OT - How Are You Paying for Your (kids') College?

It all depends on where she is accepted and decides to attend.  Her grades and test scores are good, but not perfect, so she'll probably get into Michigan (which is her #1 choice, obviously), but she's also applying to ND, NU, a couple Ivies just for shits and giggles,  and a few others that escape me at the moment.

OU is her safety school, and might end up being my preferred choice.  A colleague of mine has a kid going there on a full academic ride, and her grades weren't that much better than my kid's.  

I'm going to make her take out the 5k (or whatever it is now) in student loans each year, just so she has some skin in the game, and my in-laws are going to kick in an as yet undisclosed amount.

So with my luck I'll be selling heroin and my ass by this time next year.

It's past the point of affordability, so...loans, grants, and apply for a ton of scholarships.

I was at michigan 2002-2006, my mom didn't pay anything, (to her credit, she paid for me to go to a jesuit hs back home in nyc).  Luckily i got 50% in grant money, ~15% in scholarship, some work study and paid for about ~35% in loans.

I have no kids but i'm sure as hell scared of this very topic.  I guess they'd just have to borrow money and i'd help where i can.

Kids?! What're you fucking nuts?

Thanks to the baby boomer generation being the world's greediest piles of shit,  I'm not even sure I will be able to get my own ass through this world. Let alone drag a child kicking and screaming into it.

Kids?! Good luck.

I'm probably going to tell my kids (very young at this point) they have to go to an in-state public school.  Maybe that makes me sound like a jerk, but with the crazy exploding costs of higher education, I no longer see the value of an out-of-state or private degree vs. the cost to acquire it, unless you can get massive financial aid. 

In-state tuition to our in-state school (considered top 20 for public schools in the country) is around $10K a year.  Board is another $10K or so.  it will be more by the time my kids go, but I will be able to afford that kind of pay-out out of my retirement savings. I really should have it in a 529--I will be transitioning some of it in there when I get my @$$ in gear.  Out-of-state or private costs?  Forget about it.

I realize that is restrictive, and probably means Michigan is out unelss my kids move to live with their grandparents, but I think it's just reality.   If they desperately have to go to some specific private or out of state school, I guess they can take out a massive loan, but I will greatly discourage that.  If they stay in-state and public, I will pay 100%, just like my parents did for me.

Started her ESA last month in some good mutal funds. Should be a good chunk in there by the time she hits college. What she doesn't have she better make up for with working and/or scholorships. Otherwise, its off to community college for you for the first couple years.

Daughter has Australian citizenship from her mother.

They are roughly 500 million times less expensive for very good schools.

It depends on your household FAFSA and whether your kid has any special status or dispensation (high grades and standardized test scores, targeted ethnicity, etc.).  We put five kids through major colleges (public and private) at the same time using a combination of scholarships, student loans, savings, cooperative contributions from ex's, and having several of our kids work as student employees on campus.  Shopping around for scholarship packages is critical (which means applying to many schools), and the FAFSA is the starting point.  But our experience was that the privates offer the most generous schollies by far.  Two of our kids auditioned for and were accepted into UM's music school, but their out of state scholarship packages were simply uncompetitive, unfortunately.  One went to NYU and the other to University of Richmond, which offered much bigger schollies.

We are getting ready to take my daughter back to college for her Sophomore year. We had a 529 set up for her for years and that has helped with the expense. She has earned some scholarship money for grades and softball. Then it just amounts to being on a payment plan to cover the rest. It's almost like having another mortgage payment though. You kind of feel like a college kid yourself again with doing a little less.

I would really tell people to start a 529 or some type of savings as soon as you can to help pay for their college.

My daughter is probably going to need grad school also, which I'm not too excited about paying for, but ultimately will.

While a price tag of $60K  a year is intimidating, many private schools (especially the top schools competing for the best students) often come out cheaper than public schools for families making less than $100K. 

Another loophole an aquaintance stumbled across was when her daughter was a salutatorian at a local rural highj school had her grant money reduced at a top 25 liberal arts college, she went to a solid regional college who offered a full scholarship since she was oneof the top incoming students.

Sometimes colleges will find out of area student appealing to increase their regional diversity and may offer more aid than a similar stature local school.

529 Plans give you the potential for tax-free growth and expense, provided the money is used for qualified expenses ...which nowadays is far broader than it used to be as "Tuition, Room & Board."  You also get a state-level tax deduction on your 529 contributions.

Unfortunately, tuition is so fucking expensive these days that even an aggressive 8% rate of return over many years amounts to squat. 

If you still have a relatively long time horizon -- toddlers or small, school-aged -- a 529 Plan with systematic contributions is an easy way to build something over time ...I would also add that there are a TON of scholarships that many overlook and the internet has made it far easier to find.

Our neighbor's son is a Soph at Gonzaga this fall and they found a number of smaller scholarships on line that help supplement, at least, the total cost of his education.

Another more common trend is sending kids to a smaller, community college to complete the core basics before transferring to a more traditional 4yr University.  I know I was dying to go to college, live the dorms and be on my own, but many parents now are opting to let their kids "find themselves" the first couple years and adjust to college, without paying the increased costs of those schools.