<p>If it is a family hardship to pay the amount, then you need to sit down with your DD and explain that the school is not affordable. We set a limit for our kids and when the acceptances arrived, they just threw out anything over what was affordable to us. A couple of surprises in there in terms of some merit money so it isn’t crazy to apply to some school where the sticker price is too high. The Penn State merit award is a nice sweetner, I’m sure, but if the total is still over the top, then you can’t do it. </p>
<p>We are doing $36K a year with DS throwing in about $6K with his summer job money and savings. We have about $12K that I go through palaptions each month when the scheduled amount becomes due. We are on a very strict budget as a result of our childrens’ college expenses and we do have loans as well so we’ll be paying until we are in our 70s before our youngest is paid up, based on the schedule we have set up. And that isn’t even including the top cost colleges. It is so very expensive.</p>