Parents Tell Kids to Borrow More for College
Parents coo and cheer as kids take their first steps, speak their first words, and eventually gambol through those schoolhouse doors. Lurking in the background though is a slowly building dread that culminates with another first: the college application, and the mountain of tuition bills it foreshadows.
Half of U.S. high school graduates this year had better forget about mom and dad paying for all, or even some, of their college education, now a six-figure proposition at even middling schools. A new survey from Discover Financial Services found that 48 percent of parents think their child should pay a portion—or all—of the cost. Four years ago, the same survey found 39 percent of parents held that opinion. That parental piggy bank is shrinking.