184,000 in student debt???

@thumper1 Yep…It dawned on me a posts above yours : ) Thank you for the breakdown. I can take a years tuition off ALL of those 5 yr programs because I did not consider we would not pay tuition…that is helpful also.

YMMV of course…but back in the Stone Age, my DH did an engineering program with Co-op. At the end of each co-op term, he had a tidy amount of money to use towards the next term.

@thumper1 That is very encouraging! I am feeling much better…thank you ALL for your help. I really hope she pics Pitt!

OP, as the parent, you need to tell your D which schools will work financially, showing her the above calculations. It’s possible only Pitt works right now, which would not leave her with a choice.

I echo the other posters who have encouraged your D to not take on any debt beyond the $27K…your D will not be able to qualify for any loans above the $27K, you and your spouse would have to cosign a private loan for D and/or take out parent plus loans. Both scenarios will impact your financials and borrowing power for a long time.

And…your daughter most definitely can be a successful engineer as a Pitt grad!

Have you got that 100K equiv plus inflation for each of your next 3 kids? Your next kid (jr next year) is the star of this show soon enough, you are going to have 2 kids at uni for ? 4 of the years for you older 3 kids college time. Have you done the math for the crossover? Know your EFC for 2 in school?

You have to look at the amount of time she is actually taking classes. With a co op program, it’s 8 semesters. In any degree program, it’s 8 semesters of school, the co op just puts periods of work interspersed with school

Depends on the school and how they have the co op set up but it’s one semester school, one semester work, rinse and repeat. Some schools you go to school for 3 semesters and then it’s every other: work, co op

Most of the engineering programs we toured that had a co op explained in detail how their co op was set up. The student makes money when working and some co ops have housing for the students. Just depends on the employer.

I had a kid who co op ed and made enough money to pay all his living expenses after his first year. So he paid for his housing even when he wasn’t working. It was a big savings.

My other kid did a summer internship in her college town and made more than enough to pay for her apartment that we had to pay for anyway. Plus made enough to pay for some of her housing and all of her food and living expenses during the year.

Having a co op helps immensely in helping pay for school. Even if it takes 5 years, you’ll come out way ahead. If she plays her cards right, she will be able to save enough that she won’t have to take out her direct loans.

Double check about R&B during co-ops. At my daughter’s school, you only pay R&B if you are co-oping in town. My dd’s co-op will be out of state and the company will be paying her R&B and there is nothing owed to the school other than $450 co-op fee (also paid for by the company).

@Sybylla we have 100K for #2 and honestly I don’t know for 3, and 4 at the moment. We won’t have a mortgage when #4 goes. Yes, so we will have two in at one time for quite some time. Then #4 is a solo again. What is the crossover? I am not sure how my EFC will change.

It isn’t that it isn’t highly regarded in PA, it just isn’t affordable, in any possible way, for many PA families.

Your EFC may not change in any way that helps, that is the point. You might be full pay for both. What you make available for kid one will define how this plays out for 2, 3 and 4. Are you ok to be paying full freight for 2 at a time? Many parents have their kids seek optimum merit or pick the lowest cost option in your shoes.

That is not the rule at every school. My daughter’s merit from the school required she have a 2.8 gpa. She had another state award and it required a 3.0 to keep it.

She did 8 straight semesters in engineering and graduated on time. This was without one single credit transferred in from AP or DE. There was a chart of which courses to take and she took them. She’d worked one summer job and worked one semester for a professor. That was it. She graduated and got a good job.

Her school did offer internships and co-ops, but she didn’t do them. They had one co-op program where the student went on co-op for 3 different 6 month periods, which was either the spring semester and a summer, or a summer and the fall. They also took 1-2 courses online while they were on co-op. This had them graduating in the summer after the 4th year, so just 3 months ‘late’.

I agree, lots of students at my university, Illinois Tech finish their engineering degrees in 4 years. Of course full time co-op lengthens the time to degree but for the most part, our students do summer internships and co-op is optional only.

And you have to look at the school’s grading distributions to understand how challenging any merit renewal criteria actually are. My D18 has to keep a 3.5 for her scholarship. But we don’t have any concerns, the school says that no one has ever lost the scholarship due to their GPA falling below that cutoff (and it’s exceeded by over 40% of students in her major).

UAB has a very good biomedE program and is still awarding large merit for stats. Looks like there would be no loans needed and maybe not even all of her college savings.

What is her goal with biomedE?

Pitt’s merit money was supposed to be awarded by March 15, so if your child didn’t get a notification then it may be that there won’t be any forthcoming. It’s competitive. If any merit $ is awarded, the gpa minimum to keep merit is 3.0.

Pitt has a lot of research opportunities for undergrad students. Some of it is even paid. Bioengineering has many opportunities right on campus for funded research.

Finding summer research has been easy for my kid. Heck, finding ways to earn $ on Pitt’s campus has been quite easy for him.

I am all for merit based aid and all for aid to those in low income situations. What I continue to be amazed at is the number of people who are rail against handouts but then expect their college bills to be taken care of by others. We were one of the dumb sets of parents. We set up 529’s when the kids were born, we did without jet skis, ATV’s, a house beyond our means, boats, eating out 5 times a week, etc. etc. etc. So we have accumulated over $200,000 for each kid towards college so we receive absolutely nothing except merit aid at certain colleges and nothing at others. Then we watch friends who didn’t save, lap up financial aid which we end up subsidizing by paying much higher rates. We will tell our kids that they can go to colleges where the net cost is $240,000 or less or pay the remaining by taking out loans. If they don’t want to do that, they have to take personal responsibility and choose a school within the a budget. If you didn’t save go to a state school or do two years at a community college. Don’t make me pay for your kids education because you were middle income and didn’t make the sacrifices we did.

^ Wow. I don’t think I can be upset by someone getting a Pell grant. That’s a whopping, what, $5k? $6k? per year.

Folks that don’t save don’t get free rides. By and large they get… debt.

I agree. Their kids also have far fewer affordable choices. Not fully understanding the benefits of having $200k saved for a kid’s college education is myopic.

They don’t even get debt. Their kids live at home and commute to community college, since the vast majority of colleges in America do NOT meet full need, Highland, which means whether you can afford 5K, 10K, or 60K per year it doesn’t matter- the college will not and cannot give your kid the amount of financial aid he/she needs. period full stop. If your kids are lucky enough to have choices because you- the parents- were prudent- that’s fantastic. But if you had bought jet skis and ATV’s and had no college savings- don’t delude yourselves that you’d have qualified for aid since the core driver of the financial aid formulas is current income. Consumer debt? Doesn’t get you more aid. Spent all your dough on a nice vacation? Doesn’t get you more aid.