Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). This was an earlier post I did estimating DL's college costs:
DL's expected net college costs:
$32,000 Tuition/fees
-10,000 tax credits
-16,000 CA middle class grants
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$6,000 Net cost
Probably minus some increased middle class grants in the future, which could easily net out this cost to $0.
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DL's actual net college costs (Years 1-3):
$24,686 Tuition/Fees
+ 1,100 Parking Fees
+ 0 College Laptop (paid with credit card reward)
+ 314 Orientation, books, supplies
- 7,500 Tax Credits
-11,590 CA middle class grants
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$7,010 Net cost
In the end, grants decreased a little bit re: political budgets and games. I believe the grants were set to drastically reduce last school year, but then were saved at the last minute. In the end, I think the grant is basically the same all 3 years for DL (probably about where MM maxed out). But his college is a lot less expensive (no outside room/board to pay) and so the amount is ~$4,000 per year. (MM received more because it's a % of total college costs). $4,000 (per year) is what I originally estimated re: DL first year grant. I would personally not count on anything next year but will see where things land.
We technically should be eligible for lower income grant this year (full $6,000 to cover tuition; this does not cover fees). But even this middle class grant number is just a first pass/estimate at this point. Nothing is set in stone. It's all clear as mud, at this point. It will be clear when the money hits my bank account.
In the end, DL(20) is probably on track to spend closer to $10,000 on his degree. What is notable is that $10K was the cost of my own college degree. Which I considered to be extremely affordable, 30 years ago. Factoring inflation, he's paying about 1/4 as much for a similar (State) degree. The full sticker price has scaled with inflation. The very low (net) cost is due to college tax credits and state middle class grants that did not exist 30 years ago.
Note: While looking up actual dollar amounts paid, I figured I would share *all* of the costs. I consider my first estimate to be a really rough estimate. 'Actual costs' include every college related expense that we paid to-date.
DL(20) is just living at home, and so these are *all* of his college costs. Commute becomes a bigger college expense in this situation, but he is paying for all of the car/commuting expenses. He was. MIL just gave me the annual $1K for the kids' gifted college funds (she forgot last year). So this was the first time I just passed on the money to DL(20). It's just enough money to cover the fuel for his college commute. The money might stretch a little farther this school year, now that he has a more fuel efficient vehicle.
August 24th, 2025 at 06:34 pm 1756060489
August 26th, 2025 at 03:48 am 1756180117