13 YOU WIN! PAY BANK $140,000
For parents, the scary part begins after the letter comes.
As long as her parents can remember, 13-year-old Katie Hart has been talking about going to college. Her mother, Tally, a financial-aid officer at an Ohiouniversity, knows all too well the daunting calculus of paying for a college education. Last year the average yearly tuition at a private, four-year school climbed 5.5 percent to more than $17,000. The Harts have started saving, and figure they can afford a public university without a problem. But what if Katie applies to Princeton (she"s threatening), where one year"s tuition, room and board--almost $34,000 in 2002--will cost more than some luxury cars? Even a number cruncher like Tally admits it"s a little scary, especially since she"ll retire and Katie will go to college at around the same time.
Paying for college has always been a humbling endeavor. The good news: last year students collected $74 billion in financial aid, the most ever. Most families pay less than full freight. Sixty percent of public-university students and three quarters of those at private colleges receive some form of financial aid--mostly, these days, in the form of loans. But those numbers are not as encouraging as they appear for lower-income families, because schools are changing their formulas for distributing aid. Eager to boost their magazine rankings, which are based in part on the test scores of entering freshmen, they"re throwing more aid at smarter kids--whether they need it or not.
The best way to prepare is to start saving early. A new law passed last year makes that easier for some families. So-called 529 plans allow parents to sock away funds in federal-tax-free-investment accounts, as long as the money is used for "qualified education expenses" like tuition, room and board. The plans aren"t for everyone.
