her. It may make the point much better than ol’ mom ever could.</p>