<p>Thanks. I have been looking for jobs for a long time but no one ever calls me back. I had quite a few internships over my high school years but no long-term job.</p>
<p>Your family is not the only family who feels as they do. I know that it’s disappointing, but it is the way it is. You are fortunate that your parents have been honest with you. At least you aren’t expecting money to magically materialize. I like how you are actively working at making things work for you. Just be careful of falling into the too-much-borrowing trap. Not all jobs pay a lot of money … and these days, many that did no longer do. Money isn’t everything, but it’s pretty darned important when you have huge loans to repay. Just keep everything in perspective, try to find a school that will require only a reasonable level of borrowing, and you will do well in life.</p>
<p>* I have been looking for jobs for a long time but no one ever calls me back.*</p>
<p>When teen jobs are hard to get, then the “squeeky wheel” usually gets chosen. So, after submitting an app, wait a few days or a week, and then go back to place and politely mention to the manager that you’ve submitted an app and are wondering if he/she is hiring. Keep this up. Always be cheerful, respectful, and well-groomed. Be someone that they will want representing their business. </p>
<p>Also…ask your friends and family who are working if they know of any job openings. And, watch out for new businesses that are opening…job opportunities are there!</p>
<p>good luck!!!</p>
<p>“how do students meet their unmet need each year when it comes down to paying for the cost of attendance at school”</p>
<p>For those able, borrowing against home equity is one common way (not specifically mentioned in the thread yet).</p>
<p>I have had a deep discussion with my parents and they seem like they are fine with taking out a Federal PLUS Loan or co-sign Private Loan if it is necessary. Of course, I will have to make the payments on it consistently.</p>
<p>Vloria – DONT DO IT. I beg you. You would be making a terrible mistake. These loans can not be forgiven in bankuptcy, you will be paying off when you are 50. Please dont do this.</p>
<p>I may have to take out a private loan for any school I go to (including SUNYs and CUNYs). I don’t know what else I could do to get that much money that quickly. I know I definitely have to work this summer and I definitely have to work part-time while I am in college. Maybe I was thrown off today by my friend getting over $46K in aid to go to Syracuse, while I got a little over $17K. It really hurts… I want to enjoy college life and not go to a school thinking “What if?” and having to deal with NYC commuting. A lot is going through my mind.</p>
<p>*I want to enjoy college life and not go to a school thinking “What if?” and having to deal with NYC commuting. A lot is going through my mind. *</p>
<p>You need to look beyond “college life”. Don’t you want to enjoy your adult life? What’s the point of 4 years of “fun college life” if it means ruining your adult life with huge debt? </p>
<p>Your plan is to become a chemical engineer. You’ll make about $60k when you graduate. That is NOT enough to pay back big loans. As a single person, you will be paying out a huge chunk in federal, state, local, and FICA taxes.</p>
<p>Vloria I’m in a similar situation so I understand what you’re going through. I’m still waiting on decisions from a few privates, but for any SUNY I’ll have to borrow 18k per year, 11.5ish being a parent loan, the others staffords. I live just with my mom (dad passed away 5 yrs ago). I didn’t apply to any CUNYs and I really see where you’re coming from about the whole NYC commuting thing. Those trains can really suck the life out of you after a few years and they’re a pain to deal with. I’ll probably wind up in SUNY Bing or Geneseo unless one of my private schools gives a better offer. Obviously the thought of covering such an expense is running through my mind constantly. Some things I’ve found that might be helpful include the American Opportunity Tax credit for 2.5k a year (saves 10k over 4 yrs). And I’m not 100% sure about this but I’ve read somewhere that the interest on PLUS loans is tax deductible. Plus a summer/winter job can save a few thousand per year. On top of that, most SUNYs cost ~ 12000ish for room/board, you can cut the room part to about 3000-5000 a year if you get an off-campus apartment or if you share a house with your friends. I’d also look into the army national guard/air national guard (or the reserves), they cover full tuition in all SUNYs as well as give you a monthly stipend on top of a bunch of other benefits. The only dilemma with this option is that theres a potential of deployment which can potentially interfere with about a semesters worth of school work. I haven’t heard of the air guard deploying too much though. I’m still doing my reading since obviously theres graduate school to consider as well, but these are some of the things that might ease the heavy burden of all these loans.</p>
<p>You’re right about the “what if” part, 4 years is a significant part of your life. Think about it as if you were looking back on your past, how would you want to remember them?</p>
<p>We certainly want you to minimize your debt, attending the least expensive school that gets you to your goal. Yes, you want to enjoy your college time, but it will fly by in an eye blink, so don’t place too much importance on the fun aspect, at the expense of your long term happiness. Still, getting the college degree is most important, and there may be no avoiding debt toward that end. Just try hard to minimize it.</p>
