My daughter got into 7 schools all of which offered between 22-33k a year in merit money. We do not qualify for financial aid. She is biomed engineering major. Top 5% of her class 1490SAT 33 ACT; AP scholar with honors, 4.0 weighted GPA. 5.something unweighted. I don’t even get how that works lol. Her top school of course gave her no money. That school is 71K per year. (and I an alum). We have 100K to give her. That leaves 184K in student debt. We have 4 children a senior, sophomore, 8th grader and 4th grader. If we take out private loan for #1 how will be take out additional loans for the other 3. Honestly this is driving me to drink. How can college be affordable even after we have done our best to save.
Many families are in this situation including us. Choose a cheaper school. Don’t make any choice you can’t do for the following 3 kids.
I am glad to know we are not alone. It appears there is no way around it sadly. we will not be cosigning a 184K student loan- pretty sure that would never be approved anyway. It won’t be a no from us it will be a not even possible even if we wanted to.
Here is my calculation:
$25,000 a year that you saved
$3000 a year in summer earnings
$5500 student loan for year 1
$22,000-33,000 a year in merit money …depending on the school.
Total amount that your child has for college: $55,500 - $66,500 …congrats!!
Is that correct? It seems to me that all of the options are affordable except her first choice school?
Please keep in mind that many students do not attend their first choice school due to costs…your daughter is not alone. I do not recommend taking out such a large loan for her undergraduate education…that is too much money and you still have three others. IF you continue to qualify for loans you may end up owning over $500,000.
So @mom517 are any of her acceptances affordable? $100,000 in college savings for her, plus the Direct Loans, and a job…and some contribution from you out of current savings should pay for your instate public universities.
Sounds like your budget is $25,000 a year plus the Direct Loan…in addition to whatever aid the school gave (if the Direct Loan wasn’t already included). So…are any of the acceptances ones where your net cost comes in at your price point?
Did she only apply to private universities with very high price tags??
ETA…$180,000 or so in debt for undergrad school isnot necessary or advisable.
We are in the same situation with a son with similar stats, and got the same merit amounts at schools with $70K plus tuition. Your daughter needs to find another school, just as my son had to pick another school. We also have two other children, and the debt you are speaking of is untenable for any of you. My son also wants biomedical engineering - your daughter can do chemical/electrical or mechanical and still do biomedical engineering.
If you can give her $25K per year she has LOADS of options. There are many public universities that will give her great merit with those stats. It may be too late at most schools, but I think University of Alabama Huntsville is still giving out merit scholarships, and she’d just have to pay for room, board and books.
What about your in-state flagship?
The costs are crazy. Make a spreadsheet of your daughter’s choices and break apart the costs (tuition, room, board, books, scholarships, etc.) and lookl carefully at the requirement to keep the scholarships. The schools don’t necessarily list every cost the same way. Consider travel, too. With 4 children, you might receive some aid when you have 2 enrolled at the same time, but that really depends on the policy of each school. If you can afford $25,000 per year and your daughter can take an average of about $7,500 per year in loans (the total is about $31,00 over 4 years). then that is your budget. Taking out parent plus loans for 4 children doesn’t seem to be a good idea. Did your daughter apply to your state school? Are there any affordable schools still accepting applications? Someone on CC might know.
We are in a similar position. But I have just 2 children. I made the costs one of the main consideration with S16 and now with S20 I’m doing the same thing. I have no regrets about imposing financial parameters.
My alma mater would be extremely costly for my family so D16 didn’t apply.
I am not sure if there is a question here or this was just to get it all written out. If you are asking opinions then I’ll bite -No, I don’t think $184,000 of debt for an undergraduate degree is EVER worth it. Knowing that there are 3 more kids to educate following makes this even more clear cut.
Congratulations! Your DD has done and amazing job in school and preparing herself for her future! You have done an amazing job of saving 100K to provide an education for your DD! That is not a little bit of money. Think about how long and hard it was to save that with all of the competing financial obligations. How would you or she go about paying back such a HUGE debt when it was so hard for you to amass the 100,000 that you have? She can take out about $28,000 of loans over 4 years. That is a healthy $130,000 budget for school with modest summer/school year earnings. You are in a great position and there should be schools that you can afford.
