re: The wife and I made a difficult decision this weekend

People who put themselves ahead of their kids should never have become parents. It's part of what I signed up for when I knowingly impregnated my wife. They come first. They will be on their own eventually, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't do the best I could for them.

This is a shitty world out there and I want to give my kids every advantage in trying to make it financially, emotionally, and socially. Kids who are left to their own devices statistically are much less likely to finish college. Fact.

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This point, of course, has implications for the calculus that parent's make about their responsibility and role in paying for college.

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Lost me at that word right there. I don't see how it is a parent's responsibility to pay for their child's college education. If they choose to help pay for it, fine. But I'll be damned if it's a responsibility.

My parent's didn't pay a dime of my college education. Sure, I lived at home, but I could have lived on campus at minimal costs that could have been covered easily by working part-time. I took out a loan for part of grad school, and it sure has hell isn't handicapping me.

Don't bite off more than you can chew. That's about as simple as it can get. With the exception of a handful of programs, you don't have to go to the biggest schools anymore. You can get an affordable college degree that won't bend you over if you go into a field making a decent wage.

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Btw, here's your google search my man. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean it isn't true.

LINK

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Mr public ivy thought that was the term I hadn't heard of even when I quoted it?

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People who put themselves ahead of their kids should never have become parents. It's part of what I signed up for when I knowingly impregnated my wife. They come first. They will be on their own eventually, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't do the best I could for them.

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So I guess you will never take your kids off the payroll then.

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Why is it so bad that as a parent, I'd rather my child concentrate on school their first year or two in college than worry about working and school? The idea that the best way through college is doing it on your own financially is absurd. Its one way and its perfectly acceptable, but the best way is absurd.

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It isn’t bad if you made the financial plans to do it. If you can’t afford it and have to sacrifice your own retirement for a future of someone else that may or may not pan out it may not be worth it.

Depends on the situation really. Sometimes the smart kid that got into the high end school needs to settle for LSU instead of taking his parents retirement. Sometimes the slack off needs to go to the military or trade school instead of wasting the parents retirement on some shitty liberal arts degree.

Not every kid needs to go to college.

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They come first.

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Spoonfeeding them and not teaching them real life lessons, like finances, is not "putting them first." You're putting your own pride first.

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Online learning will.make undergrad brick mortar obsolete

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Online courses are growing the fastest at the brick-and-mortar schools, and tuition for these courses the same as a normal course. Where online learning can save big money is on general living costs for the first two years of college. That is true. But kids will still have to take traditional classes to finish their majors in the last two years.

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Good parenting is spoon feeding them everything?

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You think I was spoon fed? Man you guys have such a narrow bandwidth. Everything is black or white, huh? This bootstrap myth just isn't true for most students anymore. Sorry you feel threatened by that fact.

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Online courses are growing the fastest at the brick-and-mortar schools, and tuition for these courses the same as a normal course. Where online learning can save big money is on general living costs for the first two years of college. That is true. But kids will still have to take traditional classes to finish their majors in the last two years.

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Depends on the degree. Some schools have been pushing degrees you can get without ever stepping foot on campus til graduation. Alabama seems to be on that track.