Texas College Savings Plans

[RC Didnt Offer]

Is anyone participating in one of these? I know the one I'm considering (Texas Tuition Promise Fund) isnt open again until September so I'm trying to wrap my brain around all of these different funds. I mean, I cant keep these straight:

Texas Tuition Promise Fund
Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan
Texas College Savings Plan
Texas Tomorrow Fund

I found a chart that compares those where you basically prepaid tuition hours vs those where you invest tax free and use those funds to buy tuition in the future. I cant figure out which of these is better.

 

[Longhorny630]

I was a TTF and it was awesome. Basically, my parents enrolled me in 1992, so 4 years of college tuition was paid for by my parents up until about my sophomore year of high school, in which all 4 years were completely paid off. When I went to UT, they gave me however many credits I needed to complete the degree I started with (128 I believe) and each semester that I enrolled my bill was $0. Seems to me like paying for tuition now is better than investing tax free only because of the annual tuition increases that are becoming so popular at UT. That may be just me though, since after they deregulated in '98 (i think) tuition started soaring, but mine stayed at the '92 levels. Totally worth it though, I mean, TTF is massively in debt, and when they don't have the money to pay for TTF students, they charge non-TTF students more and make them pay for it. Classic, making other students pay for my education.

 

[NickDanger]

I know no particulars about any of the funds mentioned, but I am very glad I didn't do them. My daughter has a very nice college fund built up and she will not be attending school (so to speak) after high school. The boy has really good scores (his dad thinks so anyway), 4-year letterman, captain of the team, Eagle scout, humanitarian work in Mexico and Africa, camp counselor, job experience, but alas, he goes to a really good high school and isn't in the top 8%. So, UT isn't going to happen for him. Since he won't be going to UT, he doesn't really want to stay in Texas and go somewhere like TCU, Tech, etc or one of the small private colleges.

Over 90 kids (out of 100 applicants) from Highland Park High School have been accepted to Georgia this year. It's not a common phenomenon to just leave the state if you can't go to UT.

The point is to consider such scenarios when you enroll. They may have made it much easier to use the funds for other schools, but you ought to consider these types of scenarios when deciding whether or not the fund is what you want to do.

 

[Namewithheld]

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[EPThorn]

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[NickDanger]

FWIW, we just visited there a few weeks ago and that is what the very nice aggie who now works for Georgia told us.