Does she have any options that come in under that number? There are around 37,000 high schools in the US. How many students does that make in the top 5% of schools (there are about 3.6 million US high school seniors)-- a staggering number of amazing, talented, brilliant, hard working students in the top 5% of their classes. Tens of thousands of her high performing peers will be headed to state universities and private schools that fit their budgets and don’t cost nearly $71,000 a year. Those students will be surrounded by peers as strong or stronger than they are and will go on to have productive lives. Only the luckiest of those students at less expensive schools will be starting out without the burden of crushing debt. Help you DD calculate monthly payments with interest on $184,000 and for what benefit over what the other schools are offering.
Get angry at the system, grieve the loss of a dream, and then move on and realize how incredibly fortunate you are. Help her to get excited about the schools she can afford and remind her of what an amazing gift $100,000 is towards starting out her life!
Knowing you have additional children who will also need college funds, seems that D’s top choice is simply not affordable for your family. It is important to have the college budget discussion before apps are submitted.
These $$ talks are not easy, especially when you have a kid who has the stats to get into top colleges which exceed the budget. Hopefully your family came up with a budget and your D understands it is not unlimited, especially when you need to plan for her siblings’ educations too.
It seems that the price tag you are comfortable with is roughly $30k per year, $25 k per year from you, + $5500 fed loan to student. Hopefully some of her other schools meet your budget, and she likes them.
We needed to chase merit$ for our three kids, and had to cross many colleges off their lists, which they liked and could be admitted to, due to cost. Despite knowing our budget, despite knowing there should be no “dream” school on lists, one D fell in love with a particular school which she could not attend without winning a competitive scholarship. She went to the scholarship competition weekend, but did not win the scholarship. She was very upset that the school had to be dropped from options, and needed a week to grieve, which she did, then she embraced her other excellent options and chose a great school within our budget.
It is very hard to say no to a great smart kid who has worked so hard in HS. We want to help our kids fulfill their dreams, but we also need to teach them that family finances have limits.
The schools assume that you have saved money according to various schedules, given your current financial situation. They also assume that the student has saved some money. @twogirls model shows what your current financial planning appears to be. The problem is that there is an assumption that your student will get merit money, scholarships, when that is not a given.
I’ve been in the same boat as you are. In fact, our youngest’s first choice school was one that we well knew would be highly unlikely to give him any merit money, as it was selective college. Getting in was no slam dump. We had to sit and discuss the matter, my husband and I, and come to some plan as to how to pay for this college if he were accepted, or if it was just going to be a pipe dream, possible only if he not only got in, but also got a scholarship. After much discussion, we did decide to come up with the funds if he did get accepted… He’s graduating this year, and, we’ve been “buying a Mercedes every year and driving it off the cliff” for the last four years. Was it, is it worth it? I don’t know. He could have gone for half the price to his second choice school, tuition free to a number of schools, but we chose that route. In his case, he’s the youngest, so no more to go.
With merit money on the table and savings that you have for her, your daughter has some affordable choices. With Local colleges, your state colleges and a number of schools that would be happy to give her merit, there are many schools out there available without taking onerous amounts of loans. You did well having savings for her.
I am sorry that your daughter had that disappointment esp when she worked so hard. It is a life lesson for sure. My daughter is not the only one getting it. We are too. We have the following options:
Pitt 33K a year- no merit $ notification yet. (5 yr school) her loan 65K (hoping not since no merit $ yet)
Case Western 67K -$22/yr merit (5 yr school)- her loan 125K
U of MD honors college 56K -$12,500 yr/merit (4yr school)–her loan 112K
Stevens Institute 72k a year- $25/yr merit (5yr-combined Bach/Masters) her loan 135K
Drexel (Dad alum-also engineer) 71k a year- Merit 33K a year (5yr combined Bach/Masters) her loan 90K
Villanova (Mom alum)71k no merit- her loan 184K
Emory no decision yet
U of Mich- EA deferred
The other factor is that the majority of schools for engineering the program is 5yrs so we have that extra year of tuition. As you can see most schools were not even close to 30K. What schools are???
There is another problem with merit scholarship: students must keep 3.5 GPA every term. If not the scholarship will be withdrawn. Keeping 3.5 GPA is not an easy task especially with an engineering major.
My D has 4.0 GPA and high test scores but I did not want her to apply to merit scholarship schools. I’d rather have her attending a state school or a school with good need-based financial aid.