<p>I understand the whole concept completely. I do not want to be in debt for my whole life. My mother is paying for graduate school now (she paid for undergrad.) its not the funnest thing to do but she said that her taking out the huge federal loan has allowed her to be open to more opportunities and better jobs so that’s where a lot of her thinking is coming from. I am possibly going to be valedictorian at my school and she didn’t want me to work extra hard and apply to seventeen schools, just to go to a community college, and transfer to another school and get adjusted to something else. It’s annoying when I worked a ton for the college process, then one of my friends end up going to a better college, for less money, and everything they asked for. If all else fails then I guess I have to do what would benefit me most but the bottom line is that I want to go to a school that I can afford and be happy. If the school is cheap and I am miserable, that affects me a lot.</p>
<p>@SolR I am glad you understand where I am coming from. I am crossing my fingers on a wonderful private that would give me substantial merit aid that would make it more affordable than a SUNY. Many of the top students in my school went to Bing last year. They do not have my first choice major but they have my second choice. Most people I know that go there like it. It’s a “best buy” and there’s a lot of activities on campus. Thanks for the tips.</p>
<p>I know it’s a tough decision to make when you had your heart set on going away to school. I wish kids did not automatically assume that college has to be a “go away” experience and understand that it is truly an expensive luxury just as a boarding school would be. Someone has to pay for your living expenses and it is unreasonable to ask the government to do so. It’s the responsibility of your parents to pay those costs as they would be covering them if you were at home. </p>
<p>I suggest you calculate what your loan payments will be if you borrow the amounts needed to go away to school and make the determination as to whether you can do this or not. I know a number of families in credit trouble because they co signed or took out loans on behalf of their kids, and the kids did not get the jobs at pay levels needed to make the repayments. My dear friend has a daughter who owes $90K from college and is working 30 hours a week in a coffee shop. The creditors are going after the mom.</p>
<p>It might be wise to put off going away to school for a couple of years which would greatly reduce the amount that you borrow if you still feel you want to do this. Commute for the next two years, see what kind of money you can earn on a part time basis and plan on transferring junior year.</p>
<p>apply to seventeen schools</p>
<p>It is very unfortunate that you were not properly advised when you created your list of schools. I can’t even imagine the number of hours that you spent applying to 17 schools (essays, getting LORs, doing supplementals), and paying for the app fees and paying to have scores sent. </p>
<p>I think that is what’s adding to your angst. It’s hard to put that much effort into a process and then have to resort to a choice that wouldn’t have required a tiny fraction of the effort. </p>
<p>Plus, you’ve had your heart set on “going away” to school. Like other seniors, you’ve probably have had hundreds of conversations with classmates talking about where you’d likely be going (and all the choices probably sounded very exciting to your classmates). It’s rather humbling to have to later say, “Well, I can only go to XXX, because I can’t afford the other schools.” I think we all understand that. </p>
<p>I know a girl who put off announcing that she was going to her safety school until after graduation because she didn’t want to deal with any possible comments from classmates after she had spent the last year saying that she would be going to Pricy U.</p>
<p>I don’t know at what point your parents informed you that they could only pay a VERY TINY fraction of their EFC, but either they didn’t tell you early enough or you thought it wouldn’t matter. </p>
<p>You may need to do a gap year, work, save some money, study for the SAT/ACT so that your scores are higher (your scores did hurt you). Don’t go to a CC during that time because you would lose your “incoming freshman status” which is important for aid and scholarships. </p>
<p>Contact RPI and ask if you can delay a year, retest, and possibly get a better merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Something that many high schools do not emphasize to their honor students is that a lot of merit money, most if not all major merit awards do include the test scores. I don’t know how many upset parents and kids I’ve met who have had excellent grades, but not the super high scores needed to get merit money. In many cases, it is very unfair in that kids with not so hot grades (like my son currently in college) but very high SATs will get merit money. Colleges want to buy some of those high SATs. With so many grading scales and variables, gpa just doesn’t go into the rating systems. Many schools that give merit within aid when giving out financial aid packages will also use those test scores as an important component in the amount of the award.</p>
<p>As a kinda mentioned on my other thread, If I decide to go to a community college now, it will have to be in Spring 2011. The community colleges in NYC do not even have my major either. I called CUNY and they have limited space because letters have went out already.</p>
