Poll of the Day > Did you parents pay for the cost of your college education?

(+) Yeah! (+)

topic
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No. I had my GI Bill.

how much does the g.i bill pay for? is it all 4 yrs, room and board, books?
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Nope. I never went to University. I assume that's what you mean by College when talking to a Brit.
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They paid for all of it, but it wasn't too bad.
Got a full tuition scholarship. Room and Board was pretty expensive even so, plus meal plan, books...
Entire college with all costs included probably cost my parents a bit over $30,000.

Or to put it another way, the cost of one year's tuition alone at the college my sibling went to (w/o any scholarships)...

They and my grandma gave me a little as a graduation gift, but expected me to pay for most of it. I worked enough hours that I never needed to take out a loan or anything.
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A little, my dad payed for my first year at community college (around $5000), but after that I was on my own. Through tricking the aid department into thinking I lived with my mother (which technically qualified me for a "poverty" scholarship) and working all summer I managed to get out of college with about $25K in student loans which I payed off in about 3 years.
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UT1999 posted...

how much does the g.i bill pay for? is it all 4 yrs, room and board, books?

36 months full time. Plus money for housing and $1000 a year for books.

Cacciato posted...

$1000 a year for books.

That's like two books
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My family's in the low income bracket, so financial aid pays for most of it.

Kana posted...

Cacciato posted...

$1000 a year for books.

That's like two books

Beat me to it.
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Blue_Thunder posted...

Kana posted...

Cacciato posted...

$1000 a year for books.

That's like two books

Beat me to it.

Joking aside, I don't think I ever paid more than $500 per semester for books, and I almost always bought new books rather than used ones whenever I had a choice. I think the most expensive textbook I ever bought was $80.

Admittedly, however, this was also 20 years ago.


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They paid for none but I lived with them while I went.
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I started with a full scholarship from my grades in high school.

Part way through college, I became very ill, and it led to my scholarship being stripped from me.

After I recovered, I finished college with a combination of paying directly out of pocket, and taking on $20K of loans.

Parents never paid a dime.

My parents helped me with books. Rest were loans.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Joking aside, I don't think I ever paid more than $500 per semester for books, and I almost always bought new books rather than used ones whenever I had a choice. I think the most expensive textbook I ever bought was $80.

Admittedly, however, this was also 20 years ago.

It's not a lot better now but getting them online probably wasn't as easy 20 years ago. I almost never buy my books from the school bookstore because it's never the best deal I can find even on a new book.
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Yes and no.

I brokered a deal between two family friends that made some good money. Dad said "congratulations son, you just paid for your own college".

So yes and no. Dad took it to the end zone but I called the play and made the pass.
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Tuition, books, house, car, food, everything
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Cacciato posted...

No. I had my GI Bill.

Same.

So thanks for paying for my college, guys.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Blue_Thunder posted...

Kana posted...

Cacciato posted...

$1000 a year for books.

That's like two books

Beat me to it.

Joking aside, I don't think I ever paid more than $500 per semester for books, and I almost always bought new books rather than used ones whenever I had a choice. I think the most expensive textbook I ever bought was $80.

Admittedly, however, this was also 20 years ago.

Truly a different time. I'm not sure if even one semester's books would have been under $500 if I bought everything new. The absolute worst was buying books that wound up not being used during the course or used minimally. Generally made me want to go up to the professor and demand compensation for the book.

On the upside, some of the history, english, humanities, etc, courses I took I was able to get books cheaply, from a library, or get a copy from the professor. Humorously enough, I wound up borrowing a library copy of Pride & Prejudice -- large letters, because that was the last copy they had -- then was given a copy later and had some difficulty reading it since my eyes had gotten used to the larger text and the text was slightly smaller than usual on this copy.

Kana posted...

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Joking aside, I don't think I ever paid more than $500 per semester for books, and I almost always bought new books rather than used ones whenever I had a choice. I think the most expensive textbook I ever bought was $80.

Admittedly, however, this was also 20 years ago.

