<p>We told both our kids that we would pay for 4 years, anything beyond that is their responsibility. My son threw us for a loop by switching majors his senior year. He was a business major, not enjoying it at all, so switched to engineering. He had to basically start over because he had not taken any of the science or math pre-reqs. He graduated in December with a degree in electrical engineering after 7 1/2 years in college and started his first job as an engineer in January, but it was not an easy road. Fortunately, our state schools are very reasonable and he had a prepaid tuition plan. He maximized his available funds by taking some classes at a junior college self-pay, but he had to work up until the last 3 semesters when the course work load was prohibitive. We did pay his rent for years 5 & 6, and helped out with books, etc. here and there, but he paid for everything else. My daughter could graduate in 3 years, she will make that decision this summer and I hope she will stay for all 4 years. Why rush it, you get to be an adult for the rest of your life, lol!</p>
<p>ucbalumnus–you have been shown time and time again that your definition of “remedial” is really not what you think it is and that MOST kids in 4 year schools do NOT take remedial courses…</p>
<p>One example from our house–DS needed a math credit at his 4 year school, he was not majoring in anything that needed math down the line so he took an easy math class, after having taken math through pre-calc in high school–again, not a math kid. I’m sure that looked like “remedial” to you, to him it was an easy A and he could spend his time on the classes that mattered. Why they didn’t have a test out option I don’t know but they didn’t.</p>
<p>Why would anyone pay for grad school at all, student or parent? Find a funded program or employer that covers the cost…</p>
<p>No, we will not pay for grad or medical school for our kids. None of our kids have plans for grad school, not necessary in their chosen fields, DD plans to go to medical school and we are doing our best to get her through UG with no loan debt. The rest is on her.</p>
<p>As with many other things in life, it is useful to prepare at least mentally for the worst, while continuing to operate as though the best is what is going to happen. Our kid is fully on track to finish in four years. However, anything could happen and there might need to be a summer or winter term, an extra semester, or an extra year. Like the majority of families in this country, we don’t have significant college savings, and are scraping it together as we go. If that extra whatever becomes necessary, we will sit down with the kid and figure out how to get it done.</p>
<p>That said, grad school is on her. Fortunately funding is generally available in her field.</p>
<p>Both S’s finished in four years which was what we had planned for. We did pay for S2 to attend summer sch. twice. There was enough money in his college savings acct. to pay for it. Paying for summer school was cheaper than paying for a ninth semester. It allowed him to graduate on time so that now he’s working a full-time job rather than doing an extra semester in college. Money coming in is always better than money going out!</p>
<p>If our kids had to withdraw for medical reasons, we had the insurance that reimbursed us for that term. At the end of the day, we would still have only paid for four years. </p>
<p>The same would have applied if our kid had done a co-op program. I would not have been paying for the co-op terms.</p>
<p>I didn’t say the four years had to be CONSECUTIVE terms…I just said I would only find 4 years worth of college.</p>
<p>We told our kids that we would only pay for 4 years of UG. Originally we told our kids that we wouldn’t help them with graduate school, but D2 wants to law school after graduation. If she were to get into a top 5 or 6 law school, I would help her with the tuition, otherwise I would tell her not to bother. Law degree from a lower tier school is just not worth the ROI nowadays.</p>
<p>Many students around here go to the local community college to take summer courses before or after their first year of college. Humanities and arts majors like to do that to get their science and math courses out of the way, which gives them more flexibility during the school year. CC is very inexpensive, and the students can live at home and sometimes work a part-time or full-time job as well.</p>
<p>We plan. God laughs.</p>
<p>The strategy ought to be save as much as you can for college. I have X amount saved. I tell my kids, I can pay X/4 per year for school. If they were to find a school that costs less, there would/will be money for additional semesters, summer school, a travel program during J or May term, etc. If, due to mental or physical illness, my kids have to go part-time for a while, then the savings for those years would be avialable later.</p>
<p>“If she were to get into a top 5 or 6 law school, I would help her with the tuition, otherwise I would tell her not to bother. Law degree from a lower tier school is just not worth the ROI nowadays.”</p>
<p>So you would tell your child not to get a law degree from Cornell? Or Vanderbilt? Or Duke? Or UVa? Or UPenn? Or UT-Austin? Heaven forbid she wanted a law degree from UCLA or, even worse, Washington and Lee.</p>
<p>We planned for 8 semesters and educated our daughter on the importance of planning ahead so she wasn’t caught in a bind because a class she needed was not offered the semester she thought she would take it. However, her freshman year she switched her major to engineering, and because of the constraints of that major, she was compelled to continue her education during the summer between her freshman and sophomore year so she could “catch up”. Fortunately because of her scholarship, it wasn’t an issue, but if she had attended another institution that was more costly to us, it would have been something worthy of a lengthy discussion.</p>
<p>You should ask schools and departments you are considering how many students graduate in four years. In our department (State U engineering) only a few students have graduated in 4 years during the time I have been here. The four year plan shown is completely unrealistic unless students come in with credits for math and physics classes. It is still less expensive than other options though, but it would be a good question for students and parents to ask when visiting</p>
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My kid can do what she wants, but I can decide if I want to pay for it.
