How much are your kids' student loans?

[Ting Tang]

The Navient saga....  I just paid off the remaining $14,000+ on my loans.  It hurt, but I found out we can finance our children's braces for 0% interest, and it will be the same amount, so that was my reasoning.

The loans said they wouldn't be repaid until 2029.  I finished grad school in 2004.  I do not recall ever deferring, except while in school.  I financed $60,000 between college and graduate school. I had a decent college scholarship, and I lived at home.  I worked part-time.

$60,000 doesn't even sound like a lot to me anymore.  But it really made much of my adulthood before marriage very difficult, and we have less money because of my loans.  

College has gone up so much.  

So, what are your decent students financing these days?  I'll assume many of them had some scholarships, at the very least.  We are not rich, and we are not poor. I doubt we will get much that doesn't need to be repaid.  My oldest is a rising 6th grader, so it isn't that far away. 

[Miss Tick]

If your state offers a tax incentive for 529 contributions do try to advantage of that. It is like an instant return on your investment. Not exactly what you asked, though.

[Bambam]

One of mine has one for maybe $4,000? She only got that one because one of the benefits is paying $100/month toward student loan. 
Other one has none. Both got good scholarships from the school + several of other organizations (service ones they had volunteered at, organization associated with their major).  No financial aid was available to us. Fortunately, we are in a position to help. 

College is cheap in TX. For 15 hours, you are looking about $5K/semester tuition + fees.  Housing was cheap until COVID. 

I'd have to do a financial calculation before any loans. Does final job/salary/demand make it a reasonable investment? 

[AngieC]

My kids won't have any, thanks largely to a benefit that my husband has from his employer.  If that weren't the case, I would encourage my children to live at home or to go to junior college for the first couple of years to limit their debt.  I lived at home and went to a local college and even though I was unhappy about it at the time, in hindsight, I realize what a smart move it was. 

[freesia]

My oldest graduated with 9500. He should be able to pay it off this year as he has a big raise recently and it’s his priority. My second finished her sophomore year with none and shouldn’t have to take any this year. My third shouldn’t have to take any. My kids go to the schools which give the biggest scholarships. We’ve also been living in a place where teens are paid well so they can save a lot over the summer. That is changing this year so we will see. Our goal is that they take less than 10,000 out. 20,000 is the highest we’d be comfortable with. 

[BusyMom5]

First kids got a full ride- we've paid about 5K per year.  Second kid got a good scholarship that covers most of tuition and $2k toward dorm.  We will be out about 8K per year.  We have a 529 but are saving it for when we have twins in college. 

Editing to add that all our kids take advantage of DE while in high school to shave off time at the University.   ODD will get a Masters in just 3 years (includes doing summer classes).  DD2 is set to get her undergrad in 3 years, then will need to decide on graduate school (Masters or Doctorate).  

Edited July 14, 2023 by BusyMom5

[wintermom]

So far, no loans needed. I have 3 dc currently in university. They all live at home and work part-time. 

[Pawz4me]

Thankfully we were able to pay for our kids' education. It was always a high priority for us, so we started saving as soon as we decided we'd likely have a baby or two, which was several years before the oldest was born. So we got a jump start on it. And we live in a state with a good, affordable state university system.

[Arcadia]

Hopefully none. My husband is a tightwad so we maximize on dual enrollment to get an associate degree free by taking classes from 10th to 12th grade. My parents also gave enough per grandchild to pay for a year’s tuition, room and board. We didn’t purposely save for college but my husband’s pay plus our savings would be enough to cover for two years of college as transfer students.
Tuition isn’t painful, room and board is. However none of the colleges that DS18 can commute to accepted him for his major so commuting to college isn’t an option.

[Bootsie]

My children were lucky to be able to graduate without taking out student loans; this was due to a number of factors including scholarships, employee benefits DH and I had, part-time jobs (DD was an RA for two years which covered room and board), and savings.  DD is now in grad school and has managed to do that without any student loans either. 

