As a family who will not receive any needs-based aid, how do I pay for out of state school?

Paying for College
1

I was accepted to Georgia Tech. I’d love to be excited and start making plans about classes and clubs to be a part of, but cost is a huge obstacle. Fortunately (or unfortunately), my family makes pretty decent money, so the FAFSA was mostly a waste of time. I have not yet received my Georgia Tech letter for financial aid, but I am guessing it will be similar to Illinois’: ZERO scholarships and grants and $52,340 each year in almost all loans. I’d prefer not to graduate with nearly $200,000 in debt. Georgia Tech is slightly cheaper than Illinois. Great!

I was also accepted to the University of Minnesota for Aerospace Engineering, which isn’t near the caliber that Georgia Tech is for aerospace engineering. However, being from South Dakota, I qualify for in-state tuition to Minnesota. The total cost each year is around $26,000. Assuming I do not receive any scholarships at all, $100,000 in debt is astronomically better than $200,000 in debt.

I would really prefer attending Georgia Tech. Of course I am already looking for outside scholarships and am applying to a bunch, but it would be nearly impossible to bring down the cost of Georgia Tech $20,000 EACH YEAR to get close to the cost of Minnesota. I can do internships over the summers and do the co-op program at GaTech, but there is no guarantee I can land an opportunity like this.

What should I be doing right now to pay for it? Would it benefit if I took a few classes over the summer from a local college that I know will transfer to GaTech? Or will that hurt my education in the long run because I won’t be as prepared for the GaTech classes?

I know some people join the military or ROTC in college. I have never looked into this, and I never wanted to, but what exactly would it require? I have never lifted a weight for muscle gain and I have always been a “geek” or “nerd.” Is there any sort of military program for nerds who can also receive great benefits? Or do I need to exercise, smell bad, eat dirt, and sweat for awhile before I am eligible for any sort of assistance?

I would really prefer GaTech to Minnesota, but the likelihood of missing out on an amazing opportunity has been increasing with no financial answers.

2

You can’t afford GA Tech. It sounds like you can’t even afford MN. ROTC scholarships are competitive, and I think all the deadlines have passed for them for this year. And you need to want to make a commitment to the armed forces.

State universities are primarily to serve the students in that state. They get a lot of funding from the taxpayers in the state. They have no incentive to give aid to students from other states.

You should not take any classes over the summer without permission from the school you will be attending in the fall.

You can only borrow $5,500 freshman year yourself, and slightly increasing amounts for the next 3 years after that. Your parents can borrow or co-sign with you for more loans, but then they are in the hook to pay them back if you don’t.

This is why students should worry about finances as the first thing in their search, not the last. If you got into GA Tech, you might have good enough stats to have gotten into some schools that would have given you some more merit money. Will your parents pay anything? What options do you have in SD or other states with reciprocity that might be cheaper than MN?

3

I am still waiting on some other schools, but none that are as good as Georgia Tech for aerospace engineering (which means not Stanford).

My parents definitely will pay. Maybe I came off as sounding not wealthy but my parents make >$100k together. If I was an only child they could easily get me through Georgia Tech or Minnesota but I have three younger siblings who will also be going to school someday. I believe my parents have close to $20,000 in a 529 or something (which they have apologized for because they never contributed a ton). I am already very fortunate for that money being there.

For Aerospace engineering, I don’t have any other options.

4

They can’t pay for GA Tech on that salary with 3 younger sibs. So you have $5000 per year from the 529 and $5500 in federal loans. You can probably earn a few thousand working. But that does not get you to MN cost. Can they cover the extra $12K per year for MN?

5

I will also have a few scholarships that should knock that down a few thousand. Also, while debt isn’t inevitable, I think I’ll just have to live with private loan debt. They can definitely cover more but I don’t know the exact amount.

6

You can’t afford that school! Private loan debt? How are you going to get that?

7

You can’t take private loans. Students can borrow a total of $27k over 4 years. That’s all they can reasonably be expected to repay.

If you have $20k in a 529 ($5k/year), plus the $5500 student loan, plus ~$3k if you work summers, you have a budget of ~13k/year. You need a college that will give you a tuition award. Did you apply to any? If not, you can take a gap year and apply to a new list.

