A recent survey, commissioned by Futuretrust® and conducted by Harris Interactive®, found that “90 percent of parents who anticipate that their children will attend college expect their children to contribute at least in part to their own college tuition.”
It goes on to say that, “a majority (80 percent) of these parents expects them to contribute by applying for scholarships and grants, though both are increasingly endangered financial species.”
Additional survey findings reveal that:
- Equal percentages of parents consider themselves as concerned about the national unemployment rate as they are about college tuition costs (77%).
- For the third survey in a row, a plurality of parents (29%) identified the “rising cost of food, gas, and other daily necessities” as the single greatest obstacle they face when trying to save for their children to go to college, followed by job loss/income reduction (18%), and fear that saving now still won’t be enough (16%).
- 41% of parents who anticipate that their children will attend college have opened or plan to open a 529 tax-advantaged college savings account, though a staggering 33% still do not know what a 529 account is.
Futuretrust® is a MasterCard®-linked college savings program that enables families and friends to save for college through their everyday spending.