[Kassia]

All four kids graduated with no loans.  My oldest three graduated from our state flagship (3 hours away) with small scholarships and we were able to pay the rest.  We had a specific amount we could pay and they all came under that amount.  If they had chosen private schools with small scholarships, they would have had to take out loans (ds2 wanted to attend University of Michigan but chose not to because of the loan issue).  

Dd had a full ride.  She was NMF and only looked at schools with generous scholarships.  She was OOS so our big expense for her was travel.  

Edited July 14, 2023 by Kassia

[Hannah]

I work full time and my whole salary goes to university fees and their living costs so that our kids can graduate debt free.

Edited July 14, 2023 by Hannah

[Momto6inIN]

$0

All 3 went so far have gone to Purdue which has approx yearly $10,000 tuition ($12,000 for CS majors). Tuition has also been frozen for the past several years.

All have lived at home and commuted their first year, which I know isn't possible for everyone. The boys have both chosen to get a cheap on campus apt after that, but DD has chosen to continue to live at home for free and commute.

Oldest DS: We paid half tuition his first year and he was able to work and pay the rest of that year and all subsequent years. His last year was a combined BS/MS degree and he worked as a TA so he didn't pay anything the last year.

2nd DS: He got a presidential scholarship that pays for all of tuition.

DD: She has a $4000/year scholarship. We paid $4000 and she paid the rest for freshman year. She needs to look at her finances for next year after she sees how much money she made this summer, but we will plan to help her with some of it every year, ideally each year she would be able to pay more and we would pay less.

We paid off our house right before 2nd DS started college and that has helped tremendously in having extra cash to help pay for tuition.

We are also fortunate to have a high quality university nearby enough to commute to. We also have a good CC with excellent transfer policies to Purdue if any of them ever want to try the 2+2 route.

In our situation, it is feasible for us to be committed to graduating them all without debt, and that's the goal. I know not everyone is in that situation.

[teachermom2834]

Well I will admit my oldest two have low - mid 20,000s in loans. My third got a full ride and he works so much we really don’t have to help him with any incidentals even.
 

While no loans is the ideal for us I was comfortable with college choices that kept my kids under the federal limit for the government loans. We just didn’t have the money to contribute much at all. The paid for college using all avenues (dual enrollment/scholarships/grants/loans/ student work).  We had some saved in 529 accounts for the 4 kids. We used it all up on the first two covering bits not covered by all the other avenues. My kids did go away to college and live on campus. So we pieced it together and made it work. 
 

I think for many students to go away from home takes an all of the above approach. Scholarships, grants, loans, parent savings and earnings/ student savings all pieced together. I don’t regret it. We really didn’t contribute much and I don’t feel too bad. They had access to the loans and dh and I were pretty young with our oldest kids and had hit some hard times and had more pressing financial goals we could deal with while the kids used the loans.

I think the modest federal loans really can be a hand up for some students and I don’t like that people feel shame about using them or automatically discount their use. One of my kids has a great job  and his student loan payment is not a big deal. He could pay it off but likely will prioritize other investments. My other son does not have a high paying job but he can use the income based repayment plans. $20,000 in federal student loan debt is really not a life sentence. 
 

My third got a full ride + extras and he is an RA and works in admissions and works full time in the summers and is frugal. So he is in great shape and that is obviously the ideal.

Not all parents can contribute. Some students take ill advised loans but they can be a useful tool and used wisely. 

[DawnM]

Oldest has a $10k loan to pay off.   We were waiting to see if it would be forgiven.   Now we need to pay.   Second son did have $10k but we paid that one off.   

However, 2nd and 3rd son are currently taking out about $5k per year to offset college costs.

We only take the subsidized loans, we don't take out any extra.

We lived on DH's salary for a long time and I stayed home.  I started back to work when my oldest started college and my salary was pretty much going to college costs exclusively.   Now I have 2 in college and my paycheck is still pretty much going straight to the colleges.

