Don’t you just love the body language? I bet they aren’t discussing the relative merits of apples vs. orange juice as a breakfast starter. The title of this post is a good question for high school juniors (soon to be seniors) to be asking their parents/guardians as they go down the path of college lists/applications/FAFSA that lurks a few months in the future. This would be an interesting polling question (using service like PollEverywhere) to gauge your classroom and get a sense of how many of your students can’t answer the question.

It would be even better to know years ahead of college to provide an ample runway for students to accumulate savings through summer/part-time jobs. Ok, I know I am old-fashioned on this one as I have been told time and again the common refrain “kids don’t save these days.” My response is somewhere along the lines of “have we helped them set goals that provide that extra incentive for them to save?”

Ok, back to the original question, I was surprised to see these results from a recent survey from a financial services firm:

“…parents are slightly less worried when it comes to having the funds to pay for college while nearly half, 48 percent, expect their child to pay for all or most of their education, up from 39 percent in 2012.

“While a vast majority of parents still report that they want to help their children pay for college, it’s clear that students are being asked to take on more financial ownership than in previous years,” said Danny Ray, president of Discover Student Loans. “With an increase in responsibility comes the need to be prepared, and we encourage families to have discussions early and often on how to pay for college.”

So, half of students are expected to pay for all or most of their education. I wish the survey had asked the students the same question to see how many of those students know that their parents have this expectation. Frightening to think that even in the few states that have made personal finance a graduation requirement, many don’t cover the topic of paying for college. So, it is likely that students may not know that they are responsible for paying for college and even if they do know they often aren’t getting much help to figure it out.

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Check out the NGPF Case Study: Save Me in which a high school student has to quickly devise a savings plan to cover his college expenses.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.