<p>I am looking at the numbers and I am kinda becoming more and more hopeless.</p>
<p>Binghamton COA $18825 - Stafford Loan $5500= $13325/year out-of-pocket
Random Private $54000 - Need (Fed. Loans/Work-study/Merit)= $23000/year out-of-pocket</p>
<p>I need to see what the monthly payments are on this.
Everyone is correct. It hurts, but I’ll talk to my parents about going to Bing.
If that’s way too unaffordable still I’ll forget about engineering and major in Accounting or something at Baruch and live at home. o.o</p>
<p>The thing is that no matter what if I go to a CUNY and transfer to a better school, I will have to pay the 23K or more for 2 years. If I go to a community college I feel like I’ll be at a school ANYONE could be accepted to.</p>
<p>In answer to your first question, most of the people I know took out Parent PLUS or private loans to meet the rest of the costs; some people worked over the summer and used those earnings as living expenses. Most of the times outside scholarships only go to replace the already offered loans in your package, and not towards decreasing your EFC.</p>
<p>I know that it seems to make sense to think about “looking back” on your college years years from now. But honestly, I think that making this an overly emotional decision is a bad way to go about it. I’m 3 years out from my BA, currently in a grad program. I have fond memories of college, but they are fond, fuzzy feelings, nothing absolutely concrete, and they are eclipsed by the every day work that I do as a grad student. I’ve made new friends, had new experiences and new opportunities since then. Most of my what-if wonderings have to do with money - like what if I majored in math or engineering instead of psychology, or what if I hadn’t borrowed even the very small amount that I did? I rarely think about what life had been like if I had gone somewhere else. And honestly by my third year I was itching to move off campus anyway.</p>
<p>I don’t understand SoLR’s point about the subway system. Millions of people, including myself, use it to commute to work and school every day. Sure, it has it’s problems, but a 30-day unlimited metrocard will only cost you $1250 over the course of one year, which is a heck of a lot less than $11,000 a year. I’d rather hop on the subway than borrow $44K I didn’t really need. I also don’t think that you can cut your room costs to $3000-5000 if you share an apartment. That would assume a monthly rent of between $250 and $420 a month. I think the lower end would be hard to find even in Binghamton, and impossible nearby Stony Brook. I think you can probably expect to spend between $5K-9K for the Binghamton region and around $7K to $11K for the Stony Brook region, if you lived off campus, for rent.</p>
<p>I think what you need to do is think about multiple ways to get to the same place. You want to be a chemical engineer, but you didn’t get admitted to chemical engineering at City. Could you instead major in chemistry and minor in physics (or double major in both) at a different place? A quick search shows that all of your colleges offer a major in chemistry; they also all offer a major in physics. Checking out CUNY’s Chem E program, it looks like the first two years are spent taking chemistry, physics, and math courses anyway (along with general education requirements) and so you could go to one of your other colleges OR to City, major in chemistry and minor in physics, and see if you can transfer after a year or two to the chemical engineering program. Even if you can’t, most master’s engineering programs will let a chemistry/physics major into a ChemE program.</p>
<p>My son has been seriously considering staying at home, because one of his top choices is unaffordable otherwise. Commuting makes it just affordable since it is a private college, we aren’t going to get much if anything in financial aid and his stats do not make him likely to get any substantial merit money from this school or others like it. He is checking out a school next month that was not high on his list because they did come up with a merit award that makes it just affordable. Most of the schools on his list are quite different from the schools on his first list because he realized that too many of his “dream” schools were unaffordable and he needed more affordable options. So a lot of the “name” schools that would have been a possible reach for him are off the table. He did not apply to them and replaced them with schools that are possible in terms of affordability and the option of commuting to some local schools made them possible to stay on the list. He would rather go away to school too. But his choices will likely be going to a not as well known of a school with some merit money, or commuting to a private college that is a top choice for him (if he gets in) but unaffordable when room and board is thrown into the equation. This is a choice many kids face.</p>
<p>Also, if you do stay at home for two years and transfer to, say Binghamton, or other school, that is still only two years worth of loans vs 4 years. Though $40K in loans is high, which is what Binghamton will cost you, it’s a heck of a lot better than $$80k which is a crushing amount of debt.</p>
