Back in September I wrote a post about paying for college. In it I talked about how CootieGirl’s 529 savings plan would cover the first two years of college if she went to a small two-year local college while living at home, and that scholarships and loans would most cover the rest. But y’all, over the past week I realized a lot of things. And I took those realizations to CootieGirl and together we solidified a path for her to go to college – not just college, but the college she currently has her heart set on – and graduate with a minimum of college debt.
One realization was the fact that our South Carolina LIFE Scholarship is not a one-time gift of $5,000 towards tuition – it is an ANNUAL gift, as long as the student maintains a 3.0 GPA and takes a minimum of 30 credit hours in the prior school year once they are in college.
The second realization was the fact that CG’s college of choice allows the transfer of almost every single class offered at our local two-year college.
The third realization was that if CG goes to the local two-year college while living at home, and takes 15 hours per semester, and gets the SC LIFE scholarship, then she’d be able to get through her first two years of college basically for free (in actuality, she’d have $500 left over to pay, but my company offers children of employees an automatic scholarship of $500/year if they attend college, so her first two years would truly be FREE).
The fourth realization was that if she is able to do that, then she could then transfer with all of her credits INTACT to the college she wants to attend, and the LIFE scholarship combined with her 529 Plan and my company’s small scholarship would then basically cover her entire junior year – tuition, room and board AND a meal plan – in full (and maybe even have some $$ leftover).
At that point she’d need only worry about her senior year. She’d get the $5,000 LIFE scholarship, get my company’s scholarship, do work study, use any leftover 529 funds and she could look and see if she can qualify for any other scholarships. At that point MAYBE she’d have to take out about $8-10K in loans to make up the rest.
That’s 1/4th the amount of the national average for college loan debt right now, y’all. And that’s AMAZING.
CG is on board with the plan, and as long as she doesn’t pick a school that is more expensive than the one she currently wants to attend, she’ll be on track.
As for CootieBoy, he doesn’t have as much saved in his 529 plan, but he overheard the conversation I had with CG and he has said he, too, is interested in doing a similar plan once the time comes. The good news is we have one extra year to pump money into his 529 plan to help him out as much as possible.
