[Andy911sc]

I spent close to 80k for the small private college I went to (Student body of 1500). Westminster College in Pennsylvania. Came out with a BS in Chemistry. While I enjoyed my tenure at Westminster, I would probably do it differently today. Yes, I had a lot of hands on and personal attention from professors at a college that small. I had some classes of only 5-10 students and some of my professors numbers in my cell. This was over the years 2003-2008, I took a year off in there to work and bank some money. I majored in something that would get me into the industrial/manufacturing job market and have been successful, but here is the difference I would have made.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have spent 2 years at a community college to get all the electives and lower level major courses out of the way. That way I could have lived at home and worked more to pay for the lower cost community college. After that, I would have transferred into a college that I wanted my BS to be from. The college I went to was 27k/year at the time and I had about 8k in scholarships for tuition/room/board. Today my same college is 42k, only 8 years later. This pricing is ridiculous in my opinion and I would have probably done something completely different if I face those prices today.

If you are paying for your daughters education, kudos because that will help her greatly once graduated. If not and she is planning on paying this after she achieves her degree, with deferred interest she is looking at a minimum of 2k/month payment on those loans. In today's job market, expect her to struggle with those payments.

I had a friend major in Latin at my college. She is now working in a bakery and trying is struggling to pay close to 1k/month in student loan payments. Make sure you evaluate the practicality of your major to today's and in 5 years job demand.

Also, you can only right off a total of $2500 on your taxes in student loan interest per year. If you pay any more than that, then you are just throwing money away.