Should Your Teen Help Pay for College?

It's that time of year again, time to fill out financial aid
forms for college.

Our family is a proud member of the American middle class, the
portion of the population that is not eligible for any type of
government grants for college. Several years ago we found
ourselves footing the entire bill for our daughter's college
education.

So should your teen have to help pay for their college education?
I have heard many points of view on this subject.

If your family cannot afford to pay for your teen's college
tuition, then of course your teen will have to at least help pay
in order to attend college. This is especially true in families
where there are several children who will be attending college.

I also know of families that could afford to pay for their teen's
entire college education, but they instead expect their teen to
pay the bill if they want to attend college.

Our family fell into a category where we probably could have paid
for all of it if we really cut back on all of our other expenses,
but my husband and I decided that our daughter should help pay
for part of her tuition.

If your teen knows he or she will have to help pay for their
tuition, it will influence which college they attend. They will
definitely take the cost of tuition into consideration. When
looking for colleges, don't let them rule out private colleges.
Although public colleges are usually less expensive, our daughter
chose to attend a small private college that costs about the same
amount as a large public college.

It was fairly easy for us to determine how much to have our
daughter help pay for her tuition. When we filled out her
financial aid forms her first year of college, she qualified for
a small government student loan and some college work study. The
work study allowed her to work on campus about 10 hours a week
and the money she earned she paid toward her tuition. This is
great because this money goes straight to her expenses. Her
student loan is approximately $2300 per year, so after she
graduates she will have a total of about $7000 in student loans
to repay. Her second year of college she didn't qualify for work
study but she was able to keep her job anyway...many colleges
have jobs on campus that aren't only reserved for the work study
program. At first I was afraid the work study would be too much
in addition to school work, but we have found that 2 hours a day
has not gotten in the way of her schoolwork in any way.

Between student loans and work study our daughter is paying for
approximately 30% of her total education expenses. My husband
and I took out a loan to pay the rest.

We are very happy with the arrangement we've made with our
daughter. We didn't in any way want to burden her with huge
student loans after she graduates from college, especially if we
had the means to help her pay for it. On the other hand, we also
wanted her to appreciate it more by feeling she had helped pay
for it.

There are many ways to reduce the price of college tuition, so
make sure to do your homework and don't wait until your teen is
ready to graduate from high school to start looking into your
options. Our daughter, only a slightly above average student,
attended community college for a year and a half during high
school, earning both high school and college credits. These
credits made it possible for her to attend only three more years
of college to get her four-year degree, saving us an entire year
of college tuition. The total of our portion of our daughter's
college education amounts to what many colleges cost for only one
year of college. Not too bad!

Article by:

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For more inspirational articles and tips for everyday living, visit www.christian-parent.com

This article is available for reprint with author's resource box intact and all links live and clickable. Copyright is reserved by author.

Click the XML Icon to Receive 7. Teens Articles Via RSS!