Creative ideas to offset college tuition?

I've got nothing to offer! Single mom with my oldest in college to a tune of $52,000/year. After scholarships and his loans, I have $18,000 a year to pay! I will probably be dead before the loans are paid off! LOL
 
I don't know what your current job situation is, but can you earn more at your job or can you get a job if you don't have one?

Our college payment plan included me going back to work. I started back 3 years ago (after 10 years off to raise kids, etc...) and it has worked well for us. I have 2 kids in college right now, one at a private and one at a public school......A large portion of my paycheck goes to college, but at least we don't have to take out loans to do it. I am in public education though and it is a needed field, so it wasn't that hard to get a job in it.

And I think I mentioned this on your other thread (that was yours?) but our policy is that we will pay full price for the flagship public college in our state (around 25k per year with everything included) and if you go to a school that is more, you pay the difference. My son at a private art school will owe the $10k difference per year when he graduates. He will take out the full amount offered in government loans and then pay us back for the difference we paid upfront.

We don't use parent plus or any other loans because we don't want to pay the fees (isn't PP a 3% fee plus interest?) if we don't have to.

The above is working well so far, but we will see. Private school boy has 2 years left, so hopefully our best laid plans won't derail.
 
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Hi Everyone, OP here!
Sorry, I just got a notification today about the latest threads. I started quoting and there were just too many, so I'll try to just respond to most of the questions/comments using my very poor memory.

We will not use any of or defer any contributions to our retirement savings; that was never an option. I mentioned using cash savings for a retirement home that I'm not sure I really want anyway (that's all DH). We have plenty of time to re-save for that.

For the former LSU graduate living in CA now- Geaux Tigers! I work full-time at LSU and still love it! We do have a decent community college now (BRCC), but it just won't work for art school. First of all, he has AP credit for all of the non-art classes that he will need to take, so he won't be "wasting" money on that anyway. And, like I wrote earlier, the art schools start on major course work from day 1. You cannot just transfer in very easily. In fact, for his school, he had to apply to his major, and there is very little room, if any, to transfer to another major even at the same school.

He is majoring in Illustration, not scientific illustration. He researched the field and believes it gives you the greatest flexibility in terms of types of careers you can have.

He is going to Ringling College of Art and Design, not SCAD. I can't remember if we knew that when I started the thread, so I may not have included that info. SCAD was on the short list he narrowed down, though. SCAD is a very large art school and has a very diverse student body. You only had to submit a portfolio for admission if you wanted a scholarship; in fact, when we visited there, the admission's rep said that they have many students who have no art experience, but they choose the school for other reasons. I believe those stats someone posted regarding how SCAD is a poor investment must reflect, if not be completely skewed towards, those students. SCAD has an excellent reputation in the field and the talented students do very well after graduating from SCAD.

He has freelance jobs lined up all summer; he is starting on some murals for a veterinarian hospital next week! He will start with a small work study job at school, but he will have to see how much free time he has to work beyond that. I hope he gets an RA position, but we will just have to cross our fingers on that one!

DH is a STEM guy, and I am in social work. Neither of us is an artist, and we knew nothing about the field previously, so I completely understand when others say things that are not accurate like, "You cannot make money in art." Illustrators work everywhere: Hospitals, universities, every major company, NASA, movies, animation, advertising, journals, any publications, self-employed, etc. There are very few industries that do not employ illustrators. The salary range for the good ones is much higher than the $40k someone posted.

(Please envision me laughing at my "objectivity" for the next statements.) My son is incredibly talented and driven. He wins all the juried competitions he enters, and he got into every art school to which he applied. Besides LSU, he only applied to the best art schools, and he got scholarships at every one of them, and he got maximum scholarship at most of them. This has been his one and only passion since he was a toddler- literally, the 3-year-old boy was drawing every where he went and impressing people. I've said it a few times already in this thread, there are no guarantees in life; I personally changed my major and schools many times. But, if there ever can be a sure thing in terms of what a person wants to do, this is it for this particular kid.

I've said this a few times already, but I'll repeat it since there were a few innuendos of us not treating our other two children fairly. We are very practical, budget-oriented people. We don't finance cars, we paid our house off in less than 10 years, etc. If our kid could get this degree at a cheaper school, then we would steer him there or tell him he is on his own. As of right now, our other two want STEM careers. They will more than likely have plenty of opportunities living at home and going to LSU, so that is the plan for them. A veterinarian degree from any school is going to probably amount to the same earning capacity; so, the full-ride at LSU (fingers crossed!) will work for them. If they decide they want to go to a "better" school, then our support will be less. The same just does not hold true for illustration. There are other, cheaper schools that offer it, but the difference in quality of program is just not worth the risk. At Ringling, he will have internships (where most of the students are eventually hired) and recruiters are there all the time. For just a bit more, he will have a better education and infinite more opportunities.

After the initial feeling of nausea passed, I asked myself what the worst case scenario was. (Yes, he can fall off the deep end and never finish, but that is not likely to happen to him.) Realistically, a poor return on investment would be that he gets a job making $40k/year. He will be able to supplement with freelance, and he is extremely interested in publishing his own books/comics, any way. However, even if he never makes a lot of money, he will be very, very happy getting to work at his passion. And that is completely worth any amount of money we sacrifice for him. I KNOW this is what he was created to do. Art is not just something he does, it is who he is. Who am I, with my practical, budget-minded brain, to stand in his way of that?

I started this thread not asking for help in figuring out how to get education for him cheaper, as we were already certain that this is the best path. I was looking for some ways to offset it with tax deductions, credit card bonuses, etc. I am grateful for all the responses and enjoyed the spirited debates. We are so confident that this is the right route for him; I included the above information not as a justification but just an FYI. If all of my kids were like my younger two, then I would agree with many more of the posts that I do. Things are just different in this situation.

As for the plan, we still don't know what it is. We are leaning more towards letting him max out the federal student loans and then we will do the rest. I am taking the advice to look at one year at a time, which is so much less nauseating than adding up the 4 years. Our goal is to have him owing no more than that federal amount; whether or not we can bank roll the rest or will have to take loans, we will cross that bridge in a couple of years. We've lived a life avoiding debt so far, so I hope that we are able to continue that!

I am very excited about his future and cannot wait until he gets started. Thanks again everyone!
 
I would do everything possible to avoid debt especially if he's headed to Art school. He will be crippled if he comes out with hefty debt in a low opportunity/pay field.

I truly do understand where you're coming from as far as wanting your kid to have all the opportunities at the best fit school. My DD22 graduated last May with a degree in Interdisciplinary Art & Design - Design Management. We were cool with her pursuing a passion because we could fully pay. She had a 75% Merit scholarship for tuition but that left us with the other 25% and 12,000 per year Room and Board as well as tons of incidentals.

You mentioned that you have no mortgage. Neither did we so we cash flowed the full cost by reallocating mortgage money to college and then put off major purchases and cut our annual vacation budget in half for the 4 years. We did not cut retirement contributions nor take on debt ourselves. She was fully employed with benefits as of last June with a job in marketing at a bank. She left that job in January for her dream job as a PR and Social Media Specialist for a major US Brand.

Since she graduated last May, we've added a gorgeous patio to our house and have been to Key West, Vegas, and leave in two weeks for the Riviera Maya. It was 100% worth the sacrifice to put these things off to launch her.
 



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