<p>My daughter is the first generation college student. Needless to say, my husband and I doesn't know what to expect so we hired someone to do FAFSA and CSS Profile for us to make sure we are filing it right. We even hired someone to help her with her essays since we can't really help her how to do it. In addition, due to our ignorance, we also failed to help our daughter to find and apply for scholarship. </p>
<p>Here's the killer. Our EFC shows 51,000. The reason being is we saved money diligently because my husband's company is always reorganizing and we wanted to make sure we don't end up in the street if he should lose his job. Because of this money we saved, we not getting any financial aid at all.</p>
<p>My daughter has been accepted in Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, University of Denver, Arizona State University and University of Colorado-Boulder. Cost of Attendance of private schools were just too expensive, so we started looking into state colleges. CU didn't offer her any kind of scholarship whatsoever because we are non-need based. ASU offered her 6,500 merit scholarship and the COA is only 1,000 more than CU. She is set to go to ASU because of their comprehensive art curriculum. Her dream is to work for Pixar. We have been concentrating on ASU for the last two weeks. If she goes to ASU, college loan at the end of 4 years will amount to $102,000 plus interest. My husband and I been going back and forth on this. I do not want to see her owing this much but my husband seem to be fine with it. (sigh). I just sent an appeal letter to ASU financial aid in hopes that they will give us more financial aid. Does anyone here have an experience with appeal?</p>
<p>Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>What you need to do is to go down in person to their financial aid department. Then ask for aid. You never know what you’ll get until you ask.</p>
<p>I would ask, but not expect much. $100,000 is way too much especially in a riskier career like art.</p>
<p>Is there any way she can start at a community college and transfer? That way she has a year to earn money, get pre-reqs out of the way, and also look diligently for scholarships. What can you and your H contribute? </p>
<p>Also, is she eligible for the honors college at any of these colleges? I’m not familiar with the honors colleges at either of these, but many state honors colleges offer nice scholarships.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but if your EFC is $51K, your daughter is not going to get any more money from ASU, which has a cost of attendance much lower than that. She has already received a merit scholarship from ASU and you have no basis for need-based aid. Also, she is out-of-state, so less money is available to her from AZ.</p>
<p>If money is a really big issue for your family, then perhaps the best solution is for her to attend CU. In addition to the slightly lower cost ($1,000 per year), she will save on transportation costs too.</p>
<p>And are you also taking into account the proposed surcharges that are likely to be enacted by the AZ Board of Regents next month? That will increase the bill for ASU by another $1,280 per year – ($1,200 surcharge on tuition and $80 on the health fee). These increases are IN ADDITION TO the increases previously announced for tuition/fees and room/board, so ASU may actually cost you far more than CU would next year.</p>
<p>[New</a> fees could put tuition at ASU, UA above U.S. average](<a href=“http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/04/11/20090411tuition0411.html]New”>http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/04/11/20090411tuition0411.html)</p>
<p>I was seriously thinking of her going to University of Northern Colorado and majoring in Art Education. Her COA is only $16,000/year which is very reasonable. She was also offered to the Honors Program. Her hang up is she is settling for less by going to a UNC with IB diploma. </p>
<p>Denver University who has a good art program offers her $17,000/year scholarship but their estimated costs still unreasonable ($32,000) year. </p>
<p>I am now in a process of convincing my husband and daughter to go to this route to avoid high student loan.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your input and any other input you have will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Worried_Mom</p>
<p>Thanks for your info. I will write it down and trying to come up with other reasons why she shouldn’t go to ASU.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, colorado’s colleges and universities are not as expensive as some other states colleges.</p>
<p>Is she going to be living on campus or off? Will she buy books that are new or used?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that its cheaper to live on campus then off, but i could be wrong. </p>
<p>Good luck!:D</p>
<p>Icedragon</p>
<p>She has to live on-campus on her first year and may live off-campus on her second year. She liked CU Boulder but unfortunately they don’t offer Art Education.</p>
<p>I just tried to talk to her again about ASU vs. going to college here. She’s pretty set of going to ASU and have already applied for campus jobs to pay for her books and personal expenses. I told her that wouldn’t be enough and should reconsider about colleges here in Colorado. </p>
<p>I’m checking University of Northern Colorado website right now. Called my mother-in-law who lives 5 minutes from the campus and asked for her support.</p>
<p>(praying)</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>Is it even possible to borrow this much money for college?</p>
<p>It is too much, esp for someone who plans to major in art and pursue a career in art (risky and possibly not lucrative). </p>
<p>Where did your savings go? Are you and your husband able to contribute to the college costs?</p>
<p>Suggest UNC for two years and then revisit transferring to ASU. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I’ve heard northern university is good.</p>
<p>Also, has she signed up for the college oppertunity fund (I don’t know if i spelled that right)? Here’s the link:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“College advice, college admission applications, pay for college, financial aid, scholarships, apply online for admission, online applications at Xap.”>College advice, college admission applications, pay for college, financial aid, scholarships, apply online for admission, online applications at Xap.]COF[/url</a>]</p>
<p>If she qualifies, it stipends off a portion of the cost of each class.</p>
