How You Can Use ChatGPT To Help Estimate Your Child’s Education Expenses

I love ChatGPT like I hate ChatGPT. While the internet garbage (brain rot?) the platform has generated is unbearable, it is a very nifty tool that you can use to get more comprehensive answers than those you get on Google. Recently, I used it for an estimation exercise, and I thought I’d share the same with you.

Use this prompt to estimate how much it’ll cost for your child to study abroad

As a parent, your child’s higher education is always on your mind. While I have no idea what my child wants to do, I do know that I want to be prepared for the most expensive possibility out there. So instead of trying to make excel sheets, I went to my friend, Mr GPT. Here’s the prompt I used:

Can you estimate the cost of attending each Ivy League school in 2034, assuming a 4% annual inflation rate for both tuition and living expenses over the next 10 years? I would like the total cost, including tuition and living expenses for 4 years, in Indian Rupees.

Modifications you can do to the prompt

You can change:

• The location where your child may study in: I’ve chosen Ivy League schools in the US because I know that’s the most expensive route (and I’m optimistic like that!), but if you know for a fact that your child will study in the UK or Australia or Singapore, you can change the destination.
• The year in which you expect your child to do their undergraduate or graduate degree, based on which the year (2034 in this case) and the next ‘x’ years (10 in the prompt) will change.
• If you’re only foreseeing graduation costs, then you’d only have to calculate tuition and living expenses for 2 years (and not the 4 in the prompt)

What should I do with this information?

Well, I am going to re-evaluate whether my child needs to study abroad at all! But once the shock subsided, here are the follow up prompts I used:

Assuming my child is to choose the most expensive school listed here and I have 10 years, how much should I save each month, assuming the investment I pick has a 12% year on year return?

This is to get a realistic idea of how much we’d have to set aside each month to cover the full fee. You can also modify the prompt to state that you’ll only be funding half of it (and the other half would be a loan).

Mental preparation is the real game

Honestly, it’s possible to get one’s education fully funded through debt. But knowing exactly how much it’ll cost to educate my child tomorrow gives me the power today to make decisions around it. I know I’ll not be shocked in 10 years (which will hit me sooner than I’d like) if at all my child has to study abroad – and more importantly, I can be (somewhat) prepared to offer that option to him.

I hope you found this useful! Let me know if you tried the prompt in the comments.