Well, legally the kid might have that right, but that doesn’t mean the parent can’t REQUIRE their child to share all of that information if he wants Mom and Dad to pick up the bill. That’s certainly how it works in our family.
Also, you have to recognize that, like it or not, American colleges and universities consider parents to be responsible for contributing towards their child’s education until the age of 24. There’s no getting around that. Parents who refuse to contribute WHEN THEY HAVE THE MEANS TO DO SO are pretty much tying their kid’s hands.
While I agree wholeheartedly that mom needs to seek full-time employment, STAT, I’m not sure it’s quite as easy to land a $65,000 a year executive assistant job as you imply. I don’t know where you live, but where I do there is a lot of competition for plum jobs like that and plenty of companies don’t want somebody who appears over-educated or over-qualified for the job. And age discrimination is real.
@MassDaD68, there are plenty of fine state schools that will throw lots of money at your kid if she’s as stellar as you describe. They may not be prestigious or elite, but there is no lack of high-caliber students at all these schools. Encourage your daughter to choose a challenging major and be prepared to work hard. She’ll be just fine.
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My parents didn’t pay for my college. I’m not bitter. At least they didn’t charge me rent to live at home.
Since when is it a parents responsibility to pay for their kids college?
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Legally, in most cases, it’s not an obligation.
However, most parents want what’s best for their children, and that often means helping with college costs.
Your parents’ contribution was to let you live at home for free. That is a contribution. For many kids today, that’s equivalent to about $8k-12k per year.
Many parents here are finding that costs don’t end with undergrad either. Is it an obligation? No. But for those of us who can, we WANT to help our kids. I’ll be glad when S2 is FINALLY earning some money starting around June 2017. He hasn’t earned a dime since summer of 2013. We are happy to help him as much as we can.
Our community college recently started an Honors College. I imagine that is in recognition of the quite different needs of students who are attending because they did poorly in high school (and mostly taking remedial classes - quite a few of the students around here) and students who are going there to save money before transferring to a university.
I don’t consider it an obligation to pay for my kids’ college, but they know we will contribute what we can, including cutting corners and living on a tight budget if that is what it takes. They also know they need to do their part by getting good grades and applying for scholarships (and eventually working part time or during the summers). I think this approach has been helpful in motivating them to study and go through the hassle of applications and testing.
One thing that bothers me about the high income, high expenses folks on this thread is the assumption that they are more deserving of the money than other families who are also well-educated and hard working (or that hard work always yields a high income). My family works hard, pays a lot in property taxes, has a modest lifestyle, etc. Private school around here is as much as college and simply not an option. Neither is moving for a better job or lower cost of living. You need to realize how you sound when you complain about 350k not going very far.
I think that its great that some of you parents feel you have a moral obligation to help with your kids college.
I certainly want to help my kids too. I’m paying Ds freshman tuition in full She choose an nearby state college with the understanding that I would not pay for room and board. If she wanted to go away that would be on her through loans and summer work. She chose to commute and save up some money.
But I listen to her friends complain about their situations and blame their parents for not giving them more. Its insulting. This entitlement generation!
As an employer I’m interested in hiring kids who have worked themselves through a difficult situation.
But you know what the real take away here should be? We should all be taking our frustration out on the colleges
They are the ones who have created the EFC That’s the real enemy here. Expected? give me a break
Just remember, if we’re the entitled generation, we weren’t born that way. Someone raised us like that.
But yes, it’s a ***** when you’re told from the cradle that you need to go to college and when we get there, tuition is hundreds or thousands of times what it was when our parents were our age and yet they just say “figure it out. I did.”
My parents didn’t help me with college because they couldn’t. But they gave me every dime and nickel possible, even if it was just $5 for gas.
Colleges may not have technically created the EFC but they certainly support the concept and lobby to steer the system in favor of higher tuition prices . I you don’t think this is all one big well oiled machine then you’re not paying attention.
Could you image how happy GM and Ford would be if they could get people to buy into an EFC for first time car buyers?
Well, there is that. But I don’t think of the car negotiation the same way as a college that discounts (or provides loans etc.) based on a person’s needs. And certainly car dealers don’t discount as much as a college might.
Regardless, I’m not getting Jersey’s issue. I think the real issue for Jersey is simply the high price of tuition, not the concept of an EFC.
edited because my post was placed in wrong thread. learning from this thread though.
all i can say is that we were shocked on the high cost of college tuition and room and board. we went the merit route with both kids. both are loving their vastly different situations.
FAFSA doesn’t ask for retirement savings info. profile does. HOWEVER…there is no real,evidence that Profile schools actually USE the balances in those retirement accounts in their financial aid calculations. They are not asked for on the net price calculators.
My hunch is that the Profile schools want to see if you are sheltering a bunch of money in retirement funds relative to your income and other assets. If your household income is $50k, you own a house work $175k, have $$5,000 in a savings account, and $2 million in IRAs and 401k (maybe you inherited the money), I think that situation would be flagged.
I have read through the entire thread and It has been very informative.
I have one of those lucky poor kids who will hopefully get enough FA to go to a school she likes.
I too live in LA. I make less than 30,000 a year as a single parent with two kids. I rent a portion of someone else’s home and lease a car because my paid for old car suddenly died on me beginning of this year. No property or savings. Zero. It’s hard to save when there isn’t enough every month.
My EFC is 1/6 of my income. Seems about equal percentage wise to other Los Angeles families.
I told my daughter in 8th grade that our financial situation may not change in time for college so she had to be a model student so she could apply for merit when the time came. She has a 3.9 cumulative unweighted. This was before I knew anything about college FA.
We are happy to help him as much as we can.