<p>100K is WAY too much student debt for undergrad. That will end up being much more by the time she graduates, and she’ll be saddled with unmanageable debt for decades, limiting her options, her ability to buy a car, buy a home, or do much of anything but worry about how to pay her student loans off each month. I just ran a calculator, and monthly payments would be over $1100 per month, IF she can snag a 6.8% loan.</p>
<p>Look for cheaper alternatives, unless you (the parents) are able to shoulder most of this debt somehow.</p>
<p>Also-- did you save in the student’s name? Big mistake-- that runs the EFC up quickly. If you did, best to move that savings to a 529 college savings account, which will be considered a parental asset for FAFSA and Profile, and have the benefits of an asset protection allowance and a much lower (5.6%) assessment rate.</p>
<p>College Board has a student calculator where you can calculate expected income and expected monthly payment. Based on a $30,000/income, if she’s lucky, her monthly payment will be around $1,000 which is 33% of her income. Tried to show this to my husband hoping we will be in the same page. He didn’t want me to throw out her dreams as an artist/animator by not going to ASU. I must admit, she’s a gifted artists and but can’t help thinking how many starving artists out there.</p>
<p>She is also applied for campus jobs and will apply for scholarship for her 2nd year. Realistically, will there be any scholarship available then? She is willing to do anything just to go to ASU. She is now thinking about double major, intermedia and Art Education. She thinks getting an Art teaching certificate will be something to fall back on. </p>
<p>Also, her award letter shows $6,500 scholarship, $5,500 unsubsidized and $20,282 direct loan plus. To help her out not having this much debt, should we pay the unsubsidized or should we reduced the direct loan? We probably can squeeze $700.00/mo towards her tuition. </p>
<p>Our liquid asset is sitting in money market and checking account waiting for the outcome from his re-interview of his position. Thank goodness, we just found out he still have his job. Now that we are okay for now, do you recommend transferring this money to 529 account? We have son who is a H.S. sophomore this year and that’s one more thing we have to plan for.</p>
<p>I sent the Honor’s Program to UNC yesterday. I also applied for COF which reduced her tuition by $92.00/semester hour. I can’t wait to hear from them so I can present that option to my husband. He thinks I’m worrying too much. </p>
<p>Thanks for all your advise. I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>OK-- so she got a 6.5K scholarship, which is a start.</p>
<p>Cost of Attendance for out of state, living on campus, is around 34K. That includes over 1K for books and over 2K for “personal expenses” though, so if she’s frugal, she can do it for less.</p>
<p>So net cost to the family after the scholarship will be around 17K per year (if she shaves a few hundred off books, buying used, and personal expenses). Take the stafford unsub (you can pay the interest during her school years) and she can start repaying that after she graduates, with around 25K of debt, which is manageable.</p>
<p>That leaves 17K - 5.5K = 11.5K annually that the family needs to make up.</p>
<p>Have her work during summer (make 2.5K and contribute 1.5K of it toward college), and work part time during the school year (8 - 10 hrs per week @ $8 per hour = 2K) to cover her misc expenses.</p>
<p>That leaves 8K annually for you and your husband to make up. And you can likely make that from savings, or savings and PLUS loan combination.</p>
<p>So I think it’s doable, if you work all the resources. Not sure where that 100K debt estimate came from in the original post. That’s a non-starter.</p>
<p>Just a clarification to the OP: the plus loan is for you and your dh (the parents) not the student. The student is not eligible to take that much in loans. Only the unsub loans are hers.</p>
<p>Momzie - buy the collegeboard book How to Pay for College without Going Broke. The book explains how your money is looked at from a FASA and Profil view. Then perhaps you can make some changes to where you put you money and perhaps next year you have receive help but, I agree with an EFC of $51,000, you look well enough to pay.</p>
<p>Oh-- as to your other question re: moving assets to a 529.</p>
<p>If they’re currently in your (parent’s) name, no huge benefit to moving them to a 529. It’s only if they’re in the student’s name that there’s a benefit, EFC-wise, to transferring them to a 529. That way they get counted for FAFSA-purposes as a parental asset, and the EFC goes down, and potential aid goes up.</p>
<p>(and I second the recommendation re: How to Pay for College without Going Broke- for anyone who has a kid heading for college. I’ve read, and reread this book, and gotten several new editions, and saved thousands).</p>
<p>Maybe I just don’t understand how to read the award letter. They way I read is $6,500 scholarship, $5,500 unsubsidized and $20,082 parent plus loan, meaning we have to get a loan for $25,582/year. </p>
<p>So the unsubsidized loan of 5,500 is my daughter’s loan correct?
Our parent loan is 16,500 a year.</p>
<p>I guess my husband was right about me worrying too much. </p>
<p>Thanks everybody for your advise and straightening me out.</p>
<p>God Bless</p>
<p>What it means is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>She’s being offered a 6.5K scholarship, free money, that will continue into her subsequent years at the school (if she keeps grades up). That’s the best kind of aid. So that effectively reduces the COA by 6.5K.</p></li>
<li><p>Stafford is a student loan. Unsubsidized means that interest starts running when it’s taken out. Student has until 9 months after she graduates to start repaying. So that reduces the annual cost by another 5.5K. This loan, and all loans offered, are optional.</p></li>
<li><p>PLUS loan. PLUS loans are parent’s loans-- you’re being offered a loan for up to 20K for the first year if you need it. Interest rate is 8.5%, I think, so you might do better else where (home equity line of credit, for example).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>But if you have daughter work summer and part time during the year, you’ll only have about 8K to pay out of pocket. You said that you’ve been saving-- I don’t know how much, but if you can take, say, 5K annually from savings, and 3K in a loan (PLUS or Home Equity Line, or some other), I think you’re in good shape.</p>
<p>You can pretty much ignore the PLUS loan. It’s not really part of the financial aid package, in any meaningful way. You’re eligible for a PLUS loan at any school (for an amount equal to the EFC + unmet need).</p>