8

Have you considered applying to UAH (University of Alabama Huntsville)? Check out their website. You still have time to apply and would be eligible for a full tuition scholarship.

9

Your in a very common spot. the cost of college has gotten too high for most families to afford. Your best bet is to attend a community college for the first two years and then transfer to a 4 year school for the last two years. Is there a CC within commuting distance? You can live at home the first two years to save some money.

Many kids take this route. Your final diploma will be from the 4yr school and you will have access to the career placement at the 4year school. It really is a win-win.

10

UAH is great for aerospace engineering. The Cummings research park is located in Huntsville. Boeing too I believe. Look into the opportunities there and apply today!
Also lots of mechanical engineers get hired by aerospace companies.

11

What about studying mechanical engineering at South Dakota Mines or South Dakota State?

12

My starting salary will be around $70,000… isnt he rule to make sure you don’t take out loans exceeding starting salary? Minnesota is the cheapest school I will go to at this point but I think the return of investment from going to a more expensive school could be more beneficial later.

13

You’re still $53,000 away from affording Minnesota (assuming you take the full $27,000 in federal student loans over the four years and your parents pay the $20,000 they have in the 529 plan.

That means that they- not you- have to take the parent plus or private loans each year. Your credit isn’t good enough to get a loan. Your parents may qualify. But they have to apply each year. What if they don’t qualify one year? Then you can’t finish- and you’d have to start repaying loans. And they’d be stuck with loans too that they’d have to start repaying.

You should spend a few minutes thinking about how your younger siblings will pay for college, especially if your parents have to max out loans for you.

Any ABET accredited engineering program is fine, but your main issue is that you want a pretty specialized field that not many colleges offer. The Huntsville option is a really good lead that you should be chasing down TODAY to see if you can get into, because you’d be able to do that with just your own student loans and maybe some of that 529 plan money. And you’d have amazing opportunities for internships.

Your backup plan could be as suggested above - staying in your own state and getting a mechanical engineering degree. That doesn’t lock you out of the aerospace field, and I’m betting the bottom line $$$ is much lower. Again, ABET is what matters here.

I’d caution against borrowing heavily for an engineering degree- there are many weedout classes for the first two years (I’m an engineer and both my kids are/will be studying engineering.) If you find yourself weeded out in year 2, then you’ll have to switch your course of study to something else and that path may not result in a high starting salary and you and your parents would have a huge debt.

Minimize undergrad costs and bust your butt on internships and research and see where your path leads. But do it cheaply. Go to an expensive grad school if you’d like (my husband did that - state university for undergrad engineering degree, Cornell for grad engineering degree) but don’t blow your future in the next four years by borrowing unnecessarily.

(And I’m so sorry your parents didn’t sit down with you at the beginning of this application season to look at affordable choices. That puts you in a horrible position right now but borrowing vast sums of $ isn’t the answer. All in, we are paying $10,000/year total for two kids at out of state schools, because we told them to stay in state or look for massive merit. They chased merit.)

14

UAH is a great suggestion. Look at it today.

15

This is one of the reasons many families do not apply to out of state schools. I know my DD would have liked to go to GT, but she didn’t even apply as we knew ahead of time it was not affordable.

16

@clightfield24 My DD is at Georgia Tech and we are OOS and do not qualify for aid. Like your parents we had about $20K in a 529 saved. We had other money set aside for college but we had a huge family tragedy where we had to use that money. We are middle-class for our state, basically make too much for finanical aid but not enough to write a check for the full amount. I am not an advocate of loans but am simply sharing how we make GT affordable for our family.

