Here’s Your Diploma. Now Where’s Our Donation
Students about to graduate won’t soon forget their schools. That’s because many private and public schools are asking new alums for donations, and graduating seniors are giving at what are described as record rates, reports The Post’s Jenna Johnson.
“The goal is not only to collect extra funds, but to instill in students a sense of obligation and philanthropy that will make them lifelong donors,” Johnson writes.
Alumni are being encouraged to give to a general university fund, scholarship program, a department or student club that was a major part of their education, Johnson writes.
Besides, schools aren’t expecting five-figure or even three-figure donations. Typically donations are around $20. Of the $30.3 billion donated to colleges and universities in 2011, $7.8 billion came from alumni and the rest from foundations, corporations and other sources, according to the Council for Aid to Education.
Celebrity Cash
Nadya “Octomom” Suleman has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, claiming she has $50,000 in assets and $1 million in debt, reports the Associated Press.
All Suleman’s children were conceived through in vitro fertility treatments. Her octuplets are the world’s longest-surviving set.
“I don’t think you can get farther, deeper down into the rock bottom, than we are at this point,” Suleman explained in an interview with HLN’s Dr. Drew. “[My kids] are healthy [and] safe. They don’t feel it. I do. All the weight is on my shoulders.”
Suleman’s children may be too young to know what’s going on now, but soon enough they will feel the weight of their mother’s reckless decision to have so many kids without a long-term means of supporting them.
Feedback to Kindergarten Loans
I received a lot of responses to last week’s Color of Money question: “What do you think of the trend of well-heeled parents taking out pre-college loans to pay for their child’s private-school tuition?”
The National Association of Independent Schools found that roughly 20 percent of families that applied for aid to pay private school tuition for their children from kindergarten through 12th grade had annual incomes of $150,000 or more, according to 2010-11 data, reports Annamaria Andriotis of Smartmoney.com.
“If they can’t afford to pay for kindergarten, how do they imagine they will afford the next 16 years of schooling?” said Andrea Sherman of Chevy Chase, Md. “Do they anticipate simply accruing debt for 16-plus years like some kind of perverse reverse mortgage? I hate to think what the compounded interest would add up to, but I doubt seriously the child would ever earn enough ‘extra’ to recoup the investment. In a time when financial advisors are questioning the wisdom of accruing debt for college, this seems way over the top.”
“Insane!” is what Kelli Denard of Chicago says of the kiddie loans. “If it’s that serious, instead of spending all that money on tuition, the parents could either: have one work and one stay home to home-school or hire a tutor,” Denard said. “I understand that parents want the best education for their children. I have, however, heard that some parents pay tuition for private school because they want their children -- actually it’s the parents -- to network with people of high status.”
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