<p>^^</p>
<p>What are you suggesting? That taxpayers give more money to make pricey privates or OOS publics less expensive?</p>
<p>Uh, no thank you.</p>
<p>Of course, in some states, the in-state public universities might not be all that affordable by low income students, even for commuter students living at home with food and utilities subsidized by their parents.</p>
<p>Well, let’s explain why a parent wouldn’t take out $80,000 in loans to send a student to a mere top 30:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At 3.4% interest (which is the going rate), the parents would pay $50,000 in interest over the life of the loan. At 6.8% interest, they would pay over a hundred thousand dollars in interest.</p></li>
<li><p>A stable job at age 50 does not guarantee a stable job at age 60, 65, or onwards. That $350 monthly payment would be impossible, even for those who can afford it now.</p></li>
<li><p>A parent of a college student who takes out a thirty-year loan to pay for education will be paying that back until he is 80.</p></li>
<li><p>Because there are better uses for $130,000, like paying for a year of a nursing home or a few years of assisted living. Middle-class people have a very real fear of outliving their money. </p></li>
<li><p>Because it makes much more sense to spend the money on grad school, not on college. that is where the name brand matters more, and for law/business/medicine, the loans are exorbitant and there is almost no financial aid available.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m fortunate that my parents were able to pay for my education, but had they not, I would have taken merit aid at a lower-ranked school (or free at the state flagship), rather than go to my Top 30 alma mater.</p>
<p>Per my post upthread, the current Parent Plus loan rate is 6.41%. That makes the total loan payments (P+I) $500/mo and a total repayment of slightly over $180k (see post 45).</p>
<p>Poverty is OK and am not saying that parent should not support their kid. But I have seen so many kids acting up very arrogant and thinking that world is their fist even after noting lots of them really know nothing. Just dressing up, applying perfume, driving in new cars and more nonsense items does make these kids superios and inturn they p*** off their parents. So is ther any point in supporting such kids. And moreover they should take own loan. 80k is not big amount cosidering the expenses which surrounds us tehse daya. earning money is not easy.</p>
<h2>Moral of the story, it is what you do with your degree, not how far you sunk your parents or the t-shirt you get to wear, that sets your future. I know others who went to top 10 schools that took years to find jobs, and then ended up doing grunt work for a living.</h2>
<p>That’s life in a nutshell!</p>
<p>I went to a very good undergrad school. And when I entered the workplace, NOBODY cared! A degree gets you an entry level job. It’s up to you to bust your tail to make an impact. That involves showing up early and working late. Their future boss doesn’t care what school they attended.</p>
<p>We’re fortunate to live in Virginia where there is an amazing public university (UVA). Folks from California (UC system) , Michigan (UM) and North Carolina (UNC CH) are also in a good spot. If our D wanted to go to an ivy, it would truly be a vanity degree if she were also accepted to UVA. She and the parents would be able to brag as we wrote $60k checks each year for that privilege.</p>
<p>If she wanted to go to an Ivy, we’d give her the money that we were going to pay for the state school tuition and board and she could take loans to bridge the difference. After she graduated, and if we had the means, we could discuss if she should enter life with a mountain of debt. We certainly would not cosign or take personal loans to fund a vanity degree when hustle and determination in the workforce is really going to be what gets her ahead.</p>
<p>OP: There is a germ of truth in your original post. If the parents SAVED that money each month instead of buying an expensive home, car, or boat, they would have cash when the time came to send their child (or children) to college. At least <em>some</em> cash, depending on how many children they have. But a 30 year college loan at our age? That’s pretty funny.</p>
<p>We were sort of glad our brilliant son nevertheless did not get into MIT, because even tho we had a good amount of savings, it would not have been fair to our other 3 children to pay big bucks for him and have nothing left over for them. Poor child, he had to go to a state school (UIUC) and is now working at Google. ;)</p>
<p>Both my H and I got new bosses shortly after we started our first “real jobs” after college. My boss moved on and H’s boss suddenly died. The new bosses never bothered to go thru their employees’ records to see “gee ,where did s/he go to college.” No. They just judged us by our performances. BTW…the flakiest employee was from UCLA and the weirdest one was from MIT. lol</p>
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<p>Students can’t take out loans that large on their own. The lender will require a cosigner. That’s generally the parents.</p>
<p>Observed similar to the op ~ half a million dollar home, 2 fine cars, 80k spent on a kitchen renovation, and the parents complain ad nauseum re: the cost of college. Only whatever in-state public their kid can get into - is what they deserve. For our area there are very few spots available at the top publics -just too darn many college-bound students w/high SATs, APs galore competing for the same couple schools. The HS students, at all academic levels, are competitive for much higher ranked colleges out-of-state.</p>
<p>I would never ask my parents to pay that much money for 30 years. It’s MY education therefore MY responsibility. My parents are making me pay for college by myself. Is that a lot of stress? You bet. But I would rather myself be stuck with the debt then my parents that have three other kids they take care of. Unless your parents are just rich out the A S S its completely selfish of you except that much from them.</p>
<p>Answer to the question:
