~What are your future education plans for your children?

~Do you have $ saved for each of their college years?

~Are you hoping they all get an acedemic scholarship?

We have preliminary plans for ours, but haven't saved a penny as of yet! As my kids have gotten older the day comes closer & closer to tuition, room & board, etc-bills will be arriving!

~I was wondering what other large middle class income (lower class too) families with many children handle college expenses.

Anyone wanna jump in with their plans?

DJ is our athlete-he plans on getting a baseball scholarship and going for his degree in sports journalism. He's going into High School next yr-and is already being scouted by the coach (sshhhhh-don't let him know!).

Tan is our scholar-she plans on getting an acedemic sholarship and going for her degree in zoology. She gets staright a's and a b here & there-so this shouldn't be a problem for her.

Rieh is our structure junkie-needs structure & planning all the time. A military career will fit right into his needs-and get him paid college for whatever he decides he'd like to do. Right now, he has no future in his head-day to day living is a challenge, lol

Lan-we'll prolly have saved something for by then-being I'm older & a bit wiser in regards to planning ahead. Dunno if it'll be enough to pay for room and board and tuition/books-but it'll be something, right?


What have you planned for yours?

My uncle has 8 children. So far (they are ages 4-21) they arthletic, straight A students (the 21 year old attended college a couple of years before getting married and starting her family, the next in line is 17 and is currently being heavily recruited by schools, the 16 year old daughter just won her division in a rodeo and seems scholarship bound for her horsemanship skills - although she is also a straight A student).

The other large family I know... mom worked for a university to get free tution for her kids.

My three eldest dds are blessed that their college education is taken care of thanks to their great grandmother. We encourage them to strive for the best grades though, because with rising costs they may STILL need scholarships!
We are hoping our 13 yr old son will hit the military, at least for a few years to help pay for schooling, if not a career.
Cathlin and Jason, I don't know. It's so hard to even know where they will be growing up, and we've had so many financial changes this year, we haven't planned to save for their college educations yet.

well we have 3 and the oldest is 5 years from college. no savings but we have home equity we plan on accessing and both of us put ourselves through college with jobs and loans. hoping 2 years at city before he goes to Art Center which is really expensive and he could commute.

Luna

the oldest we have to pay for in the traditional way. we will probably do "plus" loans for his.

edited to say these plans are already known to the kiddos.

with those that are ours together we are telling them that we will pay for:
junior college, living at home first two years. they will have to work in the summer to pay their own car insurance. after that, yes we have savings and they will need to work in the summer to help. we are trying to avoid loans with the younger ones. their grades (according to ability) in jr college will determine what extent we go to pay their college tuition. we won't be pulling extra jobs to pay for them to get d's :p. otoh, if they are busting rear maintaining a 4.0 i can't see a limit to what i would do to help them.

in short, they are getting the "old navy" education plan. high quality but not really name brand. of course, if they get scholarships they can do whatever.

good question :).

I just wanted to insert that DH was one of the youngest in his family (poor with lots and lots of kids) but he was the first to graduate from college. He basically had to pay for it all himself, which means we had student loans to pay off, but he was able to go and do well.

The rest of DH's family seem to have a different mentality when it comes to paying for college. Their attitude is that if it isn't completely paid for with scholarships, then their kids won't be able to go (or that it won't be worth going to, moneywise). [Although they're perfectly willing to go into debt (bankruptcy even) for houses and cars in order to keep up with the Joneses.)

Currently, it seems that if someone knows what they want and they want to go to college, there are ways to do it. It may not be "free", but it can definitely be done.

Guess I am the odd duck here. We aren't saving and planning for their college. I expect them to pay for their own college with scholarships and loans just like I did. I am still paying off my student loans and dont see any shame in it.
With the way tuitiopn is rising there is no way we will have enough money for ds who will be college bound in about 5 years or the last 3 2 tuitions due at once and the last coming in before the grad.
So call me mean and heartless but I expect them to pay for it themselves.

I am glad this thread was started and will watch it. We currently have 2.5 children. Though it's kind of hard to say this now when I'm pregnant and am tired, the idea of having one or two more children after this is still floating around in my head. We're praying and thinking about it. Anyway, the biggest "no" in my mind about having more children is the issue about paying for college. Of course, I want to be able to provide the best for my children. We haven't started college savings and it is something we keep saying we need to do. I am hoping to start these soon.

