From: kgatling@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Keith E Gatling)
Subject: Re: Child's Education
Organization: Manlius Pebble Hill School; Dewitt, NY
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 21:36:29 EDT

Laura McGinnis mentioned in a previous post how much her daycare costs are
compared to what a private school would be later on and that they plan to
put the difference (private school being cheaper) in the bank for their
kids' future education.

Cheryl and I just reached roughly the same conclusion today after looking at
a possible daycare center today (which is another story altogether, which I
may post later on).  At $110/week, it would work out to about $5280/year if
you consider that as a teacher I get the summer off.  Since I'll be teaching
at a private school, our kid's tuition will be free, and all we'll have to
pay will be lunch and book fees...a whopping $700/year, which would still be
$4500 less than we were paying for daycare.  The remainder, which we were
living without anyway, would then go for her/his future college education.

And speaking of college educations, let's not forget that state schools are
a great value.  I know of many people who are "sticker snobs" and insist
that private schools have to be better, but that's not necessarily the
case.  My wife's father is a professor at Syracuse University, and as a
result, she and her sister got to go to SU for free...well not
quite...tuition was free, but they still had to pay the other fees, like
room and board, etc.  Later on Cheryl decided to get another degree...in
nursing...from a state school.  Her parents said that paying the whole shot;
tuition, room, board, and books; for her at SUNY Stonybrook worked out to
less per year than just paying room, board, and books, for her sister at
SU.

One other thing, although this is a long way off, try to make sure that you
and your kid consider some of the smaller colleges and not just the major
name brand universities.  You may not have all the status at a smaller
school that the big name implies, but you may get better attention from
faculty members who really enjoy and are allowed to teach, as opposed to
being trapped in the "publish or perish" maze.  I also read recently that
one of the big differences between the traditional black colleges and the
big name universities is that at the big name schools the attitude is "look
to your left, look to your right, one of those people won't be here by the
beginning of next semester" (your basic sink or swim attitude) while the
traditional black schools have more of a "we're going to do everything in
our power to see to it that you get a good education, graduate, and become a
well rounded functioning member of society" attitude.  And you know, it
might not be a bad idea to see a few more white students at some of the
traditionally black colleges...first of all, they're good schools, but
secondly, it might be the only chance they get to see what it's like to be
the minority on campus.

Oh well...enough for now.

--
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* Keith E Gatling                                  kgatling@mailbox.syr.edu *
*          Opinions?  I've got plenty of them.  Just ask my wife!           *
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