Mom Pays for College

Hello! My name is Lana Hawkins and welcome to my blog. As a  mom of two smart and promising kids, one in high school and the other in middle school, we are approaching the time when the oldest will be leaving for college. I am so excited for her. Since she was about seven years old and watching the Discovery Health Channel (surgery programs) she has been fascinated with surgery. Her dream is to become a pediatric neurosurgeon. My other daughter is still wavering between architect and engineer.

As a parent I am grateful that they are very interested in learning and are motivated to go on to college. Whatever field of study they choose I will be supportive of them in their studies.

When I was younger my parents were not as emphatic or supportive as I am with my kids about me attending college. It took me several tries to finally finish my Bachelors Degree in Engineering. I was fortunate enough to be able to get some student loans, and join the co-op program and finally find employers that paid for my tuition. This was challenging, working and going to school. I never had any kind of “college experience” or met people from school because I was either working, studying or going to class.

I’m not complaining about my life. I think that I have been very fortunate. My parents never had a college degree. I do. However, I think that every generation needs to advance and giving my kids a chance to go to college unencumbered with a full time job would be advancement.

At my last place of employment, the company cut way down on financing college costs. And this company is in the top ten companies in the Fortune 500 ranking. If they can’t afford it who can? Also, when I went to college, the tuition was relatively much lower. College tuition costs are rising so much faster than the rate of inflation. So this all boils down to how the heck am I going to afford to send my kids to college?

I have decided that all my efforts in raising my kids, nearly alone, is not going to be wasted because college cost are going through the roof, and I have not saved nearly enough money to pay their way through four years or more of college. And I’ve also decided that life is hard enough. A person will get to face numerous character building life events throughout their lives. I don’t need to force my kids into an overwhelming debt that I wouldn’t even expect a thirty year old to take on just so they can have some reality to deal with. I’ll set a more reasonable challenge for that, like paying for their books.

I see now that forming relationships with peers is very valuable to you later in life. My kids have developed a great skill for friendship and if they can go to college and not have to work a full time job in addition to that, so much the better for them.

So what’s a mom to do? Well, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t take no for an answer. You say no to me and it is important, I start asking all kinds of questions. I’ll FIND a way to make it work if it is important to me, and this is. My primary job in life right now is to give my kids every opportunity I can manage so they get off to a great start. I’m not letting all the hard work I’ve put into them, as a single mom, go down the drain because college is expensive. Heck No!

Do you share similar concerns? Being single and female has its plusses and minuses. One minus is that on average, women don’t earn as much as men. One advantage is that women tend to over compensate to compete. I think it’s an advantage because it makes us stronger and more determined than ever. In this blog I’ll be sharing my concerns and solutions for getting my and your your kids through college.

Feel free to join the blog and leave your comments.  I’m happy to hear from you and get other opinions on this important subject.

Update 2010:  I am no longer a single mom.  I’m married and have one more kid that will end up in college, hopefully, in several years.  My oldest daughter applied to a lot of colleges and was admitted to several… AND! she received a sizable scholarship to one of her favorite choices.  I’ll write more on that later.

This site is owned and operated by Lana Hawkins who lives in Ann Arbor, MI.

email: lana “at sign” MomPaysforCollege “dot” com