Don't borrow money for school...it can hurt you and those close to you...

[dfrecore]

One of the things I've noticed from friends with kids who are Juniors and Seniors in high school is the whole "where are you going to college, which college have you chosen?" Parents are teaching their kids that this is THE most important thing in the world. It's ridiculous. It's like telling your kids that the 4 years they spend in high school are the MOST IMPORTANT ones of their lives. They're NOT!!!

I have been talking to my kids about what they want to be when they grow up. You may need a college degree to do that job, in which case we'll decide where to go for that. But really, WHICH college they go to is so unimportant. The local CC & 4-yr college down the road is as good as any. There will be so many more years AFTER college that will outweigh anything you do IN college.

From the article where the girl said she was glad she'd chosen the private college rather than the public one: "The truth is that college is four years of your life, which is much too long of a time to spend unhappy." Really, for those of us who are adults and have some life experience behind us, it's completely the opposite; four years is such a SHORT amount of time in the big scheme of things. We are supposed to help our kids figure out how this all fits into the rest of their lives, not make it seem as if it IS their lives.

Another great quote: "The truth is that college debt is temporary." She may spend the next 20 years paying off her debt. She thinks that 4 years is too long to spend unhappy at college, and yet 20 years of paying off debt is "temporary." I'm assuming Her parents didn't spend a lot of time discussing this with her, and pointing out that these 2 things directly contradicted each other.

Actually, with how she speaks in the article, I don't think her parents spent much time discussing anything important with her at all. Leaving choices like this completely up to a 17-year old high school senior is quite possibly the stupidest thing a parent can do. Kids need more guidance than this, and someone to speak a little sense into their lives. But many parents are so enamored of the thought of their kid going to some great college that they completely leave reason out of the equation. Someday, I'm hoping common sense will be back "in" and parent will stop their kids from going $50k into debt because a college campus is pretty!