Neither DH nor I had student loans, but my parents helped us.   They paid my undergrad and then paid a portion of my grad school and a portion of DH's grad school.   They said we could pay them back by paying for our kids' colleges.   And that is what we are doing.   I have told my kids the same thing.   As much as they are able, pay it back to us by paying it forward.   

 

 

[Kidlit]

So far--none.  Both my oldest got full rides to our local university.   Knowing how much NOT having student loan debt helped me and dh get started in young adulthood, this has always been something we encouraged them to work towards.   One got all merit aid for tuition to a state university that would require her to go away to live on campus, and after counting the cost of housing, child decided to go local.  We were holding our breaths but allowing child to make an independent decision about it, and child eventually did choose the no-cost solution. 

[Ting Tang]

These posts are very encouraging.  Thank you all for sharing!  And of course, please continue.  

[whitestavern]

I believe my dd owes about $15k. She’s going for her master’s (fully funded) so won’t have to start paying for two years. Son owes about the same. He put a lot more money towards tuition than dd though because he worked and saved more prior. 

[MEmama]

Grandparents are generously picking up the tab for DS; we are paying for housing. Mentally I allocate my salary from my part time job to his housing and other needs; it's not totally necessary but it helps give me a reason to turn on my work computer every day, lol. 
 

My family is extremely anti debt when at all possible (and are in the position to make it possible) and I've adopted that value. I am extremely grateful that neither DH nor I had student debt and would do anything to make sure DS has the same debt free start to his adult life. DS works during the summer and whatever he doesn't put into savings we encourage him to use on travel.

[2squared]

So far, no loans. 

Rising senior - No scholarships, tuition + room & board @ no name state school ~ $20k/year ~ Paid with combo of parent and grandparent cash. 

Rising sophomore - Presidential scholarship & athletic scholarships at private regional school ~ $20k/year after the scholarships while he’s living on campus (freshman year), $25k/year while living off campus (sophomore+ years) ~ Paid with combo of parent and grandparent cash

Three more to go, and the plan is no loans for them either. We will be utilizing parent and grandparent cash as well as GI bill. 

We also provide them with a vehicle, health insurance, and phone. They pay for books, clothing, and extras/fun. Not sure yet how we would handle more than four years of schooling, especially for #2 since he will probably stretch out his college experience to five years for athletics. #4 is looking at schools across the country, so that’s an entirely different conversation as well. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by 2squared

[fairfarmhand]

My oldest and her dh both had full rides and loved at home though thier last years they worked part time to share apartments with roomies, so no debt there.

dd2 had all but like 5k a year paid for. We paid for that. Loved at home till she moved out spring semester of jr year with a roommate, working part time. we’ll see what dd3 does.

dh had a full ride but lost on scholarship for a semester and had to take out a 5k loan which we paid off within just a few years.

 

eta: everyone has gone to state schools in these scenarios 

Edited July 14, 2023 by fairfarmhand

[2squared]

44 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Grandparents are generously picking up the tab for DS; we are paying for housing. Mentally I allocate my salary from my part time job to his housing and other needs; it's not totally necessary but it helps give me a reason to turn on my work computer every day, lol. 
 

My family is extremely anti debt when at all possible (and are in the position to make it possible) and I've adopted that value. I am extremely grateful that neither DH nor I had student debt and would do anything to make sure DS has the same debt free start to his adult life. DS works during the summer and whatever he doesn't put into savings we encourage him to use on travel.

We are similar. When we stopped homeschooling and I went back to work FT, I was determined to use the money to make my kid’ lives easier. Free college and extras were included in that. My kids do have money gifted from grandparents, and we encourage them to use that money on experiences. Travel is a top priority. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by 2squared

[Spryte]

I went to school on Pell Grant (emancipated early) and student loans. Just paid off my loans last August. Whew. 

Oldest has no student debt, graduated from a good state school. Parent cash.

Middle DS is on track for no to very little loans. Lives at home, commutes to school, doing two years at CC and transferring to local university that has a transfer agreement, plans to continue to commute.

