General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 18 year old sues parents for kicking her out and not paying her tuition [View all]MissB
(16,344 posts)I was able to fund my college by taking federal loans and working part time and doing an internship. I worked as a cashier during high school, but shifted over to engineering jobs/internship in college which didn't pay nearly as well!
Tuition back then was about $1000/term.
Our state university's current tuition is $9000/year, and room/board/books/fees are another $9000. That's actually a pretty good deal - some states are charging $25k/year and on up.
Suddenly that $5500 in guaranteed federal student loans for freshman year doesn't stretch very far. $13,000 is the gaping hole each year. If they have a bit more than that set aside before their freshman year then they may be able to swing that. But starting from zero (like the kid in the story) would require an average of 3/4 time working at slightly more than minimum wage for a student. Nearly full time working and full time student don't mix terribly well. It can work, but it'll be a fairly rare individual that can keep that up for four straight years.
I do agree with what you seem to be saying about commuting! I was able to do the same thing (though I had my own apartment or roommate setup during college instead of living at home). Not all kids can commute from home (like the girl on the article - I think we can agree that she is unlikely to be living at home ever again!!!). One of my coworkers really regrets not sending his kid to community college for the first two years then letting his kid commute to the in-town state university. It's markedly more expensive to live on any campus!