Recession Watch: What to do if your kid goes to college next fall
Posted by: in Money General TalkFiled under: College, Debt, Kids and Money, Recession
Parents of college-bound seniors everywhere are blanching. A lot of financial ugliness is coming down the pike, and here you are, ready to be hit with a whole new phalanx of expenses. What’s a parent to do?
Begin by debunking the stereotype of having to pay full ride for your child. There are many options for getting your kid educated without having to bust the bank. You and junior just have to be prepared to think out of the box.
First, strongly think about the community college option. Unless your kid got a full ride to their first pick university, It makes too strong financial sense not to examine this opportunity closely.
Not only does it cost a fraction of what a four-year institution will cost you, it also allows your 18-year-old precious time; time to take a wide-variety of classes, time to decide what they really want to major in, even time to work part time. It enables them to ease themselves into adulthood without the pressure a high-falutin’ four-year school might put on them. Four-years typically hold open a certain percentage of slots for community college transfer students, making it easier, in many cases, to get into those highly-selective schools they wouldn’t have made the cut at directly after high school.
A final note, one that might be lost on your kid, (who might have his mind set on a fancy school he won’t be paying for anyway): The education you get at a two-year can in many ways be better than that at a four-year. Lecturers and professors at community colleges are there to teach. They’re largely free from the “Publish or Perish” shackles of their four-year brethren. At Berkeley, for example, many classes are taught by graduate student assistants (faculty slave labor) while the faculty is engaged in its own research. At a two-year, the instructor is there to teach - and with the same level of expertise, you’re getting an excellent education at less than half the price.
Secondly, look for schools that offer grants instead of loans. You’d be surprise how many schools do. There are many universities out there, responding to the steady drumbeat of criticism over the crushing student-loan debt of new graduates, that are finding better ways of funding their students’ course of study.
Many Ivy Leagues have slashed their tuition to be more affordable to “middle-class” students. If your kid does manage to get in, you won’t be facing such a daunting bill. In current years students from families that make less than $60K a year don’t have to pay tuition at Harvard, and the university recently announced dramatic tuition cuts that make its hallowed halls that much more accessible. Other elite universities are following its lead. Dartmouth, for example, announced last week that it would waive tuition fees for students from families earning up to $75K a year.
Consider top-rated schools without the “brand” name. University of Chicago, Middlebury, Tulane — these schools aren’t in the vaunted Ivy Leagues, but they’re top-tier school all the same.
And for the kid who just won’t leave his gaming post, here is a long list of universities and colleges that offer free on the web courses. These aren’t coursework for full degrees, of course, but why not learn sign language from Michigan Say University, or brush up on your physics courtesy of Yale?
Finally, there’s the old-fashioned notion of going where you can afford — and if that means the local say university, living at home and working part-time instead of getting a full ride to Brown, well, that’s the new reality, kid. Living within your means is the new paradigm. What superior time to instruct this lesson than when they go off to college?
This post is part of a series offering consumers advice on what to do during a recession.
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