Cite, please? After reading your post, I went and checked the tuition fees for three other universities. They are as follows:
University of Michigan: about $4K per year, depending on what you’re studying
University of Colorado: $3500/year
University of Texas: $5300/year
This is for tuition and fees for an in-state student.
Granted, there’s schools out there that cost a LOT more. It’s also much more expensive if you’re an out of state student. However, the point I’m trying to make is that if you have no financial support from your parents and you want to go to college, you can. You might not be able to go to your top choice school, but I highly doubt that there’s a person in this country who could not get financial aid to pay the fees I quoted and go to a fairly decent school. Hell, some of the schools I researched are considered damn good schools!
I did not include living expenses, because these vary so much depending on situation. Many financial aid packages include money for room and board as well as tuition.
Depending how old you are that seems like a pretty substantial jump to me. We’re taking about an increase of larger than 25%, before inflation, at least. MY alma mater has, since I started going (1990) seen tuition for one year go from $2000 to $4600.
Look; if you raise the price of tuition fewer kids will be able to go. That is an absolute, immutable law of the universe; price goes up, units sold goes down. It has always been that way and always will be. And the kicker is that the kids who won’t be going are disproportionately likely to be the ones whose families could really use a university-educated kid to bring home more bacon. an extra $1200 might not seem like a major deal to you, but to a single mom scrimping and saving, or an inner city kid trying to help support his siblings, it could be a deal-breaker.
Lack of money is a PERFECT excuse to not get a degree. Not to point out the obvious here, but you didn’t lack the money. Apparently you got the bills paid, one way or another. If you don’t get your tuition paid, however, you will not get a degree. Not everyone has the resources you had; there’s always someone poorer, and not everyone can get enough scholarship to go to school.
I agree that students should help finance their own education. I did; a kid should at least kick in as much money as s/he can make during the summer (and I know spoiled kids whose parents just lt them goof off all summer.) But tuition increases absolutely DO shut some people out.
MY strategy is to save enough that the kids can go to school. But even though we’ll probably have all the money they’ll need, I will still expect them to work hard during the summer. It’s good for you, and adults should work.
Geez, I don’t know about you, but I had good grades, AP classes, and Eagle Scout, and I could never hav afforded college on my own. Maybe in 10 years with a decent part-time job, and I’m at a very cheap public school.
My parents did get me a car. The first one was actually my grandfather’s, but he passed away and my Grandma didn’t need or want it. Ran fine, but it was slow as a tank and the heating /cooling never worked for me. This is a bad thing in Tennessee. When I graduated and looked like I would become an Eagle Scout my fathe got me an old Honda. Runs like a dream and tough as nails, and I love it. I’ll keep driving her till she fall soffa her wheels.
http://www.unh.edu/admissions/financialaid.html My school. Interesting that they’ve juggled some of the tuition and housing fees since I graduated. Possibly to justify the new dorms by claiming they were paying for them with housing revenue vs tutition revenue? Sounds like something the president would do…I think people cheered when they heard her announcment a couple months back that she was retiring. http://www.uvm.edu/financialaid/?Page=cost_financeundergrad.html
a nearby university
I’m not sure why so many of the other colleges and universities give cost/credit on their pages rather than yearly tution figures, since they don’t add up to what tution actually costs a year, at least comparing them to the few that offer both figures.
Yes, I got the bills paid - by way of loans, grants, and working full time while I went to school. Mr. Athena did the same thing. I was not a prize student or an athlete, either. I was a decent student, but nowhere near a 4.00.
I’m not saying that it’s guaranteed that a person with little or no money can be assured of getting loans and grants to go to whatever university he or she wants to go to, or that it’s easy to do. All I’m maintaining is that if you want to go to college, are flexible in your choice of school, and are willing to work hard, the money is there. You’re not going to be living like a king, but I think you’d be surprised at the number of scholarships and grants that are available.
I can also understand that some parents might like to help their kids out so they didn’t have to work so hard. Fine, that sounds great to me. I wish my parents had been able to help me, but they weren’t.
