You should look at schools with co-operative plans if she wants to major in engineering. This is a work study program where students go to school for a semester and then work the next semester. It takes five years to graduate instead of four. This, along with other jobs, is how I put myself through undergraduate school. There are great companies that hire co ops. Hell, I had a couple of friends that co-oped for the CIA.

I never quite understood why parents felt the obligation to pay for higher education. Mine didn't I'm not planning on paying for my child's, either.

I went to community college then transferred to a public university. Lived at home and worked. Still had some debt but the Army paid that off. Army is also paying for my MBA and I'll still have about 17-18 months of GI Bill left to use for something else.

Has she looked into ROTC?

Don't bankrupt yourself in the future when you are most financially vulnerable and won't be able to recover from a devastating financial mistake. She is young and has more life ahead of her than behind her. Help her research ways to pay for school.

Teach her how to fish, don't give her fish. This will make her a stronger adult in the long run.

Here’s the deal, you fed her, clothed her, fixed her boo boos.

She’s grown and it’s her time to adult.

Adulting get is hard.

Explain how much it will cost for her to go to a State school, how much it will cost for a CommunityCollege.
Explain she must pay her own way thru life.

Frankly the money you saved will maybe, MAYBE, get you and the missus thru retirement up to death....

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

I went to community college then transferred to a public university. Lived at home and worked.

I did the same. Got my general ed. courses out of the way while living at home attending a junior college (50 bucks a semester) and working part time and full time summers. Saved a big enough stake for a state university transfer, I paid for it all myself with some help from some student loans.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I never quite understood why parents felt the obligation to pay for higher education. Mine didn't I'm not planning on paying for my child's, either.

I went to community college then transferred to a public university. Lived at home and worked. Still had some debt but the Army paid that off. Army is also paying for my MBA and I'll still have about 17-18 months of GI Bill left to use for something else.

Has she looked into ROTC?

Don't bankrupt yourself in the future when you are most financially vulnerable and won't be able to recover from a devastating financial mistake. She is young and has more life ahead of her than behind her. Help her research ways to pay for school.

Teach her how to fish, don't give her fish. This will make her a stronger adult in the long run.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Particularly your first sentence.

It boggles the mind why parents, nearing retirement, are willing to go into debt to fund their children's college education. Not only no, but hell no.

I get that parents want their kids to succeed. That's great, but not at your expense.

My folks had seven kids. We weren't poor, but we could see it from the front porch. Out of those seven kids, six of us have college degrees and three of us have post-graduate (professional) degrees. Each and every one of us paid for it without a dime of assistance from our folks. My kids paid for their's as well.

OP - The best gift that you could give to your daughter is to help her figure out a way to pay for it herself.

There is nothing wrong with doing her first two years at a Community College that she could easily pay for on her own by holding down a job while attending school. Then, finish up at a state school. Student loans, PELL grants, private scholarships, work study, etc.... All are available to her.

$30K+/year for an undergraduate degree is obscene. You should in no way encourage this and you should in no way pay for this.

Nobody gives a damn where you got your sheepskin, just that you have one. She will be just as employable with a degree from Sac State as she will be with a degree from Stanford.

As others have said Community College first two years. Then she needs to try to get scholarships. It's one of her part time jobs.
Finish at in state school while working part time.
You trying to pay for it is going to tank your retirement unless you have one hell of a pension that you haven't told us about.
Military is another option.

Yeah, I don't understand the "we'll pay for it".

I'm the "we'll help you if you work hard and are studying for a career that will allow you to be self-sustaining" crowd. My son has a full academic scholarship, worked summers to save up, so we help him with some of the Room and Board.

He busts his ass, gets great grades, and wants to be a Doctor. So we help him out.

Now if he wanted to study art, gender studies, or some worthless humanities degree, he'd be living at home going to community college and working part time.

another vote for a State U. with minimal debt upon obtaining the undergraduate degree.

the price increase of college tuition / expenses has FAR outpaced inflation the last 20 years. many private U.s are $200k + for a four-year degree. that's absurd.

Go the state U. route and don't look back.

part of life is adjusting to the REALITY of the world - not wishful thinking / dreamland

no young adult should be allowed to start their young lives drowning in debt (nor should YOU) so help her make the tough WISE choice. once she gets in the workforce it will be about RESULTS - not the paper hanging on the wall.

good luck --

-----------------------------------------------------

quote:

Originally posted by Kranky:

quote:

Originally posted by ontmark:
...
Update:
She has been studying engineering Mechanical and Chemistry. She liked Chemistry. She currently is in pre-Calculus and doing well. She is seeking either a Mechanical Engineering Field or Environmental Chemistry. She has interest in both currently. Wants to talk to departments heads to help finalize her choice.

...
I think if she graduates with a decent GPA (>2.8) with an ME or ChemE degree from a state school she will be fine. I hire plenty of newly graduated engineers, and I don't care if they started at a community college then transferred to a university. I tend to look for what they did while in school, what their interests are, how they solve problems, any internships, and how they interview/carry themselves. In other words, many other things rather than graduating from School XYZ. New engineers I hire with EE, ME, or CHEN degrees are starting in the 70s with decent benefits from a megacorp.

