How my son saved 2 years and $18,258 in college tuition

One of the most difficult things that will slow down your path to FIRE is debt. And one of the most common sources of debt is the student loan. It sets your financial independence timeline back by years, and even worse, you gotta pay it off using post-tax dollars. Smarter people than me have figured out ways to optimize for financial aid and scholarships. Those tips are awesome, and we'll get to those in future posts. But what my son and I did was a lot more predictable and available, and helped us slash his college tuition by more than $18,000. We also halved the time he’ll need to get a degree. How? Two words. Dual Enrollment.

What is dual enrollment?

Dual enrollment is the practice of allowing high school students (typically in their junior and senior years) to also be signed up for college level classes. By doing this they earn credit for both the GED and the college degree. It is also called concurrent enrollment, and the way it is rolled out varies from state to state. In some states, students go to community colleges and state universities for college-level classes that earn them credit for their GED and at the tertiary institution they attend. In others, students take college-level classes at their high school, taught by educators who are certified as required by the state. One of the key benefits of dual enrollment is the potential to give high school students a head start in college. This might save them up to 1-2 years at the college level. That is in itself a sweet deal. But even sweeter is how much money dual enrollment can save you if you are planning to put your kids through college. How much you can save depends on:

• whether your state has a dual enrollment policy in the first place.
• and if so, how many credits it will pay for each student per quarter.
• Whether you are able to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities in tuition fees.

 

Our Case Study: Washington State’s Running Start Program

When my son was in high school several years ago, it became clear to us that he was headed for a stint as a soldier. Knowing that his years in uniform was going to put him behind his schoolmates, I looked into ways to help him catch up. Well, my research opened up the path for him to shave 2 years off college and saved us more than $18,000 in tuition fees. When he was done with his military service, he was able to slide right into his Junior year at the University of Washington. Ok, he took a year in-between the army and college to launch his Amazon FBA business, did well, THEN slid right into his Junior year.

The math:

Here’s how the math worked for us: In 2016, the cost for 180 credits over a four-year program at the University of Washington was $36,516. This is tuition only, and excludes all other fees and costs associated with pursuing a degree. What we will end up paying in total when he graduates next year: around $18,258, spread out over 6 quarters. Financial aid and scholarships will bring that number even further down, but I’ll exclude that at this time to keep things simple. Washington State’s dual enrollment program is called Running Start, and allows for 11^th and 12^th grade students to take prescribed courses at community and technical colleges in the state. As of 2016, Running Start paid for up to 15 credit hours per quarter, per student. There were some expectations that had to be met, such as a 2.0 GPA (yes, it's a very low bar), and courses that had high school equivalency towards a GED. In our case, those 15 credits were worth $1,283.85 at the community college my son went to, per quarter, or about $7,700 for 90 credits over six quarters. That’s a nice chuck of change, courtesy of the Washington State legislature!

But wait, there’s more!

If you picked the courses carefully, you could line up a solid curriculum that would count towards an associate degree, which could then be transferred, credit for credit, at the University of Washington. Research and consultations were essential to successful credit transfers and building a foundation of prerequisite 100 and 200 courses that would be accepted at the University of Washington. Some courses weren’t actually part of the GED core requirements, but we were able to get them paid for as electives. Other courses were so desirable that we paid for them out-of-pocket because they were needed for his associate degree and would transfer as an equivalent pre-requisite. Thanks to the concept of tuition arbitrage, we were able to more than double the value of the $7,700 the state paid for Running Start. Assuming 20 credits per quarter, here’s what the tuition arbitrage looked like for my son:

• A credit cost $81.07 at his community college.
• A similar course would cost $184.45 per credit at UW.
• The tuition arbitrage was $103.38 per credit, IF those credits were transferable.

It was like getting a great discount on tuition, again PROVIDED the credits from the community college could be transferred. This meant that if my son could load up on one extra course a quarter (worth 5 credits), we could save $103.38 x 5 = $516.90 a quarter, or $3,101.40 over 6 quarters. Yes, we had to pay 100% of the 16^th-20^th credit hours (since the 1^st 15 credits were paid for by the state), but a savings of $516.90 or 56% was an excellent deal! By the time my son shipped out to boot camp, we had check all the boxes he needed to graduate from high school with a GED AND an Associate Degree in Integrated Studies. We also found an unexpected bonus – since he was transferring with an Associate Degree into UW, he didn’t have to take the SAT. That was neat.

Your Miles May Vary

In the travel rewards game, there is an apt expression that we borrow from the automobile industry: Your Miles May Vary. This is especially true when it comes to dual enrollment and tuition arbitrage. Related: Applying to Colleges? Why You Should Consider Small Private Schools Every state has different policies and funding thresholds, and the local situation may vary between school districts in the same state. You can see what your school district and state’s stances are on dual enrollment by checking with this national organization.

Is this a good fit for 2nd generation FIRE?

While we appreciated the advantages that our state’s dual enrollment program gave us, there were a few things that we had to consider before signing up:

• Back when he was 17, we had to make sure our son had the maturity and discipline to handle a tertiary education experience.
• We knew that not all credits earned might be accepted for transfers by every university, especially private universities and out-of-state institutions. So we had to make some guesses as to which university he would go to.
• A lot planning, consultations, and research was needed to make sure the ducks were lined up in a row. Thankfully, research and spreadsheets are right up my alley.

One of the unintended consequences of maximizing the benefits of dual enrollment was that we ended up having too much money in my son’s Vanguard 529 Target Date fund. Since the funds can be transferred to our younger kids, or even used by my wife and I, that’s not a bad problem to have! Related Articles: 

• Duel Enrollment: The Pros And Cons You Need To Know
• 9 Best Places To Buy Textbooks