Are those 27K on top of the federal loans or instead of the federal loans?
(27K is the recommended limit for 4 years, total, because that’s what a college graduate can reasonably be able to pay back in 10 years.)
If those are instead of federal loans, you’ll be able to borrow 5.5+7.5K your junior year, and 6.5+7.5 your senior year, I believe (by stacking the federal loans you didn’t take as a freshman/sophomore).
Apply to all the programs you can transfer into, and choose whatever option is the cheapest.
“I don’t think anybody has a plan for paying for school”…=> yes, many families do and many students make plans because otherwise they can’t go to college. Private lenders and the occasional horror story make it sound like all students take on private loans, but in reality while most students take the federal loans, many students attend where it’s most affordable for them, whether they got need-based aid, a state grant+instate tuition,or a merit scholarship.
MANY families have plans (A, B, and even C!) for how to pay for school. It’s the ones who don’t who end up crying about the heavy debt burden they’re saddled with 10, 20, and 30 years later!
There can be a way for you to make college affordable without having to settle for a transfer back home. Do you have any relatives who would be willing to help you out?
Yes, hit up the relatives by all means! THAT will make you popular in the family! 8-|
Look at costs. Look at how much debt you have. Look at net price (NOT scholarship amount but actual total once you add tuition, fees, r&b then subtract whatever grants and scholarships you got. Do NOT subtract loans.)
Apply to more schools - I think Mansfield U in PA is still accepting applications and if you had a 3.0 in high school + reasonable curriculum rigor, you should be eligible for scholarships. Tuition is low to start with, as well as housing costs.
Eastern Kentucky U, Longwood in Virginia, U Maine Orono (scholarships), u Maine fort Kent (scholarships also), Minnesota state Moorhead (no oos tuition - check other Minnesota state universities). Apply to all and choose the one that will allow you to minimize debt/costs.
No one in my family is well off by any means hence why I’m paying for it by myself. My sister did it and is doing fine and my other sister is also currently doing it. I firmly believe that my whole life should not revolve around money and my plan is to take out loans and pay them back even if I’m paying them back for a long time. Telling me I should be $27,000 in debt after 4 years of college is ridiculously unrealistic. That’s the cost of attendance of 1 year of school in New Jersey or out-of-state elsewhere. And staying where I am is not the cheapest option either because of how long I’d have to stay here for. Scholarships are only renewable so many times.
I firmly believe nobody’s life should “revolve around money” either, but if you saddle yourself with overwhelming debt, you’re pretty much guaranteeing that very thing.
I sincerely hope you head over to the financial aid & scholarships forum and seek some advice there.
OP - I’m afraid you are taking a very dangerous approach to financing your education: “I’ll figure it out later.” Later may come sooner than you think when you do not have a plan. No college is going to let you continue if you can’t pay the bills. You could get into one of these programs and find out that there is simply no way to pay tuition. Even with a nursing degree you will find it very hard to deal with the financial burden of $50,000-$100,000 in debt. As LucieTheLake says, money will become very much a focus of your life if you start out this way.
Op: how much in debt are you so far ? What form does it take (parent plus ? CO signes private loans)?
How much will western Carolina cost ? App State ?
Ideally, how much can you afford without loans ?
Look into all the programs I listed and apply to a few, time is running out but some may be within your means. You should be looking for the cheapest programs that 'll admit you.
It sounds like you think I shouldn’t be in college. I understand not wanting to be saddled with debt, because I don’t. But college tuition isn’t realistically affordable. I am being told not to take out loans but I don’t see another option to pay. Even the scholarships I could get will not cover my tuition to the point where I don’t have to take out loans. Yes it looks like UMaine gives out scholarships but considering it costs $42,000 to go there I don’t think the scholarships would make it cheaper to attend there. UMaine at Fort Kent is a very small commuter school and that is not something I want when going so far away. I also don’t have an interest in Minnesota, Kentucky, or Pennsylvania. I want to be happy with where I am. I could look into Longwood but I’m pretty sure it was on my original list and there must be a reason it got kicked off of the list when I went to apply for schools.
@allthingsunknown, some things ARE KNOWN, but for some reason you’d rather reject honest, well-informed advice and find out firsthand just how terrible an approach your plan is.
You say you “want to be happy with where (you are),” which apparently isn’t possible in MN, KY, or PA, and requires going to school in NC, at a school you have no idea how to pay for.
Clearly you’re seeking affirmation not actual advice. There is no Money Fairy who’s going to throw scholarship money at you or pay off your debts for you after you graduate (or don’t, because you ran out of funding!).
Adults here are using words like ‘cavalier’ and ‘dangerous’ and you’re essentially sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “I can’t HEAR you.” Here’s another word to ponder … RECKLESS.
