<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I would like to know based on your experience, how do students meet their unmet need each year when it comes down to paying for the cost of attendance at school. I want to know more about options.</p>
<p>In my situation, my EFC is $23,190 a year. For many of my colleges, I have to pay about that amount. Neither my parents or I have it to give. My parents stated that they can afford to pay $1,500. I need options on how I could get money to pay the rest.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>You need to seriously consider attending a less expensive school. You would have to borrow way too much.</p>
<p>We pay our EFC though a payment plan. We use current income to pay it. Our kids attend schools that we can afford. We don’t really pay our EFC … we can’t afford that … but we do have to pay a lot. We said no to schools that cost more than we could afford.</p>
<p>Private loans and working. How much do you have saved and how much do you make now or see yourself making while in school? If you have any marketable skill I’d imagine $20k-$30k… Should be doable if you go to a state school. Many will do monthly payment plans so you can probably pay for most if not all of it out of pocket. Life will suck living on a shoestring budget 4-5 years down the road you’ll be glad to have no debt hanging over your head and you can concentrate on your career.</p>
<p>If you do take out loans keep the total amount low over the course of school. Your friends that are driving new cars? Don’t borrow more than they’re new car cost. A car payment you can afford at college age working mediocre jobs… A house payment you cannot.</p>
<p>I applied to 17 schools and the only ones that I feel that are anywhere near affordable is SUNY Stony Brook (Where I haven’t heard from yet), SUNY Binghamton (Accepted), and CUNY (Accepted but not to what I want to study). I haven’t received an award from any of them yet but I am hoping to see exactly what I have to pay. At this point, every college is expensive because $1500 can only cover so much but its better than nothing.</p>
<p>*anywhere near affordable is SUNY Stony Brook (Where I haven’t heard from yet), SUNY Binghamton (Accepted), and CUNY (Accepted but not to what I want to study).</p>
<p>I haven’t received an award from any of them yet but I am hoping to see exactly what I have to pay.
*</p>
<p>Since your EFC is higher than the COAs to these schools, your only chance for an award is merit. Do you know if these SUNYs give merit scholarships? If so, are your stats are high enough for merit money from these schools?</p>
<p>Which SUNY or CUNY can you commute to? If you don’t get enough merit money from a SUNY or CUNY, then your only affordable schools may be ones that you can commute to. Because then you could pay for them with a student loan and some summer job earnings.</p>
<p>I did not recurve any merit from SUNY Buffalo because of my SAT. Stony Brook offers merit scholarships and I feel I qualify for some. I don’t think Binghamton gives merit that much.
I do not really want to commute at all. I was excited to go to college so I could get out the house. I can only commute to Stony Brook from NYC.</p>
<p>Vloria, to answer your queston, the ways that students pay college costs that are covered by financial or merit aid is either by their parent’s paying, or the kids take out loans , often co signed by the parents and by working a job, unless that student has the savings to pay the amounts. There is no magic store of cash awaiting such students. I</p>
<p>In your particular case, your best alternative is to commute to Stony Brook. With the $1500 your parents can afford to give you, and Stafford loans, along with any savings you might have plus earnings from any jobs you get will pay the SUNY tuition, fees, books and commuting costs. If you can find a job that pays enough, and cheap enough rent options perhaps in future years you can consider living away from home. </p>
<p>It is a big myth that most kids go away to college. They do not. They cannot afford to do so. Who do you think pays for living expenses away from home? You surely don’t expect the government to pay for sleep away college any more than sleep away camps. How many kids do you know go to boarding school? Some kids who have the stats or skills that a college wants will get enough money to go away to school, go to a private college, etc. But very, very few. Most kids go because their parents pay for it. Those parents might borrow themselves in trouble to do it, but most the expense is paid by the parents. As it should</p>
