I think parents should pay at least some, if they can, and if the kid seems a likely candidate. Why not? You brought the kids into this world, you don’t lose all responsibility at 18. I like the idea of “work or college, pick one”.
Anyway, my parents paid for my first two years in full at a local, piddly college. Then I went to a large state university and they paid part of it, and I took out loans for the rest.
I also suffered from my mom’s high income and couldn’t get aid.
I had forgotten something: my mom gave me a gift of $1000 towards my recent college costs. It was very much appreciated, since books are so expensive.
My parents paid my tuition. They also covered room and board when I was in the dorm, and then rent plus a bit more towards utilities and food when I moved into an apartment.
Starting out in life debt free has been enormously helpful - the hubby and I are very grateful to both our parents for that.
As someone who teaches college, I second opinions above that working more than a few hours a week is not the best way to go to college. Students who do that aren’t making the most of the opportunities they have. (Again, it’s better than not going to college at all.) So yes, whenever possible I think college should be paid for by someone other than the student. I anticipate paying for my kids’ educations, at least through undergrad.
My parents were more than happy to pay tuition at CSU Sacramento and let me live at home rent free. I paid for car, insurance, clothes, basically all other living expenses. And I was expected to help out around the house and with my younger sibs.
I held a part time job the first couple of years and worked full time the last two years, to pay for everything else including books, parking fees, etc. By the time I graduated I had no debt and about $5k in the bank. It was well worth the hard work.
I am very thankful that my parents were able contribute what they did. And I’m also glad I wasn’t given a free ride. Moving into the real world was much easier for me than for a lot of people since that meant only holding a full time job and not both work and school.
I went to a local, in-state school and got 75% of tuition covered by scholarship,my parents paid the rest. Tuition in Florida is one of the lowest in the nation; at the time it was about $100 a credit hour so they paid about $300 a semester. They also provided a car that used to be my sister’s for me to commute to school (about 45 minutes). I later went to another in-state school for a year and my parents paid most of my tuition and living expenses there. I sort of regret doing the year there as I don’t feel like I was there long enough to make it worthwhile; I really should have done it sooner if I was going to do it at all. Sometimes they paid for my books and sometimes I did, especially later on when I became comfortable enough to judge when I didn’t need a book for class or could settle for an earlier edition at the fraction of the cost.
I work at a university now and I’m taking a grad class using my free tuition benefits. My one class is over $3000! That was the cost of one year of undergrad at my school, if I paid full price. :eek:
The Montgomery GI Bill and the Illinois Veteran’s Grant.
That’s right, you (the American taxpayer) and you (the Illinois taxpayer) are footing the bill for me to become an electrical engineer.
Thanks a lot, guys! Just a few more semesters to go!
Yep. My parents’ position in this area was that I could live at home for free after 18 so long as I was in school. In my case this mostly meant summers, since I went away to college, but the summer after I graduated and got a job, I paid rent.
Seemed fair to me then, still does.
I had a full-tuition merit scholarship; my parents paid room and board.
For undergrad, it was scholarships and my parents. I did not have to take out loans, for which I am grateful.
For grad school, I had assistantships most years; loans for the rest.
My parents were generous (in paying for this, I mean) because this was a priority for them, and they wanted me to have the full college experience where I could go full-time and not have to hold down a demanding job on the side or work crazy hours in the summer. We were not a wealthy family; my mom put off her own desired retirement so they could pay my tuition. My mom had wanted to go away to college but her dad had a bad attitude about it. She ended up sacrificing some neat chances and instead went to a local university and worked her way through so she wouldn’t have to owe him anything. She wanted my experience (and my sister’s) to be different.
Nowadays I hear parents discuss their own success in ‘working their way through college’ as a model for their kids, and some of them seem to lack awareness of how things have changed in terms of expenses and aid. It can be done, sure, but it’s a harder go of it and may require some creative combination of community college and four-year school.
My parents are letting me pay my own school fees. School fees aren’t as high here as they are in the US, and the government gives you more or less an interest-free loan, so this is a pretty common way to do things. The money gets taken out of your tax return, so if you stay poor you could theoretically never pay back your loan.
