<p>My s attends UChicago. If family income is less than $70,000 you will get a scholarship. If the income is above that, say 100K you’ll get a small grant and be expected to take out loans. Above 200K and the parents can usually pick up the tab. So I don’t think it is a myth that the middle class frequently gets screwed in terms of finaid. So I don’t understand what is so startling about the article.</p>
<p>*If the income is above that, say 100K you’ll get a small grant and be expected to take out loans. *</p>
<p>Well, if your income is in the $100k-150k range, and you have more than one child, then borrowing - say - $100k+ for one child and $100k+ for another - just isn’t do-able.</p>
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<p>No one is saying that it’s easy for the middle class. We’re just pointing out the unbelievable myopia that it takes for someone to extrapolate from the tiny handful of schools that give great need-based aid to the poor and reach the conclusion that extremely poor families generally get great financial aid and are comparable to extremely wealthy families in terms of college opportunities.</p>
<p>There’s nothing startling about the article, what’s interesting is that the authors focussed on an analysis of high debt borrowers, I think that’s new territory.</p>
<p>black students are in more debt because they are on average more poor to begin with and often receive less education on average in the U.S. really not suprising or interesting</p>
<p>The article suggests that low income is not necessarily the cause of high debt. It could be that a higher percentage of black students are independent and attending for profit institutions, the two other areas identified with a propensity for high debt.</p>
<p>Gardna - its not myopia, just life experience.I’m the first of my blue collar immigrant family to finish college. I’m 57 and still paying off the last bit of my student loan debt. All along the course of my educational life, my family just made marginally more than the cut off for grants so I had to take out loans. I went to state and city universities. I was poor but not poor enough and I wasn’t a member of any under represented group that might get scholarship money. As a parent now trying to support my son’s education I can see the grant awards and their relationship to income level and FAFSA’s EFC. The less I make, the more the grant would be. FAFSA is not unique to UCHicago and they are NOT known to be generous with financial aid. They require most students to take out loans unless you make under 70K and qualify for the Odysssey program. The other problem is that there is no universal definition of porr, middle class or weathy in the country. It depends on who you are talking to. So in my experience, in my life, had my father made slightly less, I would have received financial aid.</p>
<p>I haven’t even started school (Bryn Mawr College) and I already know I’m going to take on about a $25K debt for a year’s worth of school. And because of this, I may not even be able to finish all four years. It all depends on ROTC.</p>
<p>how will you qualify for the loans???</p>
<p>Co-signing with my parents, I assume.</p>
<p>You know, it was a weird feeling, this morning, when I accepted my enrollment. I had to accept the Stafford unsub’d loan.</p>
<p>I am officially 5,500 dollars in debt. And it’s only going to get worse.</p>
<p>You assume? </p>
<p>Do you know if your parents can/will do this? Do you know if they can qualify for $100k in debt? They will have to re-qualify each year.</p>
<p>How much do you expect to be earning upon graduation? What is your likely career?</p>
<p>I can only comment on my personal example - my niece (we are black), lives in Georgia and wants to go to med school. She is particularly interested in sports medicine, so she chose University of Alabama for it’s SM program. She’s lower, middle class and pays out of state tuition, so she will probably have over $100,000 in loans even before med school.</p>
<p>As much as my sister (her mother) thinks she knows about the college admission process, I don’t believe they even thought about the financial implications of attending UofA. I’m no expert, but I would think that even if she wanted SM as a major, she could have attended a GA school for much less debt. This type of decision is totally foreign to them. We weren’t raised in a family that was knowledgeable in the process. My daughter will be fortunate enough to benefit from my frequent visits to CC though.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yikes!!! Is she a freshman? How are they qualifying for these loans? How will she pay for med school? (is it possible that she got a scholarship? Did she had high stats? Was she a national achievement scholar??)</p>
<p>Is she going to UA or UAB?</p>
<p>And, yes, she certainly could have attended a Georgia school. Sports med is not something that you really learn as an undergrad.</p>
<p>Hopefully it won’t end up being over 100K worth of debt. The only reason my parents are agreeing to sign for my current time in the red is because I’m going to try and join ROTC, which, if I’m lucky will cover the next three years. I pay for it in more ways than one.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Good luck getting into ROTC!!! :)</p>
<p>sydsim;</p>
<p>some people should really reocnsider going to certain colleges if they can’t afford it. University of Alabama without enough merit aid to make it affordable is a terrible deal; it’s not that highly-ranked and its graduates have poor prospects for jobs unless they manage to internship and/or network heavily with alumni who transferred / attended better schools. Going into debt can sometimes be necessary, but the quality of the school and the prospects of getting a good education and subsequently a well-paying career track that will enable to pay off loans should be the main factor in any such decision.</p>
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<p>This is absolutely crazy and it not a good deal for your neice. She should not take on 100k of debt to attend UA because they have a good undergrad program in SM. You can major in virtually anything and still go to med school. You just need to make sure that you take the “pre-med” courses to sit for the MCAT. Even then, she can do a post-bac year to prep for MCAT and then apply to med school.</p>
<p>Your sister should keep in mind, that for professional school (law and med), that they will still look at her (the parent(s) ) income/assets in addition to her daughter (and if she gets married, future son in law). At many med and law schools, parent income/assets are looked at if the student is under 27 (at some schools 30).</p>
<p>Your neice having $100k undergrad debt can really limit her choices for med school. At some schools, it they do not think that she will be able to come up with the $$ (mostly loans) she will not be admitted).</p>
<p>She should take the most financially feasible option possible that will leave her with the least amount of debt in the event that she needs the stafford loans for med school. IF your neice is a Georgia Hope scholar, take the money to defray the cost of going to college in state and keep it moving.</p>
<p>Bedouin…</p>
<p>While I agree that paying OOS for UA for pre-med is a crazy, your statement of its graduates have poor prospects for jobs unless they manage to internship and/or network heavily with alumni who transferred " is also nutty. Do you really think that graduates of UA have poor job prospects? LOLOLOLOLOL I swear, you just make stuff up when you post.</p>
<p>Wait, so the University of Alabama is a bad school today, but two days ago… [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064740477-post17.html]hmm...[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064740477-post17.html]hmm…[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I think there’s a Dr. Bedouin and Mr. Hyde.</p>