<p>It's that time of year for me. I was just accepted into my first choice school, which I'm a little disappointed about because I know that there is a better chance than not that I will not be able to afford the $60,000 price tag. </p>
<p>My parents can afford to contribute a very generous $30,000 a year. Three out of my nine schools were financial and academic safeties. But even if I go to a school I could afford outright based on their savings, I still have to take out a $5,000 loan at minimum just so I have some stake in this too. </p>
<p>Whether or not I'll be able to "afford" NYU when it's all said and done, or will have to opt for a state school to save, debt is happening on one level or another.</p>
<p>So I really need to understand what it's like paying for college from a parents perspective, and what it's like paying off student loans from a graduates perspective to make a realistic decision. </p>
<p>Now that I'm accepted to one school so far and have to start weighing options, I think I've finally realized that student loans are real money that I have to actually pay back someday. But I have no idea what that means in the context of my adult life, especially several years post-graduation.</p>
<p>Going to a more expensive school like NYU would mean for me obviously some combination of outside scholarships, possibly a work-study if I can qualify, and a loan - up to a certain point. What were your experiences with applying for private scholarships? Any success?</p>
<p>You and your parents should have had the money talk before application season.</p>
<p>It would not be wise to take on more debt than the subsidized loan limit (currently $23,000 for four years) or more than half of the typical pay level for graduates in your major.</p>
<p>Since you would need a lot of financial aid to afford NYU, you should have considered it a reach, since you would have needed to get one of its big merit scholarships – NYU has a reputation for poor financial aid for those who do not get its big merit scholarships. An acceptance with insufficient financial aid is effectively a rejection.</p>
<p>It would have been nice to have had a sit down talk with them about the reality of paying for college but communication really just isn’t there in my family. </p>
<p>Also, I am considering pre-med, or going onto law school after Public Health.</p>
<p>Also, be aware that you will find many different perspectives from the parents here. We don’t all approach lifestyle/spending/saving/earning/responsibility in the same way!</p>
<p>If your parents can afford $30,000 find something within this range. The fixed expenses are only one party of this equation. There will be books, travel, additional fees, other opportunities you may want to look at like study abroad or service trips. If you need loans to pay the known fixed expenses you will have a hard time with the rest.</p>
<p>Use an online loan calculator to figure out what the monthly payments would be to pay back the amount of the loan over X years. Now, take a serious look at that monthly payment figure and imagine what you could buy if you had that money available to you or more importantly, what you can’t buy since you no longer have that money available to you.</p>
<p>The debt is real and will eventually be tangible even if it doesn’t seem like it now but you’re asking good questions which puts you ahead of a lot of people.</p>
<p>I tried out the simpletuition adjuster, but the best I can do is plug in hypotheticals for outside scholarships. When it came out, something about it just didn’t seem right, because I did a calculator on a government website for a Direct PLUS loan, and the monthly payments were far lower. </p>
<p>This website is telling me I need a $120,000 starting salary to pay off $60,000 in loans, but I’m not sure what time frame they put on it or what they’re assuming the interest is on the private loan they assume in the calculation. </p>
<p>Isn’t there a law anyways that you can’t be billed more than 10% of your annual income? </p>
<p>My parents and I are going to meet with a college finance counselor sometime in the next week to talk about my options. Outside scholarships seem like a risk, since I’d have to come up with all of that money again in my second, third, fourth years. So NYU seems just out of my reach. </p>
<p>What about loan forgiveness programs? Or are there even such a thing?</p>
<p>Didn’t you post about having troubles financing an NYU education before? I don’t really think the school is a viable choice for you and your family, especially if you want to go to grad school. I think it’s time to set your sights elsewhere, to be honest.</p>
<p>oliviabartel - Unfortunately, NYU has the reputation of being a really expensive school, and very tight with the aid dollars. Search this site for awhile, you’ll see lots of folks coming to the conclusion that it’s not affordable.</p>
<p>Also, please give serious consideration to what ucbalumnus said about carrying serious debt into law/med school. That’s quite a burden.</p>
<p>I’m not yet sure if I want to go to grad school. NYU might not work out in the end but I still think it’s in my best interest to look at everything first before I say no. I’m not just asking about NYU, I’m asking about loans in general. At any school I might be come fall.</p>
<p>If you go to medical school, your debt will be accumulating interest, while you add on more debt for medical school. You will be paid during residency, but not that much, so you will not be able to start paying off undergraduate and medical school debt until after residency. And then you may need to choose the highest paying specialty to get out from under the debt in reasonable time.</p>
<p>If you go to law school, be aware that good law jobs are only really available to top students at top 14 law schools (and perhaps regionally near just below top 14 law schools). In any case, law school will also mean adding additional debt to whatever undergraduate debt you will bring in.</p>
