How are you paying for that education?
 

This is directed more toward the traditional college students amoungst us. Meaning primarily the 18-25 year olds. I want to know; A. How old you are? and B. How your college education is being financed. In other words, is Mom and Dad footing the whole bill, or a portion thereof? Are you taking out tons of loans? Or, are you working your way through...full or part time? Scholarships? What?

Although I am no longer in college...

I am now 22 years old.

As far as my college financing goes, I saved up what I could before I got to college, and then worked full time to pay my way through. I've never taken out a student loan, nor had any help from anyone - I have no educational debt whatsoever :D

I'm 23 and have been out of school for 2 years.

Mom and Dad footed the bill for my tertiary education but if I failed a subject I had to pay for it myself if I wanted to take it again. I had no problems with that clause, but it didn't stop me from failing a few and making a 3 year diploma turn into 4.

I'm the eldest with two sisters. We're evenly spaced 6 years apart and the older of my sisters is about to start varsity next year. The original plan, as explained by my parents, was for me to finish my studies, get a job and pay for my sister's studies when the time came with her doing the same when she finished. My current job doesn't pay nearly enough to do that though. I'll probably help out where I can, or until I can get a better paying gig.

19, 2nd year University. Parents pay for it all unless my GPA slips. They start paying again when I have 2 semesters in a row of acceptable GPA.

Pretty good deal for me. I think kids who get it totally free don't really understand just how much University/college costs. I sure as hell didn't. Until my GPA slipped.

Out of school now (27 currently), graduated at 21.

My mom couldn't afford it, though she would have liked to. So I went to a state school, and took out loans for the approx. $25K needed for all 4 years. (a little extra because I studied abroad one summer.) My mom took out loans only the first year, to help me with the room/board of the dorms. After freshman year, I moved off campus and I worked part time the entire time, got a joint degree in 4 years, and was always taking at least 20 credits per semester while 98% of the time paying my own rent/utilities etc (sometimes shit would happen, like a broken car or whatever, and mom would do what she could).

Loans... suck. But they're better than not having an education.

As a student whose parents are footing 100% of the bill for me, I have a fairly good general idea of the price of college, and because of that (and how many students I see paying for their own college) it's made me more grateful and hard working while I'm at college so that I'm making the most of my education. If it were just high school all over again it would be a joke to me, but knowing the price my parents are paying for my education has turned me into a more studious diligent child.

I'm 18 at the moment, and after my first year of college I'm hoping to have something like a 3.7 which I think is competitive enough to be able to apply for scholarships and potentially make something. I would've done it sooner but I was barely in the top half at my high school, so I didn't have my grades high enough to make any money.

I'm 22 and out of college for almost a year now and I'm footing about 80% of the bill. We had to take out a bunch of loans, some in my name, some in theirs. We've since consolidated all the loans into two: every loan in my name and every loan in my parent's. But because my older brother was already off at college, my parents didn't have a lot of money, so I started off paying both my loans and my parent's. Then after their financial situation improved, they told me they could handle some of it, and took over paying the much smaller loans out in my name, while I continued paying the loans that were taken out in their name.

I've been working odd jobs since I was in HS, so working, going to classes, and paying bills all at the same time wasn't something new to me. Although there were times when going to class in the morning and working at night really got to me. 17 hour days are rough and it's hard not to let it affect your grades. You just have to keep at it, though.

I just started a college investment fund for my 1 year old so I hope this won't be a problem.

If not I'll set up a website based out of mexico and have dirty old men pay to see him have sex with prostitutes.

I just graduated this December from state university ASU with a Bachelors. - I am 22.

I paid my way with a $25k (full ride) academic scholarship I won for ASU. I moved out of the house to become an RA as a way to pay room/board, and worked part time < 20 hours a week on campus for side money to pay bills. I moved back home beginning of my 3rd year to focus on classes and because I could not work enough to pay for another place to live. My parents paid a grand total of $400 towards my college education - they paid for a community college summer school class and the community college classes I took in my senior year of high school.

They have supposedly set the same standards for my younger siblings. Rent at home is free if you're going to school, but we are required to pay for school. Bro (19) is working on getting through a community college and he's paying the parents back for his classes - he is a college freshman this year.

My sister(18) is a high school senior and won the same scholarship I did to ASU, and another in order to live on campus in their honors dorm.

22, now in grad school. still no student loans, which is a very good thing. my grandfather has paid for the vast majority...he's the kind who really believes in education.

