Elise Forster
Sending their children to one of the esteemed colleges in the World is the dream of every parent. Students also keep on fantasizing right from their childhood that one day they would study at the best educational institution and make a name for themselves. However, converting this into a reality is not that simple as it seems to be.
The last decade has seen a massive hike in the yearly fees of colleges all over the World. Most of the college administrations support the hike by saying that the extra money will be utilized in giving better facilities to the students. However, these extra facilities will naturally come at a cost.
In this post, we will be addressing a topic that has been the center of discussion for quite some years now. Who should pay the college expenses of a student?
According to some people, parents are supposed to take care of all their expenses starting from the elementary school until the time they graduate from the college. However, few of them are of the opinion that not paying for their child’s education will be the best option. It would teach them the value of each and every dollar and in return would train them to earn it by themselves.
Below are some of the issues that need to considered before making a final choice regarding who should pay the expenses. Should it be the parents or the students? Let’s have a look.
One Must Be Realistic
According to a survey, a majority of the parents are of the belief that their children are extremely talented and by the time they reach college they would definitely earn a scholarship. There’s no harm in having such a belief however, there is no guarantee that it would turn out the same way as it is intended to. Here there are few important things that need to be considered.
If a student doesn’t qualify for the scholarship then what will be your next plan of action. Definitely opting for a loan will be the way to go. In such a situation, you should decide that what will be the total amount of loan that a student would be able to pay comfortable in time, once he is out of the college.
Differentiate Your Requirements & Desires
This can be explained in a better way by taking an example. Say a student has got an admit from two colleges. One is a very high rated private college and the other one is state funded. The private college has yearly fees of $50,000 whereas the sate funded one will provide you the same education at $10,000 yearly. Take a situation where the student is not from a privileged family. In such a case, even though the student would want to take admission in the private college but he has to content himself with the other option.
Do Parents need to make all the sacrifices? No
There is a common notion that it is the duty of the parents to do whatever is possible from their end in meeting the needs of their children. However, this should not be the case. Parents also need to make sure that the loan that they take on behalf of their children must be paid at least in 10 years or strictly before their retirement. If the situation gets out of control then the children must rope in. They should think of the sacrifices their parents made for them and see this time as a payback.
Have We Arrived At A Conclusion?
Having a clear cut choice after the above discussion is not possible. However, like every situation, this one also needs to be handled according to its merits. Firstly, there is nothing wrong in asking a student to pay for his own education. It would make the student know how to lead his life in a better way and also give him a better work ethic.
But one point that needs to be taken care of over here is that post graduating from a college the student must not be under a massive debt. This would make the student pay off his debts for quite a number of years. If the parents are competent enough in acting as a helping hand then there is nothing wrong in doing so.
