FINANCING A COLLEGE EDUCATION IN TOUGH TIMES
You’ve been putting money in his college fund since the day he was born, starting with the savings bonds his grandparents began it with. But something happened along the way – the worst recession since your own grandparents lived through the 30’s. Maybe you and/or your spouse lost your job and had to dip into it just to keep a roof over everyone’s head. Perhaps the “doughnut hole” between your medical insurance and what you actually had to pay the doctors, the hospital and the ambulance company for that unexpected emergency was so big you didn’t have a choice. Or maybe you’re in that gray area when it comes to college loans – on paper you earn too much for your kid to qualify, but in actual fact every cent that comes in is already committed elsewhere.
What can you say to a senior who’s been dreaming of the Ivy League since those pricey braces came off, or even before? “Sorry, darling, we needed the money for something else, and besides, you’ll get just as good an education at State U.” Maybe. Or perhaps you say, “No, it’s not fair, but life isn’t. This is how much we can contribute right now, so let’s consider other sources of aid, think about going to a less expensive college for a year and then transferring if the financial situation improves, or even deferring your acceptance if you think you can earn enough money over the next year to matriculate at Ivy U.” Other possibilities might be going abroad to study for a year or longer – tuition and living expenses in many other countries with excellent post-secondary schools are often significantly lower than in the US – or taking as many AP courses as possible in high school to lower the number of credits or semesters needed to earn a degree. Even the option of enlisting in the military in order to qualify for veteran’s benefits later on shouldn’t be off the table – the GI bill isn’t what it used to be, but it’s not chump change, either, and there are some branches of the service that may be safer from war zone assignments than others.
The point is, financing college isn’t all a parent’s responsibility…it’s a shared task, one in which both generations ought to be actively involved. Kids who manage to find a way to finance college and enter with the class of 2014 may have a better job market to look forward to than their elder siblings, and research indicates that where one goes to college isn’t nearly as significant as whether they actually graduate. While a $250,000 undergraduate degree (the approximate cost of four years at an Ivy) may not be within reach, there are alternatives that may (in time) satisfy them as well as you.
Thanks for letting us check out the website but it appears to be down? Does anybody have a different link?
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Really nice points. You have hit on a few of very good points. Thank you for putting that together. Putting this website in my RSS !
did you vote for obama? be honest
I bet you wish george bush was still president now