I'm 24 now and working in the "real world". Graduated undergrad with my parents taking out my freshman year's loans, i believe they owe approx $30K. I took out loans for the rest and at the end of undergrad owed approx. $65K. Grad school started immediately afterwards, and I upped my total to just a hair over $100K. Let me tell you, making $550 a month payments with a straight out of school salary, as well as rent and car payments isn't too easy. Takes a lot of planning to not go broke.

A. I'm 22 and will graduate with my Bachelor's in Computer Information Systems in May.

B. My parents aren't helping me one bit. I'm the <I>only</I>(and I do mean only) person I know besides my brother whose parents aren't paying for their college at my school. I took out $40,000 worth of loans to get into my university and have to pay it all back starting 6 months after I graduate. My parents <B>are</B> able to pay for me and my brother's college, they just choose not to. My dad wanted to pay for it but my stepmom literally wouldn't let him. My stepmom says no kid who has his college paid for appreciates it, yet her college was completely paid for by her relatives and she was given anything she wanted (including cars) until she got a job after college. I love the irony.

At first I thought I was wrong about college kids and that many more pay for their own college, but boy, was I wrong. Students at ASU literally ask me what I'm talking about when I say I have to work the entire summer 40 hours a week and dump it into tuition just to come back...they don't even know that some parents don't pay for it.

The worst part is that the government does not even give enough loans to finance my college. I get $2,500, $3,500, $5,500, $5,500 consecutively for first, second, third, and fourth year in college. As you can see, none of the loans even come close to paying ASU's $7,500-$8,000 tuition each year. It seems that they'd <B>loan</B> out enough money to go to college if not give it out. FAFSA is based on your parent's income...which is just not fair. My parents aren't paying for my college, so why should my grant/loan situation be based on them? I should get to go for free because most students whose parents make less than $20,000 per year get to go free. My parents make a combined total well over 6 figures yet they won't fund a dime. Pure bullshit.

Sorry for the rant...it just grates my nerves that many students get $40,000 for free at my school from their parents and take it for granted. Or they get $40,000 from the government because their parents can't pay it. Then I get shafted because of my parents' income.

Oh well, my cumulative GPA is 3.49 (current 3.8) and I'm happy with my college experience. Some people say that if I had it paid for by my parents that I wouldn't be doing so good...but it's actually the other way around. If my parents were gonna give me $40,000 for free, I'd be making As in every damned class I had for fear of the Wrath of Parents® if I made below a B.

I'm 22 and am paying for my education

The first 2 years, I was having trouble paying for it since I had a crappy job with crappy pay. So, I struck a deal with my Dad that he'll loan me some money and I would pay it off while I'm working or after school. I would also pay the rent if I wasn't in school (Summer, etc) and when I would go back to school, the accumluated rent pay would go toward to paying for education.

But after 2 years, I quit my job and went to UPS and eventually Fedex part time, both company pays very well and in fact Fedex has its own student tuition program that pays 750 per year. Been paying for it myself since then and the loan with my Dad is all paid off. The only time I need help is paying for the books, which is pretty damn expensive but I think I can handle that next semester.

Yes that part is bullshit, but you will be a better person for it in the end. Welcome to feel good America, helping out the poor and screwing the people who pay the taxes.

22, combination of scholarships, loans, and my own money. No money from aynwhere else.

My parents made education a priority--so they paid for 4 years of school for me. Books, tuition, living expenses only. Any additional money I needed for fun had to be earned by me, which I did by working some interesting summer jobs. My fifth year of university (I dragged my feet a bit) was paid for by me via student loans. Right now, I'm looking at going back for another year to do my Master's in teaching, and it's looking as if my parents will help me out a bit with that, provided I lay out a budget. I think my father wants me through my Master's as soon as possible so he can help me find a job before he retires.

I'm 19 right now, attending the Colorado School of Mines as a freshman...

So far, grants and the in-state tuition stipend have paid for the most of my $4500 a semester bill, though I've had to take out student loans to cover the rest. I worked full time over the summer to save up for books, tuition, and transportation, but it ended up not being enough, so I had to put about $500 on a new credit card (/sigh) to register for spring.

I'm definitely feeling the whole "damn the government for limiting the amount of loans to $2625 the first year" thing right now, especially because my parents refuse to take out the PLUS loan on my behalf. With any luck, though, my dad will have bad enough credit to be denied for that when I force him to apply, and then I'll be able to take out a student loan instead of a credit card one to pay for the $1000 left over in spring tuition.

