The Boggle of Higher Eduction

College barely makes sense these days. In particular, Private colleges are utterly preposterous.

This isn’t about “marketable degress” or pedagogy or woke/MAGA or any such crap. I’m talking about MONEY. Those decades of cost-of-college outpacing inflation have come home to roost, and combined with the demographics crash of the post-2008 cohort going to college, I’m seeing a death spiral.

A Worked Example

My daughter went Early Action at several colleges starting in August, getting a jump on the enrollment process and working to function as a “driver” not a “passenger” in her collegiate journey. She’s been incredibly active since her Sophomore year, and we’ve visited most colleges in Texas that might even be of interest. See some of those details in college search.

Anyway I post today because I’m flabbergasted.

There’s a certain private, medium-to-large private university to our north who sent Maria an acceptance letter this past week. As part of the letter, they communicated they intended to provide an XXX merit-based scholarship. This is almost the same as I received when I went to college, when I got a full-ride scholarship. I was very proud.

Maria: “It doesn’t matter.”

And you know what? She’s right.

We’ve saved in both girls’ 529 plans since they were 3 months old. both of the 529 plans have $20k+ more than the scholarship value.

Here’s the hard truth: Attending this schoool is $80k per year. After the scholarship and her 529, she’d still graduate with $100k+ in student loans.