How to Send Your Child to the Top Schools in the Philippines at Discounted Tuition Rates

Yes! You read that right. You CAN send your child to the best schools for discounted rates.

If you ask any Filipino parent what their dream college/university for their children are, they would probably answer either Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas or University of the Philippines (Diliman) because of their outstanding quality standard of education. However, due to the increasing annual tuition rates (average of 10-15% increase per year), many parents instead of sending their children to their dream university, they just opt to send their children to schools THAT FITS TO THEIR BUDGET. Am I right?

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Below are the tuition rates of major colleges and universities in the Philippines for academic year 2015 – 2016.

(data courtesy of Summit Express)

1. University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) – PHP 225,000 to 300,000 per year

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 111,591 per semester (23 UNITS)

2. De La Salle University (DLSU) – PHP 196,000 to 230,000

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 65,148 per term (College of Education – Lowest) to 76,233 per term (College of Engineering – Highest)

3. De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (DLS- CSB) – PHP 180,000 to 240,000 per year

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 60,000 to 80,000 per term x 3 terms

4. Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) – PHP 180,000 per year

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 89,120.40 per semester

5. San Beda College – PHP 146,000 to 155,000 per year

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 73,000 to 77,000 per semester

6. Miriam College (MC) – PHP 110,000 to 160,000 per year

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 60,000 to 80,000 per semester

7. Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) – PHP 105,000 to 140,000

Tuition and other Fees Per Term: PHP 35,000 per quarter x 4 quarters

Many parents make it their top priority to send their children to the best schools they can afford. BUT, are they really prepared for how much “the best schools” will cost them when their children are old enough to enroll in them?

Here are 3 ways on how you can pay for your child’s college tuition fee:

1) Paying the Inflated Tuition Cost

Let us assume that the current tuition cost is Php 120,000, your child will be taking a 4-year college degree in 15 years, and the tuition increases 10% a year. In 15 years, you will be spending PHP 2,326,393 for your child’s college degree that is worth PHP 556,920 today.

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2) Paying the Inflated Tuition Cost plus Interest

Let’s say that it’s already been 15 years. You cannot pay for the tuition fee and still you want to send him to your dream university, so you avail of an education loan that offers it for 5 years at a 10% annual interest. Instead of just paying the PHP 2,326,393 inflated cost, you have to pay an additional PHP 639,346 for the interest of the education loan. To sum it up, you will be spending PHP 2,965,739 for your child’s college degree

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3) Discounted Tuition Rate

The is the smartest and cheapest way to pay for your child to a college degree is – TO SAVE EARLY. How does this work? Here goes… Since we’ve already calculated that you will be needing PHP 2,326,393 in 15 years, you only need to save approximately PHP 79,335 per year or PHP 6,611 per month and invest it in a investment product that earns 10% a year for 15 years. So instead of paying PHP 2,326,393, you only need to pay PHP 1,190,024, which is a whooping 49% discount. Wohoo! The lesson here is, the early you save for education, the bigger discount you have!

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***Just an FYI, the computations above is just for the tuition fee, you still have to consider miscellaneous expenses like daily allowances, housing, transportation, uniforms, books, projects, etc – which is around 50%-70% of the tuition cost.

How Do You Want To Pay For Your Child’s College Education?

Anyways, let me ask you. How would you like to pay for your children’s education? (Assuming the annual tuition cost is PHP 120,000 with an annual increase of 10% a year and your child is going to college in 15 years)

Option 1: Pay the tuition in CASH in 15 years. (Total Cash Outlay PHP 2,326,393)

Option 2: In 15 years, avail of an EDUCATION LOAN with an interest of 10% per year and pay installment for 5 years (Total Cash Outlay of PHP 2,956,739)

Option 3: Avail of the 49% discount and by saving approximately PHP 6,611 per month and invest it in a investment product that earns 10% a year for 15 years. (Total Cash Outlay of PHP 1,190,024)

How to Send Your Child to the Top Schools in the Philippines for Discounted Tuition Rates?

Choose Option 3. Save, invest and set money aside for your children’s education early! The earlier you save, the bigger the discount/savings you get.

photo credit: The UST Main Building via photopin (license)

2 thoughts on “How to Send Your Child to the Top Schools in the Philippines at Discounted Tuition Rates

  1. Hello po. Great post. Just a quick question. Can you please share po what investment product can earn us 10%?
    Thanks!

    1. Hi Allan! Unfortunately there are no investment products that can guarantee a 10% return. BUT there are investment products that can POTENTIALLY give you a 10% return like mutual funds and company stocks (aka the stock market).

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