My mom does help out by putting a roof over my head, provided I pay rent and internet every month, which, I admit, leaves me a little bitter. It's been hard trying to move back in here, get settled, get good grades, and try making money all at the same time, and so far I've spent the majority of winter break recuperating from the stress the first semester brought. So far my GPA's a 3.5 though... it could have been a 4.0 easily (I barely edged out of an A in Chemistry and Calculus) but I didn't really have much free time to do homework and study during the semester, from doing everything else. Needless to say, I'm upset about letting it slide like that, so I'll be changing things for next semester, though I'm still entirely worried about how I'll be paying for this later.

But, ach, that's not for worrying about now. For worrying about now is trying to get some scholarships already.

Crivens.

26, still most likely 2 years left of college. Loans and grants, my parents were . . . . not wealthy in the least.

22, no longer in college, and have two loans that are killing me. Good times.

I think the happiest day of my life was the day i mailed off that final student loan payment... student loans paid for 1/2 my education -- the rest was paid for via scholarships... and still i had over 60K in debt... (shudda gone to a state school... )

I'm considerably older than 22, but came through the same way. I worked full- or part-time and had the GI Bill to help; I made it through in 3 1/2 years with no debt whatsoever.

21, graduating next year (woot end of a 5 year course!), government pays most of my tuition, Scottish Executive pays the rest (£11xx for the year normally for English Students in Scotland iirc). Bursary from the uni, corporate sponsership to pay the bills. Parents cover the cost of accomodation though I took a job with the uni to reduce it.

29 just finished my PhD.

I had enough scholarhip and grant money in undergraduate school that I made a small amount of money each semester. For my master's degrees I paid a small amount out of pocket after my assitantships and grants, and got a grant that paid for most of my PhD.

Gilda

19, paying $30,000 [includes room and boarding] PER YEAR [!] for tuition at Kalamazoo college [private liberal arts school]. It's funded through a variety of sources:
- About $14,000 of it is being paid from scholarships and grants I earned directly from the college.
- About $6,500 is in government loans [as someone else stated, the gov't has a very low cap, as they don't cover the remaining cost of tuition. But supposively, according to the FAFSA form, my parents, who make $55k/year, should be able to foot $10k/year for my tuition.
- $8,000 is loaned out from citibank. Grrr ! [i'm desperately trying to lower this amount for the coming years.]
The remaining $1500 is paid out by my parents, and they're said they'll pay the interest on the citibank loan while I'm in school. They also gave me some cash [about $250 this first quarter] for books and whatever other expenses.
- I also qualified for a work-study job, since my parents' income wasn't high enough [FAFSA]. I get paid $5.15/hour [min. wage in michigan, meh] to work in the library, about 5-10 hours/week. There's a cap on how much money I earn for the work study job in the entire school year, IIRC, it's about $1600.
I use the money for essentials [books, supplies, some groceries, etc.]; saving for the long-term [hopefully invest it soon]; and for fun and other such goodies.

The whole world of paying for educatio is crazy, to say the least. I decided to go to a small [only 1500 kids] private liberal arts college; since, IMHO, many of the public universities in the near area really didn't interest me, and the experience [in and out of the classroom] is worth the money so far (Rather than, staying @ home or renting an apt. and going to community college for a couple years before hand). I recently watched the PBS documentary - Declining By Degrees, and it does a great job of discussing the issues of higher education in America today. The expenses of college is one key issue discussed there.

Great Topic BOR, and kudos to all the posters so far. At least I'm not alone in the trap of student loans :|

catcha back on the flipside,
will.

Turning 21 tomorrow and basically paying my way with scholarships I earned through hard work in high school. They cover tuition, room and board, and books, although with the rising tuition costs (50% total in the last 5 years, anyone?) plus increases in the cost of room/board and books, I only get a few hundred dollars of overage when all is said and done. Still, this is pretty much enough when combined with the summer job money that I am able to live comfortably and am able to do undergraduate research on fuel cells (hydrogen economy is coming from South Carolina!).

Oh, and total cost per semester is about $7000 or so, roughly, for in-state.

I'm 24, and my parents paid while I was at the community college, but now that I'm at a university, it's student loans all the way.

Oh, on a side note: for those of you who are going need private loans in the near future, or want a new loan company, I highly recommend Sallie Mae. With a good cosigner, they'll waive the fees associated with most loans and keep your interest rate low. Also, they will let me choose how I repay. They have a variety of loans to choose from, not just private loan. I'm glad I found them when I needed loans :)

I'm 19, a full-time sophomore at a state school, so it's not that expensive compared to a lot of other schools. I have one scholarship, $1000 per year, and the rest is paid for with loans. Most are ParentPlus loans, so they're in my mom's name, but I'll ultimately be paying them off. Also have an on-campus job, but I can only have 20 hours/week at (as of the start of spring semester) $6/hour. I'm going to be in debt for a long, long time.

