<p>OP-- can you share with us the rest of your college list?</p>
<p>I don’t think any of the options you’ve laid out are feasible. Your Dad may be willing to pull from his retirement funds but if the stock market goes down, the value of his account goes down with it. So pulling 10K a year out of an account that’s worth 200K today (for the sake of argument, I obviously have no idea what it’s worth) sounds doable. If the stock market dips and it’s worth 180K by August when the first payment is due-- then he’s got 170K. And another dip - you get my math.</p>
<p>There are a lot of very savvy folks on this board who can help you. But stacking up “maybes” and “kind ofs” from loving family members is a great way to help you pay transportation costs and books for a college which you can afford. I don’t think it will bridge the gap between what you need and the costs of what you’ve laid out for us.</p>
<p>I also think that if you take on that kind of debt you should network with publishing companies outside of NYC, Boston, etc. Focus more on those in the Midwest where the cost of living is much less and you can still expect to earn about $30K right out of school. I would start making those connections right away freshman year.</p>
<p>Actually, the reverse is true: some are renewable annually, but the overwhelming majority are not. And this is something the OP will know up front, so if it’s not renewable . . .</p>
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<p>And those are few and far between . . . and certainly not something to count on as the student’s primary source of funding.</p>
<p>dodgersmom–we will just have to disagree then. From what we have found over the years is that most schools that offer merit scholarships have many endowed scholarships from various departments as well as outside foundations and organizations offering scholarships to sophomores and above vs giving them to incoming freshmen. They are scholarships for students in that specific major and are as prevalent as other outside scholarships. It may be different in your area however. Also, this is not her primary source of funding, the scholarships and aid from her school are. These would help off-set her costs—unless these schools count outside scholarships against you, in which case, it’s a waste of time to apply to any.</p>
<p>The point is you can NOT count on these endowed or departmental scholarships. This OP isn’t the only one who will be applying for them as an upperclass student. Ditto being an RA…many kids wrongly assume they will be able to “be an RA” and reduce housing costs. Again…not something you can count on.</p>
<p>Also, this kid has a shortfall of $20,000 a YEAR. She needs to look very carefully to see IF her college choices even offer scholarships to upperclassmen in that amount. Maybe they do, but likely they don’t.</p>
<p>If this student wants to network with publishing houses in the midwest (which I DO think is a good idea) did she perhaps apply to any colleges in that area where the college has connections for internships.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like you can afford to go to these colleges. </p>
<p>Do you leave near Boston?</p>
<p>I think you should start at the Harvard Extension School, get admitted to a degree program and try to do the best you can with that. It’s very inexpensive. Talk to someone there and see if you will be able to pursue your career path doing that.
<a href=“http://extension.harvard.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://extension.harvard.edu</a></p>
<p>Most of your classes will be in the evening, so you might be able to sustain a part-time job if you take 4 classes a semester, or a full-time job if you take 2, or something in between. It costs a little more than $1000 per course, which is much cheaper than your other options.</p>
<p>Steve- while your advice is technically correct, it is also very misleading.</p>
<p>One of my kids got a one year only merit scholarship renewed- but only because nobody else qualified for his sophomore year, so rather than have the award go unspent, they gave it to him again. We were overjoyed- but it was a lucky break, not something we could have planned or budgeted for (unless we were very naive which were not).</p>
<p>I know over a dozen kids who could not return to their colleges Sophomore year due to finances. These were not slacker kids with 2.3 GPA’s. These were kids who had done well, but the stacked up Merit awards and $750 scholarships from the Garden Club and church groups in their town vanished (since they were awarded to Freshman) leaving these kids with 10 and 12K holes to plug. Their work study was already going to covering their living expenses; summer earnings were already calculated into their aid packages.</p>
<p>If your strategy works and the family can otherwise afford to cover merit awards which are variable then terrific. But this kid cannot count on a bunch of specific awards with narrow criteria to plug a hole this big. You are giving misleading advice, especially since it sounds as though the safety net for this family is to raid the 401K even further.</p>
<p>I was one of the first to reply that these choices are not affordable—the point being, if she wants to afford these schools she needs to look for outside scholarships unless the school holds those against her and takes away what they gave her, in which case, she can’t go to any of these schools.</p>
<p>In order to get into admitted to Harvard Extension for a degree program, you must take 3 of their courses, including Expository Writing and get a 3.0. </p>
<p>In order to get into EXPO-E25 Expository Writing you must pass an online placement test. If you don’t score high enough, you need to take EXPO-E15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing. They recommend taking that anyway, and it counts as one of the 3. </p>
<p>To register for the Fall, you must have your placement tests done by July 15th so you know which course to register for. Register for your EXPO course on the day registration opens for non-admitted students, July 30th. The EXPO classes all fill up the first day. </p>
<p>Basically, you can continue to pursue your other options and see if you and your parents can make it work financially. If you are sure you can, by all means send a deposit, but if you can’t, I’d definitely pursue Harvard Extension for at least 2 years. It’s very high quality and very affordable. Of course you’d have to live at home, commute, and take courses at night, but by saving money and earning money, perhaps you can save up enough to attend a program that you want for the last 2 years. You might find that access to Harvard’s resources for the Extension School price is a pretty good deal no matter what you want to pursue.</p>
<p>Wow, that Harvard Extension option looks interesting. How did you find out about that, classicrockerdad? Do you know anyone that did that? That sounds like interesting out of the box thinking for the OP</p>
<p>I’ve taken courses there and I talked to people in my classes. While the average student age is 35, the range in my classes have been 18-70. There are a non-negligible number of normal college age students who are attending Harvard Extension as the only way to afford college.</p>
<p>I founded a niche book publishing house that is still going strong after 31 years. (A fairly large one, too.) In 31 years, the company never hired a single person with a writing or publishing degree. Not one. We hired people who provided special expertise in the publishing areas in which we were focused, or who could provide us with specific skills (i.e. accounting, marketing, finance, website maintenance and development.) </p>
<p>I have three friends who also founded publishing houses. None of them had degrees in writing or publishing either, and I doubt they looked for people with such degrees. The big New York houses might, but if you look at the quality of editing over the past 20 years or so, I think agents are actually doing the bulk of it. </p>
<p>My rule of thumb is that you should never take out more loans than the federal government believes you are able to repay (i.e. subsidized Stafford loans). No more than $23k over four years currently I think. Maybe a little less for you, given that you are pursuing a low-salary occupation.</p>
<p>None of your choices are affordable. And I don’t know of any bank that is going to give you a loan to cover the difference either.</p>