--- title: If You Want Your Kid to Help Pay for College, Read This description: How much should your child pay for college? Your child may need to cover some of the cost, even if he or she gets scholarship money. authors: - name: Kim Clark url: https://money.com/author/kim-clark/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 62 covers: - Education - Housing - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance social: - https://x.com/Money_College former_staff: true published: '2017-02-28T11:00:04.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T05:14:01.000Z' section: Education tags: - College - college costs - money magazine - Paying for College word_count: 481 canonical: https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![college student walking out of school with "Financial Aid" application papers](https://img.money.com/2017/02/170223_collegechippingin.jpg) You've been preparing your child for adult responsibilities for years. Now, in your kid's senior year of high school—college acceptances and financial aid offers in hand—you face a pivotal question about responsibility: How much money [should your child raise for college](https://money.com/paying-for-college-parents-children/), either through earnings or [loans](https://money.com/us-student-debt-record-new-york-fed/)? Your finances may make it necessary for your child to shoulder at least some of the cost—even if your student manages to [land scholarship money](https://money.com/college-everybody-scholarship-2016/). (Public universities average $18,000 annually after grants; private colleges, more than $30,000.) Or maybe your child's dream school is just out of your budget. And even if you can afford it all, you may want your child to help pay; having some skin in the game will help him or her take college more seriously. About half of students from families earning more than $106,000 a year put in their own money through work or loans, according to federal data. - **Read more**: [Honey, Who's Going to Pay for College?](https://money.com/paying-for-college-parents-children/) But too much financial pressure raises risks that students will drop out or that they will struggle with oppressive debts for years. Follow these guidelines to get your student's contribution just right: **Have Them Find Part-Time Work** Nearly all students can and should earn their "extras" money for items like Saturday night pizza, advises Julie Lythcott-Haims, Stanford's former dean of freshmen and the author of How to Raise an Adult. "You will be instilling in your child the idea that nothing in life is free—that stuff comes from working hard," she says. Plus, federal education data shows that students who work up to 12 hours a week—enough, at minimum wage, to raise about $2,000 during the school year—get better grades than those who don't work at all. In part, that's because a job schedule imposes discipline, says Kalman Chany, author of *Paying for College Without Going Broke.* ![Notes: Based on self-reports of “thriving” in a particular area, vs. “struggling” or “suffering.” Amounts are for undergraduate debt only. Source: Gallup, 2014](https://img.money.com/2017/02/pcl-money-april-graphic.png) Beware, though, of too heavy a load while classes are in session. Federal data also shows that working more than 15 hours a week during the school year raises the chances of dropping out. And watch out for earnings caps: Some schools cut need-based grants to students earning more than about $6,200 from nonschool jobs. (Co-op and work/study don't count.) **Put a Limit on Loans** Most experts have this rule of thumb for students: [Limit your total borrowing](https://money.com/colleges-with-most-student-loan-debt/) to your expected first year's salary after graduation. That generally means sticking with federal loans (typically capped at $5,500 a year for freshmen and $7,500 for upperclassmen). Only students certain to land high-paying jobs should consider private loans, says Chany, since those loans lack the [income-based repayment](https://money.com/income-driven-repayment-pros-cons/) and forgiveness options of federal loans. If a school is so costly that your child would have to contribute more than $9,000 annually from work and loans, "you have to be a parent and say no," says Chany. After all, students should risk a little skin—not their entire future. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Education", "item": "https://money.com/education/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Paying for College", "item": "https://money.com/paying-for-college/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "If You Want Your Kid to Help Pay for College, Read This" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/", "name": "If You Want Your Kid to Help Pay for College, Read This", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-02-28T11:00:04.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T05:14:01.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "If You Want Your Kid to Help Pay for College, Read This", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/02/170223_collegechippingin.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1413, "caption": "170223_collegechippingin" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/02/pcl-money-april-graphic.png", "width": 280, "height": 528 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kim Clark", "url": "https://money.com/author/kim-clark/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kim-clark/#author", "image": "https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_clark.jpg?crop=0px%2C0px%2C190px%2C190px&resize=640%2C640&quality=85&strip&ssl=1", "email": "Kim_Clark@Moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/Money_College" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-02-28T11:00:04.000Z", "description": "How much should your child pay for college? Your child may need to cover some of the cost, even if he or she gets scholarship money.", "abstract": "How much should your child pay for college? Your child may need to cover some of the cost, even if he or she gets scholarship money.", "@id": "https://money.com/how-much-kids-should-pay-college/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T05:14:01.000Z", "wordCount": 481, "keywords": [ "College", "college costs", "money magazine", "Paying for College" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Education", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Student financial aid in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid_in_the_United_States" ] } ] } ] } ```