School Responsibilities

St. Widge said

I just tend to think missing those 4 years of great experiences (to the extent you can't also have great experiences closer to home) is less important than the effect being debt free out of college has on the rest of your life. I honestly know next to nothing about finances and have made a lot of financial mistakes in my life, so I can't really tell my kid how to do all that stuff, but I can make sure she gets done with school without a huge amount of debt.

But, sure, if you can afford it and the kid doesn't have to build up debt, then sure going far away can be a great experience. That being said, I had a lot of fun during my 3 1/2 years at U.N.O.

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Well, SBTB nails it above -- it's all about the kid. If you've got that kid that's just amazing at X, and expensive school Y will foster that like no other, the debt might be worth it.

I just find it very interesting to read this thread and see others who, to varying degrees, did what I did in projecting my experiences onto my kids' college decisions. That's appropriate in moderation, of course -- for my part though, I was a young parent and so didn't have sufficient self-awareness at the time to see the extent to which I was doing so.

Anyway, I do think this is all related to the original thread topic. A kid that is taught the realities of financial literacy in high school is going to be better able to understand the various factors his/her parents have to consider in a college (or not-college) decision -- as in your case with debt being such a major factor in guiding (or forcing) life choices down the road.