<p>My older S will graduate from SC next year. I don’t regret a single penny we have paid to the university. S borrowed, but he has secured top paid internships and experiences that will assist in getting a good starting salary upon graduating.
S14 was accepted to both SC(with merit) and UCLA. He will mostly attend UCLA. I believe he will also have many excellent opportunities there and our family will benefit from the cost savings. Even with merit and grant aid from SC, UCLA is less expensive.
Not many Instate kids have such great choices, so make your decision after weighing all your options.</p>
<p>Wow madbean, if you don’t want to let it go and make your little digs and judgement about whether we can afford it or are unhappy then I will keep posting, all during the time prior to May 1st which was not my intention. So let’s keep it going, thank you. I bought into the hype that everything is so fab there, like you pitch everyday in your sales effort. My kid is happy so we are happy, contrary to your statement. It’s working and it’s fine, but not worth the price. I can be happy with the very expensive car I drive, but still come to realize it may not have been worth the sticker price after a couple years. I wouldn’t blame the car and I don’t blame USC, again contrary to your statement. Let people think what they want to think, it’s ok. You don’t have to attack me because I have a different opinion on how fabulous or not USC is. Let it go.</p>
<p>You cannot take out loans through PLUS. A parent has to take out those loans. They are not automatic and if the parent has 90 day late info on the credit report, the loan will be denied. The loans accrue at about 7% interest immediately upon disbursement. Each year, there has to be a new application and the prior year acceptance means nothing. No guarantee each year, and yes, it happens that a parent can be denied at any time. Still the loan has fairly flexible repayment plans and are forgiven upon the parent’s or your death. Only the signing parent will have those loans on his/her credit report, not you.</p>
<p>Now those other loans that you can get with a qualified cosigner are a whole other thing. The loan terms are not as flexible, and the interest rate will depend upon your parent’s credit. Both you and the parent will be held responsible, and no, you can’t get the parent off the hook later. The lender has you both and if anything happens to one of you, the other still has to pay, and it all goes on both of your credit reports. Bear in mind that a number of jobs, particularly in financial markets will require a credit check and a lot of positions are leery about hiring anyone in a whole lot of debt. For some reason, such people are more likely to get desperate and do things like steal. Your parent’s credit will also be affected with the loans on there if they want to buy a condo, move, start a business, go into a nice assisted care place. You had better get life insurance too, since if anything happens to you, your parent has the bitter pill of still paying off your school loan. </p>
<p>So do the math. If you and your parents really think it’s worth the differential, go to it. Some people do. You can’t do it alone; you need your parents to put that money down on you and take that risk. And you are also risking their security and old age, make no mistake of it. </p>
<p>Close friend has a DD at USC. Loves it, they can afford it, but man, it still hurts to pay that bill. And even though they can pay that cost, they are finding that their DD feels mighty poor there as a lot of the company she keep are truly well to do, and keeping up with that is not an option for her. She did not get into UCLA. </p>
<p>I’m paying a premium for my kid at an OOS school of his choice but it’s within the amount we feel we could pay. A private school at full price like USC, was not in the picture. </p>
<p>If you want to go to grad school or prof school, it will be on your dime and if you are not all loaned up, the interest rate is more favorable, stipends are possible, and you can check out USC then without involving your parents. But not if you are up to your neck with UG loans. You are being immediate and shortsighted because this is in front of your face now. Look to the long term. Again, if you really feel this is worth it and your parents agree and you feel it’s worth those risks to them, it could be a go. </p>
<p>"I bought into the hype that everything is so fab there, like you pitch everyday in your sales effort. " </p>
<p>Another attack? And then a doth-protest-too-much jibe that I am prolonging this conversation? If you want this issue to be gone, stop posting insults and then insist we don’t respond. I talk about personal experiences, positive and negative, and expect the audience to be smart and savvy enough to interpret. Why do you keep insulting me and other posters by insisting we are selling or hyping? You say your student has had great experiences at USC, well so have ours. Isn’t that a good thing? </p>
<p>This thread is discouraging. So you are basically screwed over if you are middle class? Is it uncommon to get the total cost ~60,000 cut in half? </p>
<p>What do you define as middle class, RedEyeJedi? We are also talking private schools here, and having room and board covered as well. There is no reason why the government should be paying for kids to go to private boarding school once they become adults </p>
