Undergrad: Scholarships and part-time job. Back then UCLA was dirt-cheap ($400/quarter), so my $2100 in scholarships from high school lasted into my sophomore year. Parents covered room&board, either by letting my live at home rent free or covering my dorm fee.
Grad school: Full Fellowship from my then-employer that covered tuition, books, and a stipend. I repayed them by quitting 7 weeks after my last final was over. (Hey, they were the ones that rescinded a promotion because “we’re paying for your school. we’re already doing enough for you”)
I suffered 2 nasty chemical burns in a doctor’s office when I was 9, and my parents made sure that the structured settlement had a portion that paid out in conjunction with the 4 years I would be in college. Fortunately, I went to a small college with a low enough tuition that it covered the entire portion and some extras like airplane tickets down and back each semester.
I did drop out for a bit when my parents got divorced, and used my last year’s tuition check to cover living on my own since home was the 5th level of hell. After that, I got tuition reimbursement through my employers when possible. Oh, and for a few semesters I got a break because my mom worked for the state.
The years of medical treatment sucked, but my family wasn’t especially wealthy and with 3 older brothers going to college simultaneously, my family was pretty wiped out when my turn came around. (My brothers paid for most of their college themselves, but my parents tried to cover the extras.)
My parents paid for it. I went to an inexpensive state school, and opted to commute for 2 hours per day and live at home rather than live in the dorms. They also paid for books and gave me money for lunch and bus passes. In all, I doubt they spent over $15k over 9 semesters.
They paid on the loosely-enforced conditions that I work at least part-time and keep my grades up. I did. My job income was mine to spend as I pleased; I saved most of it and eventually used it for moving expenses and my first month’s rent.
Who should have paid? I don’t know how to answer that. All I can say is I am an only child and my parents believe getting a college degree is important. They also wanted me to start life with no debt. So they paid.
Undergrad: My parents paid for the vast majority of the costs, I’d say 80-90 percent. The rest was loans in my name that, while sizable, I had paid off within a year of working after college. Expensive private school.
Graduate: I am applying now to law school. I expect to pay everything; I wouldn’t be shocked if my parents helped out with stuff like groceries, but I expect most of the burden to be on me. By the time I start I hope to have enough for the first year saved up, and to go from there.
Cash/credit (with a special nod to Pres. Clinton’s Hope Credit, which kept me in school long enough for scholarships to come my way), one-time financial awards, service scholarships, and merit scholarships. I work full-time to pay for bills and any remaining tuition, but I’ve essentially broken even since 2005-- I get just enough in scholarships and awards each year to cover 100% tuition, including summer classes.
What’s unusual, I suppose, is that I sought none of the aid out-- a number of school faculty members, both anonymously and openly, have made sure that I can keep going financially. I’m not even supposed to be eligible to get the merit scholarship as a part-time student–I wasn’t even supposed to have received the application invitation-- but apparently a few folks in the school of science pulled some strings.
I had a solid load of scholarships that covered most of the actual school expenses–tuition waiver, money for books, and the like. My father paid part of the rent and other things when money was tight, and I covered the rest of my expenses by working at least two and sometimes three part-time jobs. (At one point, I was going to a full class load and working as a lab assistant most of the day, repairing electronics in the afternoon, and dealing blackjack on a riverboat at night.)
My tuition was paid for by my parents through the Florida Prepaid program where parents lock in the cost of tuition and students redeem it by credit hour. They paid for all school costs for my BA, (books, tuition and fees) but I lived 2000 miles away and everything else was paid for by me. I worked full time while taking a full (sometimes 20 credit) course load and keeping a pretty decent job. I made good grades, commuted 2 hours 4 times a week, but I made it.
Grad school is another story, I will be fully responsible for any and all expenses incurred throughout that process.
There will be no question in my mind when my own kids reach college age. I should pay and I will if I can. I want them to learn, and will facilitate that in any way I can.
My parents paid for all of my college tuition. They also paid for my dorm and mealplan at first, and later, when I moved off-campus, they gave me a monthly allowance for rent, food, and other expenses. I worked all through college mainly because I wanted to – I worked as a math tutor and later as a research assistant, both jobs I enjoyed. I just put my paychecks into the same bank account they put money into. Over the summers I worked full time and paid for my own rent and food because I could afford to. I took a lot of pride in being able to support myself over the summers.