  1. Going into to GT, my DD knew that she had to get a $10K in private scholarships to make GT affordable for us. Now private scholarships are the toughest to get but there seems to be more of them in STEM especially for women. Early in my DD's senior year of high school, she got two of them so we felt she had what it took to get them. So far she has hit that target every year with private scholarships and she is now going into her 4th year. One thing that I think has helped is that my DD did really well academically her first year at GT and has kept it up plus she is active at GT so she has a very good scholarship application. Her major at GT sends out newsletters periodically with scholarship info and my DD also applies to those. GT has some small scholarships like from local alumni clubs and WIE which my DD has also received.
  2. Study-abroad. OOS students pay in-state tutition when they go abroad so most OOS students take advantage of that option. Even with the cost of a plane ticket and other expenses, it still is cheaper for her to study abroad. I know that AE offers a really good program in Ireland specifically for AE majors and my DD's friend applied for a scholarship for it from GT which was $4500 so basically tuition was free for that student. Some of my DD's friends do 2-3 stints abroad or are a RA at GT France so housing and board are free.
  3. Earnings from Co-ops/Internships. GT has a very good program and most of my DD's friends who want those positions have gotten them. Earnings are anywhere from $17-$40 an hour with many companies paying for travel and housing and some even giving a signing bonus. My DD did back to back internships so with her scholarships and earnings she paid for everything this Spring semester. She has another internship this summer which will help pay for next year. My husband and I pay the difference (which is around $20-$25K) and so far my DD has not had to take out any loans. Her freshman year was only $34K approximately so we have not had to go above that $20-$25K target for our family. D's earnings and increases in private scholarship money has covered any increases in tuition while her expenses have gone down since she doesn't have to buy a meal plan.
  4. Working during the school year- My DD doesn't work and in her major said it would be tough, but her friends in other majors have all found jobs nearby and work to help pay for things. They earn between $15-$20 an hour. There seems to be a lot of jobs for students in Atlanta near campus.
  5. The figure you gave for GT seems high. This past year we paid about $40K for tuition, housing and board. After your first year you can move off campus and housing seems cheaper then. Food is definitely less than the meal plans and my DD gets her meals from her sorority and it costs us $900 per semester for her main meals (not breakfast). I know a lot of students simply make their own food which brings the cost down or they go hunting for free food on campus. A lot of companies do presentations and there is always free food. For books my DD has never spent anywhere near what they say on the Cost of Attendance. Students share pdfs, books etc. I know GT has some facebook pages dedicated to students selling class materials at a discount. We also got lucky because my DD is in Grand Challenges and they paid for a lot of her entertainment freshman and sophomore year.
  6. Southwest Credit Card: We got a southwest credit card that an an offer if we spent around $3K and paid if off within a certain time we would get around 50K in points plus a $500 gift card. We used that for the first two years to pay for D's travel to GT. Plus Southwest doesn't charge for bags so it is always the cheapest for travel.
  7. Taking classes at a junior college. GT has on their website a transfer section where you list the junior college and then they tell you what classes will transfer. They also tell you what paperwork you need to fill out. My DD's friend who studied in Ireland and is AE did take classes before freshman and sophomore year to save money and they transferred to GT. He focused on the humanities and basic math and science courses. Most GT students come in with AP credits so that also saves money.

Again this solution may not work for everyone. I am incredibly thankful it works for my DD and she will not have any loans. I am just sharing it with you to give you how one out of state family made Georgia Tech affordable. Be sure to talk to your family about all aspects of you attending GT. Good luck with your decision.

17

No, because you have no way of knowing if you’ll stay in the major. You could change your mind or get weeded out. You can’t borrow $70k. Your parents would have to borrow it, and they may not be able to borrow as much as you need. If they’re ever turned down for a loan, you’d have to transfer. Transfers don’t get much aid. Your parents have other children whose college expenses they have to pay. If they max out their borrowing for you, it could negatively impact your siblings’ options.

18

You’ve gotten good advice to check out UA Huntsville. Huntsville is rocket city - there are a lot of aerospace engineers there. You’ve got Cummings Research Park and Redstone Arsenal right there, which should provide internship and job opportunities. Even if it’s ultimately not to your liking, what do you have to lose by checking out a potential full tuition scholarship?

19

I am looking at UAH now. I see the estimated cost is $36,012 which is $10,000 more than Minnesota.

I would delete that statement above now that I have researched more but I’ll just leave it. I qualified for the Charger Distinction bracket so the total cost - tuition is $16,246 each year. Wow…

Is this school going to make me competitive against Georgia Tech students when applying to internships or co-ops? Or even graduate school or a career? Does Huntsville being an aerospace hub make the job placement much greater?

20

I expect that the placement opportunities at UAH are on par with GT for national placements in aerospace and maybe a bit better for local opportunities.