<p>Literally the highest SAT score in the school is 600 in each section. I kinda wish I had that right about now. X)</p>
<p>I also learned that for a lot of colleges, if I get an outside scholarship, it will decrease my work-study, need based grants, and loans first… :/</p>
<p>It was A LOT of work applying to these schools. I had 5 great recommendations, went to numerous interviews, visited a few schools, talked to current students, almost anything you can think of.</p>
<p>I took a Kaplan SAT course over the summer and my math score and reading went up by a lot. I do not know how much better I could get at these tests. I always get sick.</p>
<p>If RPI doesn’t give me a great aid package then I am definitely seeing if they will let me explore those options.</p>
<p>Vloria, I commend you for your applications. You learned a lot in doing them. I also am impressed with the way you are pursing this. Though it feels depressing right now, you have a lot going for you that most kids, even adults do not. Those skills have been sharpened in this process.</p>
<p>The way it works is that your parents are expected to pay for your college just as they are expected to pay for your high school. If they make below a low threshhold, federal funds up to about $5K (PELL) and some state money (TAP) can be available along with the $5500 in Stafford loans (some of it can be subsidized while in school). That is just about all that is available, hardly enough to go away to college, but enough for the poorest students to pay state college tuition and commute. If you don’t fall in that category, you can either get merit money if you are among the most desireable students in the applicant pool, or borrow with your parents backing the loans. That is the way it works. There are some colleges more generous than others, but getting a “full ride” or close to it is rare and difficult to get.</p>
<p>If you want to look at Momfromtexas’s thread on how to get a full ride scholarship, you can learn how to get a full pay acceptance from little known schools. Perhaps for next year, you may want to give that method a try, if going away to college is important to you. Just make sure you don’t take too many courses and end up as a transfer student as it is more difficult to get money that way most of the time.</p>
<p>Thanks! I am going to look at her thread.</p>
<p>I narrowed down my list of schools to these six today:
- SUNY Binghamton
- Johns Hopkins
- Syracuse
- Northeastern
- RPI
- WPI</p>
<p>I am not expecting to be accepted to Columbia, Cornell, or Duke at this point. I am hoping to get into Johns Hopkins even though it is a reach for me. I am awaiting financial aid packages from WPI and SUNY Binghamton.</p>
<p>I am still thinking about the gap year option but I know someone who has done it and they still did not get a job or improve anything it just made things worse. I know that doesn’t have to happen to me though.</p>
<p>Vloria -</p>
<p>I had your parents 35 years ago and wound up going to another CUNY. I got into Queens honors programs but it was a two fare zone and I couldn’t afford it. I worked and took out loans but I survived and made it through law school. My parents gave me nothing towards college and once I got a job actually charged me rent!</p>
<p>My DD refused to apply to SB because it’s too close to home. She is at an upstate SUNY where she has a merit scholarship ($1k/year but it helps). She has a private scholarship for past volunteer work and she had a school scholarship for the same thing last year. This year, she is an RA (which covers room and all but $1K of board), she has a non-work study job on campus and she got a small TAP award. I have paid the rest of her scholarship by cutting my lifestyle (I also support 7 people) and using my home equity line of credit… If she hadn’t earned the scholarships, she would have been at Queens College living with her grandma and taking the Q-65.</p>
<p>My H went to SB as a transfer after 2 years at a CUNY. He became an RA and that covered his room and most of his board.</p>
<p>My suggestion to you is that you attend a CUNY for a year, work and save up to transfer to SB. You can’t commute there from NYC - even from Nassau County, it’s close to an hour and half each way, by car. You can apply to be an RA as a transfer. After my first year of college, I worked f/t 3 days a week and took 18 credits at night and on the days I didn’t work. I loved night school… even did it for law school.</p>
<p>I don’t know what CUNY to go to since only City College has my major and I didn’t apply to engineering there.</p>
<p>Look at the requirements for an engineering major. Many of the courses can be taken as a major, particularly the introductory courses. For the first year, take what you can including using the summer for courses that you wanted and could not get during the year. </p>
<p>Sit with your parents and go over your alternatives. They need to be fully apprised of what is happening here. </p>
<p>Another alternative is to ask your parents to subsidize that first year if at all possible and while at the school, look for ways you can make it work the following year. My son cut his costs (and could have cut them even more) when he moved off campus at Buffalo. The Off campus housing options ran very inexpensively there. He found some part time jobs and was not on the meal plan. You do need some support that first year to give it a go, however.</p>