Chris Boehm, Director of Admission

The phone is ringing off the hook today. Some families asking for more time, others asking for more financial aid, others just are asking for help. These days provide us with a lot of excitement; when a student we really like decides to enroll. But there are also the lows when students decide to go elsewhere. Admission people do get excited about individual applicants, especially at a small school where we really get to know our applicants. We sometimes agonize over the decisions as much as families do.

I sometimes use my blog as a therapeutic instrument and I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity right now. In my ten years in admission I have never experienced a year where families have asked and even expected the College to provide excessive amounts of financial aid because of their (the families) lack of planning toward their son or daughter’s college savings.

Times have changed. We (parents) cannot expect to pay for a college education through income. While colleges and universities do attempt to provide aid, it is not their responsibility to make up for poor planning. The average family has a college savings for their children of $6,000. Not responsible parenting if a family has the means to save.

I heard on the radio that American’s have a feeling that it is “weak” to save money, we are more likely to borrow at low interest rates than save to pay for a project. This attitude sometimes does not resonate into paying for a college education. A family will spend $20,000 on a new kitchen to add equity into their home, but the thought of taking a loan at to invest in a student is taboo.

We do everything we can while to offer the best for our children while they are young. We buy safe cars, buy athletic equipment, give up weekends for to travel to our kid's activities, buy computers, but we (Americans) don’t plan ahead nearly as much as we should. A college education is expensive. It may come cheap. The difference between the lifetime earnings of a high school and college graduate is $1.3 million. The government, colleges and universities attempt to assist families with easing this burden, but it is not their responsibility to pay for it.

I am off on a tangent that my not apply to as many families as I feel like it does. My recommendation to families, save! Instead of leasing the third car, save! Instead of buying a shore home, save! Instead of redoing the kitchen, save! I have friends who don’t have savings plans for their children, but they buy new cars and have maxed-out credit cards. This message needs to get out there. This is important. I apologize for the negative delivery. I promise that future entries will have a more positive slant.