We live at n the States and have to pay for university. Wow, the cost!

[Wenjie]

My oldest got her first acceptance. It's in-state and public. After the excitement and congratulations, I looked at the financial aid package. It's just over $38,000 usd

Tuition & Fees $17,339.00, Room & Board $17,428.00, Books & Supplies $1,181.00, Other Expenses $2,210.00.

In the meantime, yeah, try to get her involved in work study. The good news is that this can actually help train her professionally, depending on what it is. In some cases there are research studentships to help professors with things (labs, etc.), in other cases work that develops skills sets (tech stuff, social media, even just admin), and in a few cases it's systematic (libraries, health centers, box offices, etc.). Honestly, if she thinks of it as getting paid for developing her resume, it might not feel awful.

@Nancydrawn The Cal State and University of California schools are court ordered not to accept any test scores for this year and next, and have announced they'll be "test-blind" for the two years after that. So, working on test scores could help her with privates and out of state schools, but not in state.

I should definitely get her involved in work study. That was a really good tip. Thanks.

Did one of my postgraduate degrees stateside - a whopping US$70k.

Have an American friend living in the UK begging his son to go to uni here instead of the US and that he is willing to give him all the money a 4 year degree would cost in the US at his chosen school to buy a house here in the UK, but his DS is adamant he wants to go. Friend says although he can afford it and has been saving since birth-he can't abide "wasting" all that money and wants it to go to an asset instead.

$38k USD is £26.8k UK.
DD is at London Uni, I think sum all costs for her to live /attend there are under £23k/yr. Only that much due to it being London.