Right now, I plan that we will likely have to take some parent loans, the children will need to take student loans, we will have some money saved, they may receive grants or scholarships, and the children will need to help with some of the expense by working during summers and possibly having part time jobs during college. I had to work quite a bit during college and don't want my children to have to work as much as I did, but they may have to work some. I think a lot will depend on each child's abilities, drive, etc.

Two right now, but will have more.. g*d willing. 529 plans for both. 100 to start and then accepts $25 increments. Bank One.

We save pennies to put in their savings. Really. A 529 is tax free to put money in. It's an investment thing, so it grows, instead of just hanging around a bank earning 1.1%.

After that, we stress about academics. Also, ya'll, most small private liberal arts schools have need-blind admissions, and full packages- if your kid gets in,they find ways to keep him/her. So, it isn't just you and your wallet. It's you, your wallet, the kids wallet, the school's foundation, work-study programs, former students providing scholarships--and the turnaround is that your kid gets a great education, gives to the student pool, idea wise, graduates, does well, and gives back. It's cheaper, overall, than state schools.

Also, if, once you are in, your kid does well, even state schools have educational emergency slush funds. The key being "does well."

So, aim your kid as high as possible, and let the experts figure out how to pay for it. FAFSA counts your income to almost nothing if you have more than one kid.

I went to a state school, paying for it myself, with a job. I wouldn't make my kid do this. It was not the smartest, most- plugged in approach.I want them to study, I want them to learn, and I don't want them figuring out how to cook the wolf at the door. Society has a vested interest in well- educated workers. They pay higher taxes, for one.

Ari

Originally posted by Ariadne Umbrell
I don't want them figuring out how to cook the wolf at the door.

great post with some excellent ideas for me to mull over.

BUT...wtheck does that phrase mean?

It's a title of a cookbook. The phrase is "wolf at the door.." hunger and want and disease and cold at the door. MFKFisher(?) is the name that comes to mind as the authorThe author wrote a cookbook, published during WW2, titled "how to cook a wolf"

I don't want my kids to have to learn every little survival trick in the book. I don't want them getting bad jobs that pay well, but beat up their bodies, and their study time. I remember being cold, and hungry, and tired, the whole time I was in school. I wasn't able to participate in anything- not the paper, not a group, not a charity, b/c I had to work. So my full scale marvelous school was really more of an online readers course, than an education. My brother lost 15 pounds each semester, for instance.

A big part of the college mission is socialization- practicing new and different things, even non- monetary things- and dealing with different people- and learning how to run institutions. Seriously, even frivolous things, like the entertainment committee at a frat- that's your bar owners and managers, and political fundraisers, and charity ball planners- right there. I couldn't take arts classes- supplies cost about $100, $90 more than I could afford. I couldn't take classes that "might , possibly" interest me, since I was paying for them, and needed to get out. I didn't get to work the philosophy classes, and really, truly learn. I didn't really even get to develop friendships.

The link, and I don't know how to do it, is hipmama, and there is an article about liberal arts colleges being the best value, and the least expenisve way, to go to college. The slush fund- a dean told me about this, after I'd dropped out. I would have qualified, and my life would be substantially different.

Community colleges, really, are pretty horrible ways to go. They don't have slush funds, they don't have scholarships, and they dont' qualify for as large a Pell Grant, or any other scholarship. Jane Bryant Quinn wrote out the numbers, in Newsweek, about a month ago. It's really depressing.

Harvard has a billion dollars in its endowment, for instance. 25 K a year is nice for them, but they don't really need it.

The big social thing- America went from nice to wealthy with the GI Bill, and also with the land grant college system. People with money, institutions with money- really, truly, want your kid to go to college, invent something, administer a program, write a screenplay, volunteer for mayoral elections- because an educated populace earns more, remains competitive, and their kids also tend to go to college, and earn more, bringing in more wealth. You are likely to earn over one million dollars more than a high school graduate- taxes alone will eat a third of that million. Would you loan someone 50K, if you expected to 1. get the principal back- student loans don't wash out in a bankruptcy, and 2. earn an additional 300K, plus a base? That's whats in it for the government.

And the effect lingers. "First to go to college, probably has kids that go to college, too. And grandkids." That's three different 300ks.