There are no grandparents contributing, just parent cash.

Like some others, we provide vehicle or transportation (we have late drivers here), insurance, health insurance, phone, and some other basics. Middle kid is unlikely to manage working and school, so for now — we scaffold as best we can, and provide pretty much everything.

We will see what happens with DD, she’s pretty far out from making decisions.
 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Spryte

[Shelydon]

None so far. Two currently in college. One got a $12,000 per year scholarship for academics and we had prepaid tuition for our kids 15 years ago so she is all set. She works for spending money. 2nd kiddo is using prepaid tuition and splits housing costs with us. Her dorm housing is about $5000 per semester, so we can pay that outright. She pays her part with scholarships. 

We will need to start the process again soon for the next kid.  We have committed to getting them through undergrad debt free, so far it is going ok. 

We have found that homeschooling creates great opportunities for academic scholarships at universities really like, so that has worked out really well for us

Edited July 14, 2023 by Shelydon

[catz]

No loans.   Would have considered letting them take up to federal levels if needed but ir worked out!   Youngest heading out this fall, oldest just graduated college.  Grad school could happen for either, we will see.   Both got great merit and couldn’t consider their highest end options.   

[TexasProud]

My husband had no loans at all because his parents saved for college from the time he was a baby. He also got scholarships. His last year at Baylor was a free ride.  Baylor cost me/us 6500-7500 a year ( Yep, tuition and room and board total.)

I also went to Baylor, but my parents didn't save at all.  I got a merit scholarship of 1200 and then my town had the Zack Bobo scholarship.  I applied and wasn't one of the 4 or 5 it went to.  But then one guy decided to go to UT and I was next on the list.  it was a 2,000 scholarship each year and I got it all four years.  So Baylor only cost 3000 or something a year. I think my mom's salary went for it.  But my dad lost his job and my parents divorced during college.  So by my junior year, it was tight.  My dad's parents were both teachers and they had 3 grandchildren and saved 10,000 CD for each grandchild to be given when they both died.  They were both so frugal. Well, my grandma had died at that time and my grandfather told me that he would rather it get spent for something important.  So my parents paid a little each semester and 2000 or 2500 came from my CD  for the last few semesters.  I ended up needed an extra semester and was student teaching.  I wanted my mom to concentrate on my sister and my CD was gone.  I got an additional scholarship from the education department that ended up paying the rest of the tuition. Then I got a small loan...1,000 to pay living expenses. I moved back in the dorm because it was cheaper than an apartment at that time.  Plus, I only needed a space from end of Aug to beginning of June and the scholarships covered that as well.

For our own children it was ingrained in both of us: my husband because his parents did well and me because my parents did poorly that we wanted to save and have a nest egg for our children.  With the boys, the first month of their lives we invested a hundred each month in the Uniform Gift to Minor.  ( 529's did not exist).  Our goal was to pay for 3/4 of Baylor's tuition which we figured would be something like 30,000 a year by the time they got there.  At some point we switched it over from UGTM to 529.  Every year during our financial conference, we used the online calculators to determine whether we were putting enough away. Compounding is a wonderful thing as it grew much more than we thought it would, just from saving a little bit each month. 

For us, it was more important than buying furniture for the house sometimes or taking a vacation other than camping or something.  I know. I know. We are privileged and some don't even have that kind of margin.  But it just shocked me sometimes how much more stuff people had than we did even though they made 1/2 of what we did. So some of the middle class people I knew chose other priorities of the newest gadget. Or filling a brand new home with gorgeous, expensive furniture instead of letting rooms sit empty until saving up.

For us saving for our retirement and our kids' education was a HUGE priority.  For our retirement, we bought a 50 dollar savings bond each month when we barely had enough for the rent. Had it automatically deducted. ( I think you actually paid 25 dollars but the EE bond was worth 50 when it matured or something like that.) 

