Accepted but too expensive?

Paying for College
1

<p>I need some advice.</p>

<p>I've been accepted into the Computer Science program at the University of Michigan. For those that don't know, this program is one of the top in the country and is typically ranked in the top ten, if not top five, each year (This year it's ranked sixth by US News and World Rankings for its engineering program). I love UMichigan and desperately want to attend. </p>

<p>The only problem is cost.</p>

<p>I am an Out-of-State, Middle Class guy. My family's income is around $140,000-$160,000 depending on the year. As such, I will receive minimum FinAid; the net price calculator estimates my EFC at $40,000-$50,000. My parents will be giving me $12,000 a year, but I would still be paying $28,000 (Which, while unlikely, would be okay) to $38,000. I am simply uncomfortable with going into debt anywhere from $112,000 to $152,000. Yet I am almost guaranteed immediate success right out of college because of my major and reputation of UMich. </p>

<p>I am in quite the situation.</p>

<p>I've also been deferred at UChicago and have applied ED2 to Vanderbilt University and RD to OSU despite my desire to attend Michigan. Help?</p>

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<p>Why would you apply ED2 to Vanderbilt if you have $38K gap? What make you think you will be able to afford Vanderbilt, if UMich is a stretch for you?</p>

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<p>Michigan, or most other schools for that matter, is not worth that kind of debt.</p>

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<p>My EFC is only $18,000 for Vanderbilt. It has superb FinAid whereas UMichigan does not.</p>

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<p>Zachary, unless you get significant merit aid from someplace, your family with the income you lay forth will be responsible for paying in the $40K to $50K range. UMich is very clear on their website. They do NOT meet full need for out of state students.</p>

<p>While UMich has a great program, the reality is that many successful Computer Science professionals do NOT graduate from UMich.</p>

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<p>You SHOULD feel uncomfortable. This is staggering debt just for undergrad school. YOU (the student) would not be able to secure loans in your own name anyway for this amount. Are your parents prepared to cosign loans for FOUR years for you? </p>

<p>OSU is a great school…and it sounds affordable to you and your family. </p>

<p>Did you apply ANYWHERE where you might garner guaranteed merit aid based on your stats?</p>

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<p>I’m guessing you got this info by using the Net Price Calculator on the Vandy website. The reality is you will not know your REAL expected family contribution for Vandy until you receive your financial aid package. It’s a Profile school and until you get your aid package, don’t assume anything. NPC are very new this year…and should be viewed as a guestimate only. I would be VERY surprised if their generous aid netted you $20,000 more in aid than the FAFSA indicates.</p>

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<p>Actually, the average need-based award at Vanderbilt for the income range of $140,000-$159,999 is $39,576.</p>

<p>The only place I could think of where I was accepted would be Case Western. They’re giving me a $23,000 scholarship, making my yearly cost $28,000 or $16,000 a year for me. I’m just not a huge fan of the school. I’m also applying to Haverford, Emory, and Oberlin, which all have great FinAid, but I’d only get merit-based scholarships at Oberling.</p>

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<p>Zachary…the KEY word in that sentence is AVERAGE. If your FAFSA EFC comes out to be in the $40,000 range, I seriously doubt you will see almost $20,000 in aid from Vandy. Sorry…unlikely.</p>

<p>Have you done your 2012-2013 FAFSA yet? Did you get your SAR back? What is the FAFSA EFC? Just curious because unless you have very extenuating circumstances, I seriously doubt that Vandy is going to expect your family to pay $20K less than what your FAFSA EFC is. </p>

<p>Of course, the proof will be in the final financial aid awards.</p>

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<p>I agree with Thumper. I ran the Vanderbilt NPC with income of $150k and a family of four with one in college and the Net Cost was $26,433 then they indicate $2,200 for student work, so $24,233 for parent contribution. Also of note the estimated COA was $62,478 which includes travel/books/personal expenses. So even if you were lucky and got the average for your income ($40k) you would still have $22,478 to cover - which pretty much matches what the NPC calculated. Unless you have lots of siblings or another one in college I think you are looking at a much larger contribution than you calculated.</p>

<p>I ran the NPC assuming you had no assets, minimum home equity and no student income in order to produce the highest financial aid - so this is best case.</p>

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<p>*
My family’s income is around $140,000-$160,000 depending on the year</p>

<p>the net price calculator estimates my EFC at $40,000-$50,000.</p>

<p>My parents will be giving me $12,000 a year, but I would still be paying $28,000 (Which, while unlikely, would be okay) to $38,000. *</p>

<p>You’re OOS for UMich, so they’re not going to give you need-based grants with that income and EFC. </p>

<p>Borrowing that much is nuts. ** Besides, you’d need your parents to co-sign. Would they co-sign (hopefully, they’re smarter than that.)**</p>

<p>*I am simply uncomfortable with going into debt anywhere from $112,000 to $152,000. Yet **I am almost guaranteed immediate success right out of college because of my major and reputation of UMich. ***</p>

<p>News Flash…an eng’g or CS grad from UMich will not get paid more than a eng’g grad or CS grad from any other decent school. Rankings do NOT translate into higher salaries.</p>

<p>Your starting salary (in 2012 dollars) would be in the $60-70k per year (depending on region)…even if you went to some ok ranked school. </p>

<p>I come from a family of hiring engineering/CS mgrs, directors, and VPs…including my H. They hire for Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Google, Canon, and DirecTV. They do NOT pay grads more based on their undergrad. A small exception (and I mean SMALL) may be for MIT or Cal Tech grads…and it’s not much.</p>

<p>Believe me, my H doesn’t pay the Georgia Tech, Purdue, Vandy, or UMich grads any more money than he pays the ones from UAH, Auburn, UTenn, or Bama. They get paid the same. Period. </p>

