Survey Finds 94% of Parents Help Fund Their Child's Education, Using These Methods

Money.com names College Ave Best Private Student Loan for Parents 2025

WILMINGTON, Del., June 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- With college tuition bills due soon, many families preparing for college are strategizing how to cover the costs of college. If you are using the summer months for planning, you are not alone. Less than half of parents (44%) felt ready to pay for college when their child graduated from high school, according to a recent College Ave survey of 1,000 parents of current college students, conducted by Barnes & Noble College Insights. Whether families felt ready for that first tuition bill or not, parents are committed to higher education - nearly all plan to help their child pay for college, according to the survey (94%).

While some families reported covering remaining college costs solely through savings (20%), most used a variety of funding methods to pay. The most common ways to finance a college degree, according to the survey, are:  

Ways Families Pay for College

Lesser-used methods include parent loans (18%) and parent side hustles or second jobs (17%).

In addition, to help save on overall college costs, more than half of families said they encouraged their child to finish college within four years (55%), work while in college (50%), take accelerated courses in high school or over college breaks (26%), consider only in-state public colleges (24%) or live at home (10%).

"Year over year, our College Ave survey highlights how committed parents are to investing in their child's future," said Dan Kennedy, Chief Marketing Officer, College Ave. "Parents show a remarkable belief in the value of a college education for their students, and are using all the tools at their disposal – scholarships, grants, savings, student loans and more – to help them achieve that goal."

Summer Preparation
For parents of first-time college students, the summer has no shortage of things to do – from dorm-room shopping to deciding on the best payment plan for school. To help families financially prepare this summer, College Ave offers these tips:

• Get ready for pre-freshman costs. Parents estimate they spent an average of $3,614 to prepare for freshman year, including new electronics, dorm room essentials and books.
• Continue the scholarship search. Half of families (50%) regret not spending more time researching and applying for scholarships. The scholarship search doesn't have to stop once your child enters college. A quick and easy one to enter is the ongoing $1,000 Scholarship Sweepstakes from College Ave. Good news, both students and parents can enter.
• Plan for extra college costs. 7 out of 10 families (71%) found the cost of college surprisingly high. More than half of parents said tuition and fees (67%) and room and housing/rent and food (65%) were more than they expected. Around 4 out of 10 said school and activity fees were higher (42%), while around the same amount said their child's personal expenses were more than they had planned (39%). Plan to have flexibility in your budget to accommodate additional college expenses and fees.
• Borrow smart. Families using student loans to help pay for their child's college education plan to borrow, on average, about $40,000 in total. Make sure to shop around for loans with good rates and repayment plans that work for you and your family, like those offered by College Ave, an award-winning lender. Use the College Ave student loan calculator to estimate your monthly payments and total cost of the loan to make sure it fits your budget.
• Talk finances with your child.  Most parents kept their child on their phone plan (94%), health insurance policy (92%), paid for their child's auto policy (78%) and for their child to travel home during holidays or breaks (73%). In addition, parents said they gave their child nearly $500 a month to help with their personal expenses. Discuss with your child which costs you are covering as a parent, and where you expect your child to chip in.
• Get ready for more time. Once their child headed off to school, parents shared they used this extra time to connect with family and friends (42%), enjoy hobbies (37%), focus on their career (36%), travel (34%) and volunteer (23%). Make a plan for how you envision this next stage of life to help ease the transition of a child leaving for college.

To help families prepare for the upcoming college costs, College Ave encourages families to use this summer to create a financial game plan for not only this year, but all years of their child's college career. For more information and resources on how to plan and pay for college, visit collegeave.com.

About College Ave 
College Ave started with a big vision and a simple mission - take the stress out of paying for college so students can focus on preparing for a bright future. Now a leading financial services company, College Ave remains committed to using best-in-class technology and deep industry expertise to deliver practical and personal solutions that give young adults a running start on their roads to financial success. We offer best-in-class products with competitive rates and a customer-friendly experience from start to finish. Visit: collegeave.com.

About the Survey
The College Ave survey was conducted by Barnes & Noble College Insights^TM. The national online survey of parents of undergraduate students who attend a 4-year college or university at one of the campuses served by Barnes & Noble College had 1,000 respondents and was fielded in April-May 2025. Last year, Barnes & Noble College Insights conducted more than 50 research studies and 100+ survey polls of students, faculty and parents that interact with one of its more than 770+ campus bookstores across the nation.

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SOURCE College Ave