How has it worked out?  Our oldest used all of it and more to go to Baylor.  He lost his last semester for a mental health crisis ( long story).  He only needed 10 hours to graduate.  So, he got the maximum federal loan amount that he could to make sure he had skin in the game.  He then borrowed 22,000 from us. ( Part of that were medical expenses and part were college expenses. )  He has been out for 5 years and paid off the federal loan.  He only owes us a little over 5,000 dollars.  He just made a payment yesterday as a matter of fact.  

Middle one chose to go to a much cheaper university and got even better scholarships and had enough to fund his seminary as well.  He has some left over that we will probably change over to his children should he have them.

Younger one also chose a cheaper university and got decent scholarships.  She is also going to have some left over should she choose to go to graduate school or get more training.  Again, will transfer what is left over to her children if she has them. 

 

[DoraBora]

None so far.  Dh and I purchased pre-paid tuition through the state of Texas.  Dual credit community college in our county is tuition-free (taxpayer provided), and we encouraged our kids to take advantage of that while they were in high school.

We covered Dd's undergrad and helped some with grad school.  She and her dh took out a loan to pay her grad school tuition but paid it all off before she graduated.

Ds is a rising college senior and I *think* we have enough pre-paid credits to cover his tuition through graduation.  It may be close, but we will pay whatever isn't covered.  He plans to take an extra "long" semester and graduate in December of '24 instead of next May, but I think we are good.  He is so sick of engineering school that I can't see him going to grad school anytime soon, lol, but he will need to take out loans and/or find an employer who will help him cover that.

His room and board is about $1000 a month, all told -- but I went back to work when ds went away to school, which helped us to pay that as he goes.

I know we are blessed, but we also lived pretty frugally for years, planning ahead with an eye toward seeing our kids through college if they were willing to go.  I don't look down on people who take out loans, but I think they should be used carefully/strategically as mentioned upthread.  

[Annie G]

Oldest had HOPE scholarship for undergrad and then Ga Tech covered her grad degree, so she had no loans.  Middle did two years of community college and then a private college for the last two and came out w $10,000 in loans. She paid that off in 2021- between no interest during pandemic and the stimulus checks, she was able to pay it off. 
Other two kids just did community college w no loans. 

[Lecka]

Well….. my oldest will be a Freshman next year.  Covid was rough for him, but things are coming together for him more just recently.

 

He’s living with my parents this year, and at this point he doesn’t know what he will want to do his Sophomore year.  We don’t know if we will manage a car for him.  My parents live pretty close to the campus, and we are in the same town…. We can all help with rides.  Or maybe we can help him get a car.  I don’t know.  He doesn’t have his license yet but is finally getting serious about it!  
 

My kids will have military benefits from my husband, and I inherited control of a 529 account when my step-mom died.  
 

At this point I would say it looks like we can cover tuition but not housing.  

 

With a car he could also live at home.  
 

Rents and used cars have gotten really expensive here recently (in the past 2 years or so).

 

The 529 plan is the only thing I inherited from my step-mom that she directly left to me, I have things from her house now but it just worked out that way.  It’s special to me and I want to do things the way she would if she were still alive.  

[Corraleno]

No loans. DS had a combination of academic and athletic scholarships that covered 4 yrs of tuition plus partial room & board, and the rest came from savings and an account set up by a grandparent. DD is taking CC classes while living at home and working part time.

 

[Kareni]

My daughter has been out of college for a decade now.

My daughter attended a fairly selective liberal arts college and received generous grants. That said, she still took out about $25,000 in loans. It was a priority to my husband that we pay off those debts. With some help from her, those loans were paid off about a year after she graduated. Some years later, she pursued a master's degree which she paid for herself with cash.

Regards,

Kareni

[scbusf]

We are hoping for very minimal loans. My oldest will be going to our local state school and living at home. He wants to go into sports broadcasting and he knows he won’t be making a lot of money to be able to pay back loans. 
 

