Korean Parents Poorly Prepared For Children’s Tuition

Korean-American parents are comparatively unprepared to cover their children’s tuition, a recent report revealed.

A report compiled by MassMutual revealed that an average Korean-American household saves $17,434 as of December 2016. That is lower than the overall average of $19,124. An average Chinese-American household has saved $29,219.

In addition, around 40 percent of the Korean-American households simply do not save regularly to support their children’s higher education. Also, 58 percent of them rely on scholarships, not savings, to pay for the children’s tuition.

“In Korean-American households, attending a college is perceived as the start of the American dream,” the report said. “However, the parents are showing a tendency to prepare insufficiently for their children’s tuition.

An average annual tuition at a four-year college is estimated at $20,090, but an average scholarship per student is only around $6,000 a year. So, the discrepancy between supply and demand for many Korean students obviously remains great.

The report added that many Korean-American households lack enough information as they tend to rely on word of mouth from people they are already familiar with.

Meanwhile, MassMutual is an American insurance company offering services and products tailor-made for various ethnic groups in the country. One of those tools includes the college savings calculator (www.massmutual.com/planning/calculators/college-savings- calculator).

Joeun Lee