<p>It is difficult to get $60K cut in half but increasingly more difficult statistically to get it cut down further. Where there is that “donut hole” is when you can’t afford your EFC when it’s about what your state school charges for going away to school, and you want the kid to have that sleep away experience. It’s highly unlikely even the most generous privates will give you more of a break than that, as EFC is the LEAST you most often have to pay when you are talking about going away to school. </p>
<p>I’m “all in” for USC so I hope people will see my next statement through that lens.</p>
<p>I get what some are saying - albeit not always the most articulate. The extreme cost of education is putting everyone in a bind. When I attended MIT, the cost of tuition was approximately 10-20% of my parent’s salary. They were lower middle class (two wage earners, not high incomes). So that may “date me” in terms of when I attended. Suffice to say it was less than $5,000.</p>
<p>Fast forward:</p>
<p>My husband and I do much better than my parents. But tuition (before scholarships) for two children constitutes our entire adjusted gross income and it is not be feasible to write that check. This is not a USC problem as the same is true of most private colleges where COA’s of $50-60,000 are common. </p>
<p>With the exception of a few very wealthy individuals - attending USC is not without pain for the parents looking at the bill. Even those with large merit awards may still have to make up the difference between tuition and COA. And student loans from the government have not increased much over the last decades so a greater burden lies on the ability of the parents to locate a funding source (Plus and private loans, home equity, retirement, savings, pan handling, begging, faking one’s own death or finding a genie in a lamp with wishes left over).</p>
<p>So there are some families that can write a check without pain. Others are raiding their retirement to do it. Still others are taking out loans. Even students with few assets are finding themselves shut out due to a lack of the desired “full-ride” scholarships.</p>
<p>But in the ensuing debates about who gets what and what is fair starts sowing the seeds of a “class war” which I hope doesn’t happen here on CC.</p>
<p>The reality is that there is no thing as “entitled to” or “free ride” or…</p>
<p>So - its true - if you can’t afford it (or can but choose not to) - no harm no foul. It’s expensive. Some of us see the investment well worth it. Today I helped my kid talk through a problem and she laughed and joked that she’d add a pool to the MTV crib she will buy me when she makes her first movie. To pay back for our dwindling savings.</p>
<p>We all know it is a joke. But in the end - when all else fails - attitude is everything.</p>
<p>If anyone has a wish left over in their genie bottle, can I have it? :-)</p>
<p>Trying to figure out why USC is the ONLY school not offering any financial aid - Son accepted at USC, Vanderbilt, Baylor, UNC and Univ. Michigan - with financial aid offers ranging between $20,000 - $32,000 per year - CSS & FAFSA provided so same information given to all the schools yet USC has our EFC at full COA???</p>
<p>you should contact the FA office and appeal the lack of a FA award. Show them the documentation from Vanderbilt. They wont be likely to “match” FA awards from non-peer U’s [ Baylor] or from public U’s that change far less tuition unless there was a mistake in their calculations.
Its worth a try. </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice menloparkmom - have an appt with USC financial aid office next week - FYI - Vandy’s offer was $32,000 need based grant aid per year - a peer school with very similar COA (Vandy includes $2,000 of travel expenses and has a $62,000 COA)- trying to figure out why such a huge difference in EFC ($30,000 vs $65,000)based on identical family financials & similar COAs. </p>
<p>I’ll bet there was a mistake in the calculations…good luck! </p>
<p>ot2014, did your run the NPC for USC? Do you have ownership in a business? I do know that having anything unusual, and ownership in a business does fall in that category for all the small business owners in this country, does result in very different amounts. Some of the most generous schools for aid, Swarthmore, Haverford, hit those businesses very hard, whereas some other school are much more generous. That’s been a huge swing point in aid packages.</p>
<p>When I ran the NPC for USC our EFC figure was about $20,000 a year less than the ultimate number from USC - nothing unusual (1 State employee parent and 1 private sector parent) 1 child currently in local community college - SoCal middle class family…</p>
<p>Our EFC was the same. There are a lot of people in the same boat with the EFC being much lower than the online calculator. We talked to FA - it wasn’t a mistake.</p>
<p>My guess? USC is choosing among 51,000 students and takes 20% of the applicants. Based on historical yield I think they’ve gotten it down to a fine art on who will bite and who won’t when the FA is smaller. Because 3/4 of the admitted students go elsewhere. </p>
<p>If D wanted to study something other than film, the choice would have been harder. Other universities offered more money and would be less expensive. But ya know - for all my angst, so far it’s been quite an eye opener how many doors have opened when she mentions where she’s studying. It erased any lingering doubt for us.</p>
<p>Still - the cost is breathtaking, if I can be honest. So fingers crossed that you’ll be able to get an adjustment.</p>