Parents of the HS Class of 2017 (Part 1)

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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@STEM2017 my parents are making me do it so I take ownership. The only catch is it will be the unsubsidized one and if there is an increase of more than 1% in interest rate they will pay off the balance and will hold the loans.

I’m still quizzing them on trying to make $ off of their college student son, but their not blinking. They talk about these weird words like responsibility and discipline. Must be their age getting to them. I tried, will probably stay at college 365 days so I can work to pay off my debt, which was greeted with, “That’s okay we need to get away from the house will come visit you.” Got come up with a new strategy…

My comments are all in good fun. I’m glad I have parents who pushes me, but loves me when needed

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I’m still holding out hope a couple Semi-finalist scholarship turns into finalist and then there will not be any need for loans

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@STEM2017 absolutely not a bad parent. I wish we could continue through the next few years without considering job and career issues for us. But sadly, we’ve had mid-career layoffs here and even though life is good here now, the memories are fresh and we realize it can always happen. D will take out the loans and have the $$ sitting in the bank. If she doesn’t need it then great. If she needs it or if we come up a bit short-- it’s there.

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@Building you should be able to find info about due dates for tuition, room, board, etc on each school’s website. All 6 that my DS applied to required a deposit by 5/1, 1st semester costs in August and 2nd semester in late December or early January (most will let you plan pmt timing for tax purposes). I hope that helps.

@STEM2017 I know parents that have required exactly what you describe. No, you are not a bad parent. Each family has its own way of paying for college and/or motivating their children to do well, take it seriously, etc. I know some that tie the size of loan for the next year upon the grades earned in the current year. A form of academic scholarship from the parents.

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Thanks for chiming in @nitro11! You seem like a very responsible young adult. Do you have time for a phone call with my S? :smiley:

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Genius!

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QOTD- Are you planning on your kids having any skin in the game? This may have been asked before, I just don’t remember. Skin in the game for us, is that each of our kids is expected to pay for their fun money in college. D17 has been working for the last year and a half and saving 3/4 of her earnings for college spending money and a little nest egg for after she graduates.

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single child to asian parents, so as I said before only parents skin is in the game =))

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@thermom my son submitted an application into RPI. It was the last app submitted. We had not considered it ealrier in the process, but my son’s interest changed a little bit, so it became a decent option. We toured recently, and while I didn’t go gaga over it, he said it was one of his best visits and now sits near the top of choices for him. I’m not sure he will get in, but the admissions people from RPI specifically asked our high school for some business school kind of kids to apply, so he did. Most of the kids from our school that have been admitted have had very high stats according to Naviance. My son’s stats meet the RPI standards, so we’ll see. Good luck to your D.

Regarding skin in the game: Son 17 has worked for the last few years as a referee and has some $$ set aside. We’ve told him his schooling will be provided but he needs to contribute money towards spending $$ at school. He’s been OK with that. That’s what my parents did with me. I worked all summer long and saved up $$ that I would bring to use in college.

@Fishnlines29 we go skiing mostly in Maine, Sunday River and Sugarloaf. We visit my brother in VT once in a while. My wife and I plan to move to VT officially when son19 heads off to college in a few years.

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@Building – our experience is that the fall tuition/fees/R&B is due sometime before classes start in the fall, as in August-ish, and spring costs are due before classes start in the spring, as in December/January-ish…YMMV

@STEM2017 – not a bad parent at all! Our D13 has student loans, and our D17 will as well. Nothing wrong with some of the student’s skin in the game, IMO. As you say, you can help him if you have it after graduation, or if he needs help with payments. I would caution anyone borrowing more than the student taking student loans, because they will all offer PLUS loans for the amount up to COA that the parent can borrow…if a family is having trouble coming up with a portion without using the PLUS loans, my concern is that the same family might have trouble paying the PLUS loan each year thereafter, on top of the previous years’ PLUS loan…kind of a snowball situation.
Btw, our D13 (private school) started off with unsubsidized student loans freshman year, and has had a part-time job during school and summers, but with the COA increasing, a portion of her student loans in sophomore year were unsubsidized and a portion were subsidized, which means the interest does NOT accrue during school and the grace period prior to repayment. Student loan amounts available per year are: F-$5,500, S-$6,500, J-$7,500, and S-$7,500, for a max total of $27,000. Basic recommendation is for students not to borrow in total more than they expect to earn their first year after graduation.