I would say our family is mid-upper middle class and we will not qualify for any need-based aid. In our state, some public universities are $35K a year. We have told our kids that we will not be taking out loans in our names for them. We have a great CC literally across the street from our neighborhood and a great public university within driving distance  

I had around $50,000 in loans from undergrad/grad school. I did not manage my money well as a young adult. Thankfully, I met my hubby in my 30s and he helped me figure out how we could pay them off quickly.

I think we have scared the daylights out of our kids regarding loans. We have talked to them many times about loans - and figuring out the best way. For example, if you want to be a teacher, don’t go away to an expensive school. If you want to be an engineer or go into IT, then you may have a little more leeway. 

[historically accurate]

We're still paying for DH's. Mine were paid off about 5 years ago.

Grandparents received a large settlement and did 529s for the grandchildren; that is where most of my kids' funding comes from. Need based aid is a joke - the first year we did the FAFSA our EFC was less than $1000 - college cost after aid came in at approximately $15000. Thank goodness we have a generous parent.

Oldest did an Associates and a couple of years toward a bachelors with a scholarship, a PELL grant, grandparent funds, and a little bit of parent funding. She has stopped classes for now, and she is working for a while to figure out life. Younger two have enough to do a 4 year degree with a similar mix of funding.  

We lived below the median (well below the median) with one income for 15 years. Two years ago, I went back to work 3/4 time. Almost all of my salary has been spent on medical debt and college expenses. 

[Kassia]

3 hours ago, Kassia said:

All four kids graduated with no loans.  My oldest three graduated from our state flagship (3 hours away) with small scholarships and we were able to pay the rest.  We had a specific amount we could pay and they all came under that amount.  If they had chosen private schools with small scholarships, they would have had to take out loans (ds2 wanted to attend University of Michigan but chose not to because of the loan issue).  

Dd had a full ride.  She was NMF and only looked at schools with generous scholarships.  She was OOS so our big expense for her was travel.  

Quoting myself to add that we didn't provide cars for the kids (all went away but had cars to use at home) in college.  We paid for their car insurance on our cars, health expenses, room and board (except dd was only food with the full ride), travel expenses, and phones.  One bought a used car during college and paid for his own insurance.  The other three didn't have a car at college until after graduation.  They all paid for their own books, but dd (my youngest) hardly had any to purchase (maybe things have changed over the years).

DH and I both had student loans.  

[bookbard]

So interesting to hear people with no/low student loans in the USA. We always say over here (in Australia) that 'we don't want to become like America', but I think everyone I know would have debts of 20,000 at least for their undergrad, and apparently it is worse now. The difference is that it is interest-free. Sort of. It is indexed to inflation, so the last 2 years have meant huge jumps. Oh, and you don't have to pay it back until you earn a certain amount (45 grand maybe?) I still have a debt from my master's degree, which has been pointless financially but I don't regret it. 

[kathyl]

No loans or debt for any of them.

All 5 graduated from the same college.  And most of them were older before they even began college.  That actually worked out in their favor, btw, being an older student.  Financially and otherwise.

They all got grants, scholarships, etc., which more than paid for their tuition and books.  We paid for an apartment where they all lived together.  We also provided 2-3 cars (2 of our old cars + 1 new, dependable car for traveling).  We kept them on our car insurance.  They were covered by dh's medical work insurance until they hit 26yo.  At that point, they went without medical insurance until they got jobs.

We hadn't planned for college and all of this just kind of came together suddenly and worked out for all of us.  

Good luck with your college plans.

[JessieC]

 My dd is starting college in the fall and I estimate she will leave with about 40k in loans between federal loans and then what we need to take out to make up the difference. This is after some grants and scholarships. It's not ideal, but we were not in a position to save for a long time due to paying back our own college loans, etc. We will help her as much as we can to minimize the effect it will have on her future.

[Kidlit]

4 hours ago, Kidlit said:

So far--none.  Both my oldest got full rides to our local university.   Knowing how much NOT having student loan debt helped me and dh get started in young adulthood, this has always been something we encouraged them to work towards.   One got all merit aid for tuition to a state university that would require her to go away to live on campus, and after counting the cost of housing, child decided to go local.  We were holding our breaths but allowing child to make an independent decision about it, and child eventually did choose the no-cost solution. 

