Moms and Dads Attaching More Strings to Paying for College

zimmytws/Shutterstock More parents are behaving like business executives when it comes to helping to finance their children's college education: They're open to putting in some cash, but they want to know what the return on their investment will be. "The trend now is that parents and students are looking beyond college," said Jodi Okun, founder of the College Financial Aid Advisors and a brand ambassador for Discover Student Loans, a division of Discover Financial Services. "They're looking at what you accomplish in those four to six years in order to get what you want after college." While 96 percent of the parents responding to a Discover Student Loans survey said they see college as a worthwhile investment, one third said they would limit the amount of assistance they provide a child based on their offspring's major. It's no longer good enough to get a college diploma. You need to get one that puts you in a position to get a good job. Okun says parents aren't talking about specific majors, but rather taking a big-picture look at their children's career direction, and what they need to study in order to achieve their career goals? The Rewards of Engineering Georgetown University provides information on the average starting salary for students graduate who with bachelor's degrees in 171 majors. Chemical engineering majors, for example, earn an average of $86,000, compared to an average salary of $39,000 for those who majored in social work. The long-term earnings benefits of a college degree are clear, but that doesn't make it any easier to pay for it. So 74 percent of parents say they are very worried or somewhat worried about having enough money to pay for their children's education.