<p>We (I am a New Yorker too) are lucky to have the choices we do at the prices we have. There are kids in many states who do not have those choices. Stony Brook is a fine school as are the CUNYs.</p>
<p>I have 2 kids who had high SAT scores and they were offered $3500 and $2500 from SUNY Burffalo. One took it and went, but it didn’t go all that far in covering the $18K cost of attendance there. There are not that many full rides from the SUNYs or any schools for that matter.</p>
<p>I don’t even think you can afford Stony Brook. A monthly LIRR ticket from Zone 3 (Jamaica) to Zone 10 (Stony Brook) is $276. If you are coming from Manhattan or Brooklyn (Zone 1) it’s $334. So your $1500 will be gone by December. Pick a CUNY and live home.</p>
<p>Perhaps rather than coming here you should ask your parents where they think you should be going to school and how it should be paid for ? An EFC of over $23K means that they really should have been able to save enough to cover at least a SUNY and definitely a CUNY. There are no options to get the rest unless your folks are willing to pony up the cash or a signature and take on the debt themselves.</p>
<p>My wife and I both attended CUNY’s for our undergrad degrees and lived home. We survived. My wife received her grad degree from UPENN and I attended NYU for grad school. </p>
<p>We live on LI (and lived in Brooklyn for many years before) and have never made enough to have an EFC of $23K. We lived within our means and this coming September both of our kids will be attending SUNY’s upstate and while they will both have govt. loans (under $10000 each) they will only be responsible if they don’t graduate. We just wanted them both to have some skin in the game. We have saved money all their lives to be able to offer them a college education. We drive old cars, I fix what I can around the house myself. For vacations we drive to a nearby state and stay in a motel. We camped when we were young. I could be driving a nice new car now and driving it to the Cruise dock but we prioritized our lives and our quite happy. I am also thrilled and take great pride in the fact that my kids won’t have to worry about college.</p>
<p>I really wonder what your parents reaction would be if you called them over and asked them to read your question in this thread.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if this sounds harsh but the reality is what it is.</p>
<p>This is extremely difficult. My goal is to become a chemical engineer. When I applied to CUNY, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do engineering so I applied to the liberal arts and sciences major for every college. I got into all the top CUNY’s (Hunter, City, Brooklyn, Baruch, CSI, and Queens). If I go to City College, it would take a while for me to change majors and do what I want to do. If I go to any CUNY I’ll probably go to Baruch because I may find something else I am interested in besides engineering and still make a lot of money later on.</p>
<p>I have no idea what it takes to change majors in a CUNY but you should definitely contact those CUNYs you are interested in and discuss this with them. You may be surprised.</p>
<p>Sagiter, just because a family has an EFC now of $23K does not automatically mean that family has had that level of income long enough to save anything toward college. This level of income may be new. The family may have extraordinary expenses such as care for grandparents, or outstanding bills that were accumulated when one parent (or both) were out of work. The FAFSA does not take into consideration many factors that can have a negative effect on a family’s actual ability to pay.</p>
<p>*I do not really want to commute at all. I was excited to go to college so I could get out the house. I can only commute to Stony Brook from NYC. *</p>
<p>I know that you were excited; you applied to a ton of schools. Sadly, no one went over the financial aspects with you when you were choosing colleges. </p>
<p>Cptofthehouse is VERY right…most kids do NOT go away to school because it is a LUXURY that nearly always must be paid for by parents. </p>
<p>You have a couple of options…</p>
<p>1) apply to a public that you can commute to and afford with a 5500 student loan and your parents’ contribution. Also, work over the summer to save money for your transportation costs. With a $5500 loan, your parents’ $1500, and maybe $2000 from summer savings, you’ll have about $9k for tuition, fees, books, and transportation. A part-time job during the school year can add another couple thousand towards your “day to day” expenses. </p>
<p>2) take a gap year. Work as much as you can - even if you must work 2 jobs (at this point, your EFC is meaningless anyway). Study for the SAT and ACT and retake those tests.
