Comments on: When Parents Pay/Don’t Pay for Their Kids’ College Education

By: Harald Koch@facebook

Harald Koch@facebook — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:44:50 +0000

I’m surprised nobody’s yet mentioned that, once you’ve graduated, your marks are irrelevant. Or, put another way: What do they call the person who graduated last in her class in Med School? “Doctor”.

By: josefinastrummer

josefinastrummer — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:58:00 +0000

My parents paid for most of college and that encouraged me to do as well as I could, because I didn’t want to waste their money/disappoint them. I remember having to show them my grades, just like in grade school, and I thought that’s just how it was, because they were paying for those grades!

By: P.J. Morse

P.J. Morse — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:38:51 +0000

It may be that the students whose education isn’t paid for understand what is at stake. If they can’t graduate, they may miss out on some good opportunities. As for the rich who aren’t smart enough for a scholarship, they can take risks. They have a safety net.

Then again, my cousin who just started attending a brand-name school and who was going to pay with a mix of financial aid and her parents’ money just decided to drop out after a semester. She wanted to live closer to her boyfriend. So you may as well throw basic teenage romance into the list of factors if someone will succeed or fail.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:39:49 +0000

@readyornot I don’t think either of those are methodological flaws. She has to control for SES, otherwise the cohorts are “rich parents vs poor parents” as opposed to contributing parents vs non-contributing parents. Ditto merit-based scholarships- the question isn’t “does money make a difference” but “does the source of money being your parents’ chequebook make a difference”. Plus, I imagine the latter is a way smaller sample- very few people get a full academic ride from a merit scholarship compared to the number of people who get parental support. I didn’t download the article yet though because I don’t have access to academic journals from my home computer, but if you did I’d be interested to know if she talks about study limitations!

By: readyornot

readyornot — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 03:16:06 +0000

Erm, hate to be the social science wet blanket, but that study did not control for merit-based scholarships. It just took into account parental contributions. So there have got to be some kids who have zero parental contribution, but aren’t paying anything either because they have a scholarship from their smarts.

AND ALSO: the author controls for parental socioeconomic status. I don’t want to go even wonkier, but essentially what that means is she is looking at the grades of students with different levels of parental contribution but the same socioeconomic status. I think, a lot of times, those things would move in the same direction, and when they don’t, they’re weird, and can bias your estimates.

By: TARDIStime

TARDIStime — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 03:03:36 +0000

@hopelessshade That whatever reason? You’re probably “overqualified”.
:(

By: hopelessshade

hopelessshade — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 02:09:03 +0000

Well, this explains my brother, but I was personally unable to conceive of not getting high grades.

(Conversely, for whatever reason, he is employable and I am not…)

By: probs

probs — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:55:01 +0000

Interesting! This isn’t consistent with my anecdotal experience, but I’ll trust their data over my anecdotes when it comes to drawing large conclusions.

By: Abi Olvera@twitter

Abi Olvera@twitter — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:32:44 +0000

Couldn’t this also be because those who are not depending on their parents need to focus on their GPA much more in order to keep being competitive enough for scholarships? I was meticulous with my GPA, obsessing about it, crying when I first got an A-, because I was so afraid to not being able to win scholarships. I wouldn’t wish that stress on anyone.

By: megadith

megadith — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:01:55 +0000

Interesting. I had to pay my own way and work all through high school, college, and grad school and while I did fine (about 3.5 GPA, 3.9 in grad school because they hand out As) I think I could have been a straight-A student if I hadn’t had to spend every evening and weekend working. What difference would a 4.0 have made in my life now? Zero. So.