My parents paid for most of my education. I had a merit scholarship that covered tuition, but they paid my room and board and expenses. They would have paid my tuition had it been necessary.
I always worked: a cushy minimum-wage job on campus the first year, and after that I participated in the engineering co-op program, which means that I alternated each semester between working full time and going to school full time. I paid my own expenses when I was working.
Towards the end I got married, so my husband and I paid for my last couple of semesters.
My parents “had a deal” with the five kids wherein we would be responsible for one half of the cost of the first Bachelors Degree. It could be grants, scholarships, student loans, jobs, or loans from them (no interest). They would be the safety net to keep the Bursars Bill paid up, but if they ended up footing over half, there was payback expected. I was the fourth kid, and my three older sisters had taken advantage of the safety net a bit more than they had anticipated, so my parents were kinda stoked when I was awarded a four year NROTC (Marine Option) Scholarship at Duke. The kind and generous US Taxpayers covered tuition, books and fees, I think, plus $100 a month stipend. Since that was well over my 50% of total cost, my parents paid room and board. And the Bonus was I didn’t have to interview for a job my Senior Year!
Went back to school in my 30’s, grants, loans and work. I think I’ve done enough volunteer work to consider the grants repaid, but I never did an accounting.
My parents were middle-class but my father was very frugal and they paid for my college. (I got $4K a year from a scholarship but that was a drop in the bucket.) I think my grandma may have kicked in some money but I don’t know that for sure. This was for the bulk of it; all necessities. I worked summers to fund extras. I was very fortunate to have this funded and I know it; it allowed me to full-time volunteer when I graduated.
Grad school I got a full fellowship and Grandma funded my living expenses (she was appalled at the idea of paying the government interest). Again, I was very fortunate because I volunteered full-time again and then got lower-paying jobs; I probably couldn’t have afforded to pay off loans. :smack:
My parents and grandfather gave me 1/10 of the tution for my freshman year. Otherwise it was a few grants, loans I’m still paying off, and working part time during the school year and full time during summers which didn’t make much of a dent in the 10 to 14 thousand it cost a year.
My parents took out one PLUS loan for me, and helped out with funding my bank account on occasion. All the rest, I took out loans and used earnings from my summer job.
My parents paid for essentially all of my undergraduate education including room and board at an out of state State University. I took out student loans for a couple of thousand dollars, and worked summers and some intersessions (when I could) so I could at least supply my own spending money.
When I graduated I had less than $100 left and actually needed to borrow money for commutation before I received my first pay check. I had one week off between graduation and the new job. I lived at home for a little over a year after I graduated so I could save enough money to get my own apartment.
I’m very grateful for their generosity, but I know they never expected to do anything less, either. All in all, I do consider myself very fortunate in that respect.
I paid for most of mine by joining the National Guard and an ROTC scholarship. It was a huge mistake because I had no intention of being a career military officer. Between the Guard duty and the ROTC involvement I was so busy that I didn’t have enough time to put 100% into my studies or do anything enjoyable. I graduated with a 3.3, fine for being an Army officer but not so hot for any of the grad programs I was interested in. I blame only myself, but I take every opportunity to tell people not to take military money unless that is one of your major goals in life.
For the most part, I paid for everything except rent on my own. My parents did pay part of my tuition one year, but it wasn’t much. It took me five years to graduate , and working 40 hours a week didn’t help my grades, but I did graduate debt-free.
I didn’t really want that for my kids. We told them at the beginning of high school that we would give them the amount of the public university tuition for college and that they could live at home without having to contribute financially.(Public university tuition is less than we paid for high school tuition, so it wasn’t a problem.) They could live at home, go to the city university , have their tuition fully-paid and graduate debt-free. They could dorm at a state university campus, and work or take out loans for the room and board or they could go elsewhere and have to work or borrow to pay the extra expenses.
When I was tertiary age, education was free, but I didn’t take that route anyway, and basically arsed about for a few years doing nothing much.
The rules changed soon after and tertiary education suddenly became user pays and rather expensive, and now it’s at an absurd level that makes my brain melt.