A BS in environmental chemistry is a recipe for needing a masters or PhD (i.e. even more debt). BS in mechanical engineering (my degree) or chemical engineering are much easier to pay off student debt, and starting pay is top tier for college degrees.

Only thing I'll disagree with Kranky on is GPA as a 2.8 will limit options. Like him, don't give a crap where someone spends freshman and sophomore year (community college or 4 year college), but my employer does care where someone graduates. 95% of our engineers are from a top 25 ABET accredited engineering programs and had a GPA of 3.5 or greater.

I started my oil & gas career as a paid intern after my sophomore year. Engineering students need to do well compared to their peers to have a shot at an internship.

quote:

never quite understood why parents felt the obligation to pay for higher education. Mine didn't

Same here, I paid for my entire college degree.
It's great if you can and want to but at some point they (kids) need to fend for themselves.

First of all, why do you feel obligated to pay for her education?

For us (7 of us) my parents told us all to shoot for the stars but we’d have to figure it out. I went the military route and it worked out well and I’d recommend your daughter check that route out as well. ROTC or join to get the GI Bill, she would also be able to take college courses on active duty.

If you want to pay for your kid`s education, that is great. Unfortunately, you have an income and out go issue. Maybe a second income would be logical. Or better yet, a second and third income. I can afford to pay for all of my son's college expenses. But, I won`t. He is working and going to school. I am helping a lot but he had to choose a school HE could afford. No BS or BA is worth $30+k per year.

quote:

Originally posted by craigcpa:
You asked for it:

See that big ole balance in your 491k's? Start taking some out to pay for it.

You can't take it with you. What else are you going to spend it on?

You're not living forever. Use the money!!!

Literally the worse advice I've ever read on this forum.

Is she a only child and maybe tells mama and daddy what SHE wants?
Sometimes you get what you need and not what you want.

I would hate to see you ruin you and your wife's golden years trying to pay for her enjoyment.

Like others have said I like the local 2 year and work. She might find out in those two years that college isn't for her.

You missed the boat to pay for her college. If that was your plan you should have started a college savings account 18 years ago.

Let her know you will help out some. Help her find the best student loans rates.

I wouldn’t take out of your nest egg to pay for college, help around the margins some, yes.

I’d look to alternate plans. Try to steer her to a viable field of study too.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I never quite understood why parents felt the obligation to pay for higher education. Mine didn't I'm not planning on paying for my child's, either.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Particularly your first sentence.

It boggles the mind why parents, nearing retirement, are willing to go into debt to fund their children's college education. Not only no, but hell no.

I get that parents want their kids to succeed. That's great, but not at your expense.


OP - The best gift that you could give to your daughter is to help her figure out a way to pay for it herself.

There is nothing wrong with doing her first two years at a Community College that she could easily pay for on her own by holding down a job while attending school. Then, finish up at a state school. Student loans, PELL grants, private scholarships, work study, etc.... All are available to her.

$30K+/year for an undergraduate degree is obscene

Not sure obligated is always the issue. But wanting to give their kids better opportunities. Going into debt for it likely not a good idea
I was fortunate that my father saved from the get go for my brother and I to go to college. Though he gave us enough for tuition, room, and board to go to a state school for 4 years. Anything beyond that we were on our own.
I chose to go to private Universities they ran about 40k a year 13 years ago and now are above 50k. I worked 40 hours plus in the summer and 20-30 hours during the school year. I also got a few scholarships and grants was able to leave with just over 10k in loans I had to pay back.

Had it to do over would have gone to a state school and had a huge stack of cash upon graduation or worked less.

We will do the same for our boys. They are 5, 3, and 1 I opened accounts for them as soon as they were born and money goes in every paycheck. Anytime they get a monetary gift a small portion goes in.

We are also footing the bill for private school preschool to 12 for them. Certainly a huge expense (not going in debt to do but certainly going without some things we would like) but with the state of public schools an expense I am willing to pay.

But back to the OPs question. You are extremely late to the game and are going to be in serious debt if you pay which is a bad idea for retirement.

In this case certainly suggest getting her a job and headed to community college for a couple years.
Have her look for a job that also helps with tuition or offers employee scholarships.

I would try and steer her towards guaranteed employment. Since she’s geared towards science is she at all interested in medicine? While I wouldn’t necessarily steer her towards being an MD or DO anymore the path of least resistance these days are being a PA or NP. The APP or advanced practice provider is the wave of the future and six figure employment is basically guaranteed. The nurse anesthetist route is also lucrative. If she 100% wants to stay in the engineering field then maybe bio-medical engineering? I have a few friends that are chemical engineers in the pharmaceutical industry and they are slowing being outsourced to India day by day. The US will always have sick people who need treatment.

My wife and I saved for our kids college, but it was not enough to cover everything, so we made a deal with them. We would pick up the tuition as long as they maintained a B average or better.

We paid for Tuition, food and dorm, if they decided to move off campus, the choice was our house or they paid. The kids also had to pay for books, fee's, transportation, and what ever spending money they felt they needed.

Both Kids worked through college. They both only spent the first year in the dorms, so they payed for off campus living. They learned quickly how to handle their personal finances and had jobs once they graduated.

They both graduated with better than 3.5 GPA's and have not moved back home.