My parents sent me to private college–and as of January I will finally be done paying for it. Going to the U of Mn was not an option, as they (silly folk) had “high aspirations” for me and a public college was not the place. Don’t ask. They are the parents, I followed their wishes.
(BTW I was the first female to go to college in my family, the college I attended was my male cousin’s alma mater).
I know they scrimped and saved and did what they could to get me there, and IN RETROSPECT I appreciate it. At the time I did not. Also, knowing that 7 years after graduation I will finally be done paying my part of for it make me more appreciative of what they went through in raising a pain like me.
There weren’t any cars at age, but my mom willingly chauffered me around to Orchestra, swimming, etc. Once, upon my whining about driving LilMiss around, she stated “You found something that you enjoyed. What kind of parent would I have been if I stopped you from growing?”
I now try to look at parental life with LilMiss in that same vein. She wants to try a sport? Tell me where and when and if it fits into the budget-well, I’ll make it fit somehow.
Since the day she was born we tossed all loose change in a piggy bank. THAT is her college fund. It may not be much (as of last December there’s been $4500 deposited into her bank account), but it’s something. And, luckily, she appreciates it.
This semester at my (private) university, I have 13 credits that cost $6175. That’s just credits. Yes, I know, it’s not a public university, but still. On BannerWeb (the website students here use to register for classes, track financial aid, etc) estimate that my cost to attend my university for this school year is $20,033.00 (sorry I can’t provide a link, but that information was acquired from my profile, and I have to log in to view it). That’s pretty accurate, but it may be slightly on the low side.
Yes yes, I know (again) that it’s a private university so it’s a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but I just wanted to bitch and moan about my money problems (I have a scholarship that pays $5000 a year for 4 years; but I’m going to be going at least 5 years, what with a dual-major and all. Apparently my family makes too much to be given ANY grants at all, so besides that scholarship, all my bills are going to be in student loan form. le sigh).
I got it off of the University of Michigan Web site. The fees depend on what major you pick. $4K was an average. This was for what they call ‘full term’ tuition. There’s a separate page for ‘half term tuition’. I read ‘full term’ as being a full year of tuition, and half-term being per semester. In re-reading it, I guess it could actually mean full time vs. half time student, in which case I would expect the fees I quoted would be for one rather than two semesters. Still, it’s hard to say what they mean, the Web site is rather vague.
The other tuitions I quoted were much more straight forward.
Well, this is late. I haven’t been at the boards lately.
The University of Michigan has one “half-term” during the summer. Every other term is a “full term.” We really don’t have many part timers here; most people just go full throttle and pay the full-term tuition each semester. So whatever full-term you quote, you double it.
I guess it is confusing. I am just used to the lingo.
FWIW, I tend to think that education is in a different category than materials, especially when it comes to the “spoiling” issue. People value education differently, and there are so many perceived “levels” of education (state vs. private, just private vs. ivy-league, etc.). Also, the matter of education often revolves around the parents’ values as much as or more than their child’s.
I think spoiling is more a matter of a child getting everything they want, which means that different children are spoiled by different things – it isn’t only about money. It’s about the child being in control of the relationship, and knowing it. Sure, money is a factor – parents who can afford it may be more likely to get everything the child wants. But that is not always the case, and I know plenty of families that are not very well off at all who still have spoiled children.
My sixteen year old step-son is the most spoiled child I have ever seen. Even at his age he has no concept of the fact that his actions have consequences. After getting into a fight with his mother, which involves calling her names I never dreamed of at his age, she buys him concert tickets as an apology. He is on probation for (falsely) accusing his parents of abuse. He also has a brand new car, even though he doesn’t have his license yet. He recently decided he doesn’t want a stick, so they’re trading it in on a new automatic for him.
On the price of college, I work for a student loan collection agency. It is not uncommon to see doctors, lawyers, and such owing over 100K, mostly from state schools.
I’ve got a two-month-old, and I read some of the parenting magazines. It’s rare when an issue doesn’t have an article on paying for college. Most of them are of the mindset that saving for college should begin when the child is still in the womb, because tuition is rising so high, and when Aaron is 18, it’s going to cost more than a bazillion dollars. Or something like that.
