<p>The 529 college savings plans certainly played a role in this financing-college mess. I made the mistake of linking my son’s 529 to an age-based index. It went south last year. I switched to money market about 6 months ago to stop the bleeding, but still have lost money. To that extent, California’s 529 fund played some role.</p>
<p>Lots of good dialog here. Private vs. Public, entitlement vs.personal responsibility, “Socialism” vs. “Capitalism”, admissions advertising vs. information. All for helping our kids get an education and get them on their way to living what we all hope to be happy and successful lives. The older I get (b-day today) the less I’m inclined to judge others’ situations, motives etc. Life happens to us all and we all deal with it the best way we can. Things have changed a great deal since I first enrolled at Syracuse in 1975 (one year COA @$5,000). First in my family to go to college, loans, work study and grants) At that time a new Mustang cost about the same. Today the cost is @ $50,000, but the Mustang can be had for half of that. There is something wrong with that. Left Syracuse after two winters of lifetime’s worth of snow and falling out with father. Took a year off, became a resident of CA and finished BA at San Francisco State. Fees there were @$200 per year at the time. I was able to work at a Union wage $10 hr job at an auto parts store and support myself and go to school full time. This could not be done today and there is something wrong with that as well.</p>
<p>garland posted:</p>
<p>“Quote:
who has that kind of money sitting in their bank account?” </p>
<p>People, like me, with a similar income (back then; it’s much lower now) but lived vastly below their means, in a high cost of living area. That’s who. "</p>
<p>I can’t remember if you are the right poster, but did I read that one of your kids dropped out of an Ivy very close to earning his degree? If so, I think it would have been nice if he had shown proper respect for all of your sacrifice. Spending so much on your kid’s education when he had no appreciation for it does not make you morally superior to those who want their families to live in an area where their kids can be safe. It sounds like despite the sacrifices you made for you son’s education, he did not respect you by appreciating it. I’m sorry if I have the wrong poster, but I don’t think I do.</p>
<p>I agree with what you say EngProfMom, but there are zillions (a very sophisticated term) of reasons private Us cost more and students choose them. Obviously they don’t have the same tax support/but they have other endowments. USC (and many other privates) pride themselves that you will graduate in 4 years if you want to. It’s very common at state Us for the process to take 5 years, or more, simply because it’s crowded and can be difficult to get classes, which necessitates another year of costs/school (one less year able to go out & work.) Some of the lower division classes have 900+ students in big lecture halls. Privates offer smaller classes. </p>
<p>It’s a lifestyle choice, inasmuch as it can be a choice, and as with every other is tied to personal values and willingness to sacrifice, save, work longer etc. Some people think it’s worth it, others don’t. </p>
<p>(What’s kind of funny is here on CC, I’ve been reading some of the posts… "I’m getting 40 grand free money!, lots of huge grant awards, etc, that we simply do not qualify for. I’ll find myself getting jealous of the family making less money getting more aide. The logical side of my brain understands I don’t want to be in a lower income bracket, but it still rankles a bit … and makes us wonder at how hard we’ve worked, saved, budgeted and planned & will borrow to be in a position to pay almost full fare… One of the first letters we got was telling us we qualified for no state aid 
I too have stopped reading the Financial Aid threads &just focus on how we’ll pay for my daughter’s and our “supported” choice…</p>
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<p>Perhaps, but again, Whitney is one of the best in the state. It has great teachers, great counselors, great everything. With 'SC practically in their back yard, the family should have picked up the college rules even by osmosis after four years. There is no excuse to be OTL.</p>
<p>Of course, OTOH, the D may not have been highly ranked due to the extreme compeitition.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong with all of you, don’t you believe in the financial aid fairy?” </p>
<p>Those that do are the same that will be whining when they have insuffiecient retirement funds ready to draw from. </p>
<p>I’ve met more than one parent who think that little Susie and Johnny will have full ride scholarships to top schools because they are such gifted athletes…at age 10. Puh-leeze. Maybe a little more saving for college and a little less paying for private soccer coaches when they are in elememtary school would help the bottom line on that future tuition bill.</p>
<p>I used to work for the City of Beverly Hills. One of the payroll clerks and her husband figured it out for their four daughters, all of whom adored USC and wanted to matriculate there. All of them went to CSU-Northridge for the first two years, and then transferred to USC. Their diplomas say USC just like any other grad, they got a good amount of the USC experience and are not in debt up to their ears for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Were they happy with their choice on how to do it? It sure looked like it to me. The other payroll clerk sent her child to UC Berkeley. Her daughter was quite happy there. Her mom’s only issue was that her daughter barely missed being on the bridge when it collapsed during an EQ, in addition to having to race out of the hills in Oakland during the fires there some years back.</p>
<p>The first thing we did when we had kids was to start saving for their education. My husband owns his own business, and our first priority after saving for our retirement so the kids didn’t have to worry about us, was to make sure they received the education necessary so they could do the same for their children.</p>
