Punny Poll #31: Worried About College Tuition?
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Topics: education, poll
The previous Punny Poll asked you to forecast when gasoline would hit $4 a gallon in the U.S. With the average price still under $3.50 a gallon, the 30% of poll-takers who predicted the price milestone would be hit by Memorial Day 2008 will likely miss the mark; thank you, 30% of people, for being wrong. My vote, which pegged gas at four bucks next year, only garnered 13% of the vote. Another 17% selected “This is the stupid answer for this poll. Please don’t pick it or you will mess up science” which explains why the U.S. is losing to countries like China and India in the fields of math, science, and following directions.
Speaking of educational woes, I recently attended a recruiting event for my alma mater at which several parents expressed their concern over the rising price of tuition. This is good news for cheaper, state-run universities like mine, though some parents were even alarmed at the prospect of shelling out just a couple grand a semester for their child’s college education. As poor as I was, even without scholarships I could have afforded that much to help secure my financial future. When speaking to these worried parents, I tried to link to these articles on getting paid to go to college or at least getting a degree without taking on loans; alas, it’s hard to click on spoken words and open them in a web browser, so they’ll just have to keep worrying for a while.
But what about you? Does the high price tag of a decent college education have you worried about your child’s financial future? Or do you have a clever plan for handling the $317,000 per semester your kids will end up having to pay (and that’s just for textbooks!)?
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8 Responses »
1.
Clever Dude
April 10th, 2008 at 9:38 am
If we have kids, they’ll be paying for their own education. We might help with housing, but tuition is up to them. If they want an Ivy League school, then they have to find the way to pay for it.
2.
Kim McGrigg
April 10th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Good reminder to revisit the plan because time flies. Yesterday, my son was 1. Today, he is 9. Tomorrow, he’ll be 18.
3.
Lord
April 10th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Perhaps the 30% are already paying that. Some places it already is.
4.
s. jennifer rose
April 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
gas is 3.89 for the cheapest grade here. i’m still betting on $4 by memorial day weekend….
5.
GL
April 10th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
$317,000 per semester?! Where did you get those numbers? O_o Even when adjusted for ~18 years inflation, it shouldn’t be that bad… You could always let your kid go to a state university. For example, my alma mater - University of Nevada, Reno - charges ~10K per year, and it’s a pretty good school.
Btw, your poll needs another option - “I’m not planning on having children and I’d rather invest all that money.”
6.
Chadwyck
April 11th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I’ll be saving for a good portion of the costs, but scholarships and their own loans are going to be doing a lot of the paying
7.
Living Off Dividends & Passive Income
April 14th, 2008 at 3:59 am
I’ve decided that my kids are going to go to Canada to get their cheap but high quality college education. I knew a prof at USC who’s daughter shunned the offer of free tuition at USC and instead went to a public school in Canada!
I’m also starting an MBA in fall so i’m seriously considering the financining options right now. check out this post on how to get a $100,000 MBA for only $1267!
http://www.livingoffdividends.com/2008/03/28/how-to-get-a-100000-mba-education-for-1267/
8.
Jim
April 16th, 2008 at 9:57 am
We have on son in college and one that is about to start. The cost is beyond belief. I have a bachelor and two masters degrees and they did not cost as much as just one semester of undergrad classes. What the heck is going on. In addition the quality of the classes has gone down as well. Both sons have 50K scholarships but that is a drop in the bucket. They will no doubt have to apply for a federal student loan to help pay for the their education.
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