<p>Your obsession with rankings could be the death of you. I also live near a 3rd tier univ (old style ranking) that has a good Col of Eng’g/CS. Those kids graduate with well-paid jobs because the school is located in Cummings Research Park…so for them, it’s school, internship, graduate, job…success.</p>

<p>*The only place I could think of where I was accepted would be Case Western. They’re giving me a $23,000 scholarship, making my yearly cost $28,000 or $16,000 a year for me. I’m just not a huge fan of the school. I’m also applying to Haverford, Emory, and Oberlin, which all have great FinAid, but I’d only get merit-based scholarships at Oberling. *</p>

<p>you need to get over this idea of “great financial aid” when you didn’t apply to HYPS. Those are the schools that give super-aid to families with your income. The rest that meet need will give rather normal FA with family contribution expectations in about the 33% range for that income. </p>

<p>Have you asked your parents if they’ll co-sign $80k-100k+ in loans? If not, do so now, so you’ll know what the situation is.</p>

<p>Without your parents co-signing, YOU can only borrow the following amounts:</p>

<p>5500 frosh
6500 soph
7500 jr
7500 sr</p>

<p>So, even Case wouldn’t be affordable for you at this point.</p>

<p>Where else can you apply? What is your home state.</p>

<p>you’re going to have to deal with your budget.</p>

<p>*average need-based award at Vanderbilt for the income range of $140,000-$159,999 is $39,576. *</p>

<p>I don’t believe that. I live about an hour away from Vandy and therefore know lots of attendees…including my own nephew. They aren’t getting that kind of aid with that income. </p>

<p>Where did you get that figure? I wonder if it’s including families with more than one child in college.</p>

<p>Are you a NMSF?</p>

<p>What is your GPA and SAT/ACT?</p>

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<p>Apply to OSU. It’s a heck of a lot more affordable and will give you the same opportunities as UMich.</p>

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<p>Without getting into an argument about what constitutes middle class, you need to understand that your family income is significantly above middle class and the colleges and universities take income into consideration. Your own admission of EFC should be pointing you toward the fact that your financial aid will be reflected by the expectation that your family can pay that amount. </p>

<p>I am abit surprised that your parents would sign an ED agreement when it sounds like they have told you they will pay $12,000 a year. Without the ED I would have advised a broader list of engineering schools and waiting to compare finaid packages and deeper conversations with your parents regarding costs and your application strategy. </p>

<p>Please be careful because if your parent budget is $12,000, you can take out $5500 in loans. The gap would need to be entirely merit because of your EFC which will be difficult. You won’t be able to assume debt higher than the $5500 for your freshman year without someone cosigning loans with you. Mom2 has explained this and I’m repeating for emphasis. A part-time job starting now and going untl you leave for school might net you $2-3000. Your costs will be COA - $12,000 - $5500 - what you can save - minus any pure merit money (not scholarships awarded for financial need). The difference you will not be able to cover alone. </p>

<p>The other option would be for you to take two years at a college you can commute to and can cover costs with the student loan and a part-time job and ask if your parents can double up on their contribution to $24,000 for your junior year and $24,000 for your senior year instead of $12,000 per year for four years.</p>

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<p>The more of these sad threads I read the more I am convinced that financial literacy must be mandatory to graduate high school.</p>

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<p>^ amen!!!</p>

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<p>Even OSU is $26,000 these days for in-state. So $26,000 - $12,000 - $5500 - $2-3,000 from a part-time job leaves the OP a gap. I didn’t look to see if there were an automatic discounts for GPA/ACT or pure merit awards. OP there is a scholarship application for OSU (as there is for michigan) and deadlines are approaching…it is essential that you stay on-top of deadlines and applications/forms needed for scholarships at ALL the colleges where you have applied. The ED things is a monkey wrench if the OP is accepted because the amount of money the parents say they will pay could be very different from how the college will package you with your EFC. Again you need to make sure you and your parents hit the deadlines for Profile, FAFSA and the Vanderbilt scholarship application (if there is one). </p>

<p>This from the Vanderbilt website:

</p>

<p>There is potentially a disconnect somewhere between the OP and the parents.</p>

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<p>[Few</a> options available to help in paying off private student loans ? USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2012-01-12/private-student-loans-relief/52520848/1]Few”>http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2012-01-12/private-student-loans-relief/52520848/1)</p>

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<p>Even OSU is $26,000 these days for in-state.</p>

<p>If you are referring to Ohio State, that’s incorrect. In-state tuition + room and board is about 20K. [Tuition</a> and fees](<a href=“Basic costs include tuition, food and housing. - The Ohio State University”>http://undergrad.osu.edu/money-matters/tuition-and-fees.html)</p>

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<p>Suzy100- I looked at their website for a friend yesterday and that figure is correct - it is $26,000 for tuition room and booard, if you live at home with parents then they estimated the $20000 amount. </p>

<p>OP - The University of Dayton is an excellent computer and engineering school. They also give good aide - so it may bring your cost down to where it is more affordable. My husband and I are both UD grads, his in Computer engineering and he has down well in his career.</p>

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<p>

For residents 2011-2012 school year
Tuition & fees $9,711
Room & Bd $10,215</p>

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<p>Zachary, please please please contact Vanderbilt immediately and ask them to convert your application from ED2 to RD. Tell them that your parents have said that they want to compare costs, so they are asking you to make the switch. </p>

<p>There is simply no advantage in you applying there ED2 since you are hoping for need-based aid. You will have absolutely no leverage in trying to negotiate a better aid package, as compared to what happens in RD. </p>

<p>UMich is not worth the debt. A good rule of thumb is to take on no more debt than you expect to earn your first year out of college. Going to UMich is not a guarantee that you will get a great job offer and be employed right out of school.</p>