then apply to schools that will be better for your new scores AND will let you do a co-op for engineering (which will help pay for your college costs).</p>
<p>"Sagiter, just because a family has an EFC now of $23K does not automatically mean that family has had that level of income long enough to save anything toward college.”</p>
<p>You know, I understand that but I think my point is more that this conversation and these questions should be discussed with the parents. Right now I find it very hard to believe that with a current EFC of $23K the parents can come up with more than $1500 and if they can’t perhaps they deal with this whole “how do I meet need question”. My family has never had what would be an EFC of anywhere near $23K and we made college a priority. You are absolutely right, we have no idea of the circumstances behind the $23K EFC but by the same token you have no idea if they’ve got 4 car loans and a mortgage the size of Delaware.</p>
<p>Were they not involved at all in college planning ? Part of raising kids is planning for college and part of that should involve a heart to heart discussion of costs, expenses and life in general.</p>
<p>It would be great to hopefully find a job this summer because that would help a great deal. First, my parents always said that they want my college education to be my responsibility. That is why they wasn’t saving since I was born. Secondly, with their income, they have to support seven people including themselves and by the end of the month they usually have little to money left over.</p>
<p>My parents want me to go to Stony Brook because that is the school they liked the most because it’s close to home and more affordable than my alternatives. They expect me to take out private loans, get outside scholarships, and work to pay for it. My parents also think that since I want to be a chemical engineer and their starting salaries are around 60K. I should be able to afford repaying the loans I accrue.</p>
<p>I called RPI today about it and they told me to write a letter so they could reevaluate me. I will see what results from that.</p>
<p>@satiger My parents actually told me to ask this question. I have discussed this with them so many times but all it boils down to is that they want me to pay everything. I was surprised they was willing to pay $1500 a year because before they had me under the impression that they was not going to assist at all. They said if extra funds open up, they would be able to contribute more than $1500 but I will just worry about the facts now. </p>
<p>They may could change things about their lifestyle to open up more funds for my college education but that is not on their radar. They do not want to go into more debt by helping me to go to school. It is unfortunate but they have been telling me this before I got to high school. I felt let down and disappointed about it for a long time but I don’t feel it is going to change. Unfortunately, for my family, college is not a priority, they feel it’s more like a privilege.</p>
<p>I cannot tell my parents how to spend their money and what to value so when I did the FAFSA and CSS Profile, I was mad because their income doesn’t matter at all because they are not spending it on me for college. If I had a low EFC I wouldn’t care that much because more is offered to them and nothing is wrong about that, but with a high EFC, it is more devastating because the college expects the family to contribute and my family cannot and doesn’t want to contribute much. They will give what they could but they wouldn’t sacrifice anything for my education.</p>
<p>*My parents also think that since I want to be a chemical engineer and their starting salaries are around 60K. I should be able to afford repaying the loans I accrue.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Yes, you’ll be able to afford the federal loans…about $30k total. However, earning $60k per year does NOT mean that you can afford big loans. As a single person, you won’t have the deductions that your parents have, and therefore you will have to pay a big chunk in taxes. </p>
<p>After paying rent, utilities, cell phone, food, transportation/car/insurance, healthcare, clothing, food, entertainment, and taxes, you won’t have much leftover to put towards big loans.</p>
<p>Another option is to go to your CUNY for 2 years, work a part time job, save the money then transfer to a SUNY that you can live in the dorms if you want to experience being away</p>
<p>That is really true. I wish my parents could understand that. If no financial aid offer from the other schools I haven’t heard from yet are good, I wouldn’t mind going to a CUNY at all.</p>
<p>Good for you Vloria. See what comes up and hopefully you’ll get a great offer but CUNY’s are good schools and you may get that chance to transfer if that’s what you choose. You may also love the CUNY school you choose and not think of leaving. Good luck !!</p>
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<p>Vloria, Hoping is not going to get you a job. If you are interested in a summer job, you should be looking for one now, especially if you’d like to find something other than fast food-type work. Another possibility is to look for a part-time job now that you will be able to turn into full-time work over the summer. Many prospective college students have a little something in the bank that they have saved working during their high school years.</p>