Poll: How do you pay for school?

[helium]

Family help for now, but once I get out of the cheaper community college into a big expensive 4-year I'll hopefully get some grants and scholarships and I'll have to take out loans. Hopefully I'll get a little bit of family money but it's doubtful. I'm lucky that my family helps because I'm in the bracket of not getting anything because my parents make just barely too much money.

[drunken dragon]

Mostly parental help. Some plan called Texas Tomorrow that you pay into when you have a child, and then somewhere down the road they have 2 years at jr college and 2 years at sr college paid for.

[SirLirin]

My mother works for my school, so that takes care of tuition, and a mixture of family help, federal loans and my own pocket pays for housing, meal plans and textbooks (I pretty much pay for my textbooks and that's about it)

[The Other Lizard]

Mostly from money put away by my parents and grandparents. They've been saving since I was born - my dad likes to plan ahead.

[lizpoona]

Grants, scholarships, and me. Mostly scholarship since I'm in a cheap community college. I'm going to use the grant I got to pay rent for the entire year (squee!) and this summer I've paid everything myself(two classes & rent), except for a large gift and $200 bookstore scholarship.


yay money!

[Eravial]

The big chunk is taken care of by scholarship. The rest is family help. I find myself incredibly lucky to know that I'm not going to have to worry about student loans.

[Kirby]

Is it just 'the go' in the US and other places for family to pay for school (and I assume, uni/college)? My parents haven't even got a savings account for me for uni, they're just like, '...yeah, you'll be going on hecs,' which is basically where you do schooling, and once you earn a certain salary, you have to start paying back the course fees from uni.

Meh. It'll be from my own, very moth filled pocket.

[Neko]

Out of my own pocket most of the time. FAFSA does provide some but most of it comes from me.

[Mathmo]

Mostly the Student Loans Company - but I get the impression that loans are much worse in the US than here? Here you get a loan from the SLC which has interest linked to inflation (so in theory you pay back the value of what you borrowed, not extra), and you pay it back out of your salary once you start earning over £15 000 a year or something, and I think it's progressive. Also almost everybody takes this route, I guess unless they have super-rich parents who are paying everything.

But really, I have a combination of loan from the SLC, grant from the government, and grant from the University. My parents will buy me groceries when they visit but that's about it - but that's fair enough, I'm independent from them and moved out and all that. I'm lucky in some ways because between my husband and me we make very little money which makes me eligible for lots of grant which is really really good. It's the people whose parents make just enough that they don't qualify for much grant money but not enough that the parents can afford to spare much who find it the toughest, I think.

[The Other Lizard]

To those of you from the UK inquiring about the state of things in the US: the thing about the USA is that to go to college, you have to pay money. To go to a GOOD college, you have to pay LOTS of money. This means that either your parents have to help you pay for it, or you have to take out loans, or get lots of scholarships (based on academic performance) and grants (based on needs).

School in Canada is expensive but not nearly as expensive as in the states because all of our universities are public institutions, which means that the government subsidizes the cost. (it also means the quality of education is about the same no matter where you go, particularly for undergraduate studies). We also have simpler ways of finding funds, too, like the government gives out loans to students. If you don't already have debt, getting a student loan is super easy, and as long as you are a student it doesn't accumulate interest.

As I understand it, in most of Europe school is paid for by the government, correct?

I am actually a citizen of Germany. So, if I went to live there for five years, I would then qualify to go to German institutions for free. Alas I have only ever spent one month in Germany.

[Pieass]

hecs, which is the government, i have to start paying it back when i earn over a certain amount

[Mathmo]

As I understand it, in most of Europe school is paid for by the government, correct?

Not sure about most of Europe, but here it's - as in Australia, from earlier replies to the thread - from the govt but you do pay it back. The wonderful advantage is you get to pay it back *after* you're earning. Also, there is still a strong minority voice here that thinks that University education should be free (as it was about 30 years ago - totally government grant funded). I think this attitude is silly and you ought to pay to go to University, but it is perhaps indicative of different attitudes towards money and education.

[The Other Lizard]

As I understand it, in most of Europe school is paid for by the government, correct?

Not sure about most of Europe, but here it's - as in Australia, from earlier replies to the thread - from the govt but you do pay it back. The wonderful advantage is you get to pay it back *after* you're earning. Also, there is still a strong minority voice here that thinks that University education should be free (as it was about 30 years ago - totally government grant funded). I think this attitude is silly and you ought to pay to go to University, but it is perhaps indicative of different attitudes towards money and education.

I think the theory is that you will pay it back indirectly through taxes once you are making money.

[Pieass]

As I understand it, in most of Europe school is paid for by the government, correct?

Not sure about most of Europe, but here it's - as in Australia, from earlier replies to the thread - from the govt but you do pay it back. The wonderful advantage is you get to pay it back *after* you're earning. Also, there is still a strong minority voice here that thinks that University education should be free (as it was about 30 years ago - totally government grant funded). I think this attitude is silly and you ought to pay to go to University, but it is perhaps indicative of different attitudes towards money and education.

why should you have to pay?

[Mathmo]

why should you have to pay?

Well, I think making it completely free would mean you had to increase lots of other taxes to pay for it (which I don't think is fair on people who don't want to go to university - they don't get the benefits but they still have to pay to subsidise it - I realise this can be said of many things taxpayers' money goes on but I think this one would be particularly unfair), and I think that in general people value things they have to pay for more than they value things they get for free. I think that the system of paying it back after you're earning appears to work fairly well.

Note I'm not saying anything about how much an individual student should have to pay to go to University, I just think that making it completely government funded again is unrealistic (given the proportion of people who go on to University these days) and would be a worrying tax burden, and even if you could do it I think it would devalue university in the public opinion (which is already happening due to other factors - we don't need to add to it!).

[Pieass]

very good points, i still like the dream that higher education could be free again

[Aum]

I was accepted to several schools in the U.S., but I could never afford to go to them. Sorry, but $40k per year is just outrageous. If you are unlucky enough to not get loans, grants, or scholarships, I don't know how anyone can afford to go to a good school there. The system is totally elitist once you are looking out of state.

On the flip side, you have places in Europe that pay for everything. I'm in favor of this, generally, but I think it reduces quality control in some ways. The financial barrier also causes people to pause and consider if they really want to go to post-secondary. If it were free, more people would be going who don't necessarily want it, but it's a free degree so hey? The money side does create some quality control, in addition to the entrance requirements.

I think a happy medium is a low tuition, like $2,000 per year. The rates are going up in Canada to levels that, for us, are getting a bit ridiculous. I'm worried that by the time my kids want to go to university, it will be comparable to what U.S. rates are now. Universities are corporations though, so what do you expect.

[Butterfly North]

I'm getting an even amount from loans and bursaries, because my parents are pretty poor so the government and the university give me their maximum available grants. This makes me ultra lucky, because others have said in this thread many of my friends have parents who could pay but don't really stump up enough enough cash, and they go hungry. It's about £6500 in loans and £6000 in grants per year.

[SakuraSong]

I go to a state/city university, so FAFSA covers all of it and leaves a bit extra for me to buy textbooks with. Funniest thing is said state/city university originated as a women's teaching college, and the education we get is almost comparable (if not just as good) as the shit they learn over at NYU. And we all end up working the same jobs anyways. Shrug.

[No I'm Not]

Aussie = HECs.

It's pretty good motivation not to fail anything, I think, knowing I'll be paying for it (literally) in years to come