The effect is in the history books, even the US ones. The north had mandatory dayschool from the 1700( I think) ( prior to the revolution) and the south didn't get it until franklin roosevelt-------( again, this is off the top of my head) (but have you seen the spinning mills full of children- that was the 1930s!!!!!!) Wages, lifespan, "happiness" marital stability, children's lowered mortality, crime rates- all of it--favors a literate, educated population.

Fabulous post Ari. I wholeheartedly agree.
I want my son to know his whole life that he is headed to college. He will for sure have to work summers to have money but I will do whatever it takes to make sure that tuition is covered. I want him to live on campus and immerse himself in learning. I don't want him to have to struggle to finish like I did because it reduces the probability that he will get that education.

Kathleen

military!

Serious... there are ROTC scholarships, there is the GI bill, military academies. I really hope that my children all go to college, and I would like to help them out... but right now we are getting our family out of debt (less than 2 years left!!!) and then paying off my student loans. I have 9.5 years left on them... and Austin's already in 2nd grade. We'll do what we can, and we do have college help in our financial plan, but it isn't being worked on right this minute because there are some other things we need to get out of the way first. But helping our kids with college is on our financial plan, it just hasn't come to that time yet (it will within the next couple of years as dh gets raises and we pay off our debts).

I paid my own way - my parents paid for my books a few semesters and they helped out my first year, but they got divorced that year, so the financial situation wasn't all that great. I took out loans.

DH is the first one in his family EVER to have gone to college. He did it with his GI Bill. He enlisted in the Air Force right out of high school, spent 6 years in and used his GI Bill for tuition. Then we got married, he re-enlisted, applied to Officer Training School and here we are. I think he values his college education better than anyone I know.

My sister has a neat story for paying for school. She went to college right out of highschool. I think my parents helped her out - but she didn't know what she wanted to do. After 2 years, she enlisted in the Air Force. After 2 years being enlisted, she applied to go to the Air Force Academy (most people don't even know that they have a program for going to the academy from being enlisted - so those slots are usually left unfilled). She will graduate from the Academy next year. She will have a guaranteed job and good benefits. She has no student loans, my parents didn't have to pay anything, etc.

Our kids are autonomously educated, and this will most likely continue their whole lives. If a chosen life-path turns out to require college, we'll come up with a plan then. But my hope is that our kids will decide on something that can be self- or life-taught, like DH & I did. (DH runs a rare coins & precious metals dealership, which is his lifelong love, and I run a diaper business, of which the sewing & design parts are a great joy in my life.)

So far, in my life, I have not met an adult working in a job they LOVE that got there via their college degree. Not EVER. That says a lot to me. Maybe I have a very limited social sphere, but that's my reality, both in my family and with friends and acquaintances.

We aren't saving either. But that's not saying that we never will. I am just now starting college this year myself. I will cover what I can, but I do exect the kids to cover a bit themselves as well.

I'm with mehndi mama. My kids will be unschooled and I don't plan on pushing college. If they need college to follow their desired path, I will aid them in attending, but it will be up to them to pursue. I do have a college degree (which I worked fulltime while going to college to pay for) but I don't even use it! Both dh and I are self employed in jobs that we love - neither of which required a college degree, just a lot of self taught knowledge. I don't believe a higher degree or wage is necessary for a full life.

That said, we do have a savings plan for both kids that we encourage relatives to contribute to instead of buying them gifts for holidays but they will be welcome to use it for college, to start a business, travel, or buy a house once they are grown.

We have three and another on the way and we're not saving for college. The local university and community college cost approx $1500 a semester plus books to attend (we checked with my SIL who is a student now) So we're not planning on saving for it as that's really not very expensive - we're in Canada though - so it may be govt subsidized or something. I believe the post-secondary education here is cheaper but harder to get into.

I'm sure by then I'll be working again and we'll be able to help the kids out with that. Plus $3000 a year (though it probably will go up over the next 15 years!) is low enough they can probably get summer and/or part times jobs and pay for it.

Right now it's more important to get ourselves in a postition to have no debt, some savings for emergencies and eventually be able to buy instead of renting.

Actually I only have a 2 year diploma (in Business Administration - which isn't very useful) so we may send me back to school before we worry about sending our kids. It depends how our lives go - but I'm not that worried about it.

Now if the kids want to go somewhere really expensive and far away - they'll need to get scholorships or something.

Only one child here, but we have a 529 plan account for Sam. Some of his relatives send cash instead of boxed presents for holidays and birthdays, and usually we put that money into the 529.

