Some advice for parents of high schoolers facing the high cost of college

When their kids are babies, parents often start out with high hopes that they will be able to provide them with the best college education that money can buy.

But when high school rolls around, “the fact is their kid is a solid ‘B’ student, not a super athlete and they have no savings,” Osborn said.

Yet many parents still yearn to foot the entire bill — or most of the bill — for college so their kids can avoid a lot of debt.

Some practical advice for parents of high school kids who are facing the reality of high college costs

Do:

• Make children part of the saving process as early as possible. No mall jobs? Try babysitting, yard work, dog walking, etc.
• Paying for their tuition? Start with personal savings, then go to government-backed student loans — which have low interest rates — and PLUS parental loans. Private bank loans are an option but have high interest rates.
• Use your network — family, friends, church, etc. — to help your children explore careers in high school. It will focus their high school and college studies, possibly cutting down on costs.
• Consider community college, which is far less expensive, for the first two years of undergraduate work and then a transfer to a four-year institution.
• Assess your child. Not an “A” student? A bit immature? Students often drop out after one year. Consider community college before splurging on a four-year school.
• Encourage students to make the most of high school — by looking for opportunities for college credit or dual enrollment.

Don’t:

• Use retirement funds to pay for college costs.
• Overlook less expensive in-state schools.
• Overborrow for college costs. Keep non-tuition and academic expenses to a minimum.
• Overspend on housing, furnishings or cars for college students — especially during the first few years, when many students drop out.
• Be afraid to let children take on some college debt. It will give them a bigger stake in their college success.

Starting out at community college works out well for academically prepared students

This might be good news for those who start their four-year degree program at a community college to save money.  If you’re among the 25-40% of community college students who actually make the transition to four-year colleges, your chances of degree attainment compare favorably with those students who started as freshmen there.  However, this is only true if you are similar to the rising juniors in terms of academic preparation and other characteristics.  The average community college student still lags behind in graduation rates.  Overall, these new study results are not too surprising.

… Authors Tatiana Melguizo, Gregory S. Kienzl and Mariana Alfonso present what may be good news for such students in their article, Comparing the Educational Attainment of Community College Transfer Students and Four-Year College Rising Juniors Using Propensity Score Matching Methods, which was published in theMay/June edition of The Journal of Higher Education. Using two separate statistical analyses, they found that transfer students were just as likely to succeed at four-year colleges as similar students who started at the studies four-year colleges.

The authors culled data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) on students who “graduated from high school on time, enrolled in college, and attained junior status at a four-year college either by enrolling only at a four-year college or by transferring from a community college.” The former group of rising juniors was then compared to the latter group of transfer students based on the average number of non-remedial credits they earned and their bachelor degree attainment rates.  Without controlling for any differences between the two groups, the authors found that rising juniors earned slightly more credits than transfer students and outpaced transfer students in degree attainment 73 percent to 60 percent.

Using a linear regression analysis, the authors controlled for observable, pre-existing differences between the two groups including differences in high school academic preparation, financial aid and work opportunities, county-level labor market characteristics and individual demographic characteristics. The results of the analysis showed no difference between the two groups in the average number of non-remedial credits earned and no difference in their overall rates of bachelor’s degree attainment. Similarly, a propensity score matching analysis which “allows obserservationally similar people to be compared,” revealed no differences between the outcome measures of the two groups. As such, the authors conclude that “community college transfer students earn equivalent numbers of non-remedial credits and attain baccalaureate degrees at similar rates than four-year rising juniors.” They go on to point out, however, that a relatively small percentage of community college students (25 to 40 percent) make a smooth transition to four-year institutions, and that those who failed to transfer with junior status were not taken into account in the study.

Success of Community College Transfer Students and Rising Juniors Compared

Community colleges ‘really aren’t that cheap’?

Pushing students into community colleges for the first two years of college is often touted as a major way to reduce education costs.  However, community colleges really aren’t that cheap.

Average community college E&G budget per student

Community colleges have lower total costs than public regional colleges because they do less research and public service, and provide fewer student services. Instruction costs are slightly lower, but community colleges are only providing lower division courses whereas the public regional also provides more expensive upper division and master’s level courses. In fact, instruction costs for lower division students may be higher at the community college than at the public regional college or the public research university.

The average community college cost per student of $10,985 compares with $6,705 and $9,204 for the hypothetical four-year colleges (CELS) Vance Fried created as part of his study, Opportunities for Efficiency and Innovation: A Primer on How to Cut College Costs.  However, real life public regional colleges  average $14,703, so for now community colleges still look like a good deal.

Fried’s numbers look good on paper, but if some philanthropist (Bill Gates?) would fund his hypothetical college we’d learn if it can really be done.