Slightly off topic but I did see a banner running on CNN last night that the average debt for college kids is now $35,000. As one would expect it is very close to the max Stafford loan amount. The sad part is that I do not think this captures all of the Plus loans that parents sometimes take out or other loans like home equity loans. The cost has gotten so high, you have to wonder when it will all just come crashing down.
@MassDaD68 I would assume that only captures Stafford loans or any direct student loans. Private loans are not given to the students, only the parents so that wouldn’t be counted at all for undergrad. A Parent Plus loan is not considered student debt, it is parent debt.
Meaning…the real total combined parent/student amount is substantially higher and the “real” student only total is also higher. “Real” student total meaning situations where folks take out ParentPlus or a private “for” the kids under a non binding legally but potentially devastating morally and for family relationships type of side agreement that the kid will pay that loan not the parent.
While UCs and CSUs generally have decent in-state financial aid, there is some variation between campuses, so check the net price calculator for each campus under consideration.
Net price calculators for other schools can also be used to check financial aid estimates. Those with the best need-based financial aid are often among the most selective for admissions.
She is awaiting a Questbridge decision for finalist so I ran the NPC on a few of their partner schools who are known for very good aid. She has a few UCs on her list as well.
I think the $35000 average debt is debt to the student, whether it be Stafford, Stafford Plus (to the student, the $4-5k extra if the parent doesn’t qualify for a Plus), Perkins, any loans from the school to the student, private loans (there are private loans to students with someone as a co-signer or even to some students who qualify). There are some undergrad students who may be old enough to borrow privately on their own (older, with a spouse, with job experience). I don’t think the $35k average includes any loans the student is not liable on, including Plus loans to the parent.
It is the average, so since some students have $0 in loans, some are going to have a lot more than $35k too.
@HailuMu, if your income is $30,000 with a household size of 2 and no savings, you should have an EFC of under $1,000 I would think, not $5,000
Are you sure you filled everything out correctly?
@mommdc I used my tax return. I’ll try again today. I did two and they were pretty close in results.
ClaremontMom My issue is the word EXPECTED applied to the parents. I’m paying a large portion of my daughters bill this year but that’s my CHOICE
The ones who should be EXPECTED to go to all lengths to pay the tuition are the students
.
You said
I don’t get the analogy. Isn’t the EFC for Ford or GM 100%? Those companies expect everyone to be “full pay”.
If my daughter goes to buy a car, the Ford dealership with look at her downpayment and salary and give her terms for a loan. They don’t say “and your parents are expected to kick in $5,000”
How do colleges get away with it?
An education is not the same thing as buying a car. They are not comparable.
In this country, we believe that everyone has a right to k-12 education and most believe we have a duty to make higher education accessible at least in some fashion (community colleges, public colleges, etc). We do NOT believe the same thing about cars.
Can we drop the car analogy? It’s not comparable.
Colleges ‘get away with it’ because people don’t want to be full pay. If everyone was expected to pay the same for tuition, this wouldn’t be an issue. Cost is $50k, that’s what you pay. But we want to pay less, so the schools say 'well, you can have a scholarship (discount) because you have good grades and test scores, or you can have a grant (discount) because you have a financial need. The most popular schools have more power to establish the market price, and the best students have the power to get the schools to give them a good price.
If car dealerships wanted to give grants and scholarships so that everyone could have a car, they could adjust prices, get the government to kick in tax breaks, arrange low cost loans. Oh wait, they do. We also shop around for different types of cars to get one that works better in our budget, is the color we want, fits our family size. I can buy a $20k car or a $50k car.
@JerseyParents clarified their issue which is not about discount or full pay. It’s about the expectation that parents (not the student) pays for college. (Or rather, in calculating a price, the parent’s income and assets are looked at rather than the student’s.) While I don’t necessarily agree, I now understand what they are trying to say. It wasn’t clear before.
Yes twoinanddone! The kid buys a car that fits their budget Exactly! and that same kid should shop around for a college that fits his budget.
We have a lot of policies in our country that don’t make sense.
Why should parents be on the hook to pay tuition? Why should kids whose parents can afford tuition but refuse to pay have limited educational options? Why should most healthcare coverage come through an employer provided network? Why do we incarcerate the most people in the world at an annual average cost exceeding $30K/year ($60K in NY) yet spend so little on education on this country?
@JerseyParents I am wondering if you missed my question above.
While I naturally agree with Hobbes (aka @doschicos) on most things, I don’t on the following:
This is simple. College is expensive, and kids have no money to pay tuition. We don’t let students take out huge loans because they are horrible credit risks. Parents usually have more money so that’s where you get it from.
Also simple. Because otherwise every parent with money would simply refuse to pay, knowing that society would pick up the tab.
I don’t really see that this would be true, since even at the K-12 level, where public education is “free”, many parents opt for private schools for which they generally have to pay full or near-full tuition. Why wouldn’t this be the same model at the post-secondary level?
Perhaps it was more like that a few decades ago, when public universities were much lower cost to in-state residents, and students who needed to live away from parents to attend college (because their parents did not live close enough to one, or were not willing to let them live at home after high school graduation) were more likely to earn enough money from a high school graduate job to support themselves and pay tuition and books. But defunding over the years has made the cost of public universities go up in response (which high school graduate job prospects have gotten worse), which has made affording college significantly more difficult now, for either the student alone or the student’s parents.
Think of that partially as a choice made (perhaps indirectly) by voters in the past, prioritizing other state government fiscal items (spending on things like prisons, K-12, lower taxes, etc.) over funding post-secondary education. The other part is the declining job prospects for high school graduates, making it more difficult for college students to work their way through college even if college tuition did not get more expensive.
We have this now. You can generally pay for CC with a student loan and a job. Where does everyone want to go? Not to a CC. And you missed the original question:
@hebegebe was absolutely right. If you give a parent an option of paying or not paying for a top school, they’ll pick no.
Our frustration is that our D16 does. not. get. it. She didn’t understand our limitations (financial) last year, when she was putting in applications, and she doesn’t understand them now, as she is making noises about transferring.
It makes me so sad to see her clinging to magical thinking? financial illiteracy? lack of appreciation for what she has?
There must be something in the cultural narrative that makes her (& others) so upset that they aren’t able to get what they think they are entitled to.
^^Did she get to go to the school she wanted to? Then she understands just fine.