Because we are old, retired, and on a fixed income.</p>
<p>Fortunately, we didn’t raise our children to feel so entitled.</p>
<p>Poor child, he had to go to a state school (UIUC) and is now working at Google</p>
<p>Same with my UCI nephew…he’s been at Google now for about 4 years. Just bought his first home. His parents had to nix pricey privates, but it hasn’t hurt him.</p>
<p>I agree with most of what has been said. There are plenty of fine public schools that are not exorbitant. Both my husband and I are employed full time and we would have trouble with $340 a month plus we have a second child. My kids know that we can afford a good public school but they would have been responsible for private loans. And I gave them an education about this. They both want graduate school. The undergraduate degree is far less important. And by the way, they both do attend very good public colleges in California and did get accepted to some fine privates back east.</p>
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<p>I’d be plenty upset to have such a greedy, ungrateful child who would want to see me paying on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt (as very few of us have only one child) into old age in order to enable them to live above their (and our) means. I’d be upset to know that my own kid doesn’t care if I have to work until I’m 80 or live in a crappy nursing home someday with subpar care because I was stuck paying 160K of student loans for kids who believe they are entitled to things they (and we) can’t afford.</p>
<p>If you are that set on going to an expensive dream school, get yourself a full ride. As most of us have discovered, the pricey dream schools are wonderful for those who can manage it, but there are MANY MANY MANY successful people in this world who have come out of state schools. DH attended a “cheap state school” and he is intelligent, a good husband and father, has a vast network of friends, gives back to his community, and has been VERY successful professionally. Go figure. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>If your parent is willing to go into debt to finance your version of a dream school, that’s all fine and well. Be very grateful. But to state that a parent who cannot or will not do that is selfish and gives the child a right to be “upset” is CRASS.</p>
<p>I used to manage a group of EEs for a high tech company in Si. Valley. The engineers reporting to me came from various schools: UCB, Stanford, UW (Seattle), UCI, CSUF, CSULB, SJSU, Syracuse Univ., … Some with BS, some MS, with 1 - 7 years experience.</p>
<p>People with MS got starting salary a bit higher than those with BS. But what school they came from was never a factor in hiring decision.</p>
<p>This thread makes me thinking: if I were to keep only one engineer, or if I were to pick one engineer to replace me, that would be the person from SJSU with 4 years experience.</p>
<p>School is not everything.</p>
<p>As a parent, I think my primary responsibility to help prepare my children to be successful in the world. “Success” is multi-faceted, and it includes teaching them morals, how to interact socially, and the value of hard work. And an important part is to provide them the best education that I can, so they can compete in the world. I truly don’t understand parents who think children should be independent by age 18 (and I say that despite being financially independent at that age). </p>
<p>But the time for paying for college doesn’t start when the kids head off to college. It starts when the children are born. If a parent’s finances are such that they were either unable to save or chose not to save by the time college starts, there is only so much that can be done. And the most important thing at that age is for the parents to be able to finance their own retirement.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids</p>
<p>Uh, No… Where did you get the idea that I was equating “good” necessarily with “private”? there are plenty of great public’s and I don’t think that anyone would make the argument that a private university as rich as say Harvard needs any more money before other universities get their share. But if you necessarily think that only “rich private universities” are good, then that just reinforces the need to fund better state systems. The fact is that many of the public flagships still cost a fortunate, especially for OOS students (the UC system is famous for this). This is fine when you live in a state like California that has an exemplary group of public universities, but what about state where the state university system is rather poor and you cant afford to study abroad, even at OOS publics (I believe OOS fees for many of the UCs push $50k per year)? This is especially important for graduate students as being at a university with adequate research funding makes a huge difference at this level.</p>
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<p>PhD programs worth attending should be funded with a tuition waiver and living expense stipend, so out-of-state tuition should not be an issue for PhD students.</p>
<p>For undergraduate, there are state universities whose list prices for out-of-state students are not extremely high, so they can be options for some students if the in-state ones are somehow not suitable.</p>
<p>These posts have been very interesting. Some of them have touched my heart. I wish the best for all of your children. </p>
<p>Fundamentally, I want people to reach their potential. I think you have to aim high. I am concerned about children who work very hard, do very well, and then have to settle for a lesser “reward”. What is the effect of such disappointment, and of repeated disappointments? Does it lead to a more ordinary destiny? Does it build character or break the spirit? Eventually, I think disappointments and “aiming low” will break the spirit.</p>
<p>Reminds me of a poem by African-American poet Langston Hughes:</p>
<p>Dream Deferred</p>
<p>What happens to a dream deferred?</p>
<p>Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?</p>
<p>Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.</p>
<p>Or does it explode?</p>