Sorry I don’t want to go to school all the way out in Minnesota because I don’t want to be that far away from home. I AM taking everything you are saying into consideration, but I also did ask for advice about the difference between 2 schools and not financial aid. I understand it is all concerning but my older sister left school with $125,000 in debt and is now a nurse and is doing just fine. So I do have a plan. There is no reason to be making me feel bad about myself because I share different views on life then you because of personal experiences. I’m not saying you aren’t giving me sound advice and I’m not saying I’m not listening nor am I not taking it into consideration. I just think some things that are being said are pretty unrealistic because, quite frankly, a lot of things surrounding college these days are unreasonable and unrealistic but people are doing it all the time. I shouldn’t feel like I am being persuaded to not go to college because I don’t have a rich family to pay for it for me or because the government doesn’t give me enough grant money or because I don’t get enough money in scholarships.
So you figured it out. Good! Then stop asking for advice that you will not even take a heed.
Which school in our state is $27,000 a year? I can’t think of one.
Yes, $27,000 is a bit low for four years of debt. But, you do not have to get yourself nearly $80,000 in debt! Most of our state schools are NOT bad. Look into NJCLASS loans, which offer much lower interest rates than private lenders. Even so, you will probably need a co-signer. Is someone co-signing your loans now?
Let’s see what your loans will cost so far, assuming your interest rate is 4.50%:
$27,000 private + $12,000 federal = $39,000. Paying this off in 10 years? $404 MONTHLY. 20 years? Still $246.
Let’s double this, and see what you will graduate with:
YOU WILL BE $78,000 IN DEBT. Paying this off in ten years? $808 MONTHLY. 20 years? Still $496!
Please, listen to me. I’m from New Jersey too, and I had the same “no way” attitude about in-state schools. I was a junior in high school, though, so fortunately I was saved from the situation you are in. I’m sorry, but you should’ve been in this situation three years ago, not now! I hope it’s not too late for you.
Do you mind me asking, what’s wrong with Kent State? Perhaps I’m wrong but I think it is a higher caliber school than either App State or ECU. Why will it take you longer to finish at Kent State? You should be aware that when students transfer, they sometimes lose credits that don’t carry over or have to take additional prerequisites. I don’t see how you will graduate faster as a transfer student.
If you are looking for advice about quality of schools overall, I’d stay at Kent State. It’s higher ranked than ECU on a national level. It’s also the cheapest of the three for OOS tuition - 18K for Kent State (-11.5K for scholarship = 6.5K), 19K for App State and 22K for ECU. If you were leaving Kent State for a higher quality school, I could see an argument for that. Is there a meaningful difference with respect to the quality of their nursing programs that is worth an extra 12-15K per year in cost?
No one is telling you not to go to college. What we are trying to tell you is that there are many realistic, affordable options. Your statement that expecting to come out of college without a huge amount of debt is patently false. Hundreds of thousands of students do it every year! You are focused on going to a school you want to go to, whatever the cost. This is not a good idea. There are plenty of ways -good ways- to get a nursing degree without going into $125,000 in debt. And nursing is not a degree where “name” really matters. You don’t seem even interested in trying to do any research. But it’s your life. Come back here in 15 years and see if you would give the same advice to a college student.
is your sister married? Does she have kids? Does she own a home? If not, you might want to ask you sister once she is married, has kids, and wants to buy a house how that $125,000 debt is affecting her life.
@allthingsunknown, I’m really curious. What is your sister’s monthly student loan payment? Do you mind sharing it with us?
@mamaedefamilia I would think App State had the edge over Kent State academically.
I agree, App State does have an academic edge over Kent State. But in this case the situation is that op needs to find a nursing school that will get her into the least debt. Kent State already means debt so the goal would be to find a college that offers nursing and is cheaper than Kent State.
$125,000 is the kind of debt that cripples your life. It means that you can’t buy a house, even in your 40’s. It means if you marry that your spouse has to agree to shoulder that debt and thus has to agree not to own a house or condo, agrees to raise your children in an apartment in a not so good neighborhood, no private school but whatever school is nearby. It means no savings, so that if you lose your job or have any problem, you’re out on the street. It means you make a choice to live in precarity. If you have no choice you have to deal with it, but your life is shackled.
Ask your sister, honestly. Would she advise you take that level of debt ? What if you had cheaper choices ?
If you have a choice, by exploring universities that may the cheaper, why would you do that to yourself ? If you like mountains, study somewhere cheap then move to a job that will pay you to work and live in the mountains !
Regarding your question: the best university for you is the cheapest.
Oops, I made a mistake, I thought you were considering ECU not WCU. WCU is cheaper than ECU, at about 17.5K tuition, but still more than you’d be paying at Kent State.
Of the three, only Kent State has a national ranking by USNWP. App State is higher rated that WCU as a regional university. None of them made the cut for the Princeton Guide, FWIW.
So my basic observation still stands - I don’t think there’s a meaningful academic quality difference among the three so why spend more money and possibly more time to earn your nursing degree? What about Kent Stat is so objectionable?