We're also unschoolers, and I wouldn't presume that college is automatically in his future. I also hope that if he did decide to attend college, that he would get some scholarship money. He's the self-directed type. :)

Tara

Let me tell you what my college degree has done for me.

I've gotten to work two jobs that I LOVE. First as a wildlife biologist, and now as a teacher. I have many friends who also love what they do with their degree.

Even if I never needed the degree to get the jobs I still love what I learned. The experience alone helped me grow in so many ways and gave me the tools to continue to grow.


Before going to college I worked in factories, cleaned hotel rooms, etc. etc. etc with MANY other smart, great uneducated women. It took me many years to finish my degree.

When my baby was 6 months old my 'loving, devoted' husband and companion of 10 years decided he couldn't hack the new resposibilities and left. This incredibly unexpected change of events left me to make it happen for myself and my son. Thank GOD I was just finishing my degree.
This degree SAVED me. I know where I would be without it because I have worked with these single moms who struggle with 2+jobs, no benefits, no job security, no respect. I get all of those things at my one job plus 4 months a year off paid.
And if I decide I hate my job I have many other career paths I can take.
Men can do better without a degree because they get hired for construction or to drive a forklift for $15+ an hour (though time takes its toll). Women get hired to work the line at $6 an hour.

This is in no way to make anyone without a degree feel badly about it. This is my reality. Take from it what you may. College is just four years out of a lifetime that can make a tremendous difference for your daughters as they did for me. It's about giving your children all the options and keeping all the doors open for them. Education is never wasted time, even if you can get the job without it.

Kathleen

What Allison said. ;) I should have done it earlier, but I just opened a college account for the kids, so that all their grandparents can add to it at will, and we'll encourage them to do so in lieu of many toys/gifts for holidays and birthdays.

We have always considered our family savings account and 503(b) as something we would draw from some day for college, if necessary. Then there is always equity in property as a last resort.

I'm not panicking about college funds because I expect our kids to attend CC for two years and live at home for at least the first two years (if not the whole time...we *are* very close to several options and probably always will be) and there are always loans as a last resort (for them or us) if other avenues don't pan out.

If they choose private college or UC over CSU, then they'll definitely be pitching in.

We have two kids but are planning 3-4 total.

As an aside, my IL's paid for dh's older brother (over 6 years at CSU and living expenses) and younger sister (3 years of CC and then 2 years of Berkeley, and living expenses)...but refused to pay tuition (or anything else) for him. I will make sure I help all my children as equally as possible, so there's no bad blood. ;)

Well, we have college fund accounts for the boys, but haven't started one for Marlie yet....I have to get on that. Their accounts may not have millions in them by the time they are college bound, but they'll have something for sure.

we have 3 daughters. haven't decided yet if we're done.

aliyah's college has been paid for for a while now. she has the fl prepaid plan. she's also got a year of dorm living & all her fees.

for nina we have a different plan & i can't think of the name of it! it's stock-based, mutual funds, etc. & if aliyah gets scholarships, which we'll push for, her prepaid plan can transfer to any of her siblings.

we've already started talia's prepaid plan, too.

we believe strongly that a college education is a basic stepping stone.

I think we will just barely miss being poor enough for our children to get grants. We have six children......four of the six will go to some kind of post-highschool eduation. (two are mentally handicapped)

Our plan has always been to use all of my paycheck to pay for college and our children are also expected to work summers and save to help pay for their college expenses.

(I'll be teaching full-time by the time our oldest starts college and all my salary will go towards college)

Sure, we hope for scholarships......but can't totally on that hope. Even though I think my children are brilliant and will get scholarships. :D



We have also been saving as far as savings bonds since they were born. That is not a lot, but will help for books.

I'd like to start another savings for college...one of the state programs for investment. (forgetting the name of these types of investment plans)

Hugs,

Michelle

Originally posted by Patsy

We are hoping our 13 yr old son will hit the military, at least for a few years to help pay for schooling, if not a career.


Our 13 year old son said (about a year ago) that he wants to do ROTC in college to help defray expenses. He rather shocked us with how he is thinking ahead!!! :)

My dh got a college degree in exchange for playing football for them.

My parents paid my way.

Hugs,

Michelle

dh works at a community college so all the kids go there for cheap, like $2-3 a credit hr or something like that.
anywhere they want to go beyond that is up to them.
mindi