Do you pay for your kid's rent? (Austin, West: apartment complex, for rent)

[Austin97]

My parents fully paid for my school in the 80s. I lived in the most expensive housing, drove a mercedes and had 500/month spending. I graduated during the 92 recession so went graduate school. Once I graduated from undergrad my parents never gave me any assistance.

My parents didnt want me to get a job during the school year so I could focus on school, but I had to get a job in the summer. I ended up with mostly white collar jobs (programming that paid about $15/hour in the 80's).

I try to make sure my kids dont have too much, but my primary job is to ensure that they are educated (in all the different shades of the meaning).

A fast food job is useful in high school to learn values, but I dont think it has a lot of value for college students.

[Westerner92]

You got it backwards. UT students (particularly those that live in West Campus) tend to come from wealthy families because Austin is so expensive. I have heard from staff that the average family income of UT students has been skyrocketing with tightening admissions and the increased popularity/cost of Austin.

It was definitely a shock for me when I came down to go to school here. I grew up in Lubbock where, with its low cost of living and socioeconomically integrated schools, it really is easy to be unaware of class. I was expecting UT to have the same demographics as your average state school, but apart from the large population, it feels more like a private school. I didn't expect the prevalence of wealth that I saw. I still wonder where all that money comes from.

As someone who comes from a comparatively humble family, it's hard not to resent it, but in my observation, most of those who have everything paid for work just as hard. The only difference is that instead of earning money to pay their way, they're making connections and gaining valuable skills in their desired field. In the end, that work does pay more than $10/hour.

Full disclosure: My parents did pay the rent my first three years of school, and I've been able to save every bit of money that I've earned from summer jobs. My dad grew up busting his butt in menial jobs and never got a bachelors, so he was more than happy to pay the way when I got a full tuition scholarship. I'm working at and in the process of lining up a full-time job at a dream firm, and I credit that to my being able to focus on school with the support I received.

The point I'm making is that it's easy to make the generalization that all these wealthy kids are spoiled and/or lazy, but that doesn't line up with reality, at least not at UT. In fact, as much as it pains me to repeat this fact, the average member of a fraternity or sorority at UT has a higher GPA than the overall average.

So when do I think parents should cut off their kids? As long as they're productive members of society, it's whenever they please, and it's none of your business.

[Dog_Gone]

My mom regularly tried to give me money for my tuition, books etc. I refused everytime. I wanted to do it myself. I did not want anyone having an investment in my investment. No regrets. My brother is a totally different story.

[MoNative34]

Originally Posted by Spacepup

I hate to break it to you but when it comes to nailing down your first job post-degree that "with honors" goes light-years further than the "life skills" he obtained. It used to not, but now pretty much every employer besides for mom-and-pop places don't hand review each resume but instead runs it through automated filtering systems. If you don't have the GPA cutoff a human will never see it.

I never said it had anything to do or it would help with landing a first post degree job. I was replying to lutsky regarding her son.

People can work and go to school and still earn good grades. I've known many.

Originally Posted by Spacepup

For a first post-degree job both a friend and I applied to the same large employer hiring in Austin. She was better qualified: with a MS vs my BS (both in physics), more work/life experience due to paying her own way, etc. We both got call backs: my 3.76 BS GPA got a phone interview and she got told that they really really wanted to get her to come out for an in person interview but unless her MS GPA (then 3.18) were to rise above 3.2 that there was literally nothing HR could do because the multinational had a strict 3.2 requirement no matter what the degree was. She only got a call-back because the automated filtering software had rounded up: had her GPA been 0.04 lower she would have never been seen. Had she been able to pull 0.02 higher without the stress from having to juggle expenses and classes she would have had an offer north of $70k.

She'll still be better off in the long run despite this one example. I applaud your friend. If the large employer is that stupid to have a policy like that, that's their loss.

