The Federal Reserve Bank released its study on changes in US family finance from 2007 to 2010, and the results are not pretty. The headline is that median net worth fell 38.8 percent over this period. One reason that college seems so unaffordable these days is that, well, it is. A middle-class family has fewer… [Read More]
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Category: College Admissions and Costs
Paying for College: The Community College Conundrum
One bit of advice that I often hear about reducing college costs is to do the first two years at community college, then transfer. I have real trepidations about this advice, though. It can work for some people, but are you among them? The first problem is that not all community colleges are the same…. [Read More]
Paying for College: Should Parents Pay?
Recently, Legg Mason Securities released a study on parents paying for college. They talked to parents with investable assets of $250,000 or more and found that 72 percent expect their children to contribute to some of their college expenses, although only 2 percent expect the children to pay the whole thing. I think that education… [Read More]
Paying for College: Public or Private?
When discussing college costs, someone always brings up the notion that there is no need to pay for a private school when a local commuter school gives you the same education for less money. I sort of agree, and I sort of don’t, and let me explain my reasoning. It may help your family figure… [Read More]
Paying for College: Laura Laing and I Take on Good Debt, Bad Debt, and Student Loans
Laura Laing (left) is the author of Math for Grownups (Adams Media, 2011). She has also been writing about college costs recently, and she and I have put together this joint post Economists recognize that debt can be good. It smoothes out consumption over a lifecycle, they say; if most people had to save up… [Read More]
