For one family with four children, the end of day care and braces did not bring the financial relief they expected. Instead, middle-class college costs pulled them back into debt just as they were starting to regain their footing.
The mother, who wrote about her experience, said she and her husband had looked forward to a phase when money would not be so tight. With two children still in high school and two in college, they assumed they would have extra cash for sports and other activities. That assumption proved wrong.
A Familiar Squeeze
The family falls into a common category: they earn too much to qualify for need-based financial aid but not enough to pay tuition comfortably. After completing the FAFSA, they learned their children would need to take on some debt, and the parents would help as much as possible.
Their son chose a local state school to study computer science. He received a small scholarship and planned to live at home, which made his tuition somewhat more affordable than his sister’s. Because a Parent PLUS Loan was not offered to them, the family took out a personal college loan and cosigned it. The mother will remain a cosigner until that loan is paid off, which could take years.
Their daughter earned thousands in scholarships after achieving a high GPA while completing an associate degree at a local community college. She had attended that college for free through a pandemic-era program for high school students in Maine. Even with the scholarships, a tuition shortfall remained. The family was offered a Parent PLUS Loan, capped at $20,000 per year per child, which became the parents’ debt.
But even with the parent loan, the daughter’s federal loans and scholarships, the family still lacked enough to cover tuition, a meal plan and a dorm room. The daughter attends a state school 2,300 miles from home, and the family faces additional costs for travel and out-of-state attendance.
Limited Options
The family considered other schools, but the daughter’s institution is one of the few in the United States offering a Bachelor of Science in forensic psychology. They ended up taking out another personal loan, which the mother cosigned. That loan carries a high interest rate despite her strong credit score, though she expects to be released as a cosigner once her daughter begins making payments.
The mother said conversations with friends confirm that many families are struggling with the cost of higher education. This phase of parenthood has forced them to readjust their finances once more.
To manage the burden, the mother is considering a third job, and her husband continues to work as much overtime as possible. They hope to make payments on both children’s loans while the students are still in school so that the debt will be smaller at graduation. The mother also carries a small balance on her first graduate school loan, which has been deferred because she continues to take college courses to advance her career in education.
Her greatest worry is that her children will spend decades repaying debt they took on to pursue careers with livable wages and room for advancement. Sometimes she wonders whether the cost is worth it. She hopes it is.