I'm in the final quarter of my 22nd year and am going to college thanks to massive amounts of loans - both mine and my parents. My parents don't make a small enough amount for me to get any real money, but they don't make enough - especially considering they care for my grandpa who has alzheimer's and had to fund my grandma's funeral, etc - to be capable of paying for my ~$30k/year education. I have the highest amount of loans I was able to get and my parents took out loans for the rest, with the expectation that I will do what I can to pay them back in the future.

A good friend of mine, however, had an aunt who put away a fairly substantial amount of money for him when he was born and by the time he was 18 and going to college, it was enough to pay for all four years at Macalaster University. I'd lie if I said I wasn't jealous.

My wife just got her PSYD, and has about 115k in loans, for her undergrad she got a scholarship. And the rest we will pay forever (considering the interest rate is 1.75% for the federal loan after consolidation). So no rush to ever pay this off.

I'm not paying for my education, you are ("you" being anyone who pays federal taxes in the US.) I should be able to pay off the Stafford loans within a few years of graduating, and the Pell Grants are freebies.

That's not irony. That's self-interest on her part. Oh, she may herself want to believe what she's saying, but underneath, I would suspect this reasoning:

1) You're not hers, and I'm assuming your brother isn't hers, either. So, biologically you're not continuing her line, don't have a huge emotional tie to her, and therefore are a lesser priority than...

2) Money for her old age. She wants the $40-80 grand your dad wanted to put out for both of you safe in their joint account for a more comfortable old age. One in which, statistically, shes likely to outlive your dad.

And hey, there's an argument to be made for that. But her trying to justify withholding the money to teach you self-reliance is pretty hypocritical -- self-interest in the disguise of a lesson in "virtue."

My parents paid for everything, back in the day when state tuition in California ran, oh, $100 a semester and community college was basically free. I got a 3.93 average and have always valued my college education. More so every day, in fact, when I see what kind of hoops the generations that followed me have to jump through to get one.

Mom and Dad, bless 'em. :) If we happened to run into financial difficulty however (and my schooling became a burden) then I'd end up financing it at least partially myself, although it might be difficult to convince them to do it. I do pay for some of my books though.

Note: As one of the "all for free" kids, I too understand exactly how much it costs, which is one of the reasons I show up for the majority of lectures. Yes, I could do almost as well without showing up, but then it feels more like a waste of money and opportunity.

Student loans

parents give me 50 bucks a month

other than that, i foot the bill

I'm 24 years old, just finished my B.Sc. in Biology and Chemistry and am in my first year of my M.Sc. in biochemistry.

I was fortunate enough to have a really good job in the forest industry for the first two years of my undergrad, so they were all paid for by working summers. Then there was a recession that caused the collapse of the forest industry in my hometown (due to the U.S. softwood lumber tariffs imposed on Canadian imports, but that could be a whole other thread) so I unfortunately was unable to pay for school anymore. I still worked every summer, and then had to 'top up' my account with student loans in order to be able to afford to go to school. What sucks is that this 'topping up' has now come to grand total of $19,000 canadian. Now that I'm in my M.Sc., I am thankfully employed by the university to be a teachin assistant, which lands me $4200/semester, so I can pay for most of my schooling with that and whatever small amount I get from work in the summers. Hopefully I get a good job after this degree so I can start whittling away that debt!

Will I be the first poster to wonder why you want to know this, BOR?

I'm 25, four years out of uni... paid for mine through a combination of grants, loans and disability benefits. I was fortunate enough to have a serious car accident halfway through my degree, the compensation from which did a great job of paying off my student loan. If I went back, which I'm considering for this academic year, I think it would be more loans for me.

I'm 21
for christmas and birthday presents my grandma always put away money in a college fund for me so that pays for the biggest chunk
I pay a good chunk from savings and summer jobs
my scholarship takes care of the rest

my parents pay my insurance for my car, and books... my dad gives me a bit of spending money so i wont go sell plasma for it... he doesnt think its healthy to sell that much plasma...

I'm 18. I pay for tuition, my parents pay for books. No student loans for me, I can make enough during the summer to pay for tuition. Living at home still really helps that fact.

22 years old
i get a schol that pays for the tuition fees which is Rs.25K/semester (divide by 45 for us$)

20. State school, so it's not too expensive. Federal and state grants pay for 99% of it, and I pay the difference. I'm doing pharmacy though, and I have to go to a different school to finish my degree. I have no idea how much it is going to cost or how I'm going to pay for it. Loans, most likely.