Parents gave my brother and I four years of college plus housing. On our own for everything else. If it took longer than 4, we had to find our own funding. I finished in 3.5. My brother dropped out after 5 with 108hrs and joined the military. Now he has like 4 degrees. It all worked out great for him. I'm not doing too bad either.

histag10 said:

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Well, at 30k a year for cost of attendance (not just tuition) for A&M (roughly), not everyone can afford to pay it, especially if you have more than one kid on school at a time.

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30k a year is allowing about 18k a year for living expenses.

I'm not saving for my kid's college because it will be free by then. #FeelTheBern

JABQ04 said:

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Staying in the National Guard long enough to transfer Post 9/11 GI Bill and hopefully (if it's still around) have the Hazlewood Act to use too

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Nasty Girl

ColinAggie said:

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Parents gave my brother and I four years of college plus housing. On our own for everything else. If it took longer than 4, we had to find our own funding. I finished in 3.5. My brother dropped out after 5 with 108hrs and joined the military. Now he has like 4 degrees. It all worked out great for him. I'm not doing too bad either.

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Ughhhh the know it all NCO.......did he stay enlisted or go ocs/green to gold?

He's stayed enlisted. He would actually take a pay cut if he were to go OCS. I think he'll be E7 by the end of the year.

Had some scholarships, but still paying on student loans from undergrad. 17 years later I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The state effectively paid for my masters. I didn't take on any new dept for grad school.

My son will have more assistance than either my wife or I got. He'll have enough for tech school or to knock out the basics at a community college. I hope he wants to go to A&M, but if he does, I hope he gets scholarships and works his a-- off.

Pro Ag said:

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histag10 said:

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Well, at 30k a year for cost of attendance (not just tuition) for A&M (roughly), not everyone can afford to pay it, especially if you have more than one kid on school at a time.

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30k a year is allowing about 18k a year for living expenses.

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Right. So assume 1k / month in rent and utilities (living off campus). Down to 6k for food, transportation, books, and misc. for the rest of the year.

Damn, I never paid more that $180/month when I was off campus, and allowed myself up to $80/month on food. Had a paid off clunker truck, and insurance was pretty cheap.

After utilities cable and internet, I paid about $600 or $650. I know those costs have gone up quite a bit since then.

champagnepapi said:

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JABQ04 said:

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Staying in the National Guard long enough to transfer Post 9/11 GI Bill and hopefully (if it's still around) have the Hazlewood Act to use too

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Nasty Girl

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Ouch! The old nasty girl comment. I'll try to console my feelings somehow.


I did eight years active duty as a 13B. Got all the chest candy I wanted. Wanted more time at home and a job that allowed for a better future. I'm happy.

JABQ04 said:

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champagnepapi said:

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JABQ04 said:

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Staying in the National Guard long enough to transfer Post 9/11 GI Bill and hopefully (if it's still around) have the Hazlewood Act to use too

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Nasty Girl

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Ouch! The old nasty girl comment. I'll try to console my feelings somehow.


I did eight years active duty as a 13B. Of those 8 years, two were in Iraq, one was Korea, and 9 months in Afghanistan. Got all the chest candy I wanted. Wanted more time at home and a job that allowed for a better future. I'm happy.

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Thank you,

I worked my way through TAMU starting at 14. I own my Ace card.

My friends and I used to make fun of all the "daddy" kids at grade school. Get a few years of life under my belt and I can see it is all jealousy. Probably because I hated things I never got to experience out of spite. Haven't seen a cent from the parentals since I was 15 or 16 (nor would I accept it since I am a proud sumbeech).

Thankfully I did some stuff for Uncle Sam and that is putting me through school (sometimes). School can be crushingly expensive if completely on your own and young with no job or life experience. There are ways of course. But all come with a price. Mostly stupid amounts of stress and debt.

So kudos to those who help out your kids. Real talk. The struggle is real without yall.

RealTalk said:

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I'd vote for WWW to get an S tag if that's something he wants.

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I got something he wants

/slowly unzips pantaloons

We plan to pay for the majority, if not all, for our kids. We have 4 kids so it will be expensive. We save in a 529 and contribute monthly. I work part time and likely when they are in college I'll go back full time and cash flow whatever we haven't saved. That's the plan, life happens, things could change.

Self I used the GI bill and worked. The oldest we are using the Hazelwood. Hazelwood just covers tuition but we are still thankful for it. Kid lives on campus so we still have to pay for that.

I've got a bunch stashed away for them but it probably won't be enough without having to supplement with something else. Luckily my daughter, who is dead set on working for NASA, plans to go to A&M and major in Aerospace Engineering. She has already been looking into ROTC programs so maybe we can get the Air Force to cover under the GI Bill.

My son isn't quite as ambitious, he'll probably end up barking for the Yak Woman at the carnival.