@carachel2 – what we found with our D13 is that the student loans are distributed to the school, per semester, and will reduce the balance due to the school by that amount…it’s not like when I was in school, where a check was given to the student to distribute how they wanted. You can double-check, but I think that’s how student loans are distributed these days. That is how our D13 received her student loans.

One thing we did with our D13 (and will with D17) was that we cover tuition/fees/R&B, minus their scholarship contributions and their student loan contribution (they don’t need to take the max). They also have to pay for anything else…coffee, movies, spring break trips, sorority costs (if Greek) and especially books. It’s amazing how they find awesome deals for books when it’s their nickel!

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QOTD: Definately dd will have skin in the game as she is leaning towards private or OOS for another state school. Will probably make her take out the federal loans as a start. Depending on where she goes we maybe ok first couple of years but will have another one in college at some point so need to be careful
DD already has some savings thru a job and she will work summers

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As a caveat, we do plan on kids taking out student loans, but my H is planning to offer our daughter no student loans and a credit card for spending money if she chooses the school he wants, which is by far our most economical option, plus it’s excellent. Gotta love a little parental incentive.

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Skin in the game for S will likely be the scholarships he has earned and his spending money. As long as he can keep the scholarship that waives tuition, he will not need to take out loans.

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QOTD: Not much skin in the game for my son except some spending money which he has been saving and he will get a job this summer to add to it. He is an only child and luckily we are in a position to support him. We haven’t talked about it yet but I think we will have some GPA requirements to go along with it though he is a good student so I don’t think we need it.

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QOTD: Skin in the game My D is going to a very expensive OOS (we are full pay) and we committed to paying for it. However, we told her that if she wants to join a sorority, that’s on her. She has a lot of her own money and she works so she is happy with that deal. I wish I just had to pay sorority dues…

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@cheeringsection and @our2girls Thank you for the information. I posted only after searching the school’s website without finding anything (I find it difficult to dive into) and thought people here would know. I also eventually asked google as well and, after lots of attempts, finally fell on the right search term. This school also does the August/April plan (with the initial deposit as a freshman). Anyway - I do appreciate your help and experience!

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Skin in the Game: both girls know they need to provide spending money and we will take care of the travel expenses. D15 has tuition remission and had a scholarship that covered the rest, but she lost the scholarship, so Plan B kicked in for her. She will be covering the difference through some combination of student loans and money provided by a savings account her grandmother set up for her.

D17 will probably be only 3-5 thousand short per year, so student loans and/or her savings account will cover that nicely.

Both have worked summers for a few years to earn spending money for college. However, we’ll be providing D15 with spending money for next year. Paid internships in her field are hard to come by, so we offered to cover what she would have earned if she found an unpaid internship that was appropriate and valuable.

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Skin in the game: I’ve said it before, but we view federal student loans as not even so much skin in the game, but a means of cashflow protection. Stretching out the cost of college over time, as long as it’s not going into the horror-story level of decades, is a good thing.

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@STEM2017 I’ll join the bad parent club. Or at least potentially. S17 has a budget which is up to our flagship cost. At his stats, for what he wants, finding anything outside the state at that price is not possible. Which means he has a choice. Go in state or, take loans (up to his federal max) and possibly/probably work as well.

It has been an interesting journey as all along he’s been committed to taking the loans and working so that he could have some different options. As it gets closer, all of a sudden debt free is looking better and better.

I still expect him to have skin in the game even if eh does exercise the in state option. It will just be spending money and books versus a much larger contribution.

I agree with @dfbdfb we see them as cash flow protection as well and can be a good thing.

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Skin in the game is good. My rule has been job during school year after freshman year. Take the Frosh year to get adjusted, make friends, figure out how to manage your time. Then the last three years, you work to cover your weekly expenses. For the first time, we will probably take out the Fed. subsidized loan. Since it is interest free until graduation, it is free use of money. While it is my intent and hope we can pay it back at graduation immediately, S will be prepared if problems arise. He will use some of his work money from this year and summer to cover some of his expenses his first year…