HartleyHare

We're due to return to the UK next year, but may stay for a an extra couple of years. We need to return by our daughter's 16th birthday so that she can accrue her 3 years UK residency thus meeting the criteria for tuition fees/student loans.

Our daughter will apply for the tuition fees and we will support her with her living costs. Also, she'll only be at university for 3 years as opposed to 4 in the US.

Although this may all change now that goverment have admitted they underestimated the amount of student debt that will not be repaid.

http://www.theguardian.com/education...nt-maths-wrong

rebs

My sister is doing the same with my nephew - he has a student loan for his tuition fees, but no loan for living costs, she subs him for that.

I'm not 100% convinced that's the way to go, given the stucture of student loan repayments. I've seen it described as being analogous to paying your children's extra tax payments when their salary hits the higher rate tax thresshold - would parents routinely do that?

I've also seen the news items about how little student debt might get repaid, so who knows what might happen in the future.

HartleyHare

I've discussed this with friends in the UK whose children are the same age as our daughter. None of them intend to pay the "extra tax" on behalf of their children. They will all expect their children to repay the tuition fees, whilst they will help with living costs. We probably wouldn't pay the tax either, but in all honesty we expect to have to help out with a deposit to enable our daughter to buy property.

I should also add that we will all be around 54 years in age when our children trundle off the university. Most of us have one eye on retirement at 60, so the last thing we want to do is take on a large amount of debt.

civilservant

Is it wrong to expect that my children will finance their own ambitions rather than me having to do it? That's what I had to do.

Honestly my hope is that they will move to the UK at 18

Sally Redux

How big were your tuition fees though?

Michael

In my case, I supported my children while they attended university but one child was a professional student. After two bachelor degrees and almost finishing his masters degree, during the last year of his masters degree and almost 9 years at college, he started talking about wanting to attend a private university with very high costs to get a PHD and after a discussion, he said that he didn't mind if he had to pay for his own university costs so I said OK and he took out loans for his last year of his masters degree. When he got his masters degree and had $20,000 in student loan debt, he decided maybe getting a PHD at a private university wasn't such a great idea and found a job working in the private sector.

Giantaxe

Mine were zero and this is why I contributed $$$ to my children's college education and also donate to my university in the UK so that they can provide need-based scholarships.

Sally Redux

That's nice of you to donate to the university.

SalopianFunk

The flip side is that, especially in design and other visually creative fields, it's generally a good thing to bounce around a little to find what it is that you want to do should you want to go on and establish your own practice. Ego plays a fairly large part of it.

I don't know how long I will be at any job I take for however long in the future, but amongst all the training I will receive, I fully intend to help make my employers a lot of money.

Bluegrass Lass

That's what I had to do too, and I still have the loans to show for it...and will probably still have the loans when the future children come along and start going to college.

I think we will try our best to save up money in a 529 plan, or something along those lines. Whatever amount happens to be in the 529 plan will be all they get from us though. Neither OH or I will co-sign any loans or give them any more money to attend a university - so they will have to chose wisely what they want to do & where they want to attend. And that's more help than what either of us received from our parents! We will have to be seriously putting away money for retirement at that point, not paying out the a$$ for college tuition for kids.

scrubbedexpat091

If in the US there are states if one makes a wise decision and planning where its not all that expensive to go to college, California is one of those, start at a community college, avoid going straight into a 4 year school, and go to a state university only in the last 2 years of a degree program, and its pretty doable working, loans, and various other financial aid programs.

Sally Redux

Eligibility for financial aid will depend on the parents' income, so kids are a bit stuck if their parents have a good income but just don't want to pay.

kodokan

Mine are currently 14 and 10, and I'm budgeting to pay for in-state tuition and living expenses; tuition is currently around $10k, and living is apparently estimated about $10-12k. This will be from a mix of savings we're clocking up now, and income at the time (as the mortgage will be gone). If they want to go out of state, or to a private college that doesn't make them a generous financial offer, that's down to them; the budget won't change.

On the other hand, the budget won't be reduced if they're clever at playing the system. The 14 yr old is about to start high school, and is already on the track that means he's likely to graduate with a fistful of dual-enrollment/ AP credits. His current grades/ test scores would also, according to the ASU website, get him an almost free ride tuition scholarship of $9,500. If that's the case, then he can have the balance of his budget for graduate school, or something adult life launching like living expenses whilst interning, a house deposit, first car, etc.

Of course, all this is entirely dependent on hubby keeping his current, well-paid job for the next decade . Otherwise they're on their own, and will have to work their way through community college, or borrow.

scrubbedexpat091

And that is where a community college comes in, if you have an income you can easily pay the costs out of pocket and go part-time taking 1-2 classes a semester.

There is also the option of waiting until your 24 or 25 whatever the age is when parents income is no longer considered in financial aid decisions.

There are lots of options to get a cheaper education, and sometimes it may take time, and years going part-time to achieve, but California is not a place where education is out of reach, even if you have to take 1-2 classes at a time.

augigi

It surprises me that so many parents plan to pay for their kid's university degree - is it just me and my classmates that had to pay their own way with a job and/or loans? I'm 39 and a bunch of my classmates who graduated in 1996 are still paying off student loans!