A growing number of parents across the nation are expecting their child to contribute more towards their college tuition, a new survey conducted by Discover Student Loans found.
Out of 1,501 U.S. parents of college-bound students, 38 percent expect their child to bear more than half of their college education cost, which is seven points higher than in 2018. Only 28 percent of parents said they would cover the entire cost of college.
More than one-third of parents had these conversations with their child at the beginning of high school, while a whopping majority of 80 percent of parents have already discussed it beforehand.
With the rise in the cost of higher education, about two-thirds of parents reported not having enough money to pay for their child’s education, while 70 percent said that price won’t deter them from considering their child’s college choice.
Then how will parents pay for their child’s education? Almost 60 percent of parents said they are relying on scholarships and grants to cover the cost, as most of them are not willing to use savings, student loans, college savings plans or other loans to foot the tuition bills.
“Our survey shows that more parents are now expecting their children to share in the responsibility of paying for their own college education, which reiterates the importance for parents and students to have conversations about paying for college early and often,” said Nicole Straub, vice president for Discover Student Loans.
A similar survey conducted by COUNTRY Financial had found that parents are willing to incur an average debt of $31,000 to cover the cost of their child’s college education, with six in 10 parents predicting that they will only be able to cover 60 percent or less.
More than half of American parents are also making financial sacrifices such as cutting back on vacations, using savings, borrowing money or undertaking part-time jobs to afford extracurricular activities like SAT or ACT prep classes, private sports, music, language or art lessons and hiring an academic tutor to improve the chances of their child getting into a top-tier college.
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