That said, with respect to college tuition, I want to be able to cover it as much as possible. Granted, this’ll kill his financial aid chances, but then I think of my brother the lawyer, who racked up 90K in student-loan debt, and who will be paying it off when his own kids are in college.
As for material spoilage, I do think that some parents do get carried away. I don’t think it’s necessary for Aaron to go to a different extracurricular activity every day. I’ve seen too many kids burned out because Mommy and Daddy insisted that they do just that. But, that’s just me.
I don’t think paying for your kids college is spoiling them. What I have a problem with is parents doing insane things just to give little FiFi more than lttle Muffy has. The way you hear some parents talk, it like their little one rules the roost. " Harriet told me I better buy her that doll, so I’m on my way to the toy store" I hear more insane things like this everyday, just waiting to pick up my kid from preschool. What’s it going to be like later in life? “I have to go pick up a Porshe because my kid demanded it”?
Money is a means to an end. Money as only an intermediate to the aquisition of goods and services. If you can afford to buy your kid a car, then go for it.
It’s pretty ridiculous to withhold things from your kids because you’re convinced it will “make them a better person.” Do this in ways other than the “too much good stuff is bad for me”-christian-guilt method.
If Perfect Child gets good grades at her school, she’ll also qualify for the Bright Futures program, and that will pay her complete tuition. So she will have full tuition with the Bright Futures, plus the Prepaid…she’ll have plenty of money to survive for four years of college.
My experience: I don’t think parents paying for the college education of their children is spoiling. In some places, the students are still considered dependents (I know I am) and the parents can include those expenses in their income taxes.
Still, there is a limit. I was accepted as a transfer student to Cornell, with a good scholarship, and only $3000 of loans for a year, plus my parents monetary contribution, which is no more different than what they have to pay me now according to UF (damn UF FinAid office, btw). I could have make it, right? Except that I plan to go on to graduate/professional school, and I don’t want to start accumulating loans now, I prefer to save them for later. Also, if I didn’t take the loan, that would mean my parents would have to compensate for that. I don’t want to put my parents in that situation, I don’t want them to spend their (poor) retirement savings on me.
Do I work? I do volunteer job, I did apply to several jobs and wasn’t hired. One of the volunteer jobs may develop into a paying job, though, and I’m crossing my fingers for that. Even volunteering is tight when I’m taking 18 credits per semester. I save all I can of my scholarship, and every check my parents send is deposited to my savings account.
My biggest wish is to be able to make enough money, not for me, but for my future children to attend the school they want (if they get accepted) without I ending up with no retirement money.
RE: The College Thing.
I’ve always wanted to get the numbers for how many freshmen are admitted into the Ivy League Schools ( this would be the $180k price tag that is always thrown at deer-caught-in-the-headlights-new-parents) and then figure out how many high school students actually a) go on to college b) apply to the Ivy League c) something else, but I can’t remember.
Then figure out what the *odds * were/are for the average kid out there to get into Hahvahd.
Pretty frickin small, I’d wager.
My kids money is in a fund. (not a college fund, what if they decide to (gasp) work with their hands and learn a (shudder) trade? (as mommy hopes they do thus making her happy and having a handyman/woman around the place.)
My IRA, right now, is in the crapper. I mean, many years of lackidaisical work down the toilet. I can never get those years back of lollygagging.
Thta’s why I went and got married. My freshman year, my financial aid reflected my parents’ income, and as a result, they had to take a $4000 parent loan to cover my tuition. My sophomore year though was based on my husband’s income (since I didn’t really work) and I had so many grants based on the fact that we make less in a year than tuition (we make 15,000 tuition is close to 20,000) that I barely had to take any loans at all this year.
To the OP ,about 2 years ago I spent 2 days in line with my mom for *nsync Tickets, does that make me spoiled? For the sake of making me look better it was my money with which I treated her to the concert ( she actually likes *Nsync). Although I do remember hearing that she was in line fore almost a whole day when I begged to go to Beauty and the beast on Ice.