It's not a lot better now but getting them online probably wasn't as easy 20 years ago. I almost never buy my books from the school bookstore because it's never the best deal I can find even on a new book.

Yeah, first few semesters I got bled at the book store before wising up.
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I paid for the entirety of first year, half each of second and third, and all of fourth.

So my parents paid ~25% of my bill.
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Yes they did. They did tell me that I shouldn't count on inheritance and that the only "inheritance" I will receive is the gift of education.
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Financial aid did at first. I'm on my own now.
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no, I paid them rent while also paying my own way through.
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they paid for my first semester, then nothing, then they randomly came around and paid for my most recent semester. so like 1 year out of probably 5 and a half (I'm not done yet)
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I only took three classes before deciding it wasn't for me. My parents paid for it though.
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Kana posted...

but getting them online probably wasn't as easy 20 years ago

Was kind of impossible.

Best you could really do was go to the local Barnes & Noble or similar bookstore and hope they had a copy of whatever book you needed, but it was rare that they would (since they don't really sell textbooks, per se). Buying used was a better bet, but selling used textbooks back to the store was a sucker's deal.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Kana posted...

but getting them online probably wasn't as easy 20 years ago

Was kind of impossible.

Best you could really do was go to the local Barnes & Noble or similar bookstore and hope they had a copy of whatever book you needed, but it was rare that they would (since they don't really sell textbooks, per se). Buying used was a better bet, but selling used textbooks back to the store was a sucker's deal.

We had a group of friends that would "rotate"books between us. So one semester someone would buy the book from the book store, then sell it to another friend for about 3/4 of what they payed for it, then they would sell it to another friend for 3/4 of what they payed for it, and so on until the last friend sold it back to the book store. In the end, we all got a good deal out of it.
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For undergrad they didn't pay any tuition, just helped with smaller living expenses whenever scholarships ran out. For grad school they pay the remaining tuition bill after scholarships are dispersed.
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No, the state paid for my education. One of the few merits of living in a socialized shithole. Just make sure not to drink the kool-aid of state funded schools.
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The total cost of my two degrees was just over $30000. My parents had contributed to a scholarship trust fund from when I was a baby until was 18. This covered about $9000 of it. The rest I paid myself, and was able to avoid student loans.
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My parents didn't pay a dime.

My grandparents did
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Nope

Kana posted...

Cacciato posted...

$1000 a year for books.

That's like two books

If you buy new like a pleb. I bought all mine second hand or off Amazon and paid like 200 bucks total per semester.
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XlaxJynx007 posted...

Kana posted...

Cacciato posted...

$1000 a year for books.

That's like two books

If you buy new like a pleb. I bought all mine second hand or off Amazon and paid like 200 bucks total per semester.

I was about to say this. I was a business major so I bought new or rented almost everything. The only things that had to be new were some of my accounting books and a few maritime books.

wwinterj25 posted...

Nope. I never went to University. I assume that's what you mean by College when talking to a Brit.

In the US, a university consists of multiple disciplines -- so they'll have a School of Business, School of Mathematics, etc. A college focuses on only one discipline. So if the institution doesn't have multiple colleges, it as a whole is a college. So, since not every school is a university, "college" is the blanket term for higher education.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Kana posted...

but getting them online probably wasn't as easy 20 years ago

Was kind of impossible.

Best you could really do was go to the local Barnes & Noble or similar bookstore and hope they had a copy of whatever book you needed, but it was rare that they would (since they don't really sell textbooks, per se). Buying used was a better bet, but selling used textbooks back to the store was a sucker's deal.

Yeah, basically your only option online would have been amazon, and I don't believe they sold textbooks in the late-'90s. I think online textbook sellers were just starting to appear around that time.

I remember when I was attending the community college in my hometown, they must have been involved in some sort of collusion since the local bookstore carried some textbooks and were charging the same as the CC's bookstore.
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I don't know, it depends on how old Library Genesis is. That was what I used in college for all of my books.
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