<p>Never once, did we start thinking “how can I get others to help us with this?” Second son received full tuition at a school he loved, and we considered that a bonus, not something that we expected. We drove cars for 10 years, lived below our means and now that all three are out of school, they think we’ve gone crazy because we redid the kitchen. </p>
<p>Had things not worked out and we had not been able to save enough, they they would have started at a community college, or picked schools where they could get merit aid. But huge loans were not an option.</p>
<p>I agree with the poster who said the Financial Aid forum depresses him. I have never seen such a sense of entitlement. My kids deserve only what I can provide for them.</p>
<p>
Agreed, and this is also the same for health care. These markets are inelastic because demand does not relate to price. But what I find fascinating as well is that these markets became inelastic as soon as, and likely caused by, programs that were instituted to help people afford them! For health care, it was insurance - why worry about the costs when someone else is paying. Once you had insurance, your local doctor no longer had to worry about what he was charging, or accept a chicken or a pie for his fee.</p>
<p>For college, it’s financial aid - colleges can raise tuition & fees because “someone else” is footing the bill. And because people still believe in the Financial Aid Fairy.</p>
<p>At least the family described in the article, and the parents of the class of 2013, 2014 and beyond, still have time to make these decisions. Then you get someone like me, parent of the class of 2011 or 2012. We did save enough and were willing to scrimp enough to pay for our kids’ schools with the aid we got. And then we woke up one morning and found that fully 1/2 of those savings went POOF! out of the 529. </p>
<p>It’s a lot harder now, but I can’t make her transfer for her final two years. So we scrimp, work extra jobs, save, borrow, and pray that we make it through.</p>
<p>I think medical care and college have risen at a rate greater than CPI because there is only limited outsourcing. Cars and electronics can be made overseas. There is only limited room for students to be educated overseas – in fact more want to come here.</p>
<p>“Money should not be a factor! If your child can get admitted, we’ll work with you to make it affordable. We’ll make it happen!”</p>
<p>Notice it does not say “we’ll work with you to make it FREE!”
Or, “we’ll work with you to make it painless!”
Or, “we’ll work with you to make sure you and your child don’t have to make any sacrifices!”</p>
<p>
I don’t think they do. They still have 5x applicants they could admit.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why the is choice USC vs. CSULB. Where are the UCs in this story? Any kid with stats strong enough to get into USC should be a solid contender for UCLA and admitted for sure to UC Irvine.</p>
<p>Purpleflurp–you have the right poster. Since you don’t know my family or my son, you can’t possibly know what is disrespecting and what isn’t. We are content to deal with our own family’s situation in our own way.</p>
<p>But I will say, we have never seen our choices as “sacrifice.” You may view life differently.</p>
<p>I think Post 63 is being overly harsh on garland & son. I don’t know if “respect” is the operative word here. JMO.</p>
<p>It seems to me that this is a case of a family not knowing where to apply to maximize chances of FA. And probably also a case of parents over-estimating their D’s competitiveness in the collage admissions stakes.</p>
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<p>Without addressing the issue directly, I suggested a friend spend some time on this site when it looked to me like the family’s expectations were unrealistic. They were not going to give credence to any advice I might offer (and I didn’t attempt it) but I hoped, for the sake of their daughter, CC would supply a much needed reality check.</p>
<p>^The article says the student was offered $5500 in student loans. There’s a lot of territory between free/utterly painless/nonsacrificial and full pay. Most people won’t interpret “We’ll work with you to make it affordable” as “We’ll work with you to give you loans that cover 10% of the COA”. </p>
<p>bluebayou, I agree with you about the mismatch between the college-bound culture at Whitney and the family’s expectations. There are fewer than 200 students in each graduating class, but per their website there are FOUR staffers in the college office. I wish we knew more about what other schools the student applied to. Perhaps she got utterly shut out of the UCs, though I don’t know if a student who is applying to CSULB as a safety wouldn’t be applying further down the UC selectivity list. Irvine and Davis were much harder to get into this year than the years before. </p>
<p>From the Whitney profile: “Whitney High School does not report class rank because each
student is in the top ranked 10% of ABC Unified and in the 90th percentile.” They do give a breakdown of GPA.</p>
<p>One thing that should be addressed, to, is that the Cal State University schools aren’t feeders into the UC system. CSU’s feed well into privates, but not as well into UC’s, because the UC’s are mandated to take 80% of the students from the CC feeder schools. </p>
<p>If a student chooses to transfer, they would be better off going to community college and transferring into the UC’s. </p>
<p>Transferring can be a huge cost savings, if the student follows the articulation agreements at the schools they intend to go to on transfer. They have to plan this out from the time they get on their community college campus.</p>
<p>With budget cutbacks, there were many kids turned away from CSU and UC schools this year - even those with great stats. I know of kids turned away from UC Irvine and Davis this year with GPA’s over 4.00. For the CSU’s they tend to take students in the geographical reason and give them preference for admissions, first.</p>