@twoinanddone You are correct about this. I can only speak for my older 2 because I don’t know what the younger two are going to be like. But my oldest (current Senior) has pushed herself to brink with AP classes, getting all A’s, sacrificing so much–and all self-driven, my other child 2 years younger I am sorry to say has no interest in school now or college in the future. She is waiting for pot to become legal and hopes to marry well. I feel differently about the money…yes you are correct.
Let’s do it step by step to figure affordability.
STEP 1
Look at the financial aid letter your daughter received.
Calculate:
(tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = $
This will be your direct costs (that you must pay to the university, either in August and December, or in 10 monthly installments).
Pitt (tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = $ …
Case Western (tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = $ …
U of MD (tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = $ …
Drexel (tuition, fees, room, board) - ( grants, scholarships) = $ …
@Twoin18 I found the grading distributions for my son’s school, but I don’t know exactly how to interpret them.
What data did you see for your dc’s school and what did you interpret it to mean when it comes to your dc?
@jazzymomof7 Her school gave percentiles for each major, i.e. 10% get 2.84 or below, 20% get 2.96 or below up to 90% get 3.85 or below (those are made up numbers). Knowing how she compared to the rest of the students (she was well above the 75th percentile ACT score) and that her scholarship was for the top <1% of students, we were comfortable with a GPA cutoff that at least 20%-30% of the students exceeded, but would have been more concerned about one that only say 10% of students in her major exceeded since it would be too easy for something to go wrong.
My child did a coop at another university and you pay no tuition or fees that semester. My child actually graduated in 10 semesters of which three were the rotation and two were summer classes. Net result out in less than four years. If cooping they can pay for many expenses. Use all ap credits and take a full load of engineering classes +15 hours. When not cooping they can work part time. Books can be purchased second hand, downloaded or rented. We spent a fraction of what school states it costs for books. Cooking meals rather than a meal plan saves a fortune. Tuition is the one thing you cannot control but all other expenses have wiggle room. It just depends on what the student and parent is willing to forgo. Living in luxury digs is expensive. Having mom’s credit card is expensive. Spring break is expensive. Its a choice. However, my child now graduated thanks me for learning to deal and has a very strong work ethic.
I wanted to come back to this thread with more info. We got no money from PITT. Her SAT was 1450 and needed to be at least 1500-that came from the scholarship committee. I created a separate post to ask about how to disperse our funds. Here is where we are:
We are deciding between two schools:
1 Pitt (instate) COA $34,260- no Merit
2 U of MD Honors College COA $51,180- 12,500 merit so real COA is 38,680 (I think we are leaning here)
Ways we have to pay:
Unsub Federal loan 5500, 6500, 6500, 7500
Total of 529 money as of now $80K
Expect daughter to contribute 3K each year via earnings or any scholarships she may acquire
This is our first child in college. Our current EFC is 68K. It is possible our EFC may drop to around 35K when #2 enters. I do not know what that means for financial aid at either of the above two schools. We have child #2 entering in 2021, child #3 in 2023, and child#4 2027…whew. Child #2 529 is 86K (my DH said something about hit in stock market as to why hers is higher). For children 3, and 4 we have a roth that is about 110K right now. We were not sure all kids would go to school and still aren’t. Assuming for now they are.
What is the best strategy here? We have good credit but just consolidated a lot of CC debt and have a mortgage, heloc and home loan so really can’t co-sign for a ton. Plus we have 3 other children to consider if cosigning is needed. Does it make sense to use up all the 529 money first and then take out a loan? Do we move some 529 money from child #2?
Thanks for your help!
What is the GPA requirement to keep the scholarship at UMD?
I would look at direct costs at both schools, tuition, fees, room and board.
Also compare off campus housing cost.
Why do you think she would prefer UMD over Pitt?
Because of honors?
Looks like UMD honors has 1,000 students, Pitt only has around 400 (honors housing capacity).
The selection process for Pitt honors has been much more holistic this year, and they seem to want to have a class with good representation of majors, geographic and ethnic diversity.
