[girlsrule1234]

College debt doesn’t just come from tuition, if you want to make a valid argument representing students in the last 10 years, you need to take into account cost-of-living factors as well.

When you do, $25k isn’t hard to hit at all a year. Take any UC school (average in-state ~$15k) and add just rent (~$800/month if you’re lucky) and you’ll get there. Now factor in food, travel (over breaks), club fees, etc and you’ll see why debt is so high, on average, despite students working part time jobs.

[grandmczeb]

Sure, but all the UCs offer quite a bit of financial aid too. Taking everything into account (tuition, room, board, and other expenses minus grants and scholarships), the net price of UC Berkeley is around $18k on average and 10k for low income students. Of the 26% of undergraduates who take out loans each year, the average amount was less than $6,000. The other UCs are even less. So the idea that taking out $25k/yr in loans at a UC is in any way typical is not consistent with reality as far as I can tell.

[scarface74]

How much of the room and board could be covered by working part time? Could they stay at home for two years and go to a 2 year school and transfer?

[sq_]

Obviously, anecdotes aren't data, but "go to a CC for two years and transfer" is the path that a lot of people I know tried to take, and almost all of them ended up dropping out. A few joined the military, but almost all of the rest are just working standard service jobs, though they originally had much higher aspirations.

I know some of that might be attributed to them just being lazy or not being motivated, but it has been, in my experience, such a common story that I feel that there's a problem with providing kids with a simple life plan of "get two years at the local community college and transfer out".

[godelski]

I went to community college before I went to Uni. At least at my uni everyone that transferred in ended up not getting scholarships (we were told we would get them but constantly got a run around or financial aid would schedule meetings with us after the due date). We all ended up paying a little more than those that went all 4 years (who just maintained their scholarships).

[scarface74]

Isn’t that even a better argument for going to a two year college? What if they spent those first two years spending more at a four year college and still had no degree?

But if the students didn’t complete a 2 year degree while staying at home, what are the chances of them completing a four year degree when they would have more autonomy and less oversight?

[season8sucked]

Part time work pays $10-15/hour. At 20 hours a work (which is nontrivial at difficult programs) you’d still easily accrue $1k/month from leftover rent/food/transit/etc.

Many students don’t have the options to stay home.

I’m a proponent of cc’s, but the discussion is about four year public schools being affordable.

I don’t want to be too pressing, but I’m guessing you’re in your forties or older, solely based on how out of touch are your responses (I.e. just do this, things aren’t so bad!).

[scarface74]

I’m in the process of having an upcoming senior in high school - yeah I’m doing my research right now and know what the current costs of colleges are in GA.

Our plan is just what I outlined.

- a two year school that is part of the four year program at a local college where all of the credit transfers.

- staying at home for the first two years and we will pay for her car + car insurance.

- She will work part time just for spending money and incidentals.

- Since we won’t have to pay for room and board, she can get student loans that should cover tuition.

- That gives us four more years to get things together to help pay the student loans after she graduates (step daughter, I had no reason to worry about putting a child through college until 7 years ago).

I have a relative, whose parents just did something similar. He went to my alma mater for two years and with my encouragement, he transferred to a state school in Atlanta for a better curriculum and better networking opportunities.

They were in a position to save for his college, but his parents also put limits on the type of degree that he could get and the amount he could spend.