I went to a University ranked in the top 5 in the UK and top 30 in the world for free. Not because of a scholarship or bursary or anything, it’s just free to go to Uni in my country so some of figures quoted in this thread seem fucking incredible.
While I agree exactly with Itera - as OHAI pointed out in India (probably whole of asia) failure of parents is failure of family. Failure of son/daughter is failure of parents. No right or wrong - thats the way we are brought up as a kid. My father paid every single penny till I studied (except for the CFA cert) and so I believe I owe it to my son to pass on the benefit I got.
So I think I tend to agree with greenie as well, he didnt get that favor and doesnt necessarily feel the need to pass it on. Again no right or wrong game I guess.
Edit - and its wonderful to know the different cultures and the way they work. My good old scottish friend could not believe that in India mostly parents find a match for their sons/daughters 
I had to explain him atleast a couple of times how my marriage is still a success inspite of being arranged by the parents and we live happily for the last 11 years!
agree 100%
Don’t know if you guys read this story, but this pissed me off and I’m sure it will piss off some of you as well.
https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/21-year-old-sues-parents-for-college-tuition-and-104767331362.html
Going through this right now, but at a different level. I have a five-year-old and the ex and I are going through the process of applying to some private schools, a couple of which go K-12. One of them is $21k per year for kindergarten. If our daughter gets in, we’re seriously considering going there. The good news is that my ex - who is not my favorite person on the planet - pays for half of it.
My perspective is that I’d rather invest heavily in the younger years, to get my child into the best elementary and high schools, when the influence of those around her is most pronounced. I went to public schools through 8th grade, but for 9-12 I switched to a private school that was filled with high achieving types, and had high expectations for its students. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the positive peer pressure of such an environment. I think those years are where a person’s character is really formed. If that’s the path, then the idea is that my daughter can go to any college that wants her, but she’ll have to probably take out some loans and beg for financial aid, like I had to. And a person with strong educational character can totally obtain a great education at a state school.
$21k for kindergarten?? WTF?? My kindergarten must have been extremely hacksaw.
My wife and I have $100K in student loan debt and I reallydon’t want to put my kids through what we went through. That is in no way meant to blame my parents or her parents. It was the two of us who made all sorts of terrible decisions that led us to this point, but I’d like to give my kids a chance to go to school, bang it out in 4 years without worrying about rent or food or textbooks and then go start being a wealth building member of society. I’m 6 and 10 years away from my boys going to college, but I know there is a 0% chance I’ll have the money to just give them, so I imagine I’ll be signing on the dotted line. My parents have said they want to pay for the grandkids college, and I’m all for that, but nothing has ever been set aside or put into a 529, so I don’t know how serious they are about it.
$21K kindergarten is why we can’t have nice things.
$21K is relatively “affordable” for elite K schools. There are some that charge $40K+. You would be amazed at the lengths some people go to in order to get a spot for their kid at one of these schools. A direct quote I heard a while back was, “There are only 3 good kindergarten schools in San Francisco.” Really? 3? The entire rest of one of the biggest cities in America is hacksaw. That kind of talk would make even itera blush.
If you can afford it, it’s probably not a complete waste of money (it’s only “mostly” a waste of money). You get to network with all the other dads who can afford to overpay for early education, which could be valuable depending on your line of work.
I get the networking angle, but for my money, I’d rather join a country club and let Junior hoof it to the public school bus with the rest of the proletariat.
In another thread, I mentioned how the UHNW people tend to fiercely guard their money and intend to pass 100% of it on to their kids. Ohai said that how a person got their wealth in the first place usually dictates how they want to see it passed on. If they were born wealthy, they’re more likely to want to pass it down, and if they worked for it, they’re more likely to make their kids work for it. I wonder if the same is true with college.
And about NYU - somebody recently asked me where I would go to school if I could pick anywhere in the world, on somebody else’s dime. I said NYU–because it has a good pedigree and there’s also a certain cultral experience to being in such a diverse school in New York City. (Remember–if you want to work in finance, there’s no better city to be in, and there is simply a geographic advantage to going to school in the city.)
And to those who say NYU is a hacksaw school, and you might as well go to Local State…NYU is ranked #10 on USNWR business schools. (Behind Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, MIT, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, Columbia, and Dartmouth.) I think those who say NYU = shit are simply trying to out-big-dick each other on an anonymous forum.
nyu ladies > columbia ladies
is your dad a chemist? maybe he can go breaking bad style
jesus. k school more expensive than most colleges. this world is messed up
Retired medical device engineer. He never made a lot on an annual basis, but being heavily invested in a company that doubled in price and split 5 or 6 times in the 80’s and 90s’ and issued a few 100% stock dividends does wonders for your portfolio.
NYU Stern is hacksaw school and Im in agreement on that, but I do consider it a “top 10” school, and I know colleagues from there that do really well. The school preps you for wall street, has solid connections, you can do internships during school etc… There are a LOT of opps to make the experience into a really awesome expereince beyond the classroom that will set you up really nicely. A lot of other schools can’t offer those things.
It will never have the allure of Harvard or Wharton, but the top kids are survivors and fighters
part time NYU totally deserves a super rusty salt-covered hacksaw though. no doubt there.
There is a definite pressure among the professional class to send their kids to private schools rather than public. I don’t think that same pressure was there when I was growing up (I’m older than most of you, so we’re talking the 80s). I went public from K-8 and then switched to private after having a horrifying educational experience as an 8th grader. I got a D in science. My dad wasn’t impressed with the teacher or the school - though it’s where my sister went before me - and pushed hard for me to go to the private school. I’m glad I did.
As a parent, it’s difficult to accept public school for your child (and I only have one and doubt I’ll have another, at least anytime soon) when you have the means to pay for better schools. The public schools aren’t terrible where I live, but it’s tough to think you’re doing the best you can for your kid by putting her in public and saving the money. And like I said, my ex would pay half. It would not be too incorrect to say that I’m fine with throwing $10k down the toilet if my ex also has to do the same; but in this instance, my daughter would be getting a great education.
I think the thing that hurts NYU is the lack of exclusivity. NYU pumps out graduates at an epic rate. As a result, you can’t swing a dead cat in NYC without hitting 47,815 NYU grads square in the head.
The account has been open for 10 years but I have only been serious about it for the last 4 or 5. Going back to the “how much do I spend each month” thread: I automatically put $750 a month in the 529. And if she goes to Stanford or Harvey Mudd, it still won’t be nearly enough. Damn.
Challenge accepted.
Edit: Kinda back on topic. My company offers a 529 match. Can’t pass up free money even if I didn’t want to contribute to them, which I already was. It’s a great benefit.