Big jump in Georgia college tuition. Prepay?
With Georgia’s education budget shortfall, it’s looking likely the Board of Regents will consider a major tuition increase this year (2010) for Georgia’s public colleges.
[edit: this post was originally written march 1, 2010. On May 11, Georgia did raise tuition for public universities by up to 15%. Private schools have not yet increased tuition.]
If you’re sure you’ll send your son or daughter to a Georgia school, now would be a good time to pre-pay tuition. Unfortunately, you can’t do that for Georgia public universities. I guess you have to hope the Hope Scholarship will remain in effect and your child will keep a 3.0 GPA in college to remain eligible. Call me if you want to discuss tradeoffs of using a 529 savings plan versus other college savings methods, for Georgia public schools.
So what about Georgia private schools? There is a prepaid tuition plan available for many of them. Agnes Scott, Emory, Berry, Clark Atlanta, Mercer, Spelman, and others. Even though these schools aren’t under the budget pressures Georgia public colleges face, pre-paying makes sense to avoid any future increases — as long as you’re sure your child will be attending.
For out of state, you can pre-pay at schools such as Furman, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Samford, Duke, Rollins, and many others. The university itself makes the tuition guarantee. Call me if you want more details.
Mike Dayoub is a fee-only planner in Alpharetta/Milton and a tax preparer at H&R Block. 770 361-3139 website
