How much money did your parents give you for college?

$0, however they did send me to private school from K-12, and that resulted in a full athletic scholarship to a D1 university for Cross Country/Track

I am guessing about 800k but who keeps up with it anyway.

200k tuition

50k new BMW

60k fraternity dues (I switched a few times)

30k fraternity alcohol fines

300k "donation" after I made comments that started a race riot

100k to some guy on a bike I hit while driving my BMW late at night.

60k to get out of some DUI and other charges.

They also paid my credit card... so whatever that was.

First 2 years, they gave me a place to live (at home) and fed me and put gas in my car and paid the insurance.

Next 2 years, I moved away, and they put about $50 a week in my account. That was for rent, gas, groceries, etc. They still paid my insurance. They'd come visit me and buy me groceries once every couple months.

First summer of graduate school they paid for the tuition. After that, I was on a graduate assistantship with a stipend. They didn't pay for anything but my car insurance after that.

I'd say they probably directly incurred ~$10k in expenses. I paid for the rest either with scholarships, part-time job money, and assistantships. Considering I grew up "lower" middle class, it is about as good as I could have expected. I'm trying to be in a position to do better for my kids. Hopefully, they'll work hard enough to get some scholarship money and then I can just gift them the rest of their college funds for house down payments or something like that. Or I can take an extended vacation with their mother!

Hmm, they always told me they would pay the cost of going to the cheapest instate school and the rest was on me, so they offered ~50k. They ended up paying about 20k.

When my parents visited during college they would take my roommates and I out to dinner and then fill the refrigerator with a couple days of food. Occasionally Mom and Dad would separately sneak me a $20 bill. A refrigerator full of food and $40 in my pocket was awesome in those days.

How to afford to go to college. .

1. Be very poor

2. Be very athletic

3. Be very smart

4. Have rich parents

5. Work a lot to pay yourself

I was mostly #1 and some #2. Changed schools and majors and ended up with a school loan to pay off....still paying off. Hindsight is always 20/20...but had I not squandered my opportunities and focused on a major that made sense from day 1 I could have completed my 4 year degree in 4 years and not paid a dime in tuition or loans.

Anyway that was nearly 20 years ago when the federal pell grant could pay for full tuition and fees...no clue what it is like now.

Alan

older than dirt wrote:

A refrigerator full of food and $40 in my pocket was awesome in those days.

Agreed, my mom would do the same thing and for a fleeting moment it was great to not feel broke and to look forward to not having Kraft mac and cheese with bacos for dinners that week.

To the OP, my parents paid for the first two years (about 22k). After that I took out loans and worked during the school year. They would have paid for more, but fell on hard times and couldn't contribute. Their situation was really rough, but having those two years having to pay my own way was really educational for me in its own way.

As a heads up you're going to have a big volunteer bias from arrogant pricks who need to showboat that they worked hard and didn't get money from their parents.

Sorry you had a bad deal of the cards. Everyone gets a bad draw in their own way idiots.

I got a 1/2 tuition scholarship to an in-state public school and my parents paid for all the rest. I paid it forward by paying for all expenses for my two kids (they got about 1/3 tuition scholarships which helped). My youngest graduates in December and he thanked me for paying. That was a nice thing to hear.

fdfdaf wrote:

As a heads up you're going to have a big volunteer bias from arrogant pricks who need to showboat that they worked hard and didn't get money from their parents.

Sorry you had a bad deal of the cards. Everyone gets a bad draw in their own way idiots.

Heads up, it isn't a bad draw idiot. It isn't showboating or arrogance. It's called paying for your own stuff.

Not sure, to be honest. I earned quite a bit of scholarship money, but my parents (rest in peace) filled in the gaps so I didn't need to take any loans to get through school. Probably $20-30K+, mostly for room and board.

runningart2004 wrote:

How to afford to go to college. .

1. Be very poor

2. Be very athletic

3. Be very smart

4. Have rich parents

5. Work a lot to pay yourself

And, for me, it was #3 only.

A bit of 2-5 for me.

To the Asian guy who believes that Asians don't get financial aid, you are making excuses for yourself. It's simply not true. Blacks and Latinos are getting a small share of scholarship money and a tiny share of university admissions.

If you want more, stop complaining and go out and earn it.

160K or whatever it cost at the time. Went to an Ivy but won a national merit scholarship so that knocked off about 2k/yr or something.

I went to university in the UK. The tuition fees were £500 per year for 3 years. It's changed a lot now - went up to £1000 then £3000 and now £9000.

I would not say it so crudely or angrily, but the gentleman who suggested there isn't a representative sample in the posters here is undoubtedly correct. People who paid their own way are proud of it and much more likely to post. I also agree with the critic of Asian Guy. Walk around any college campus, except the campus of a historically Black college, and then tell me there's a problem because Blacks are excessively subsidized in higher education. It's preposterous.

I attended college 40 years ago. Most of my friends are affluent and have paid the full bill for their children for their undergraduate education. With the minimum wage being what it is, I don't see how any 18 year old, even a hard working one, can pay the bills. Any parent who can get their kid to college graduation and let them start adult life without debt has done them a great favor. I got through by attending a low cost state school, living with my parents for two years, scholarship, and work. but that was a different time. I suspect it's more difficult today. Congrats to the OP for saving 40K at his age. Take it from an old guy: this habit will serve you well over the course of your life. I'm retired now and so glad I can afford to meet my needs.

My parents gave me a total of a few thousand here and there to help with my beer and food bills while I was at UF. My grandparents paid a whole lot more for tuition when I was at SCAD.

24K

spoiled brat wrote:

I'm 26 and have about $40k saved up. Though I am somewhat proud of that, I also realize that my parents paid for about $40k of my schooling all in all, so really I should just now be breaking even. I'm wondering though if I'm exceptionally fortunate or if it's fairly normal for parents to pay quite a bit of their children's schooling.

How was it in your case?

My parents paid for everything except spending money and, later in college, food and my dorm. Accordingly, I worked as hard as I possibly could because I understood the favor they were doing me. I hope to one day return the favor to my own kids.