this topic is tough. my parents said, just go to the “best” most prestigious most expensive college you get into. in retrospect, it’s unclear why. it seemed like the right idea at the tiem.
I’m telling my high school junior, who is demonstrably smarter than me and who now has a kind of high gpa based on getting his low grades revised after high AP scores (seems kind of wrong, but when the system works in your favor, it’s hard to critique it too harshly) hey, dude, let’s go with the community college thing, even if you could get into UC whatever, and work your way up the ladder. maybe get a job, live life, do some serious rock climbing, grow up a little, stay at home. plus, you can skip the stupid SAT, I think.
if three kids do 6 years total at communiy college, jeez, that’s like $150,000 or more in savings in terms of debt load, room and board savings, etc…..not to mention the college application fees and moving expenses…
that number is large. i’d rather give them lots of financial support directly, than have them take on any student loan debt for a better school.
on the other hand, maybe I’m screwing up, being a cheapskate, and setting them up for “derailment”…i guess i’ll just watch him and make my best judgment.
plus he’ll have so many damn AP credits he’ll probably be able to get through the CC route pretty quick. I don’t know. it’s kind of scary. I hate to
impair his life because i’m debt and risk averse. ont he other hand, i’m pretty damn sure it’s the right thing to do not just because of the money, but because i have confidence he can make it through the whole process…