If it’s that important to her she can still ask permission to take honors courses and/or apply again next year.
OP and DD in a good place. Good choices and affordable. No reason to have to take $184k in loans
I’m a little concerned that you have $80,000 in the bank for college costs…for child number one…but it doesn’t sound like you have anything for the other kids. Is that correct?
Even IF your FAFSA EFC drops to half of what it is…that does not translate into additional aid for this student attending Pitt or UMD, as neither college meets full need for all with their institutional funds. Even a $30,000 EFC per kid would not put you in line for any federally funded grant money…and probably not any institutional either for an upperclassman.
Our first kid had an EFC that exceeded the cost of attendance at his college. Like you, he got no need based aid. When little sis was also enrolled in college, his EFC was half the cost of attendance ($22,000 EFC for a school which, at the time, was $44,000 or so). He got $250 increase to his merit aid that last year. Clearly a drop on the bucket but every penny helps.
As noted…you seem to have the money in place for your oldest kid for college…without $184,000 in loans.
But what about the rest of you kids?
@thumper1 : OP has 86k for child #2 and currently 100k for both children who won’t enter college till 2023 and 2027, which leaves time for the amount to grow a bit (if they choose to go to college, which might not be a given based on what OP said).
@mommdc I can’t find the merit $ GPA requirement but the requirement Ito stay in the HC is 3.2. She also has the option to take classes at Carnegie Melon while at PITT. U of MD ranks higher for Engineering and PITT was her safety school. She isn’t too excited about it. “in state public school is easy to get into when you live in state”. Hard to reason with a teenager when they don’t not possess an adult brain : )
Direct costs:
PITT 19,726 11,582 2,200(fees) 752(books) 34,260
U of MD 36,208 12,750 972(fees) 1,250(books) 51,180
Off campus housing PITT and MD look similar around 1200? I am not sure really now to check except for rental prices.
@thumper1 Child #2 529 is 86K (my DH said something about hit in stock market as to why hers is higher). For children 3, and 4 we have a roth that is about 110K right now. We were not sure all kids would go to school and still aren’t. Assuming for now they are.
My son pays $650-ish a month off campus (he’s a Pitt student). He has a roommate.
@mom517 UMD also requires a 3.2 to keep the scholarship. I checked into it since my son is choosing between UMD with a $12,500 award (no idea why they gave him that much!) or an in-state option that will only cost $23,000/year for everything.
My son is a music student with decent grades and better scores, but has ADHD and is not very academic. It feels a little risky for him to rely on the scholarship money for four years. It doesn’t sound so risky for your highly driven kid.
@mom517 By my calculations, since you’ve only done direct costs, both of these are still a little over budget. If you assume your student works 10-15 hours per week during the school year, that should cover her personal and transportation costs. Then assume $3,000 during the summer. That still leaves you about $6,000 short for Pitt and about $10,000 short at UMD. That’s not an insignificant amount, and you certainly don’t want to add to your D’s debt burden, or yours. Can you contribute any money from current income?
The alternative is to choose Pitt and make up any deficit from the funds for the youngest children and push that can down the road. The other reason to choose Pitt is that 3.2 requirement is not a foregone conclusion and carries quite a bit of risk for engineering. Co-ops at Pitt could also help defray costs for years 2-4.
@itsgettingreal17 no option to take from out income. We have had to decrease our college contributions and retirement savings to pay down debt. I agree about the PITT co-ops. That income is very attractive. I would like to give in the choice of two schools. She has worked too hard to not have a choice --within reason of course. None of the others are within reason. I would love for her to walk away with 30K in debt by going to PITT. Looks like about 18k more for U of MD. In the grand scheme I don’t think that is significant if she gets to make the choice and pick the school she wants. What are your thoughts on how to disperse our funds and use of federal loans. We belong to a credit union just an fyi.
@missbwith2boys thank you for that info!
@eh1234 Good luck with your decision : )
I would look carefully at the Honors program and what the exact advantages are to your daughter. Another consideration is that tuition will likely increase over the 4 years.