So I got into the University of San Francisco which is kind of my dream school and I’ve literally wanted to move to San Francisco since I was little (I used to tell my parents I was going to live there someday). I’m transferring and I will only be there for 3 years but with financial aid I still have to pay almost half. However, my parents aren’t paying anything.
BACKGROUND: My parents are divorced and I live with my mom. We recently moved out of LA to a very small town where she now makes less then half of what she made in LA and is now in debt. Due to this she is unable to take out a loan for my school and she is the only parent listed on my FAFSA so my dad couldn’t take out a loan anyways.
At first I thought only having my poorer parent on my fafsa would be an advantage because I’d get way better financial aid and my dad (who now makes more than twice what my mom makes) would help. However, he refuses to take out anything.
I’d be paying about $20,000 a year which equals $60,000 but I’m getting half of it in federal loans.
I’m super worried because I know that’s a lot of money but my parents don’t seemed worried at all. To be fair, they both have (had in my moms case) fairly good middle class jobs that paid around $150,000 and they only had me but that seems like way too much for me! My parents keep telling me not to worry because I’ll probably be fine but how can they be so sure?!?!? It’s driving me insane and if anyone has any insight or has taken out this much in loans please tell me how you did it/how it worked out!
P.S. I’m also a computer science major and really picked this because there’s A LOT of opportunities and internships in the city for my major. I’m also a woman/minority in computer science and I know if I play my cards right I can definitely make more than enough money but I’m still worried. ALSO apparently USF alumni are apparently in the top 3% for earnings after graduation and on average even make more than UCLA and NYU graduates (according to college scorecard/USF)
As a student, you cannot take out that much in loans. The federal loans – up to $5,500; $6,500; $7,500; and $7,500 in each respective year – will be all you can borrow without a cosigner. Are either of your parents willing to cosign? Even if the answer is yes, that’s still a LOT to borrow. You should calculate the monthly payment and give it some serious thought before committing.
Two obvious questions: Do you have an acceptable less expensive alternative? Can you get one of your parents to co-sign? @NerdMom88 is correct that you will need an adult co-signer to take on this much debt.
Generally, having a loan which is equal to your starting salary is a significant loan but do-able. Twice is quite tough. Anything more than this is very bad. Also, you need to be confident that you will be able to borrow enough to finish your Bachelor’s degree, preferably before you start going into debt.
The good news: There are jobs in software engineering. You won’t need a Master’s degree. Also, starting salaries in the Bay Area for people with a Bachelor’s degree in computer science are greater than $60,000 per year.
As such the loan will take some time to repay, will pretty much mean that you will need to graduate on time, and could be unfortunate if you decide to change to a less lucrative major (or could tie you in to this major). The loan might require that you share an apartment at first after graduation. However, as long as you keep up with the work and graduate on time in computer science, you should be fine.
This isn’t going to get you more money, or even more internship etc opportunities. It may help get your foot in the door for interviews, but in my personal opinion, the stereotypes against women/minorities in the field still outweigh any affirmative action kind of benefit you feel from it. So don’t bank on that – at all.
Sounds like an ok plan if you can somehow get someone to cosign. Not really a life-ending amount of debt, although it’s definitely not necessary to achieve success in cs. But if it’s gonna make you really happy, meh.
San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the world. The University of San Francisco is a private university in the USA, i.e. among the most expensive colleges in the world. Your parents are divorced and your mother is in debt. You cannot borrow that much money on your own without having a parent co-sign. I think you see where this is going.
If you graduate from college and get a job in San Francisco earning $60,000 per year with $60,000 per year, the good news is that you could commute from St. Louis.
I’m sorry…but this school is not affordable as it stands.
To get $20,000 a year in loans, someone will need to either take out those loans, or cosign them. If neither parent will do so, you need to find a more affordable option.
If your mother isn’t able to qualify for a PLUS loan, you (student) will be able to borrow an additional $4k, bringing you up to $9500. Still isn’t enough to pay for USF.
Did you apply to any public schools? Those should be much cheaper for you with Pell and Cal grants.
I find it interesting that your parents are telling you not to worry about the debt when they are not financially able to help when they are making good salaries as established professionals. I am sure that is probably due to the divorce and the high cost of living in CA.
My question for you is are you willing to live and work outside of CA? Managing 60K of debt and the high cost of living in SF/CA will be hard. Yes, I read all about the great CS salaries but I also read stories about how the same people have a hard time paying the rent.
Chasing your dream is fine as long as it doesn’t turn into a financial nightmare. In your case, it might mean either living at home after graduation or accepting a job outside of CA. If you are successful in CS, I would think that 60K would be manageable but maybe not in CA.
There are no guarantees in life. Most colleges have employment surveys, which can give a range of starting salaries, for undergrads. Those surveys may be biased high, if there’s a high non-response rate.
Where are you currently attending? Are you having to borrow to go there? Is there a reason you can’t stay there for at least another year? Do you have any alternatives that are more affordable than University of San Francisco? Right now, USF isn’t affordable for you. You could attend if your parents would co-sign loans, but I’d think long and hard about taking on that level of debt for an undergraduate degree. I’d rather go to school somewhere less expensive and then go work in San Francisco once I’d graduated than go into debt and find myself barely able to live there on an entry level salary.
Hey guys! Just an update in case anyone cares. Yes my dad did agree to cosign but I’m not going there anymore because they changed my financial aid on me.
Basically, I had a cal grant that was almost $9,000 a year but it was still processing when they gave me my financial aid. So I called the school and they said it would be ADDED to the financial aid and since my mom didn’t qualify for the Parent PLUS loan I could take out an extra $5,000 in fedral loans.
This was all good new for me but when I checked back for my Cal Grant (which hey actually never put through- they just put their “estimate”) something didn’t add up. I called the school and apparently they took away money from the institutional grant to balance out my cal grant and they took away virtually all the money that they gave me and basically it ended being even more expensive than the initial $60,000 so but I’ve already committed to UCSC so it’s all good.