Mix of my parents, my savings/work, scholarships. I lived on about a $1000/mo budget. No car.

My inlaws sent both my wife and SIL to private schools. Paid for every penny of tuition, books, and housing. My BIL got a football scholarship (wife turned down 3 D1 basketball offers, you know that has to chap my inlaw's ass), so they got a break with him.

I paid for my tuition and books at A&M and my parents covered my living expenses along with a monthly allowance to use for some fun. Loans back then were cheap. I left A&M with like $20k in loans for 4.5 years and refinanced them all after graduation for 1.9%. My monthly payment is less than I'll spend for dinner tonight.

Dang. Sounds like the cost of living went way up. Walton was $1300/semester and the meal plan was around $700. I would take a crap ton of food home from Sbisa each week. Scholarships paid for most of it. Working paid for everything else.

I have a bother and a sister and am the youngest. My parents made us all a deal when my brother started that we'd get $5k a semester. For my brother, that covered it and was enough to live on. By the time I went to school that covered about half the cost of attendance. Luckily I had scholarships to cover everything. I don't think he would have let me go into major debt but I don't know for sure.

I received some grant money. My parents/grandparents paid what they could, but most of my college was financed through loans. My parents kept paying a small portion of the loan (my mom would deposit $200 or so in my bank account monthly) after I graduated until I finally refused it. Paying down my debt was always my top priority and my parents were surprised when I called them within a couple of years and let them know I was debt free.

Parents paid for my undergrad completely. So thankful for that.
I went back for a 5th year to get my masters and took out a loan for that.

ursusguy said:

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Had some scholarships, but still paying on student loans from undergrad. 17 years later I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The state effectively paid for my masters. I didn't take on any new dept for grad school.

My son will have more assistance than either my wife or I got. He'll have enough for tech school or to knock out the basics at a community college. I hope he wants to go to A&M, but if he does, I hope he gets scholarships and works his a-- off.

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Damn...have you just been paying the minimum each month?

Low-income scholarships and grants.
A&M and Corps scholarships.
Small loan to cover summer school.

I'm still paying for two of my kids who have graduated from A&M and one who dropped out of college.

I had to tell the rest of them that they were on their own.

The next one to graduate high school is considering an electrical apprenticeship or trade school to be a welder.

Dad-O-Lot said:

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I'm still paying for two of my kids who have graduated from A&M and one who dropped out of college.

I had to tell the rest of them that they were on their own.

The next one to graduate high school is considering an electrical apprenticeship or trade school to be a welder.

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Likely more valuable than a 4 year degree

Paying for 1 at A&M right now and daughter will be a freshman this fall at A&M . Having paid for private school since Pre-k college is no difference. Not going to let my kids start off life with student loans.

Son of proc was paid for, all 4 and 1/2 years at A&M. We live pretty simply, and the Texas Tomorrow fund was a big help.

Procita has a 529 and God willing she will graduate debt free also. I am eternally grateful that we spread our kids so far apart.

I've had a love for A&M all my life, but my daughter is staying local (Lamar) and live at home. Much cheaper all around and just as good education. I plan to pay for all of it. Want her to start adult life with no debt. It was done to me and can't say how grateful I am. Want to give the same to her.

Parents had Texas Tomorrow Fund that paid for me to go to A&M. I was on my own for law school with loans. Will have the $173k note paid off next March (That's in less than 6 years). Saving an ass load on interest.

V8Aggie said:

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Parents had Texas Tomorrow Fund that paid for me to go to A&M. I was on my own for law school with loans. Will have the $173k note paid off next March (That's in less than 6 years). Saving an ass load on interest.

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Curious, what is your interest rate? Mine is way old and sitting at 4%, so I put extra payments into everything else.

Parents told me around middle school that I could go to college wherever I wanted as long as I paid for it. I'm ashamed to say their threat worked. Busted my ass starting in 5th grade through 12th and got paid to go to college. Parents did provide a running vehicle with intermittent AC for me to drive, but I had to pay the insurance, gas, maintenance, etc. To this day my parents still have never seen how bad my grades were in college. Told them they can see my grades when they cover my tuition.

I'm a wildlife biologist and for a good chunk of that time couldn't afford more than the minimum. I never deferred, even in grad school. For the first 4.5 years after graduating, $12k was a high year for me. I literally lived out of my truck doing tech positions around the country. Got my first full time gig making a cool $31k (and I have a Masters), and thought I was living high on the hog.....I am a notoriously cheap individual.

I could actually pay it off in one sitting now if I felt so inclined.

My parents didn't pay for nothing because we were poor. However, being poor allowed me to qualify for enough Pell grant money to pay for tuition (with enough left over to use to pay for rent) for the first two years. My last 3.5 years were paid through loans.