<p>vloria, if you are going to be a valedictorian, can you apply to some local sholarships. If this were me, I would take out the loan and payback when I get a job. Best of luck!</p>
<p>RPI used to have a 3+2 (or was it 2+3?) program with selected community colleges. Those students ended up with both an A.B. and a B.S. Do they still have that program and have you looked into it? I knew a couple of students in that program and they did quite well. If you’ve already been accepted to RPI they might work with you on it. You can get an RPI engineering degree at much lower cost, and nobody cares at the end how you did it. Of course it means commuting to a local community college the first 2 or 3 years.</p>
<p>Isn’t there a local CC that you can start at with engineering? Then transfer later to Bing? At least then you wouldn’t have to borrow as much later.</p>
<p>Thank you so much everyone for giving me so many new things to think about. It is really appreciated. Every time I come on here and read new input I feel more encouraged to do the best thing in order for me to succeed and not have incredible debt.</p>
<p>I applied to a lot of scholarships so far. I am actually applying to two now that are due April 1st. I also sent an email to City College politely asking if they could change my major.</p>
<p>I am researching the community college idea and I am feeling better about it as I think of what I will be saving. Hostos Community College and Bronx Community College have Chemical Engineering programs or dual degree programs with City College. In the way that CUNY Portal works, I don’t know how I can still apply to these schools. The schools are also in the Bronx and that’s a long trip from my house but that’s besides the point.</p>
<p>@whydoicare I didn’t even know about that program! That’s great. I’ll see what I can do in regard to that.</p>
<p>I have WONDERFUL news. WPI gave me the best aid package thus far.
They gave me:
25,000 Scholarship
10,000 Scholarship
5,500 Unsubsidized Loans
Total: 40,500
Out of pocket Cost is 13,664.
It’s not “cheap” but it’s MUCH more manageable. :D</p>
<p>Congrats. that might be doable. But do remember, Binghamton is about $19K isn’t it and you can take out he same $5500 unsubsidized loans for it. That puts it at about the same cost as the SUNYs. You are still looking at close to $20K in loans per year which adds up to $80K over 4 years.</p>
<p>I am hoping your parents can give a few hundred a month, and that you find a weekend job NOW and work double jobs this summer to get another $5-10 towards your costs. You should also find a job at school for 10-15 hours a week when you get there. IF you can get your loan burdent down to $40-50K over the 4 years, that is still high but doable. $80K is really too much to take on.</p>
<p>My parents are willing to basically pay for all my personal expenses such as transportation, hair, clothing, etc… Since it’s tax deductible, they said they might can may the interest on the loan while I am in school. As long as I pay off the loan on my own six months after graduation, they said everything will be fine. I am applying to jobs right now and I’ll definitely get an on campus job so I could pay off as much as I could in-school as you mentioned.</p>
<p>I just realized that it is totally true that it’s cost is comparable to Binghamton. The good thing is that WPI’s return on investment is highly ranked and their average starting salaries are pretty good.</p>
<p>It must feel wonderful to get such nice news! :)</p>
<p>I do caution you about this comment, though: Since it’s tax deductible, they said they might can may the interest on the loan while I am in school.</p>
<p>Please have them check into this first. I know that the interest on Stafford unsubsidized loans that are paid by the parent are NOT tax deductible in many cases. For example, we cannot deduct the interest we pay for our D’s unsub loan. We claim her on our taxes, so we can’t deduct it … she can’t deduct it, either. It’s kind of a Catch-22. Make sure your parents read the IRS information if that is a factor for them.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the support! If I receive more good news I will continue to share. Thanks kelsmom for advising me to look at the IRS information.</p>
<p>Vloria,
My D went to WPI. Keep in mind off-campus apartment can probably save 3 to 4K per year over living in the dorms with meal plan. There’s a pretty good inventory of apartments within walking distance of WPI. It’s not a high-income area so rents aren’t too bad. My D shared a 5 bedroom apt, each student had there own bedroom which was bigger than the double/triple size dorm rooms at WPI.<br>
So live in dorm freshman year to meet people and make friends the move to apt remaining years to minimize debt.</p>
<p>Another thing to talk to your parents about is tuition tax credits. If your parents qualify, they can receive a tax credit of up to $2500 if they spend at least $4000 towards qualifying expenses. So they could spend a net of $1500 while paying $4000 to the college. Encourage them to read IRS Publication 970 to see if they qualify.</p>
<p>@FooMonChew Thanks for the helpful tip about housing! Did your daughter like WPI? @mom6350 That is very helpful I will let them be aware of that. @mom2collegekids Thank you!</p>