It doesn’t seem like the parents have any intention of paying for college. If I were OP, I wouldn’t count on receiving much (any) help unless they specify a dollar amount.
@SOSconcern not that it’s here nor there but college costs have FAR outpaced inflation and earning increases.
This is a family where both parents are full-time, well-employed. Sometimes it can be difficult to cut-back that much because having two professionals in the home can mean that there’s a good bit of spending being done for convenience because both parents have limited free time…perhaps a housekeeper, lawncare, convenience foods/eating out, dry cleaning/starched shirts, etc. It may seem easy to suggest that they just cut back, but when both parents are working professionals, it’s not as easy as it may seem.
Cutting back here or there isn’t going to generate the $60k per year that they’re going to need.
I think that is why the parents have little plans to pay much per year for college. They went to college at a low cost themselves.
Hey so guys, we had a talk with a guy from ROTC, who lives in my neighborhood. So we are strongly considering that as an option.
Yes people who have been paying attention have realized that @romanigypsyeyes. More so for the private schools than the publics, but it depends state by state.
We pre-paid for a college plan offered by our state when our children were young. Even though they ‘froze’ the level of tuition they were paying, it still paid off for us.
Scholarships were a big portion of our situation in addition to the state tuition pre-paid plan. DD1 that just graduated had 35% paid by scholarship, 35% paid by state tuition plan, and 30% paid from college account we set up which had a boost from grandmother life insurance split amount grandchildren. She has $1200 left for savings/emergency. She could have spent less with commuter schools (CC and university) but her state university of choice was a good selection for her major, she had the funds, and she was able to graduate debt free.
Some don’t have a commuter option for CC or 4 year college. However a commuter option does help lop off a lot of room/board costs.
Our two were better educated going to college than I was (rural HS).
If we had more than two children, our budgeting decisions along the way would have been different to make college possible for all our children and with the best preparation through grade 12.
It is possible for parents to curb lifestyle, but also for the students to be responsible for earning money and curbing lifestyle.
We have lead a modest lifestyle.
I think Renssalear Polytechnic gives a housing scholarship if you have an ROTC scholarship when you arrive.
If you’re really thinking ROTC, that’s an awesome proposition.
Edit: A full ride is at least tuition, room, and board. ROTC used to be just tuition, books, and some monthly cash. RPI makes it practically a full ride, IIRC.
Yeah, we just had a talk with a guy who got a full ride ROTC scholarship, and he had “worse” stats than us. He was very impressive. I’m looking into it seriously. It could even help me with my career goals. Since I’m gonna major IR/Econ, with a minor in Arabic, I could be in army intel, and then transfer to a gov’t agency after my 4 years or however long
I only read 4 or 5 of the pages of comments so pardon if this comment is repetitive. The four of you have pretty decent stats but not slam dunk to any “elite” “name-brand” school. Apply to your dream schools and, assuming admission, see what is offered. But do have a realistic Plan B: an acceptable school that is affordable. For example University of Alabama is well-known for it’s Presidential Scholarship program that grants full-tuition for a set ACT score (currently 32 or higher) and high school GPA to every applicant who qualifies. University of South Carolina is quick to offer in-state tuition to all students admitted to its Honors College. Vanderbilt has a generous no loan financial aid package. UNC-CH has a good financial aid package. And I’m sure there are many others with predictable FA. You and your brothers have to be open and clear your mind of preconceptions of what constitutes a “best” school.
Still applying to my dream schools (Columbia, Gtwon), I also have some targets (OSU, Xavier, etc) and some safeties HBCU’s). SO you don’t need to worry there @GCBMIB
ROTC is only advisable if you want to be an officer in the military. Not all ROTC students get scholarships.
Doesn’t the amount of siblings you have factor into your financial aid?
You need to run the NPCs for each sibling’s targets. Then play the math, mix and match. If yours came out to a 20k family contribution, assuming the others did, too. That would be 80k, not 200k. And home equity can count as an asset, even the primary residence.
I appreciate that you’re concerned about this expense on your parents. But understand that many parents would prefer to stash money in retirement. And many of those have much lower income totals, much less to count on.
You have some advantage that 4 of you will be in college at the same time, many colleges will consider that in their calculations . Imagine some of the CC families with kids of wide age differences who don’t have that discount opportunity.
Only colleges that meed need will always count it in their calculations. On the other extreme, many publics simply won’t.
Many ROTC appointments are now without a scholarship the first year. Students who stuck with it (getting up at 5, carrying 17credits, doing well in both training and classes, etc) have a shot at a scholarship their second year.
I think the OP knows that not all ROTC participants get a scholarship. It’s been that way for a looooong time - only about half the people I knew that pinned on as 2LT’s or ensigns had scholarships . Candidly, most of us did it because a sense of obligation, not because we particularly wanted to “be” anything. And yeah, we spent some time soul searching and talking about it among ourselves away from the unit. After I separated, I described it in terms of a fraternity, but one open to pretty much anyone physically able, and where the “hazing” ritual (PT, marching, etc.) had the objective of keeping you alive - and more importantly, you keeping others alive.
So nobody claims it’s a guarantee, but high stats kids, wanting to study areas of interest to Uncle Sugar? It might be a lot for all four in the same branch at the same school, but some Air Force, some Army, maybe even (shudder) Navy, I sure wouldn’t bet against it.
My brother is a (retired) career Air Force officer. He sincerely wishes people would quit encouraging kids to join the military to pay for college. The military is not a scholarship fund. Kids should only join the military if they understand the risks and truly believe it’s a career they want to pursue.
<<<<
I appreciate that you’re concerned about this expense on your parents. But understand that many parents would prefer to stash money in retirement. And many of those have much lower income totals, much less to count on.
<<<<
The OP is only expressing what his parents have relayed to him. His parents aren’t willing to pay much and/or reduce their retirement contributions. It doesn’t matter that others may have less saved. They have a goal or plan and we don’t know all the “whys” behind it. There may be a very good reason behind their goal to have X saved for their retirement.
I don’t think the boys should count on or expect the ROTC route to pay out…at least not for all 4. For a short time, my son considered going the military route for his medical degree. Both the Navy and AF offered to pay for this MD degree, but in the end he realized that it wasn’t for him.
Then he needs to have that talk with the recruiters. That’s what they push. I’m a retired AF officer as well.
I’ll apply for it probably, but I’m also applying to a lot of other scholarships. You’re right, the military isn’t really my end goal, but some sort of government work is. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some money in the form of other scholarships, so I won’t have to rely on rotc for college.
@NikkuWadde Keep in mind that “other scholarships” outside of what the school awards in need-based aid, will just reduce the need based aid.
So, if you got into, say, G’town, and it gave you $40k in aid and expected your parents to pay $25k…and then you got $15k in outside scholarships, then G’town would reduce their $40k of aid by $15k. They would not allow you to apply the $15k towards your parents contribution.
Well… then does’t that make getting low money scholarships counter intuitive @mom2collegekids?