Posted on Tuesday, 14th April 2009 by Bill Bean
Below is a comment that was left following an article in U.S. News & World Report regarding ways to pay for college. The comment says it all.
“I realize now that I did it all wrong. I bought a small house I could afford, I worked hard and went to school nights so I could get a degree and make more money, I drove older model cars, I made my mortgage payments on-time and acquired equity in my home, I put money away for my retirement, and I was completely honest and forthcoming on my financial aid forms for my daughter. And for all that I get told that after 12 years of working hard to get into five of the top colleges in this country (including 2 Ivies), she gets ZERO dollars to attend the schools she got accepted to. We are not rich. My wife and I make just about $125,000 per year combined, so we take home only $85 or 90K per year. So now I am supposed to donate one-half of my take-home pay ($45K+) so my daughter can go to college? Or let her enter life with $180K in loans? I actually had the aid officer at a major Catholic college just outside Boston tell me I could take a home equity loan, or better yet stop my 401k contributions. And meanwhile, derelicts who sat around saving nothing, and not working to better themselves and not paying their mortgages, and just accumulating debt and bad habits, end up getting a free ride. Our college system is BROKEN. We are on the verge of returning back to the days when only the very rich and the occasional sponsored poor folks could go to college. Our top colleges have abandoned the middle class… “ Floyd in MA
Well said, Floyd!
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