I will say that merit aid ain't what it used to be.  Both kids have stats within a point (or same as) mine and dh's, and we both qualified for full rides at big state schools (& elsewhere) 30 years ago but chose the local uni.  Both kids qualified for tuition elsewhere but not housing.  It makes me a little sad, but that's just the way it is.  We have always instilled in them how helpful it is to not start adulthood behind financially, so I'm thankful that at least they absorbed that message and seem happy enough to be where they are for free. 

[Kuovonne]

I’m posting in interest of showing another side. You will probably judge me and my kid harshly. That’s okay. I knew what I was getting my kid into and I did it eyes wide open. She did not, but she was only following my guidance. I am the co-signer on her loans and I plan on making sure that those loans get repaid. She will have taken out over $120,000 in loans by the time she graduates and will be lucky if she can land a job that covers living expenses, much less enough to pay down debt.

[ScoutTN]

My first one will start this fall at a regional, in-state, public uni where her merit aid and our lottery scholarship cover tuition, fees, and books. We can cover the room and board. She has a hand-me-down vehicle from a grandparent; she pays for gas, we do the insurance, and we split maintenance/repairs. She pays for her own fun money from her earnings.
 

We knew how much we could afford and together with her, tailored her list to schools that are financially possible. There were a variety of schools that met our financial criteria, had a good program in her major and had the ECs she loves.
 

We and Dd are thoroughly opposed to borrowing for a multitude of reasons. No debt. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by ScoutTN

[Kidlit]

14 minutes ago, Kuovonne said:

I’m posting in interest of showing another side. You will probably judge me and my kid harshly. That’s okay. I knew what I was getting my kid into and I did it eyes wide open. She did not, but she was only following my guidance. I am the co-signer on her loans and I plan on making sure that those loans get repaid. She will have taken out over $120,000 in loans by the time she graduates and will be lucky if she can land a job that covers living expenses, much less enough to pay down debt.

No judgment--just curiosity.   What is the motivation for your thought-out decision, if you care to share?

[Scarlett]

15 minutes ago, Kidlit said:

No judgment--just curiosity.   What is the motivation for your thought-out decision, if you care to share?

I would be curious too. 

[crazyforlatin]

22 minutes ago, Kuovonne said:

I’m posting in interest of showing another side. You will probably judge me and my kid harshly. That’s okay. I knew what I was getting my kid into and I did it eyes wide open. She did not, but she was only following my guidance. I am the co-signer on her loans and I plan on making sure that those loans get repaid. She will have taken out over $120,000 in loans by the time she graduates and will be lucky if she can land a job that covers living expenses, much less enough to pay down debt.

I would have taken out a similar loan (and more) for a private school if needed, but Dd did get in to a public university, so now we don’t need to. For Dd I still think she would do better in a private university where classes are small, more interaction with professors, and possibility of making friends faster due to the small class size.  I was willing to take on this loan because I thought her years at a private university would be worth it. But she decided she prefers the public university without the loans knowing that it may not provide the same support. She’ll have to learn to hustle, to advocate for herself, to attend lecture classes with hundreds of others, to be more active in finding friends. I think the transition will be hard coming from a homeschool environment and then a small private high school. 

We do have a 529 which wouldn’t have put much of a dent on a private school tuition.

 

[Scarlett]

My son just graduated and has no debt.  He did community college for  2 years, was then married and never lived in dorms.  
 

I consider this to be a combination of frugality and his dad paying his tuition.  

 

[Alice]

Background: I had a full ride scholarship to college which was great but I knew from the time I was young that my parents couldn't afford college and that I'd have to get a scholarship. I didn't blame them but I also knew that it was due to some poor finacial decisions on their part. It was stressful and somewhat limited where I looked at schools. It probably didn't have to limit as much as it did but I didn't have good guidance and just assumed a lot of schools would be out of price range. Dh had $7000 in loans coming out of college and paid it off pretty quickly. (I had a lot of debt out of medical school but that's a somewhat different beast.) 

