I think the costs are double edged.... When I went to Penn State, I stayed in a traditional dorm, and ate in the cafeteria. The schools today all compete for the students with lavish dorms and apartments, first class food courts, sports centers, etc. Not too many of our kids would choose the type of college experience we enjoyed.
Then there was the federalization of the finances.... I started at a branch campus, could not afford to go to Main. The Feds gave money quite freely to my kids. We coached them well, they worked hard in the Summer, ate Ramen, and mac and cheese. My son was an RA to defer his costs. We required that our children would pay for their educations. They did take the loans given by the Feds, and we supplemented with Parent Plus Loans, which they assumed upon graduation. I did make the payments to the PPL while they were in school, and provided them $25 a week pizza money.
Both paid off the PPL in less than 2 years of graduation, and my daughter has since earned her Masters from USC via tuition reimbursement from her employer, but had to supplement that with out of pocket.
I am very proud of what they have accomplished, but we did coach them and ensure that they were pursuing fields that would support them and afford the debt they were accepting. I have a niece, that went to a private nursing school, accumulated 3X the debt that my kids did, and then did not finish the degree. She has a mortgage payment for her schooling, and will never get out from under it. It saddens me that she was allowed to do that, and that she must have that over her head.
A funny side story.... after her freshman year, my daughter took an apt with 2 girls older than her. But they were not prepared, had not handled money themselves and were taken care of at home. So my daughter took the initiative. She started out by calculating the square footage of each bedroom, and prorated the shares of rent based on that ratio. She also volunteered to take the smallest room. Each month, the parents would send the rent/utilities money to my daughter, and she would make the monthly payments! One of the girls took my daughters plastic rice cooker, and tried to cook rice on the stove! The same girl got out the vacuum to get crumbs off the tablecloth.... the stories we would hear were classic.
Then there was the federalization of the finances.... I started at a branch campus, could not afford to go to Main. The Feds gave money quite freely to my kids. We coached them well, they worked hard in the Summer, ate Ramen, and mac and cheese. My son was an RA to defer his costs. We required that our children would pay for their educations. They did take the loans given by the Feds, and we supplemented with Parent Plus Loans, which they assumed upon graduation. I did make the payments to the PPL while they were in school, and provided them $25 a week pizza money.
Both paid off the PPL in less than 2 years of graduation, and my daughter has since earned her Masters from USC via tuition reimbursement from her employer, but had to supplement that with out of pocket.
I am very proud of what they have accomplished, but we did coach them and ensure that they were pursuing fields that would support them and afford the debt they were accepting. I have a niece, that went to a private nursing school, accumulated 3X the debt that my kids did, and then did not finish the degree. She has a mortgage payment for her schooling, and will never get out from under it. It saddens me that she was allowed to do that, and that she must have that over her head.
A funny side story.... after her freshman year, my daughter took an apt with 2 girls older than her. But they were not prepared, had not handled money themselves and were taken care of at home. So my daughter took the initiative. She started out by calculating the square footage of each bedroom, and prorated the shares of rent based on that ratio. She also volunteered to take the smallest room. Each month, the parents would send the rent/utilities money to my daughter, and she would make the monthly payments! One of the girls took my daughters plastic rice cooker, and tried to cook rice on the stove! The same girl got out the vacuum to get crumbs off the tablecloth.... the stories we would hear were classic.
Last edited:
