<p>I am currently an a high school senior. I got accepted into University of Pacific with a scholarship/grant/aid of 30,000 dollars. The tuition is about 50,000. I would have to get a loan of about 15000 to 20000 a year to go there. Should I? UOP has a great biology and premed program which I would major in if I went. But is it worth it? My other options are UC Santa Cruz (but I get little/no aid), and CSU Sacramento (which is affordable but the school isn't great). Please help!!!! </p>
<p>So are you saying that your family will contribute nothing to your college education? Colleges expect families to contribute somewhere between a few thousand and the full cost. Have you spoken to your parents about costs? what do they say? </p>
<p>oh I completely left that out, my bad 
My dad is retired and my mom makes about 15-20,000 a year, so they said they can only pay about 7,000 annually for college. I really want to go to UOP but I am scare about borrowing too much. What should I do? </p>
<p>The University of the Pacific’s tuition and fees are just over $41,000. They estimate that the total cost of attendance is closer to $58,000. So if you have scholarship of $30,000, that leaves $11,000 in tuition and fees but also the $12,000 for room and board, plus miscellaneous expenses (books, transportation, personal expenses). So let’s assume you’re going to have to borrow at least $25,000.</p>
<p>First of all, how will you get a loan of $25,000? Undergraduate students are limited to borrowing $5,500 in their first year from the federal government. Amounts in excess of that must be borrowed from a private lender with a co-signer, or your parents must borrow Parent PLUS loans. So unless your parents are willing to do either of those things (which they shouldn’t be), you don’t have access to that kind of money.</p>
<p>Secondly, no, it’s not worth it. No college is worth debt of at least $100,000. You won’t be able to repay that debt when you graduate from college. Recent college graduates can expect to average around $30-40K as a first-year salary, but even if you made $50,000, you still couldn’t afford to repay that debt.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with CSU-Sacramento - it’s a fine regional university. You should go there.</p>
<p>Yeah, you went about this college selection thing a bit backwards, OP. But you’re not alone in doing this, so don’t worry about it. You don’t have to go a school you don’t want to go to. You don’t have to spend 100K on a school. You could go to community college less expensively than most 4yrs. You could take a gap year, work, save up some money, improve your test scores, and get a part-time gig with a nonprofit agency that helps the environment or children or something like that. Take the SAT again in the fall and re-apply to schools that you can afford and want to go to. What’s the rush? My mother-in-law got her music degree when she was 69 years old. I’m not suggesting you wait that long, but you get the picture. the first thing you do when you find a college you like is you run the school’s net price calculator and see if you can afford it. And your parents need to be honest with you about their income because they will have to be honest with the colleges or risk serious legal repercussions. A family that makes 15-20k would have a hard time taking 7K out of that salary. They might have put something by, but how do you do that on 15-20k living in California. So ask for their federal tax returns for last year and information on other investments like a retirement account. They probably will resist showing this to you, but if you’re going to go to college an honest assessment of family assets is essential unless the applicant is full pay. My family was resistant, too, so you have to be firm, consistent, and patient with them. You have some time. Play the long game.</p>
<p>If they only make $15,000 to $20,000 per year, you should get lots of financial aid from CSUS and UCSC. Did you not apply for financial aid?</p>
<p>As it is, UOP is too expensive. Especially if you want to go to medical school, you do not want to be dragging along a lot of undergraduate debt to add to medical school debt.</p>
<p>Thanks Juillet! I was never really interested in Sac State because it was my safety school but $100,000 is too big of a debt. I am kinda disappointed because I got into the school of my choice but I can’t afford it. For some reason I thought financial aid would cover everything…I’ll look more into sac state.
@ jkeil911 Thanks for the advice. My parents are somewhat reluctant about telling me. They told me to worry about studying and leave the money problems to them. I’ll talk to them tonight. Should I do UC Davis tag program? Going to a community college and then transferring is another affordable option but is applying to late? I know I shouldn’t worry about other people but all of my friends are going to ucs or privates. For me going to a community college was the last option…</p>
<p>@ ucbalumus I applied for the fafsa in February but I didn’t get anything back from them. For UOP they sent me a letter in the mail with my financial aid package. How do I check my fafsa aid?</p>
<p>That happens to a lot of kids – they get in an expensive college but can’t afford it. Why aren’t you getting aid from UCSC? Do your parents have huge savings but they aren’t going to use it for your college? Look at the total cost not just tuition. What is your total costs for UCSC per year including room and board? What is total costs for Sacramento?</p>
<p>OP, in fact some of your friends may not be going to those expensive colleges because they did the same thing you did: they chose a school instead of a price range they could afford sometimes because their parents balked at the cost in April instead of approving the costs before they applied. Happens every April in high schools across the country. I hope it doesn’t happen to your friends. A large percentage of high school students start out in community college. It’s a good place to adjust to college expectations for many students. </p>
<p>As for the question you ask ucbalumnus, there is no fafsa aid. fafsa is just a form that helps the colleges determine how much aid they will give you. fafsa helped UOP determine your financial aid package.</p>
<p>UCSC and CSUS should have given you financial aid based on the information you put on FAFSA, assuming that you had the FAFSA information sent to them and otherwise indicated that you are applying for financial aid.</p>
<p>The following estimate the financial aid they tend to give. If your actual financial aid offer is very different, you may want to look into the discrepency.
<a href=“http://www2.ucsc.edu/finaidcalc/calculator/”>http://www2.ucsc.edu/finaidcalc/calculator/</a>
<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU;