<p>I told myself, "You have a child who is bright and healthy enough to attend college. He worked hard in high school and is now in the place in his life that you always hoped he'd reach. He is attending a college which is giving him wonderful opportunities to know professors and other bright young people who will someday make their mark in their chosen fields. He's happy there and he's getting great grades. Not only that, but you can afford to pay for this college, even if it means your family doesn't have a pool or granite countertops or take cruise vacations. Be GRATEFUL you are in a situation where you are able to write a check for $ 22,489.50, and that you're writing it for something so positive for your child."</p>
<p>So with a smile on my face, the check went into the mailbox!</p>
<p>I'm going to bookmark your post and reread it in October when I make D's first check out. Make that D's and S's... two in college in the same year. I feel a little sick just thinking about it.</p>
<p>Momof2inca - two in college at the same time is great! :) I enjoyed paying the same amount last year for 2 kids in college, as I had for one kid the previous year. Now if I had just been able to convice kid number one to take a gap year, and kid 2 to graduate a year early, then we would have had 3 blissful years of overlap. Oh well. Kid 1 is graduated, and Kid 2 is starting his sophomore year in college. I also (electronically) wrote the check yesterday, and I was thinking, "Wow, that's half a car. Spring charge is the other half. 7 years of paying for college is like buying a new car each year (a more expensive one each year!) and then having it go pouf! Or, hmmm.... this is fun.... reroofing the house with standing seam metal roof, installing granite countertops and fancy new bathroom one year, going on a very very long and luxurious European vacation the next year, paying off the rest of the mortgage - the other 5 years put together. I better stop that, because then I realize what large sums of money we are talking about! Anyhow - paid my Fall contribution to DS's college and very happy to do it. I have enough in the bank, knock on wood, to pay for Spring contribution, which leaves me with only TWO more years of paying for college to go. (Then I can think about paying off my mortgage and fun things like trips.) :)</p>
<p>Oh, anxiousmom, you are making my nausea worse!!! We unfortunately get no such two-for-one deal, and our college bill is way more than doubling from the past three years! But, thankfully we weren't totally stupid in our younger years because at some point we actually looked into the future and noticed that we would have an "overlap year" and, learning from my own parents' experience in disappointing FAFSA news, we refused to believe we would get any financial aid, even though at the time, we were living on mac and cheese and with one car and one income... so long story short, we put aside $200 a month and it accumulated, no thanks to the lousy stock-market plunge in 2000, and that's what we will spend on D this year, and then it's back to pay-as-you-go for D's next three years, with poor H working a part-time job in addition to his full-time gig. </p>
<p>I cannot not believe how impossibly happy I will be when I write the last check for college and we begin to spend some real money on ourselves. :) :)</p>
<p>If it makes you guys feel better, we paid our last tuition check for three kids about a year and a half ago. Today we feel rich because there is really nothing else to save for. All three are doing great and we were so happy to be able to do it. So today...........................we got granite countertops.</p>
<p>Thanks Lafalum84! I needed that today. Just found out this morning that S's need based FA is reduced. Tuition, room and board went up and FA went down. I will come up with the $ somehow and I will keep your post in mind when I write the checks :).</p>
<p>Be sure to put something aside for the boondoggle trip back to University X to celebrate your kid's graduation!! (Also, it helped that we had some $ put aside to help D buy a career wardrobe after she spent 4 years in sweatpants and Tshirts.)</p>
<p>In today's time, even groom's families are asked to pick up some wedding expenses.</p>
<p>So there are a few things to save for, past tuition expenses...but nothing like tuition expenses for 4 years!</p>
<p>Oh ellemenope... now I'm going to have to tear myself away from CC and go out and get another job. Sigh. I used to shake my head when they said each kid costs, like, a million dollars to raise... now I know why.</p>
<p>I thought I wrote that last check until today...I received the invoice for Fall Tuition for Graduate Studies...ACK!</p>
<p>Then relief came as I read the insert that said.."If a University Department is paying for any portion of your tuition, such as for a teaching or graduate assistantship and your award does not appear on the enclosed invoice, the University Tuition Award Form must be completed..."</p>
<p>Granite countertops are overrated. I just installed some in my house. So are hot tubs, fwiw.</p>
<p>I will be paying tuition for a long time so I decided not to wait. And I don't care what the kids and my mother say, I am not paying for grad school.</p>
<p>To make it sweeter, I got a letter congratulating my son on making the Deans list for freshman year. The tuition bill was in my mailbox a few hours later. Nice timing NYU!</p>
<p>Disposable income. I've heard such a thing exists, but I've never had any. Had I disposed of my income the past 15 years, I wouldn't be able to write that check to NYU!</p>
<p>Lafalum84 I too will be writing the fall tuition check shortly, so I will remember your postby printing it and placing it in my checkbook. My hand will probably shake like it did last year when I wrote the first one, but I will try to think positively.</p>
<p>My parents started paying private school tuition when my oldest sister started nursery school in 1969 and didn't stop until I graduated from law school in 2002.</p>
<p>Momof2inca--some older people I know are sending tuition checks for GRANDKID's college education. Perhaps this never ends...</p>
<p>Actually, I would love to be in financial shape to help the grandkids...but I am certainly not counting on it (having grandkids or being able to help them).</p>
<p>^ My parents didn't offer to pay for tuition (because they know we are taking care of it), but wanted to buy a house in their name. :eek:</p>
<p>A friend once said we should rejoice we are in a position to take care of people we love (I was complaining about my kids not proactive enough to get jobs).</p>
