Any Americans around? I have a question please

[breakingmews]

I met someone who has PhD from one prestigious estabilishment in the US but they said they never had a student loan?
I don’t know if their lower education was private or public but is it odd that they did all the higher education self funded?
They didn’t mention bursary and the family background does not seem particurlarly super wealthy but very comfortable I’d say.
Been talking to them for nearly a year and so far everything adds up so I don’t think it is a lie.

They could have cobbled together some scholarship funding; I don't know what it's like these days but 25 years ago it was possible - I was offered a 'full ride' scholarship at 18, so no loan needed as long as I kept to the terms (usually a specific grade point average over the 4 years).

thank you

oh so is the full schorlaship linked to performance of course?

Yes.

It is not unusal that they do not have a student loan. Around 40% of students in the US graduate without taking out a student loan.

Scholarship funding could have covered some or all of their costs. Student will work part-time and/or over the summer to help pay for college. Parents in the US will often have saved towards a college fund for their children. Likewise, grandparents will earmark an inheritance towards a college fund for their grandchildren.

oh thanks
It just seem like every American I know / hear about (I watch a lot of programmes) have student loan debt so my experience is skewed

I taught in excellent, hence rich, American universities for about 15 years.

In good universities most PhDs are funded, with all fees plus a decent stipend provided. Students are contracted to provide teaching, usually in the form of supervisions, research or a combination thereof to earn their way. It isn’t MC living but it is decent, less penurious than the British PG standard.

For UG study, PPs have given several facets of the explanation. I will add that for some time now several leading universities - this is one thing Harvard have done right - have practised generous ‘needs blind admissions’. Applicants are assessed without regard for their ability to pay and the university offers a package of needs based scholarships, grants and part time employment to make up full expenses. I believe that Harvard students with a family income below $100,000 pay nothing at all - the information is on the website. And often take no loans, either.

I do know several Harvard graduates with loans so I am not sure where they fit into the scheme of things.

Of course, some families save like mad so their DC will not need UG loans

As @poetryandwine says, PhD’s are funded. Re. Their undergraduate degree. Generous family, scholarships, etc. can potentially cover everything.

Saving for College is something many Americans do for their DC from birth. Just as we put money into a tax efficient Pension account every month, we also put money into a tax efficient College account every month.
If DS doesn't need the full amount we have saved for undergrad then the balance will be available to him for a masters and a doctorate.
I appreciate not every family is able to do this but it also isn't uncommon.

The undergraduate degree is the one that costs. Higher degrees are much less likely to cost money.

My sister has a PhD and Masters degree from Columbia. She said that if you paid money to do her degree, you weren't doing a good one... they paid for it.

That did depend on the subject though - she was doing a type of science!

It is certainly not as usual in Britain for parents to pay the full cost of their children's university education. Many students from well off backgrounds take out student loans. Quite a number of parents can be caught off guard by the parental contribuion requirements for students who do not qualify for full loans.

Saving for private education in Britain seems to be more of a thing. Grandparents paying private school fees for grandchildren is not unknown.

Yes, @BackToWhereItAllBegan , we’ve been socking away money for years and now DD ( a freshman) is using it for undergrad. Unfortunately, due to her college choice , it may not last the full four years, but it’ll cover a big chunk of it. She’s got a couple of scholarships and is applying for every type of scholarship going!

At least she’s doing a STEM major so we’re hopeful that any postgrad will be funded. 🤞

At postgraduate level in the US, a place at a good university comes with funding, whether for Humanities or STEM.

At undergraduate level the wealthy universities offer a lot of financial assistance, not just for low income families but for middle class ones too. State universities offer lower fees for in-state students and make their money on the out of state ones. And as a PP said, most American parents have a college fund which they save from birth into.

I got a "full ride" academic scholarship 40-some years ago and my daughter got a "full ride" scholarship about 10 years ago. There's plenty of academic scholarship money available for the right grades, test scores and majors.

I didn’t pay a cent for my college degree- combination of scholarships (merit based ) and financial aid (needs based) meant that 100% of tuition, room and board were covered. I also had special access to well paying campus jobs to fund social life.

we live in the uk, but would like my dd to have the opportunity to attend uni in the us if possible, and have been putting money aside from birth. This would be super common among middle class American parents - one of the first things you do when your child is born is set up a college fund that you + family contribute to. Most American parents view university as a parental responsibility, but most UK parents seem to see this as ‘extra’

@LifeExperience Not necessarily a full ride though and sometimes the family can’t make up the difference.

A student who’s offered a place at both Georgetown and Columbia (for academic achievements, not sports) isn’t low achieving, but not everyone gets 100% covered.

Luckily she did get a full ride at another university and now has a full ride for Law School. 😁 My DD is doing a particular engineering major that isn’t offered at many colleges. She has some scholarships, but doesn’t have a full ride. She has plenty of AP credits and isn’t exactly daft. She could switch majors and go elsewhere, I suppose.

It’s great that you and your DD got a full ride, but you know that most families have to contribute.

Feel like I need to interject some balance : plenty of very clever American kids don't go to Uni because they aren't clever enough to get amazing grades & amazing extra-currics and they can't afford College, otherwise.

The vast majority of American graduates get their degrees from a Uni you never heard of, a Uni that most certainly does not offer any sort of "full ride" to anyone.

American undergrads are expected to work, including PT during term time. Even at a Needs Blind institution, working PT will be expected to cover some of the cost.

My sheltered nephew... soon to finish up a degree at an Ivy League, a very subsidised place his mum spent years planning for. Right now, there is a very naive family discussion about if he'll get "financial help" to do MSc in UK... I chatted politely around this, they'll soon learn for selves.

for undergraduate, I went to a state university on scholarship and my parents paid the rest of the bills including all my living expenses.

for my graduate work, I only considered offers from universities that gave me both free tuition and a living stipend. You work as either a research assistant or a teaching assistant each year in exchange, but that is also part of the training.

Thank you, @lljkk . I felt a definite undertone that if your child didn’t get a full scholarship, it meant that they were somehow lacking! That’s simply not the case. As in many situations, it’s often the “squeezed middle” who have to make hard choices-they earn too much for needs-based support, but they can’t really pay without raiding their retirement funds, for example.

We asked one college for some additional help (DD had a partial scholarship) and were told to take money from our pensions to make up the difference! She declined their offer.

I have a US PhD (a top 10 public university.) A lot of the info above relates to undergraduate degrees so isn't really relevant. For graduate study, there's usually funding available. Full coverage up front isn't something I've come across and may be more of a private sector and/or STEM thing - makes sense of course if you're part of a larger lab setup and paid as part of that rather than coming up with your own topic. But it's quite common to be offered funding of some kind for at least the first years, often fellowship funding followed by TA positions consisting of a stipend and tuition waiver. Once you're ABD (all but dissertation, i.e. after coursework and exams) there are all sorts of dissertation fellowships available, both internal and external. The tricky part for foreign students at public universities is when non-resident tuition enters the picture as that easily doubles the living cost. In my time foreign ABDs were permitted to de-register but retain their visa and library privileges. They'd then only have to re-enroll before submitting their thesis on "filing fee status." Though it's been a few years and a lot of details may have changed - the sticker price of tuition as well as COL certainly has!