Why bother? There are enough out of work lawyers.</p>
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<p>To a point… agree that if my child was ill and had to withdraw, we might end up paying for an extra period of time. But changing your major is a result of poor planning and thinking on their part. My kids KNOW they have to pick a major they can finish in four years (and thus have spent some time considering majors and careers before they even get there, so they at least know what they will be exploring within some parameters). </p>
<p>Kids will do what they can get away with to stay on the parent’s dime… setting parameters and expectations for them is a good thing. D1 finished in four years, double majored, graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and had her honors thesis nominated as a top thesis in her topic in the US. Now she has a job she loves with benefits. She was a somewhat indifferent high school student… I think clear expectations for college helped her excel.</p>
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<p>Whoa! First we are pretty clear cut with our kids, 8 semesters is what we plan for so they should too. Our S2’s university holds their students to 8 semesters with rare exception unless you’re in a 5yr program, so the school is working towards the same goal. </p>
<p>Having said that, if my student presented with a form of mental illness during his college years (not as uncommon as you’d think) this would have nothing to do with him being at the ‘right or wrong’ university. When mental illness decides it’s time to show up, usually in the early twenties when many kids are in college, the brain doesn’t discriminate between students at directional universities vs elite privates. I reject this notion and think it’s an uneducated view at best. Further, the young adult that has a psychotic break and is diagnosed with mental illness at 20yo would have done so if they were in college, or working at the Wal-Mart facing stressors of making rent each month.</p>
<p>Back to that college student…yes, stuff does happen we can’t foresee, and my attitude is certainly not ‘too bad’ if it is something out of my student’s control such as injury or illness. If they need to take a leave of absence, we lose out on a semester paid, and that adds on an extra semester to be paid I would not hold that against my student, and make it work somehow. My first concern would be for their health, well-being, and treatment. I would never want them to wait to seek treatment, worrying that a dropped semester for health reasons would mean a semester they would have to pay for. Some things are just more important then money.</p>
<p>I thought that, too, Blueiguana. How in the heck would developing an illness - physical or mental - raise the question of whether or not a kid attends the right college.</p>
<p>D will really need a masters with the major she has chosen. We knew that going in an budgeted accordingly so we can pay for 10 semesters. She will most likely need one summer of summer classes but will do that at juco and pay for herself.</p>
<p>We’d basically pay whatever it takes. Son finished in 3.5 years so there’s a discount there.</p>
<p>I should clarify that agreeing to pay for grad school was part of overall plan where there is a pool of money for school and that by keeping undergrad costs low, money is freed up to help with grad. D1 got full tuition scholarship at top LAC and D2 got full ride in honors program at state U. Neither sacrificed quality of undergrad, but we don’t have the expenses we would have had if we had paid private COA at some of schools they were accepted to. If we had agreed to pay full freight, then grad school would have been off table.</p>
<p>D1 is planning on MAT so usually no assistantship money there. D2 may be in a STEM master so may be able to get funds for grad. Now D1 is talking not living at home in grad school, but since we live in town that’s a whole different discussion:)</p>
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<p>What is your definition of “remedial”?</p>
<p>My definition of “remedial” includes courses which cover material that should have been covered by the usual four years of high school college-prep courses. For math, this mean any math lower than calculus that is normally a high school math course, since a college-prep student in high school is expected to complete at least up to precalculus (the normal fourth year of high school math, even though some here seem to think that “normal” is completing calculus in high school).</p>
<p>Remediation in English is also quite common. When I was in college, more than half the entering freshmen were placed in remedial English courses. As the college is now much more selective, the remedial English placement rate is now under 10% there. However, it is likely much higher at less selective campuses that share the same standards to place out of remedial English.</p>
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<p>Here are some depressing statistics on remediation rates:
<a href=“http://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/10/index.shtml[/url]”>http://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/10/index.shtml</a>
<a href=“http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/03/unpreparedness-report-by-lao.html[/url]”>http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2011/03/unpreparedness-report-by-lao.html</a></p>
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<p>Au contraire. At the Cal State Universities, which is where “most” California college students attend, approximately 50% of all Frosh are required to take remedial coursework: math, English or both. At some CSU’s, the number of remediated (is that a word?) Frosh totals 90%. </p>
<p>Not only do these courses tend to delay graduation, but they are a very expensive way to gain an education – both for the student and taxpayers.</p>