We have three children and for a period of two years all three of these children were in college at the same time. I wish I could say we were those parents that had set aside money each month from the time they were born to help defray college expenses, but we were busy living paycheck to paycheck and quite honestly, just didnt think about the high cost of college these days as evidenced by the side bar on the left of this post.
While I dont regret any of the decisions we made regarding our childrens education, I do think we could have made wiser choices in the way we funded it. Our oldest went to a small local college for his first two years and the vast majority of this was funded through scholarships. We paid very little out of pocket and I guess took scholarships for granted. Once he transferred to a larger state school, the scholarship money all but left with the exception of the Life Scholarship. He took out his own student loans to cover his tuition, boarding, etc. and has all his student loans in his name. It is our intention to help him out once we get in a better financial place. Our second son went to a local technical college for year one and it was completely covered by scholarships but he HATED it. We allowed him to transfer to a private college (losing the state Life Scholarship) and enroll in a program more suited to his passion. But that passion came with a pretty hefty price tag and so now he has student loan debt in his name along with our obtaining parent student loan debt. Our daughter decided on an out-of-state school that she wanted to attend when she graduated high school. Her excitement about this opportunity was contagious and so we agreed but the costloss of state Life Scholarship and out-of-state tuition was huge. Yepeven more student loan debt that we willingly signed for. It is amazing to me just how easy it is to get these loans. A click or two on a web page and tens of thousands of dollars just appear. All three children have now graduated so we have stopped digging and are starting to fill this hole but it is deep. I must mention that my children are not spoiled, appreciate the opportunities they were given, and all three held part time jobs throughout college to earn money to help with their living expenses.
So what would we have done differently?
1. Set aside something each month for education purposes beginning at birth.
2. Ask doting grandparents that in lieu of a few gifts at Christmas, birthdays, etc., to please contribute to the college account.
3. Research 529 plans and the opportunites available to fund these plans.
4. Research more in-state and public colleges vs. out-of-state and private. Quite possibly other schools would have had exactly what we needed at a less expensive price.
5. Require children to work diligently on obtaining scholarship monies. Even small amounts help offset the tremendous expenses.
My husband and I both came from households that were not able to afford much in the way of higher education and the vast majority of the college education we received, we paid for ourselves. We wanted the college experience to be different for our children and it was. They succeeded academically beyond our dreams, got involved in many areas of college life clubs, work-study opportunities, etc. They made the most of their education and each one is working in a field that they love. We feel a great sense of pride at what they have accomplished and consider it a small price to pay for them to have an opportunity we never had. This is something that can never be taken away from them and as Confucius says Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. We are just thankful to have been able to help them achieve their dreams.
Source: http://carolinagirl.savingadvice.com/2013/01/23/drowning-in-student-loan-debt_100527/
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