I am a bit lost currently and would like some advice regarding my situation. I’m an engineering student about to complete my first year of college. I attend an in-state relatively well known school which costs about $24,000 a year. This year I funded my entire cost of college which with two loans, a federal loan of $5,500 and a state loan for the remaining ~$20K. Looking towards the next three years, I will likely be living off campus which will reduce my costs to about $20K per year. So overall it will be about $85K. Now this is quite concerning to me as funding this much through loans is quite burdensome and seems excessively high. Engineering is a higher paying major and I am fine with some debt, around even $50K, or maybe $60K. But this excessively high debt seems too high. My parents are fairly financially stable and although I don’t know their combined incomes it likely about $150K or so. My EFC this year was $85,000. My question is how much debt is acceptable, and should my parents be contributing more than the current $1K or so?
If’s your EFC was $85,000 then either your parents have a much higher income or very significant assets…or both.
OR you made a mistake in your FAFSA.
Can your parents help you at all?
What was your plan, before you started college, to pay for all four years?
There’s definitely no mistake in the FAFSA as its been the same twice now. My dad has a mentality of not helping pay for college as he believes that we have our entire life to earn money whereas they do not since they have to save for retirement. My guess is that with an EFC that high, they can afford something at least. I’m not expecting them to cover all or even half the total cost. Maybe $5K-10K a year?
However I don’t think they want to help one bit, and its making me nervous and thinking about transferring.
So I calculated the cost to be about $85K over the 4 years. I was assuming they would help pay maybe about $30,000 of that, and I could pay $25K or so from summer internships and jobs, leaving me with about $30K of debt upon graduation. This would be very acceptable to me given an average starting salary of about $60-70K for my university for engineering students.
Yes your parents should be contributing more (according you your school and FAFSA). In your financial package, they’re holding you responsible for the money it says your parents could afford. I don’t think the debt is crushing and I think you’ll be able to pay it off. You’re not in the “100k debt with a B.A. in communications” category and you’re right that engineering is a high paying major. You should go to your parents and ask (maybe beg) for them to contribute more if you really want to lower your debt.
Once more…if your parent income is $150,000…their EFC would only be $85,000 if they had significant assets, or a much higher income.
Agree with poster above…what was your plan when you enrolled? Who co-signed your loans for this year? How did you think you were going to pay for college.
The plan was 85K:
-25K from my internships
-30K parents
-30 to 35K loans
My dad cosigned the loans
So…is that still the plan? If so…what’s the problem?
Well now it doesn’t look like my parents will contribute any money at all.
Some parents have that mentality. Yes, he could probably afford to help more. If you’ve asked and he keeps saying “no,” you don’t have much choice. Hopefully he keeps signing more loans, and you keep getting internships, and it works out in the end.
I’m not sure how transferring would help. 85K for four years of school is a pretty good price. It’s too late to get freshman merit scholarships, and you won’t qualify for need based aid anywhere.
You should consider taking 6 month summer/co-op jobs. It will take you longer to get out of school, but you’ll be paying as you go. That $85k will quickly be over $100k with interest growing while you are in school. Does your school have a co-op program?
Do you already have a job lined up for this summer where you’ll make $8k? In order for your $25k plan to work, you have to start working. My daughter does have a friend who worked in Alaska and made $10k one summer, but of course she had some travel and living expenses too.
@student08583 That is a really high amount of debt. You can’t assume a 60-70 starting salary. What type of engineering. Can you live with your parents after school is completed and work to try to pay down that debt?
That’s far too much debt. You’ll need to consider transferring schools to something less expensive.
@coolguy40 The OP was not planning to borrow all 85K, the plan was to borrow less than half of that (post 7). If he is able to work as much as planned, the debt is not much more than the max 27K the student can borrow in direct student loans for four years.
85K for four years of college is actually a pretty good price that will be hard for OP to beat. The other options are:
- A community college career certificate that doesn't require four years
- Not getting a post high-school degree at all
The OP wasn’t PLANNING to take out all loans…but now his parents have said…they will no longer pay the portion they said they planned to pay.
See post 9.
Hmmm… It’s still going to be hard for OP to find a transfer school that costs less since 24K per year is a typical in-state public price for someone who doesn’t qualify for aid.
OP - what are the payments on the loans you already have and can you earn enough money to make them? Sometimes when you’re in a hole you just have to stop digging. You will get a short grace period after leaving school butnthe. You really need to make payments and stay out of default. Most loans have penalty rates if you miss payments.
What do your parents want you to do?
Hey everyone so I had a conversation with my parents.
It looks like they’ll cover housing for the 3 years, saving me $15k at least, which brings it down to $70K at the worst.
In addition, they’ve made a 529 they didn’t tell me about. They told me I’d be on the hook for 50-60% of the the total cost, or about $50K. Out of that I can easily make $15K from summer jobs/internships over the 3 years, leaving me with a manageable $35K or so.
In addition, they’ve told me I can definitely live with them for a while after graduating so I can pay off the loan. They also told me during this time that they’d pay for my other costs (insurance, food, etc…). So it should all work out fairly well in the end.
Thanks for all the help everyone. I guess I was really missing a lot of details, and my parents didn’t tell me a lot of things. Seems like all we needed was a conversation regarding the matter.
Also as for the EFC, they also told me they actually own a home of substantial value that they’ve actually been been telling us that belongs to a grandparent, combine that with the income, and thats why the EFC was $85K.
While that might happen, at this point, how do you know where your first real job will be? It could be hours away from your parents home. Or you may be in a committed relationship at that time and not want to live at home. I’m just warning you so that you don’t rack up debt thinking that you’ll be able to easily pay it off when you’re living at home.