Originally Posted by Spacepup

Then there comes the type of work you do: In many fields today you are hosed if your summers are spend working jobs to pull in money instead of something like an internship (which are often unpaid because they give "credit", require living in a different (expensive) area, and/or are such low hours that you can't even use them to pay for books for a semester).

If the hours are so low and often unpaid, a little extra work in the summer would fir right in to that schedule.

[riaelise]

Not really wanting to wait into this debate, but I will say this. I am NOT paying either of my kids' rent. If they choose to go to school here then they can commute just like I had to do. You can focus on your studies while still holding a job, come on! College is way too expensive for it to fall on the parents any longer. My former school is probably over 50 grand now and I should be footing that plus rent and expenses? We ALL have to do our part, kids included. No one loves my kids more than me, but while my parents did help with some of my tuition and scholarships filled in much of the rest, I still worked a workstudy job and another job because the NYU tuition two decades ago was still the equivalent of someone's salary. I am not going to take out another mortgage to pay for my kids' living expenses. I will help them with tuition, but that's in conjunction with efforts on their part as well.

[G Grasshopper]

My parents paid my way completely, although I worked part time for spending money and savings, but that was back when college was much cheaper. Here at UT, I remember being shocked that tuition was going up to the point of being over $100 per semester! That was about 1973. I've already mentioned how we did it with our son. One can cut expenses by going to community college for a year or two and/or live at home if possible. I still think that each family has to work out solutions to this, and that there are many "right" ways to do it. I knew someone who paid for their sons' college, but docked them the tuition if they ever got less than a B in a class. So these guys would graduate without debts, unless they made any Cs, in which case they would owe a tuition refund to their parents. There are lots of ways to do it!

[centralaustinite]

Plus, remember, virtually no one pays the full cost of private college tuition! Often the higher the "list price" the greater the discount. So don't limit your kids initial choices based on the tuition alone.

I lived on campus for three years and then my parents paid my rent for my senior year. They were more than happy to do so as my rent was MUCH less than room and board. That was undergrad only. For grad school, we were all on our own for both tuition and living expenses.

[CptnRn]

Of interest:

New Survey Finds a Decline in Percentage of Parents Who Help Their Child Pay for College : News : University Herald

Many U.S. parents agree with recent studies that suggest college degrees are still worth the investment, but students are getting less financial help from their families.

According to CNN Money, a new study from Discover Student Loans has found 77 percent of parents were planning to pay for their child's college education. Based on a survey of 1,000 adults, the study showed a downward trend from 81 percent last year.

Just less than three quarters of U.S. families answered "very" or "somewhat" when asked how concerned they were about helping financially with college. Unsurprisingly, students have turned to taking out student loans to pay for school.

According to data from the College Board, tuition at public four-year universities for in-state students is $18,390 and each borrower's average debt total was $29,400. Past studies have also shown that students are not likely to stop depending on loans to pay for college any time soon.

The Discover Student Loans study also showed that 15 percent of parents expected their child to pay for their own education, up from 12 percent a year ago. 32 percent of parents said their child should cover "most" of the cost, up from 27 percent.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Of interest:

New Survey Finds a Decline in Percentage of Parents Who Help Their Child Pay for College : News : University Herald

I think a lot of parents are not prepared for retirement either, and should NOT be digging into retirement savings to pay for kid's college. A kid has an entire working lifetime to earn wages and pay back college loans, whereas the parents, if not already on a good glide path to retirement savings, don't get a second chance to save for retirement. I would not pay for my kids college if I was in that position.

I'll bet the decrease in assistance from parents will continue as more baby boomers realize they simply can't afford to fund their kid's college with retirement savings.

Steve

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

I'll bet the decrease in assistance from parents will continue as more baby boomers realize they simply can't afford to fund their kid's college with retirement savings.

Steve

And this is largely because of the extreme increases in college costs, I think. It seems our "normal" system of college education is sort or on the brink of having to make major changes to stay relevant and with reach.