QFT!!
I think that what some folks seem to be envisioning is that parents pay for college tuition for a couple of kids, then (like an octopus, or other kinds of animals), once the children are set up and on their way, the parents just sort of curl up and die, leaving their bodies for scavengers to pick over.
I’m not sure if you are being facetious here or not. You made your kids pay for their own shoes?
My son turned 18 last month, and just graduated High School. I shouldn’t buy him a nice suit in case he needs it for whatever? or new shoes now that he turned 18?
At this point, it seems to make more financial sense to have my kids get as much loans as possible in the hopes that they will be forgiven soon.
This was definitely the case for me and other friends of mine. It’s the reason I couldn’t afford to go to the two most competitive schools I was admitted to. I had very acrimoniously divorced parents. Dad had an undergrad Ivy League engineering degree and an MBA and a job in engineering management. Mom was a social worker. The two most competitive universities came up with a parental contribution that simply wasn’t going to happen. Dad’s idea of a fair split was 50/50. My parents spent most of my time in college suing each other over it. They literally spent more money suing each other over it than it would have cost to pay the whole parental contribution. Mom simply didn’t have the cash; the expected parental contribution was about 2/3 of her entire income.
I ended up at the 3rd most competitive school. Their philosophy was “we are going to consider that your primary custodial parent [Mom] is the one whose income is going to be considered, and your father’s contribution is what he has been paying in child support [a comparative pittance].” I got full tuition grants and made up the rest in work-study earnings, summer earnings, a modest amount of loans, and the comparatively small contribution of my parents. I am forever grateful to that university, but yeah, it would have been nice to have the choices of Georgetown or the U. of Chicago.
Am I still bitter about it on some level? Considering that my dad’s parents put him through an Ivy League school on their much more modest income, even after he ended up on academic probation, hell yeah.
@Eva_Luna I know your pain. My parent’s distaste for each other was way more important to them than my and my sister’s well being.
There are students who exceed what their parents were able to do in life. My father was a car salesman, never finished high school. He was able to support us, but just barely. There were five kids in the family. There was no way Mom and Dad were going to be able to pay for even state college for all of us.
My sister and I were the only ones in our family that went to college… both of us worked our way through college. I worked full time, and went to school part time. The end result is that I, as an engineer, earn a living at much higher level than my father. I also had fewer children. I was able to put my son through college… he chose classes and a degree that may not ever amount to much of a career. So, likely, he will not be able to pay for college for his kids.