What's the advantage to living longer? You can begin to see how society changes over so many decades. Whether you want to keep up with those changes or not is up to you. But, if you have children, you might want to know how those changes can affect their lives.

One change that might tickle your interest as well as your child's concern is the way college education has changed, especially if you plan to pay for this venture. If you've saved for your child's college since she was a baby, you might not have concerns – unless the current economy has depleted any interest you've earned on those savings. If you plan on scholarships or loans to help along the way, you might want to read further.

In many cases, kids want to go to college. They want to get out of the house without cutting the ties that pay, and one way to do that is to head to an institution of higher learning. Or, some kids may want to please their parents, so they go off to school whether they want to go or not. To be fair, some teens really do want to go to college, as they already understand what a college education means.

A good college education usually means two things: first, that the teen has a chance to accomplish her dreams. But, college also means more money in a career. College graduates do make more money than people who don't have degrees. And, the higher the degree, the more money that can be made.

So, what's changed? First, more teens and adults have taken advantage of the past few years' financial glut to earn a college degree. They've pushed the college experience up a notch, making getting a higher degree more imperative than ever. Then, that trend changed in a blink of an eye for an entire generation.

Thanks to current financial conditions, many colleges now are pulling back on scholarships and loans. Banks? Forget asking for a loan unless you have some heavy-duty collateral. Unless you've saved up for that college education with big deposits, you have very little chance to affect your teens' current situations if they're headed to college this year or if they already attend college.

My daughter has seen this change happen right in front of her eyes. While many colleges expect a percentage of drop-outs after the first semester, no one really expects a fifty-percent reduction in attendance. This is the beginning of an ugly cycle, where lack of tuition doesn't fund the college and the college needs to trim corners further. Further trimming means less chance to fund incoming students, and it may mean cutbacks on students who already attend. In some cases, these cutbacks mean even less attendance.

Although these problems may change in the future, the “now” is what concerns most parents. Although I can't tell you how to alter this situation financially, I can tell you how to narrow your child's chances of failure in the future.

First, make sure your child attends a highly-rated college. You already might know that Ivy-league colleges such as Princeton, Yale and Harvard rank high in this “ranking” business. But, you may not know that some other schools now compete with these traditional choices. In fact, some colleges such as Elon University in Elon, North Carolina and Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee rank right up there as up-and-coming schools. How do I know this? Because I've sneaked a peek at the U.S. News Top Colleges 2009.

Rankings rankle many college boards, because these rankings often focus on private schools. On the other hand, many rankings are based upon student surveys or Web popularity, and those rankings can't be trusted, either. But, the more rankings you peruse, the better your options at sending your teen to the best university you can afford. No matter how college boards feel, college rankings are here to stay because employers trust them. That's enough to make college rankings the biggest change that's occurred in college education in the past decade.

Why should you send your child to the best college possible? Because your child, should she stay and finish her education, will have a better chance of earning more money than if she drops out to go to a lower rated school. This fact was proven in 2005 by a Cornell University study that reported on salaries earned by students across the board. Sometimes, the boost to income from attending higher-rated (read: higher-quality) schools is enough to compensate for their typically higher price.

And, hopefully enough to compensate for your sacrifices when you need to find a creative way to finance that education.

If your teen needs to drop out because of a lack of funding, help that teen to find another school. Why would I say this if my daughter and I have witnessed so many dropouts in her class? Because those dropouts didn't drop out of school altogether – they were accepted at other, less expensive colleges. Are these colleges better than the one my daughter attends? We don't know. But, we're not leaving anything to chance.

Take a look at college rankings to learn more. The Cornell study showed that highly-rated public colleges sometimes pack the same earnings punch as comparable private schools, making them the better investment for many college students. Then, remind your teen that grades ofren equal cash. A high GPA is as good as money in the bank, as merit awards are more difficult to obtain and often pay more than awards based upon financial need.

It's an investment. When you get older, you'll be glad you don't need to support your college-educated kids anymore. Maybe they'll support you.

Until Later,
Linda Goin