We have 529s which we've been funding since oldest was a baby. (And I do realize that we are lucky to be able to do that and not everyone can.) We also however have been really honest with them about what we can afford. For us that means we say we can pay X amount, they are responsible for about $5k and then they could take out loans but our recommendation is not to take out more than $5k a year, so $20 k max. When we looked at colleges with our oldest, the finances were part of the discussion and he definitely turned down some places due to finances. 

For freshman year, oldest had no debt. He got a scholarship to a small private liberal arts school and a small grant. The total cost is less than or equal to most of our state schools. The cost was the amount we had said we would pay, and he paid for things like travel, car insurance, books, and other extras from money he had saved from work. 

This year the cost went up a small amount. What we've told him is that instead of taking out a loan to make up the difference (about $4k)  he can essentially "borrow" from us. We'll pay it now and then he'll owe us when he graduates instead of owing a bank and we won't charge interest. He will still cover all the same things he covered last year but knows that the more he saves now the quicker he can pay us back. 

We have other friends who have done similar things. One family has the kids pay half of wherever they go, but paid back to parents instead of to a bank. 

That's kind of a long answer. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Alice

[crazyforlatin]

Actually is it a good idea to take out the federal loan each year just in case? We don’t qualify for anything other than what’s offered to all students? Is that zero interest? 

[Melissa in Australia]

Oldest ds did have around $47,000 I don't know what it will be down to now.  He has a government student loan and his wages are garnished a bit each year. His work is sponsoring his PhD so he won't have any loans with it. 

The next 2 ds had about $7,000. They did TAFE deploma courses they have both paid it off 

Dd has around $15,000  she didn't finish her degree

Youngest ds is doing an apprenticeship so the study component is paid by his work

[Arcadia]

27 minutes ago, crazyforlatin said:

Actually is it a good idea to take out the federal loan each year just in case? We don’t qualify for anything other than what’s offered to all students? Is that zero interest? 

https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/interest-rates
“Interest Rates for Direct Loans First Disbursed on or After July 1, 2023, and Before July 1, 2024

Loan Type	Borrower Type	Fixed Interest Rate
Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans	Undergraduate	5.50%
Direct Unsubsidized Loans	Graduate or Professional	7.05%
Direct PLUS Loans	Parents and Graduate or Professional

[Kuovonne]

2 hours ago, Kidlit said:

What is the motivation for your thought-out decision, if you care to share?

There were a lot of factors that are very unique to her and our family. A lot has to do with her personality, her interests, her skills, and her weaknesses. It also has to do with a lot of changes and uncertainty in our family finances in the past four years, and my tolerance for risk.

She got a scholarship, but obviously not enough to afford her college without insane loans.

I also do not personally believe that the main reason for college is to earn more money. I think going to college can have value unrelated to an increase in earning potential.

I went to college on full scholarship (including covering room & board) for both undergrad and grad school. So I have never had any college debt, and maybe I am underestimating how soul-crushing college debt can be. But we discussed the alternatives and decided they would have been soul-crushing for her too.

[Kidlit]

Just now, Kuovonne said:

There were a lot of factors that are very unique to her and our family. A lot has to do with her personality, her interests, her skills, and her weaknesses. It also has to do with a lot of changes and uncertainty in our family finances in the past four years, and my tolerance for risk.

She got a scholarship, but obviously not enough to afford her college without insane loans.

I also do not personally believe that the main reason for college is to earn more money. I think going to college can have value unrelated to an increase in earning potential.

I went to college on full scholarship (including covering room & board) for both undergrad and grad school. So I have never had any college debt, and maybe I am underestimating how soul-crushing college debt can be. But we discussed the alternatives and decided they would have been soul-crushing for her too.

Thanks for sharing this.   This makes the taking of loans similar to say, borrowing money for travel or for a serious hobby or something like that.  I wondered if that was your motivation.   Thanks again!