--- title: 10 Strategies Parents Are Using to Pay for Their Kids' College description: According to a new College Ave survey, parents plan to pay for college with income and savings, student loans, 529s, scholarships and more. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Education - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2024-06-11T14:37:36.000Z' section: Education tags: - News word_count: 473 canonical: https://money.com/ways-parents-pay-for-college/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We may earn a fee if you click on the links below. Compensation does not determine ranking. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![School building with hands sticking out to receive payment.](https://img.money.com/2024/06/News-Parents-Pay-Tuition.jpg) The vast majority of parents plan on helping their child pay for college — but less than half know how they’ll cover the cost. Findings in a new survey from student loan provider [College Ave](https://www.collegeave.com/press/majority-of-families-save-for-their-childs-college-education-less-than-half-ready-for-the-first-tuition-bill-finds-college-ave-survey/) show that parents really do want to support their kids in getting college degrees. Among the 1,000 parents of current college students surveyed, 93% said they intend to pitch in to pay for college, and 75% said they’ve set aside some savings for that purpose. Of the parents who have been stashing away money for college, the average amount saved is $45,000. That's laudable but probably not enough. It’s less than half the full price for one year of tuition, room and board and fees at the nation’s most expensive universities, where costs now top $90,000 annually. That $45,000 also won’t cut it at schools where prices are more reasonable: According to the education nonprofit [College Board](https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends%20Report%202023%20Updated.pdf), the total cost of attendance for the 2023-2024 school year averaged $28,840 at four-year public colleges for in-state students ($46,730 for out-of-state) and $60,420 at four-year nonprofit private colleges. Understandably, many families haven’t nailed down how to handle these expenses. Just under half of the parents surveyed said they had a plan to cover the full cost of their kids’ college education. Equally unsurprising: 78% of parents said that paying for college is stressful, and 71% found the actual costs involved to be higher than they anticipated. ## Getting a cosigner for your Student Loan can open up new opportunities. ### The help of a cosigner with good financial history can drive down your interest rates. Find out how much you can borrow today from College Ave by clicking on your state. [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/u6b1850df97a?ap_referrer=%2Fways-parents-pay-for-college%2F) ## How parents are paying for college Here are the most popular strategies parents say they’re using to pay for their kids' college: - Income and [savings](https://money.com/best-high-yield-savings-accounts/) (93%) - [Grants and scholarships](https://money.com/scholarships-grants-for-college/) (62%) - [529 account](https://money.com/best-529-plans/) (44%) - [Federal student loans](https://money.com/benefits-of-federal-student-loans-vs-private-student-loans/) (42%) - Student contributions (36%) - [Parent loans](https://money.com/best-parent-loans-for-college-parent-plus-and-private/) (19%) - Second job (17%) - [Private student loans](https://money.com/student-loans/) (16%) - Money from [retirement account](https://money.com/best-roth-ira/) (10%) - [Credit cards](https://money.com/best-credit-cards/) (10%) Bear in mind that all of the survey participants already have one or more children in college right now. Parents with younger kids aren’t included, which explains why the percentage of those using 529 plans, for example, might seem high. (Other [research](https://www.statista.com/topics/1561/saving-for-college-in-the-us/) indicates that roughly 20% of parents overall have 529 savings plans, which offer tax-free growth and other benefits for investments so long as the money is used for qualifying expenses.) If you’re wondering about the smartest strategies for covering the hefty costs of higher education, check out Money’s guide on [how to pay for college](https://money.com/how-to-pay-for-college/). It’s also critical to choose the right college to attend in the first place. Money’s annual [Best Colleges](https://money.com/best-colleges/) list features schools that offer the best value for your dollar by factoring in financial aid, graduation rates, alumni salaries and more. ## When looking into Student Loans, a solid cosigner can make a world of difference. ### Lenders will take into account your cosigner's credit history to determine the amount you can borrow. To learn more from College Ave, just click below. [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/u31c3976f95e?ap_referrer=%2Fways-parents-pay-for-college%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/24903/medium_b6089714-807b-4b5a-88f9-defb35d74711.png) Reach new academic heights with College Ave [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/y61180a308af?ap_referrer=%2Fways-parents-pay-for-college%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/ways-parents-pay-for-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": "10 Strategies Parents Are Using to Pay for Their Kids' College" } ] }, { "@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/ways-parents-pay-for-college/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/ways-parents-pay-for-college/", "name": "10 Strategies Parents Are Using to Pay for Their Kids' College", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-06-11T14:37:36.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/ways-parents-pay-for-college/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/ways-parents-pay-for-college/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "10 Strategies Parents Are Using to Pay for Their Kids' College", "articleSection": "Education", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/06/News-Parents-Pay-Tuition.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-Parents-Pay-Tuition" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2024-06-11T14:37:36.000Z", "description": "According to a new College Ave survey, parents plan to pay for college with income and savings, student loans, 529s, scholarships and more.", "abstract": "According to a new College Ave survey, parents plan to pay for college with income and savings, student loans, 529s, scholarships and more.", "@id": "https://money.com/ways-parents-pay-for-college/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Julia Glum", "url": "https://money.com/author/julia-glum/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/julia-glum/#author", "description": "Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. 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