My parents are pretty laid-back about money – both of their families supported them through school too. I just started my first post-college job and my parents lent me a bit of money for rent, food, furniture and a bike while I’m waiting for my first paycheck, but I doubt they’ll let me pay it back to them.
I think always being given money has made me really frugal, because I feel uncomfortable spending my parents’ money on things I don’t really need – so I’m pretty excited to be earning my own money now.
My parents never “paid for” anything once I went to Uni - instead, they gave me money and I paid for everything. A subtle but important distinction - I wasn’t in charge of earning the money, but I was in charge of budgeting (which I have always, in fact, been extremely good at)
Tuition expenses were paid for by a scholarship. Living expenses - they gave me an amount every month equal to a UK “grant” - we were living in Scotland at the time, but I wasn’t eligible for grant money, being Australian. That basically put me on a level with my peers, which I think is the important thing.
I left home the day after I graduated high school and never looked back. I got a job and an apartment and a Stafford Loan to cover books and tuition. Literally everything else I pay out of pocket, as I’m not eligible for any grants. I work 50+ hours a week, go to school full time, and am now a single homeowner so if the toilet breaks, guess who fixes it? I would be ashamed to be 22 and still dependent on anyone but myself.
Undergrad - my parents paid, except for some loans which I didn’t have to pay off until I got out of grad school. With me taking a long time, and inflation, that was trivial.
I was on Research Assistantships and some TAs during grad school, so I paid for that myself - or rather NSF did.
I’m paying for both my kids undergrad school. One is finished, the other is still in. At least they won’t have to worry about school debt. The older one is in grad school with a very nice fellowship.
College is very important to me, and a debt free education at the best school they can get into is one thing I can give my kids that will last all their lives. My parents gave this gift to me, I certainly wanted to pass it on to them.
My parents, supplemented by a few years of contributions by one set of grandparents, one of whom was a teacher and felt a college education was important. But I went to a state school which wasn’t that expensive. They paid for books too as well as a generous weekly living allowance.
I got a scholarship for my first year, the Army paid for the second, and my parents covered the rest. Tuition here isn’t nearly as high as it is in the States.
I didn’t start college until I was in my 20’s, had been through a divorce and was raising 2 (soon to be 3) kids. I paid for my college through grants and loans–the loans I’m still paying off.
When the Hallgirls were making college plans, they knew that for several reasons, they were financially responsible for their college educations. First, I was still paying on MY college loans and there was not the money to take on someone elses education. Second, I saw too many kids piss away their college education opportunities because Mommy and Daddy were footing the bill for their educations. There also seemed to be a sense of entitlement that went along with someone else paying for it. Third, I felt then (and still feel) that when you have to pay for something, it helps to take ownership of it.
Hallgirls both paid for their college educations. During their time at school, they were both irritated by those students who were not taking their studies seriously–e.g. would talk during class, party in the dorms, etc.–and on several occassions actually confronted other students.
I recall Hallgirl2 confronting a girl in one of her classes (where the class size is 100 students) who was talking on her phone in the back of the room. The professor had requested the student to put away the phone or leave, all without success. Finally, Hallgirl2, who had had enough, stood up and told the girl to shut her damn mouth or get the hell out, that she (Hallgirl2) was paying to listen to this professor and she (the talking girl) was wasting her (Hallgirl2) money and time. The class applauded and the talking girl slunk out of the room, never to return.
Her first year in the dorm, Hallgirl1 went down the hall at 2:00 on a Tuesday night to tell a group of girls to turn off the music because she had a test the following morning. That was based largely because she was paying for her own education and to get low grades was to waste her own money.
Hallboy (a highschool freshman) is fully aware that he needs to work his rear off to get scholarships, and will be expected to pay for, his own college degree.
The first go-round at college, was paid for with Pell grants and my part-time job. I lived at home for free, which included laundry and food. I shared a used car with my older sister and paid all expenses relating to the car.
My nursing degree was paid for by my husband and me. Mostly him, you could say, as I did not work during that time.
My grandmother paid for me to attend a couple of semesters of junior college, and would have continued, but I was uninterested and unmotivated. I quit and moved in with a boyfriend.
Several years down the road, I was working full-time at McDonalds and had a kid. I enrolled in night classes at a business college and made straight As. You might say I’d had an attitude adjustment.
I got a full scholarship for my degree. It covered books too.
I lived at home and had a part time job that covered car insurance and gas. My mom was single for most of my college time and I chipped in on the household bills as well.