Going off my other post. Did your parents have a college fund for you?
Mine did not, so I paid my own way but my parents did help me out in other ways, which was nice. Still paying off my student loans though!
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Yes, they had a 529 for both my sister and I. My undergrad tuition and expenses were covered. I had to take loans for grad school.
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They did - it covered most of my first two years, and then I took loans for the rest.
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No. But they allowed me to live with them as long as I needed, gave me as much money as they could and gifted me $5000 when I graduated high school.
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Nope. Still paying off college and will be for many many years.
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No. luckily my tuition and fees were mostly covered by scholarships and grants. My parents only paid $800 for four years at a state school (I covered my books).
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Yes. I didn't have to pay for college but I was expected to get a very PT job for some play money.
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They didn't actually have a college fund but they did fully pay for my brother and me to go to college. A big portion of my father's pay was deferred comp and they cashed in stock options to fund college expenses. My husband and I are fortunate enough to be quite comfortable financially and a big part of that was that I had zero student loan debt and he had very little because he was largely covered by an athletic scholarship. We plan to do the same for our children so we can set them up for financial success.
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No, so I'm very lucky that I had good scholarships. Unfortunately it's making it a hard pill for me to swallow to save to fully fund for my kids college.
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No. They paid some of my tuition, but also took out loans. Both my parents and I are still paying off loans.
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No fund. I got about 2/3 of my tuition covered by scholarships and grants and my parents helped with what they could. The rest was loans.
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Yes
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No
My parents paid room and board and I took out loans for tuition - I owed about 60K when I graduated and had it paid off in 7 years which I was pretty happy about
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No. They paid some while I was in school. But I had loans to repay when I was out.
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I don't think they did. I did graduate with some student loans, but paying them didn't hinder my ability to be financially secure in my 20s.
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Yes, they had money set aside and paid for three years. I took out a loan for my last year since I moved out of the house without my parent's approval. I paid off the loan a few years after.
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Yes; they did. Even though they started it when I was small and contributed to it (not tons of cash, but gifts from grand parents, etc and some regular contribution) it wasn't enough to pay for school which I think is pretty normal. These conversations generally turn so "all or nothing", when I think for most people a college fund just helps to defray the cost and you'll still end up with loans or whatever. I still have loans, and paid my way for a portion of college/post bachelors.
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Nope. The only contributions they made was some money that wasn't covered by my student loans my first year, and I think they may have paid for books a couple years.
Half was paid for with scholarships. I have 5 years left till school is finally paid off. -
No. Luckily when I was a junior in high school, my mom got a job at a private university in our town. I had my tuition covered and lived at home for 2 years to help with expenses. I took out small loans to live on campus and to purchase books.
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Yes, but it was mostly funded by my grandparents.
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Nope. They couldn't afford it. I worked and am still paying off my loans.
I started an account for my son when he was 10 days old. His grandparents (Dh's parents) gift money and I put everything in his 529. My goal is to pay his entire undergrad and contribute towards grad school.
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@yoursilverlining: Totally agree. My goal for our kids is to have a third saved to cover a public university. Our kids will be responsible for a 1/3 (through loans or cash) and we'll take out loans for the other third and expect them to work over the summers to cover miscellaneous expenses/books.
My parents did not have a college fund but they took out tons of loans to cover all their kids (4). I feel pretty guilty because my loans are paid off now (after 10 years) but they still are paying off mine (and their payments are like 8x what mine were). I did contribute to their loan payments for a few years because I felt it was my responsibility to do so. I am really grateful for what they did but I actually think they should have put more of the responsibility on us kids because it has really made their financial situation tough over the past decade (and my two older siblings have felt no responsibility to help them out more with the loans even though their financial situation could allow them to do so).
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Partially. They paid for about 1/3 of the cost at the time. My brother and I were going to the same school for 2 of our 4 years there, so we got some pretty hefty grants from the school due to my parents lower income and the fact that we had 2 kids at the same school at the same time. I still had a good amount of student loans to pay the rest and paid them off about 7 years after I graduated.
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Yes. Between them and my grandparents my school was covered.
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No college fund, but my parents paid back all the loans (they were taken out in both my name and my parents name.)
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Yes, it paid for undergrad and grad school.
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They did not explicitly but I know they cashed out a money market and then used a monthly payment plan for the rest. I received a substantial amount in scholarship/grant, had a reasonable amount of work study, and paid for my own incidentals with my own savings and summer jobs. I also took out a modest amount in student loans for undergrad (less than national average by far). Professional school was another story - almost all loans.
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Not exactly but they had stock to be used for school if necessary. I didn't need it but should have used it because the stock tanked after I graduated! I think I put it into my Roth IRA at one point.
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Not an official college account. My parents' divorce agreement stipulated that my father had to pay for college. I think he had a general account for all things related to me and my half sisters for the future. He paid my college expenses out of that.
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No; they paid for college for me.
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Yes - my parents did for my undergrad. Grad school was not part of the bargain, I didn't do grad school but my sister did and paid for herself.
Dh's parents didn't have any savings for him for school, he's going to be paying off school & law school for a looooong time.
We have 529s started for both of our kids.
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Nope. My dad was a disabled vet though so I got my community college paid for. But when I moved out, got a job and transferred to a university I made too much money to qualify. So I took out loans for my last 2 years. They have not been a burden at all, I only took out enough to cover tuition and books. I worked full time as well.
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I don't know what sort of fund my parents had, whether it was a UTMA or 529 or just my dad using savings, but they paid for my undergrad. For grad school, I took out loans but my parents are (generously) paying for them and DH and I contribute when we can.
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No. I applied for college, financial aid and paid for college on my own. I didn't realize until much later that many parents paid for their kids and that my (single parent) mom was so grateful I did this. My mom kept me on her car insurance plan so that was nice.
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No - It was all loans, grants, scholarships and part time jobs. I also had a single mom and was a first generation college student. I also paid for law school and will be paying for it for the foreseeable future. I consolidated all of my loans and it's a 2.25% interest. I feel no rush.
We have accounts for both DDs now. We plan on giving them whatever is there when college arrives, but don't foresee that it will cover everything.
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Yes. And now they have one for all the grandkids.
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Yes, they did, and that's my main reason for wanting to save for LO's college education as much as we reasonably can. We have had so much more financial freedom and positives resulting from that because we are not burdened with huge loans. Our life would look completely different if we were both paying $700/month in loan payments like many couples we know.
We feel fortunate and while I don't think any parent should be required to pay for their child's college education, it's something we want to do because it helped us so much.
ETA: DH & I both had academic scholarships in addition to help from our parents, and we both also worked and paid for extras like going out with friends. I doubt we will be able to write a blank check to 2 kids for 4 years even if we wanted to! We'll work out the right combo of working, scholarships, etc for each kid.
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No. They had 4 kids very young and didn't have any savings to speak of. I did have savings bonds from my grandparents, but mostly paid for college through scholarships and student loans.
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No, they did not. I worked and paid my way through college, and I was thankfully able to finish without student loans.
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@runnerd: agree with you on it being hard to think about needing to save for LO's college.
My parents didn't help me with college. I took out student loans, got a few grants & scholarships, and worked during all breaks. I also served in the military & got some student loan repayment assistance from that. DH had some help from his parents for his first 2yrs of school.
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