Kids Heading for College? Good Luck With That.

Even way back last August, before the economy was officially in terminal free fall, the issues surrounding a college education were in the news. CNN Money asked, Is college still worth the price?

Most of us have come to understand how necessary a college degree – in anything – is to being able to ’successfully’ compete in today’s complicated modern world. Yet the costs of a degree – any degree – is soaring up to four times the rate of inflation even as both jobs and salaries for college graduates are shrinking. How much sense does it really make for families (or students, via loans) to pay $200,000 for a degree so s/he can get a job that pays $30,000 a year or less?

In a rational economy the rapid inflation of college tuition would slow, stop or even reverse as consumers – the pool of applying students – shrank in response to the spiraling costs. But for this particular commodity, there can be no shortage of applicants due to the recognized importance of said degree to the entire future of the prospective student. It is much easier to replace light bulbs and take public transportation to work in order to save on electric bills and gasoline than it is to forego a college education because it costs more than a graduating student can expect to earn.

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Saving Money on College Textbooks

My eldest grandson graduated from high school in the top 10% of his class a couple of months ago, for which we are inordinately proud – he was taking courses like advanced biology, pre-calc, physics and advanced literature/writing, which most kids around here avoid like the plague. Now we’re facing the costs of getting him through college, since we raised him and of course we will.

We have had to seriously crimp some of our expectations about how this could happen, as things have changed both personally and societally since our children were in college. First, they don’t give out full scholarships to incoming freshmen around here, no matter how well they do in high school. You have to start with your basic Pell Grant and complete at least two semesters before you’re eligible for scholarship or extra grant money. The Pell Grant won’t come in until the second semester because the process doesn’t even start until the student’s already enrolled, so tuition must be paid up front out of pocket, along with all fees and the cost of textbooks.

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Back to School: The Year of the Pirate

“Is that a blunderbuss in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?”
Mae West

When the kids head back to school after summer vacation, parents have to spend money on supplies. In my state of North Carolina, merchants are exempted from state sales tax requirements on basic school supplies – notebooks, back-packs, filler paper, pencils and pens, etc. as well as clothing sales, which is a help for the less-than wealthy. I always take advantage of those tax-free days to buy the hardware supplies. But even without sales tax, clothing is expensive.

My grandson’s in high school, so this household has been trying to keep up with his needs as well as styles and clothing trends for a long time. If you’re as lucky as we are to have youngsters who are more style-setters than fashion followers, you’re already two steps ahead of the game.

In a later post I’ll discuss some useful resources for the more stylish and/or necessary aspects of wardrobe acquisition, which my daughter calls “Professional Thrifting.” In this post, I just want to talk about my grandson’s fashion wish-list, because it’s not that hard to accommodate…

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