<p>though you must agree that there are many parents who pay the full bill for the child’s school, and those kids treat it as a 4 year vacation and joke around. Like to My room mate he does not joke around, hes quite a hard worker, but that just because he doesn’t want to get yelled at. He has no idea what money is worth, his parents while they don’t make to much have planned to pay for his full education. He wants to do Cardiothoracic Surgery, That is close to 10-13 years of medical school, This is going to be close to 500K and I think maybe even more to do this</p>
<p>Now many of you want your kids to do their best, But $500k+ is just insane for an education. especially when doctor don’t even make to much money anymore. The internet will say that their net income for a Surgery or Physician will be around $230k-$300K, but thats without all expenses. The average doctor will make around $60K-$110K, now I as an Engineering student planning on entering business I will probably make close to the same, though My education will be 20X less. </p>
<p>Not everybody can be doctors and lawyers, and the more of them that there are the less useful they are and the less they make.</p>
<p>I don’t think 22 is the new 18, any of your children can do the same thing somebody at their age did 30-40 years ago. I also see no distinguishable differences between a plumber and a garbage man compared to a Doctor or lawyer.</p>
<p>im a kid, and since we just bought a house a few years ago, ive got near nothing. but in a upper-middle class 2-income family (note the tax burdens from both parents working in addition to the whole more $ thing) im not gonna get financial aid at all, and probably no merit at all because im not planning to go tier 3 just to afford and education.
Looks like debt…how will i ever dare to attempt a post-grad school?</p>
<p>My ex and I have prepaid state tuition plans for our D,who of course prefers a private LAC. Including the c $8K the prepaid plan will transfer per year to a private school, my ex and I will cap at $18-20K per year for our D’s education ($5-6K each out of pocket/savings per year). She so far is qualifying for scholarships equalling 1/3 to 1/2 of tuition (the top $ offered) at the schools where she has been accepted to date. She is eligible for a full ride w/ R&B at one of the schools. Don’t believe we will qualify for federal FA. Of course if she picks the state flagship uni, we would pay ony the R&B, books, etc, but that would still be over $10K per year. I remember clipping an article when she was 4 and I was newly divorced and posting it on my fridge. It estimated 14yrs ago that tuition at a private school today would be circa $40K–and it was pretty accurate. Ex and I are both cancer survivors, near or past 60 and looking at retirement within 5 yrs so we don’t plan to take out loans and don’t want to saddle D with UG loans since she is still looking at professional grad school–and I have a second dtr post-divorce to provide for as well in 2 yrs. If the merit aid and the out of pocket/savings + prepaid $ can’t cover D’s expenses, then we feel she should start learning the state big 10 song. That choice won’t be made till April. All my D’s school choices are in the top 100 of USN LACs or national universities, so even if she lands at a state school, she won’t be in a 3rd tier and her dad and I will feel we have done well by her-- she could attend the jr college where I work for free, but that is not what any of us want for her or her sibling. We are by no means wealthy but I feel we are giving her choices, as well as my adopted dtr, without compromising the quality of her education or the bredth of her college experience. I would urge all parents to consider the various pre-paid plans now being offered–they do help down the road.</p>
<p>“Looks like debt…how will i ever dare to attempt a post-grad school?”</p>
<p>Fellowships. Particularly if you’re in math or the sciences, you can fairly easily get your graduate education paid. There also are fellowships for people in other disciplines.</p>
<p>You also can take several years off and work, pay off your loans then go to grad school. That time off is valuable because you’ll ave a much better idea of who you are and what you want to accomplish in grad school than you would have without significant working experience.</p>
<p>I did debt free grad school, too: jobs, fellowships, teaching assistantships. Getting married also helped, but I still could have done it debt free without being married, which I did after a couple of years of grad school anyway.</p>
<p>I did, too. But then, in the 1970’s law school tuition was $750 a year. Now it’s $25,000 a year. That’s a lot of books to reshelve, undergraduate tests to grade, and statutory research to do. Even a really, really good summer job won’t put much of a dent in that…</p>
<p>Well, yeah. But it can be done. That’s 75,000 total. My H left med school, 20 years ago, with more debt than that. And we had two kids. And he went on from that to residency, which paid in the mid-twenties. And I worked very part time. but, we managed. It’s just a matter of how you’re willing to live, and how much stuff you need. My kids spent their formative years in a 4room apartment over a pizzeria. Hasn’t seemed to damage them too bad.</p>
<p>Kluge - where is law school tuition only $25,000/year? A lot of urban schools are in the $35,000-$40,000year range, and that doesn’t include books, room, board, and miscellaneous expenses, which are bringing total costs to $60,000/year.</p>
<p>Sorry - I should have made that clearer - that’s the in-state tuition at UC’s law schools these days. Out of state tuition is in the mid-30’s. It really ticks me off that our publicly funded law schools charge what I consider to be private school level tuition. Just another aspect of milking the middle class which has developed over the past 25 years. As far as I can tell there’s no way to get a law degree in the state of California these days without going into hock to the tune of at least $50,000. I can see all kinds of wrong in that.</p>
<p>We did not save a lot for our kids college funds, mostly because we didn’t have any money to save. We never really had disposable income (income that didn’t have to be spent on housing, food, clothing, transportation) until maybe 5 years ago, which occured in conjunction with home ownership (finally, I knew what a federal income tax refund looked like!). And then my job was outsourced and after a year of looking, I finally took an acceptable (if boring) job for $15K less than what I was making when we bought the house. So every since then, we’ve just been getting by. </p>
<p>We didn’t even have a savings account for 2 years, because all the banks seemed to have these minimum balance requirements that we couldn’t meet. When you are in a family of 4 that is combined making a little over $40K per year, you just can’t keep $1500 in the bank all the time. Unless no one needs to go to the doctor or dentist or you don’t need a car. </p>
<p>We’ll see what happens. All I know is that FAFSA has some crazy ideas about what we can afford!</p>
<p>It’s interesting. If you head over to the student forums, they are nearly all completely confident in their parents’ willingness and ability to pay whatever it takes for them to be happy. Hmmm.</p>
<p>My son is a first year law student and pays about $7500 per semester for tuition (Florida State University). He bought a house near campus and has roommates who pay most of the mortgage payment. Books, however, are killer expenses.</p>
<p>My S2 is on about a three-quarters tuition scholarship, and I am thrilled to be paying so little for tuition (but full pay for room and board). It comes to about $14K per year.</p>
<p>What amazes me is how little that sounds when planning for it, yet how much it really is when the school bills come. Gulp. How people put out $40K a year is beyond me. I suppose some people have saved up incredible amounts of money, but many take on enormous debt.</p>