Point of my post was to hear others reaction to 184K, lamenting, and hearing others experiences making finances work. I really appreciate your upbeat post. I have broken down the schools below and the price tag. We do have some options under or around the 130K mark. Only thing is that she will most likely be in a 5yr program- so that means an additional year of tuition. However—her coops will be paid and she would be expected to roll that into her tuition.
What is YOUR instate public university?
And not all engineering programs take five years…they just don’t. My kid graduated with a double major in bioengineering and biology…in four years.
Looks like Pitt is your instate option…is it?
If it’s $33000 a year…minus $25,000 (your college savings per year), minus the $5500 Direct Loan…your daughter could earn that additional $3000 or so by getting a job…now…and working during college.
Or are you OOS for Pennsylvania also?
We are instate for PITT. What is this direct loan of 5500k? I see this included when they calculate the merit but it is a loan and not free money so how does that work exactly? Seems that most of the schools she applied to are 5 year but that includes co-ops and some summers she would be in school. Its so confusing! So will your calculation above–she would owe 5500X5 --27.5K IF she paid 3000 a year along the way? She does work now but it is min wage and she pays her car payments/gas with that. She will have her grad $ that she can use but I am not counting on much. This summer she can certainly work full time and make some cash.
I did not realize the merit scholarship GPA requirement. We would not qualify for any financial aid. I think our EFC is 64K.
Ok…so you are instate for Pitt.
The full cost of attendance is $34,000 a year or so. You have $100,000 you say you can contribute…so that’s $25,000 a year. Plus the $5500 Direct (Stafford) Loan your kid can take. So you have $30,500 towards the cost of Pitt.
Your daughter should be able to earn some money towards the costs.
How do you figure she will have $60,000 plus in loans if she attends Pitt…when you say you have $25,000 a year to contribute…and the cost of attendance is $35,000?
Pitt at $33,000 is affordable for your daughter, correct? If you pay $25,000, your daughter can borrow $5,00. She can get a summer job. This is affordable and a wonderful choice. I also don’t understand your assertion that an engineering degree takes 5 years. Your daughter is a very good student and should do fine. Coops are paid and don’t mean an extra year of tuition.
If you daughter takes the federal loans of up to $31,000, she will have to pay those back when she graduates. Debt is not great, but that amount of debt should be manageable. Does she really need a car in college? Maybe she could sell the car and do without to save money.
Also, “her” loans are actually “your” loans. College students can’t qualify for those large loans.
On merit scholarships…the gpa required to keep the scholarships varies from school to school and from scholarship to scholarship. READ THE FINE PRINT. A 3.0 gpa seems reasonable and that was the gpa I looked for when considering scholarships especially for demanding majors.
College is expected to be paid from past, present and future earnings from both parents and student. You have great savings for your daughter which comprises family past earnings. The loans are future “earnings” which you are expecting your daughter to undertake completely, and in lieu of her savings, and “current earnings”. In other words, there is an expectation for you and for here to pay a part of the income you earn during her college years for your student’s college costs. It’s also expected that the student work.
You may recognize some savings while your daughter is in college. THe cost of having a high school kid at home can be high. That should go towards college cost, and maybe a bit more too. We have lived much more frugally these past years with kids being in college because we are paying college costs out of current income too. Also our kids all worked a few hours during the school year to defray costs and during the summer. Engineering students I know have managed to get pretty good internships during the last couple of summers before graduation. That also helps.
So it’s a matter of choice as to how you distribute the college costs in the past, present, future categories. You are in a good position as you have done well in savings–that is the category that is not changeable when the time comes, and you have $100K in the bag, which is far better than most people can save.
There are quite a few engineering programs that cost a lot less than her choices. IIT, Manhattan college, just a couple that come to mind. WIth her stats, she likely could have gotten a lot more money, had she applied to some schools with less name recognition. It appears that you are a PA resident, and I know that some of the Penn State satellite schools can be generous and cost less than Pitt. Temple University tends to be more generous than Pitt towards high stats kids too. Late, to bring this up for your DD but something to keep in mind for your younger kids.
@txstella the total federal loans for four years…$27,000.
$5500 freshman
$6500 sophomore
$7500 junior
$7500 senior.
Agree…no reason this can’t be done in four years.