Saving for college...

We've been revisiting our finances, and looking at college savings. To put our kids through college at a Wisconsin state school with in-state tuition, assuming tuition continues to rise as it has been, we need to save $250 per kid, every month until December of their senior year of college. Or, we could just let them borrow $140k-- that'll give them a nice start in life. If we were going to save enough to send them to MIT, assuming tuition and fees continue to rise as they have been, we'd need to set aside $883/month to be able to afford the estimated $578,756 cost.

Umm $578,756? How could 4 years of school possibly be worth that much? If a student borrowed that much money and paid it back over 30 years at 4.75%, it would cost $3,019.07 per month, more than $36k a year. I'd like to say this is such an absurd value, it proves that the estimates used at the college savings websites are seriously flawed, but I'm afraid I'll be wrong. After all, colleges get to sell themselves to 18 year olds with no real understanding of debt or even the value of money, and parents don't seem able to say no when their kids are opting to sell their future for a fancy name on their diploma.

My hope is that the coming generation will think long and hard before taking on the debt a high-priced college education is likely to require. Mainstream magazines are already questioning whether college is "worth it". Thanks to the internet, there are many degree programs from reputable universities available to anyone with an internet connection, and typically at a much lower cost than attending on campus. It's true that a student who attended college online wouldn't get the real "college experience", but there could be advantages to an online program, such as working in your field while in school. With the growth in options to traditional colleges, I believe traditional institutions won't be able to let tuitions rise unchecked indefinitely. If they don't get their costs under control, attending college in person may become a luxury few people are willing to afford.

At the very least, I hope that if my kids choose traditional colleges, they go with an appreciation for the unique opportunity college can be, and a plan to get the most out of it. I will be certain they understand the cost of whatever debt they take on. Not having any student loans has given my husband and I a lot of freedom in deciding how our family should live. I would love for my kids to have that same freedom, but if "the experts" are right, it may require some hard choices on their part.