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He has about $30k in the bank for college, the rest will be loans…
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Please realize that your son can only borrow small amounts for college. $5500 for frosh year, 6500 for soph, 7500 for junior and senior years.
Times have changed for student loans. No longer can a student just borrow his way thru college. For your child to borrow MORE, you would be on the hook for those loans. Now, those add’l loans require a qualified co-signer.
Frankly, I wouldn’t put a bunch of loans on the head of an ADHD person. ADHD people can have money-handling problems (impulse spending, etc), and if you ended up consigning his loans, you’d likely end up having to pay them back…
Best to get established residency so he can get instate rates and can commute from home.
The amount that he can borrow without a cosigner is limited ($5,500 frosh year, up to $7,500 junior and senior years). You may want to run some net price calculators on various colleges to see what net price after financial aid may be like. Most students’ college options are limited by cost constraints, so you need to know where you stand with respect to college financial aid before being able to make an informed decision.
Huntsville actually has two universities with ABET-accredited engineering. UAH is well known on these forums, but Alabama A&M is less expensive for those who do not get the well known scholarships at UAH.
Alabama A & M may be ABET accredited, but they are not peer at all with degree from there and from UAH. H’s company has hired a few students from AL A & M, and they do not have the KSA (knowledge, skills, abilities) which qualifies them like someone from a degree like UA, UAH, AU, GaTech, etc. H’s company has trained these AL A & M grads starting in a technician position.
Alabama A & M is a historical black campus. Non-black students in UG would be a very big outsider.
Yes, HSV is nicknamed Rocket City because of NASA, etc. I should have written that sentence more clearly…my “or” statement about PhDs had to do with the nickname Geek City.
Thanks y’all! My plan is to spend what he has first then look into loans. I’ll only cosign if he sticks with it. He might get some scholarship money…idk…he plays rugby, is a kicker for football and plays bagpipes. Publix will also put a little $ towards his education.
Maybe have him stay home one more year until he’s 18 and have him take classes online until we can do more research and apply. The Citadel is nearby and they have a 2+2 program in engineering so that’s an option and would be way cheaper.
@mom2collegekids, Post 8 sounds like OP would move with the son but the dad would stay in SC. Can he get in state tuition in AL if the primary residence is in SC?
Look at University of Arizona, and the SALT program. Both still taking applications. Merit scholarship available for OOS kids based on SAT scores–a couple of years ago it started at $12K annual for 1300 math/critical reading (old SAT).
U of A locks tuition at your freshman rate for 4 years; scholarship renewable for 4 years with a 3.0 and 30 units per year. OOS summer courses cost same as in-state, so kids take U of A online courses in interesting topics to get GPA back up to 3.0 to hold onto scholarships–and complete 30 units. Doesn’t have to take up entire summer, there are 3-week and 5-week U of A summer online courses.
You can get accepted without scores, and then, add your scores for scholarship consideration–deadline may be in May for the scores part, but u would have to confirm on website. Also U of Arizona has a friendly admissions dept.
SALT makes a big school seem small. DD’s close friend has extreme dyslexia and is thriving with the help of SALT in a reading-intensive major. However, student has to be self-motivated, if a kid doesn’t want college (attending classes and doing homework) they can’t help that student. Some students are better off waiting and letting their brains mature.
Engineering/science are difficult majors–but lots of variations of degrees to pursue. All math classes are capped at 35 students, freshman English courses are capped at 25 students. All Gen Eds have a strong writing component, which DD struggled with, but made it through in the end.
My niece attends with ADHD, my DD attends with LD’s; lots of distractions, but neither wants to fail because they love the school/Tucson, so they apply themselves as necessary to hold on to scholarships. One is a Junior and plans to work with SALT through graduation. Other kids just use SALT first 2 years. Love all the technology that helps these kids out now. DD decided to take 3 in-person classes Spring semester, and 3 U of A online classes at the same time–that combo is less stress given her specific LD’s, one of which is verbal.
The Citadel has evening undergrad option that might fit him if he wants to do mech. eng.
…he needs the discipline but I don’t think he’d be successful unless he wants to be there as a cadet…my uncle retired from there and I know many grads…he can get in state tuition for any aerospace program if he goes that route because there is not one in SC…I’ll look into U of A too…that is good information to know about salt program…
A few extra thoughts, ADHD niece doesn’t drive at 21, thank God, hoping she waits until 25, when her brain is more mature, hopefully less distracted. At U of A so far she’s been able to schedule all her classes starting at 11:00am, so she can get out of bed. This semester she starts 3 days a week at 10 am, but says she can do that now. She slept through multiple alarms freshman year, but was better sophomore year.
Colleges rankings are affected by the quality of the incoming frosh class. That is why some schools will give merit to incoming frosh with high stats…to buy the best frosh class they can get…to help the school profile for rankings.
Transfers do nothing for a school, hence little/no merit for transfers.
Again, do not let your son borrow a lot of money. Undergrad students really shouldn’t borrow more than about $30k TOTAL from 4 years of college.
Besides, it sounds like your H is a bit annoyed at the whole thing, so would he be ok with consigning loans anyway?
If he has a chance to graduate early we must go for it…I don’t want to be divorced after 22 years…our household has been upside down since my son’s withdrawal from private school…the online school is the 3rd high school he’s been in:( He was picked on and ended up in fights at first high school then the private school was good until he got into a bit of trouble with a girl…so he’s at home finishing high school online…he cannot be at home any longer than need be in his pj’s as we are going to work…my husband is mad every am at him so it’s time to move on! I think things will calm down once high school is done and we can concentrate on the next steps…sounds like the 2 +2 program at the Citadel might be the ticket to borrow the least $ plus they have bagpipes there…idk…he really wants embry riddle but they are $$$$
OP, I can hear the stress level in your posts. You are caught between a frustrated spouse and a frustrated son.
I can relate to your situation, and to your rush to find a solution. Finding the right college is not the most urgent problem, though.
You are missing the glaring Neon Sign on your child’s forehead. He is struggling with some issues that need to be addressed before you can just ship him off to college.
Your son does need you now, but not in the way you think he does. Please get to a counselor and talk through what your family is struggling with. Let a professional help you sort through this stressful situation.
Sending hugs your way. Be kind to yourself, get sleep and exercise during this stressful time.
Thanks very much…we do have a good counselor. Part of the problem is that my mother died suddenly last year and we were all very close. My father re-married within 6 months so we have just had an upheaval of enormous proportions. Son is an only child…adopted at age 18 months…he’s always struggled and I am sure that will always be. He’s been in therapy of some sort almost his whole life and has overcome a lot. I am not trying to ship him off but need to find a solution so that we can all have somewhat of a happy life after high school. If all else fails he can stay with Publix but that is not what I want for him. It is a tightrope we’re walking because he doesn’t need a GAP year but isn’t mature enough to head off to a regular college even if he could get in at this late date. Perhaps working part-time and taking classes online or ubering to CC will be his future for the next year. I appreciate all of the information and it has helped me to clear my head a tad.