<p>Agreed. Also, as someone who grew up 10 blocks from NYU’s main campus and knew dozens of people who attended…it really isn’t worth the expense unless you/your parents can comfortably pay the full-tuition without much of a care in the world or you’re attending Tisch or Stern. Even with the latter two schools…the debt incurred will seriously limit you for several years…several Stern graduates I know have only just paid off or are still paying off loans despite having graduated over a decade ago…and they started off making $80k right from undergrad in finance/banking/business positions and have remained employed with steady pay raises. </p>
<p>If you’re considering grad/law school or you’re not sure of your future academic/career plans, I’d be even more leery about going to NYU considering its history of providing stingy financial aid/scholarships. Heck, there have been a few NYT reports about NYU graduates being heavily constrained by their debts. There’s also been some scandals about how NYU’s FA office has been colluding with bankers to steer students to getting loans with crappy terms so the senior FA officers and bankers benefit at the students’ expense. </p>
<p>I also know several more recent NYU graduates in similar situations…including one friend who has $400K in debt from NYU undergrad('05) and law school combined…and he was one of the few law grads in his class to get a legal job…making $30k/year. </p>
<p>Frankly, there are many schools which offer similar/better academics than NYU with lower tuitions/far better FA/scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks for showing me that. I wouldn’t expect six figures starting pay in anything that I’m going into. The calculator I used was a little odd, but the calculations I got from a direct plus loan told me I would be facing $460 monthly payments on a fixed extended plan. My interest would end up being more than my actual loan of course. But is that even avoidable?</p>
<p>So yeah I guess if I can manage to put myself through a good law or med school, secure myself a high paying job, work really hard, then it might make sense because 25 years might not be what I needed to make the payments, and therefore accrue all that interest. But I’d have the grad school loans then. What is financial assistance like for grad students? Scholarship and grant wise. </p>
<p>Is that really true about law schools? Define “good law jobs”. </p>
<p>Either way, even if I choose to keep it affordable at my state school, CU Boulder (which is really not a good fit for me, but might just have to do anyways for two years at least), once my parents savings are gone for me I don’t get any more. They’re not bailing me out after I graduate. I’ll use up their money and end up taking almost the exact same amount out for furthering my education. Plus my $20k loan from CU that I have to take care of. </p>
<p>Is there really just no hope for middle class families? I have a hard time believing that I’m the only kid who has ever been in this situation faced with average college expenses. I guess I’ll have to pick and choose and be careful, but debt seems pretty inevitable if you want quality education. It seems like most law and med students experience the same thing. How can you not?</p>
<p>My second choice is looking like Tulane. Hopefully I get accepted. The admissions officer who I talked with went off on how wonderful they are with merit scholarships for a good five minutes.</p>
<p>Isn’t there a law anyways that you can’t be billed more than 10% of your annual income?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>That law is a much narrower resolution that pertains to the federal Direct loan program. You can borrow $5,500 your first year, $6,500 your second year, and $7,500 for each subsequent year up to a lifetime limit of $31,000 for undergraduate school.</p>
<p>Once your loans are in repayment, you can choose from a variety of repayment plans. Standard repayment is 10 years; you make 120 equal payments that pay off the principal plus interest accrued. If your income is low enough proportionate to your federal loan debt, you can also choose income-based repayment, which is the new plan the law revolves around. Under IBR, your monthly bill for federal loans only would be capped at, at most, 10% of your income. If you are really destitute, you may pay nothing. Interest continues to accrue at the old rates so over the life of the loan, you will pay more. After 25 years, if you are not finished repaying the loan, the rest is forgiven and you no longer have to pay. This commitment is reduced to 10 years if you work in public service.</p>
<p>What about loan forgiveness programs? Or are there even such a thing?</p>
<p>There are, but they apply to certain types of high-demand, low supply jobs. The public service loan forgiveness mentioned above only applies to 1) certain types of public servants who 2) have a high enough federal debt-to-income ration to be eligible for income-based repayment and 3) have made 120 on-time payments. If you even miss one payment, you could lose your eligibility for the program.</p>
<p>There are other ones offered for nurses and teachers in critical fields like math and science. None that I know of for public health, and that’s my field.</p>
<p>I think that $20K in loans from your state flagship is a quite reasonable path, and it’s typical of what middle class families do. That’s manageable debt, and many of us feel that it’s quite appropriate for students to have some skin in the game.</p>
<p>Please understand that NYU is priced as a luxury. It’s for fairly well-off people, and the very few who are lucky enough to receive solid aid packages. Unfortunately, NYU also traps many young people who don’t yet have the financial sophistication to appreciate the lifetime damage that heavy debt can cause. Don’t be one of those folks! Also, many of us would strongly agree with cobrat’s opinion: “Frankly, there are many schools which offer similar/better academics than NYU with lower tuitions/far better FA/scholarships.” </p>
<p>As for how to fund graduate education - there are all kinds of ways, and they’re not typically painless. You need to meet people, find mentors, ask questions, do the research, keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities. You’ll also need to learn to approach these propositions as a savvy consumer would. Right now, it’s easy to turn yourself financially upside-down to obtain a low-value law degree.</p>
<p>But no matter what, you’ll never regret keeping your expenses low during your undergraduate years. Remember, the hard work is just starting.</p>