Congratulations! You have four years of tuition, room and board stashed away in your 529 plan, and your child hasn’t even graduated from high school yet. Now you can breathe easily, right? Well … maybe, maybe not.
The published cost of college attendance can vary substantially from the actual cost for numerous reasons. The primary contributor to this variance is that a surprisingly small number of students graduate in four years. In fact, only 63% of students graduate within six years at public institutions according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Now before you blame your child for taking too long to get that degree (and blowing your budget), understand that getting the classes needed to fulfill degree requirements at a large university can be a daunting, if not impossible, experience resulting in an extended stay. Changing majors, transferring schools and required remedial classes are other common contributors to a longer-than-expected graduation timeline.
One cost-effective way to manage the timeline is for your child to plan on taking required classes they couldn’t get during the regular school year at their local community college during the summer. Budget for this (hopefully minimal) additional expense and have the classes pre-approved so your student receives credit for their work. Also, insist that your student meet with their advisor before scheduling classes to confirm they are on the right path to meet their degree requirements. Now that you are on the four-year plan, it’s time to understand some of the other hidden costs of college.
While wandering the park-like grounds and admiring the architecture of the colleges on your tour list, it can be easy to forget a very important question: Is this a comprehensive fee? Quite often the answer is yes at a private college and hard to ascertain at a public school. To help compare apples and oranges, take a checklist of possible extra fees or expenses on your tour so you ask the same questions everywhere.
Once your child has narrowed down their list of potential colleges, find someone who has a student there and ask about the hidden extras.
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