Sigh. I didn’t mean to imply that the government owed anybody and everybody a college education, or that government should compensate for the inequities of life, or rob from the rich and give to the poor.
Whatever the OP has saved, it would probably have paid for a four-year degree at a UC or CSU school in 1980–1984 when adjusted back to 1980 dollars. The education that would have bought would have been great. If not, an equally excellent education could have been had through the community colleges and transferring.
Now, the burden on the individual is dramatically higher and the benefits are dramatically lower. All I meant was that this is not in the best interests of society as a whole. Besides, I don’t see how the OP could have foreseen and budgeted for the changes that have occurred in the last 20 years.
And yet here we have someone who directly benefits from our ongoing profligate defense spending saying shut up and go into massive debt or join the military as the only reasonable college financing options.
The system is broken.
But then, so is the assumption that every student can join the military or properly attend to their studies while working a job, even a part time job. The reason why I’m 38 and just now back to complete my bachelors is that the money dried up, I was paying student loans for more than ten years even though I only took them out for three semesters (private college) and I am not physically capable of attending school and working at the same time. Differing people, differing circumstances, differing abilities. Generic suggestions of jobs (which, given only a high school diploma and no college will likely be low in pay and high in physical labor) or the military are disastrously narrow-minded.
If your daughter is an adventurous type, she could move cross country to my home state, Georgia. She could find a job there, work for a year and establish residency, and then apply for a HOPE scholarship (google it). It will provide free tuition + a small book stipend to anyone who has at least a 3.0 GPA in high school or college.
If she could still hold on to any of the scholarship monies she has secured already, then she could use those to cover room and board. Or should get a part time job or do work study. The school she applies to may offer her a scholarship, in addition to the HOPE scholarship. That’s how I funded my education. HOPE + a small school-issued scholarship + National Achievement (through the National Merit Program) + one additional “outside” scholarship that I just kept in a CD until graduate school. Along with my father’s contribution to dorm fees and money I made by working part-time and during the summers, I had more disposable income than I deserved!
I went to Georgia Tech, one of the best engineering schools in the country. They offer scholarships for women because of the gender skew, so there’s that to consider. Georgia also has UGA. It was our rival, so this is hard for me to say, but it’s a good school too. Those would be the only two public universities that I would consider. There are some totally awesome private ones (like Emory), but public seems to be more within your daughter’s financial reach.
Doing the college thing is not easy. I graduated in the late 90s, and even I think times are very different now than when I was in school. You’ve got to hustle now if you don’t want debt. It’s easy for me to say that now that I’ve jumped through all the educational hurdles and have landed a “good job”, but unfortunately it’s the truth. You have to hustle. Doing so will make your daughter stronger and wiser, and also give you even more reason to be proud of her.
I didn’t see anything in the OP that indicated that they saved anything at all, which is the position I am coming from. The whole thing appears to me that they saved nothing yet expected that someone would come thru with money to send this kid to a good four year school to study biomedical engineering, or else she will have to be a waitress at Denny’s. And this is a crime because this “KID IS THIS COUNTRY’S BEST BET FOR THE FUTURE AND YOU JUST THREW ALL THAT TALENT AWAY!”
I’m thinking mom is being unrealistic about more than one thing here.
The only way my parents could have saved any money for a college education for me would have been by starving to death some or all of my younger siblings.
Well maybe you should have been born richer? Or been willing to sacrifice your siblings for your own education? Hmm? America is the land of choice, after all.
Meh. We all bow to your strength of character and Horatio Alger-like grit, but the 1980’s were a different time and I don’t think you’ve quite grasped the magnitude of increase in college costs. Even a state college will run upwards of $22K/year just for tuition, room and board. In 1980, it was 1/5-1/10 that. Minimum wage jobs don’t pay 5-10 times what they paid in 1980.
The way I think of it is that when I went to school, 4 years of state college cost about the same as a new car. Now, one year of state college costs that much. One year of private college costs as much as a new Volvo or BMW.
In 1980, you could conceivably work your way through college, particularly if you didn’t mind sleeping through your 8:00 differential equation classes (I note that you’re currently a lawyer and not an engineer). But even if you’re working 20-40 hours/week today, you’re barely making a dent in tuition, and you’re burning up study time. (And, if you can’t carry a full load of courses because you’re working, then you have to stay in school longer which is self-defeating.)
Not everyone can…which is why community college, student loans, and pell grants are all part of the system. Its one of the reasons in-state college tuition is subsidized by taxpayers and why colleges have discretionary funding.
Also, nevermind if you are actually supporting yourself nowadays on top of paying tuition. I was working 40 hours a week doing a little better than minimum wage to support myself and not have to pay tuition thanks to Florida Prepaid for my undergrad. I was still barely getting by just trying to find time to study.
Can you guys stop with this “NOWADAYS THINGS ARE DIFFERENT!1111” meme? Like I said, I finished college less than two years ago. Certainly, if the OP’s kid goes to Berkeley or something, she is going to have to shell out a good deal of money to go to school and to live, but there are plenty of wonderful lower level state schools that are much cheaper, have payment plans, and will work with students.
Maybe the OP can give us where she lives and we can go over some of the local options for her daughter that would be a cost savings for the entire family and not send everybody into monumental lifetime debt.
Yeah, I graduated from my BA in 2008. I did the first 2 years in community college. But I didn’t live on campus, I had to support myself and work 40+ hours a week in order to do so, and I didn’t have to shell out several thousands of dollars in tuition in addition to the costs of living, and it was tough to get by. I am lucky to only have student loans from my graduate degree, but I can’t imagine having those costs + the time associated with working 45 hours a week plus commuting to school, plus study, etc. I don’t envy the people in that situation now.
Yeah, I totally agree with you. I mean, I don’t think anyone here is telling the OP it’ll necessarily be easy for her daughter to adopt any of these other suggestions, but just that the long term result may end up better for her (little to no debt!). Work, school, and balancing it all is not easy, regardless of where you’re going or why you’re doing it.
Unfortunately, unless you’re a lucky one who gets a full ride due to your amazing wisdom, the reality is that sacrifices have to be made somewhere. Not everybody gets to be a Gates Millennium Scholar. So, either you sacrifice the institution to save money, or you go way into debt to go somewhere with a big name. The trade off sucks, but it really depends on what is important to her daughter.
Well FWIW if she doesn’t get to go, if I had to pay the tuition kids do now (over double what I did 10 years ago), knowing what I know now, I’d just have gotten a job instead.
My degree is dated 2007. A little older than yours but not much.
But in order to get out with no or minimal debt, you need to be willing and able to make some sacrifices - unless you are fortunate enough to have gotten a free ride or have parents who saved - you’ll be going to a state school - in state. You may have to go part time, you will probably need to work.
Well, my roommate graduated with her BS in Bio and her Master’s in micro from the school I also went to. She’s going to a very respected PhD program later this year.
While I’m no expert on these things, I’ve heard her discuss that while she originally had very low expectations for the place we attended college, that it ended up having pluses for her that she wouldn’t have gotten at bigger schools. She got to work directly with a professor on projects/ research, she’s been published, she presented at conferences, etc. And that’s all for undergrad, as well as grad.
I’ve got friends who I did undergrad with who are now at law schools, medical schools, etc. I’d never be so brazen as to say that every school is a match for every student- that’d be down right silly. But it’s also silly to automatically dismiss all state schools because of some preconceived notions about the institutions. Ultimately, your education is what you make it.
I totally agree with you, though. There’s definitely a trade off and it isn’t an easy thing.