<p>How much did your parents help out with tuition/room/board, if at all?</p>
<p>How much $ are you currently in debt for to pay for school?</p>
<p>Just wondering 'cause I think I'm gonna graudate with like 80k in debt and I'm screwed. How about the rest of you? My parents aren't going to help at all.</p>
<p>This year, I got nearly a full financial aid package, so just had to borrow the 5.5k from federal loans. My parents are able to help with plane tickets and such, but not the tuition/room/board (hence the financial aid).</p>
<p>Are you certain you’ll have eighty thousand in debt? Did you apply anywhere that could give big scholarships? Of course, it could be a manageable amount, depending on your major. Don’t go into that much debt for a liberal arts major (I say this as a History major).</p>
<p>Uh…I want to study anthropology. No comment.</p>
<p>No, I’m not exactly sure how much I’ll have to borrow. I just threw that number out there. The best merit scholarship I got so far was for 15k/year, but I’m not sure if I want to go to that school. The school that I’m looking at in particular offered me 10k in merit/year.</p>
<p>I qualifiy for Pell…that’s really all I know. One college said my “family responsibility” was around 12k with income of about 53k after taxes, 4 people in the house, but that doesn’t seem right.</p>
<p>My family’s income increased by almost 20k this year. :(</p>
<p>I have about $65k in debt. I didn’t get a great job because I had a very general degree (psychology) and was prepping for graduate school. Therefore I did a lot of research rather than internships, which made it more difficult to find a job after undergrad. My private loans changed their terms and can no longer defer long enough for me to go to grad school, and I can’t afford to pay on loans AND attend graduate school (due to living costs). However, even with my mediocre job I am able to afford my loan costs on my own. I am still living at home. If I picked up a simple part-time job on top of my full-time job, I could easily afford to move out. I choose to stay at home and pay more toward my loans.</p>
<p>My mom paid for my first year at community college (about $2k, the rest were on Stafford loans). I then attended 4-year private LACs and was responsible for the rest. I had scholarships as well, but it still amounted to quite a bit.</p>
<p>So you haven’t actually started college yet? I suggest looking into cheaper options, such as in-state schools. You’d still have time to apply regular-decision.</p>
<p>I’m a junior. My parents pay insurance and that’s it. I pay for rent, car, credit cards, tuition, blah blah blah. I am about $15k in debt. </p>
<p>I’m an anthropology and humanities major. </p>
<p>DO NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT go 80k in debt under any circumstances. I don’t care how much you like your school IT IS NOT WORTH IT. You should not be taking out more than around $30k in debt for undergrad. If there are no other options, take a gap year and apply to your flagship next year. I say this as an anthropology major.</p>
<p>$80k in debt!?!? No way dude. Don’t do it. Just don’t.</p>
<p>I’m currently about $3500 in debt as a freshman. I really don’t want to take out more than $3000-3500 a year, so hopefully I’ll come out of school with less than $15k.</p>
<p>Trust me. I chose my school based on money. If your parents aren’t paying for anything, then you SERIOUSLY should consider schools that will give you great financial aid packages, scholarships, or your state school even if it’s not your number one choice. You’re talking about a quality of life issue. You can either have four years at a place where you’re getting an education semi-happy or a decade (or more) or debt that you don’t know how you’re going to pay it off.</p>
<p>So anyways… My parents gave me $750 for tuition first semester. I worked first semester. I put half of my paycheck into savings. They probably sent me about $150-200 over the course of the semester (a check here and there). So I guess they gave me about $1000, but I paid for my books and my dorm stuff. This semester? My bill was about $600 more than last semester. I ended up dropping a class so that my bill would go down and I bunked my meal plan down. I’m paying the $1100 myself this semester and am also buying all of my books on my own. I’m having to set up a payment plan.</p>
<p>Trust me. As someone who isn’t really receiving much help from the parents, you DON’T want to go to a school that’s so expensive. With today’s market, even people with great majors don’t have job security.</p>
<p>I’m a junior transfer student, and I’m not in debt yet, since I spent 3 years at community college and my mom paid for my tuition then. Now, whatever financial aid doesn’t cover, I pay for using the money that I have saved up in the bank.</p>
<p>I’m a college freshman.
My college expenses per year is $21,000. So x4 = $84,000+ (as tuition will increase)</p>
<p>My scholarship is $12,000 total.
So $72,000 remaining.</p>
<p>Parents pay $6000 a year, so $24,000 total.
So $48,000 remaining…</p>
<p>The rest is all loans : subsidized ford, unsubsidized ford, and private bank loans.</p>
<p>I think I will have about $50,000 or more in debt after a bachelors.
Since I just finished my first semester I have around $6,000 in actual debt already.</p>
<p>I am most likely going to pursue a masters too, so more likely $70,000 or something like that. Maybe $80k like yourself.
Eek.</p>
<p>I’m a junior transfer student. I’m extremely blessed and fortunate to have my family paying for my undergraduate education expenses, including textbooks. </p>
<p>As for grad school? I will be on my own, but I am definitely looking into doctoral programs in history at schools which offer excellent financial aid to their students. Nevertheless, apart from possible grants and scholarships, it will take a lot of hard work to pull myself through grad school. It won’t be an easy ride, but I’m sure it will be worth it in the end.</p>
<p>I’m starting my 2nd semester next month. I got a scholarship to cover my tuition ($7,000) and my parents cover my room and board ($8,000ish). We don’t get any financial aid. My parents don’t want me to take out loans, so they are covering it as for now. I won’t be in debt but I will owe money to my parents…</p>
<p>I’ll be a community college fall transfer student, but I’m only looking at schools that give merit scholarships that I qualify for (i.e., up to $10,000 for x major/minor, up to $10,000 for a 3.75+ gpa). </p>
<p>I used to think that it would be worth going into debt if I went to a name brand school or just got a “spectacular education.” I realized that as a History major, I should pick something fairly inexpensive that I love and can get money for. I don’t want to start off my professional life way in debt.</p>
<p>Oh and my parents are paying for everything while I’m in community college, and whatever they can’t pay for once I transfer goes onto a student loan that will be my responsibility to pay. I feel like that’s very generous:)</p>
<p>I’ll be $12k in debt at the end of this academic year and I’m a junior biology major. That number would be around $8k lower had I not decided to attend Miami U last semester and just gone to the cheaper school I plan on attending in the spring and commuted. It was stupid, but I really wanted that “college experience” but whatevers. You live and you learn.</p>
<p>I went to a CC for about a year and my mom paid for what my scholarship for being in the Honors Program didn’t cover. I paid the bulk of last semester’s tuition myself and I’m paying what the loans don’t cover next semester. (She’s also agreed to help me when I graduate to with my loans but I’d rather she didn’t) The school just offered a new one-time scholarship to transfer students next semester so I’m hoping I’ll get that so I can save about 900 bucks to put towards a car to get next month or so.</p>
<p>I should be around $23k in debt by the end max (it’ll take me roughly 2.5 years to finish if I can kill myself in the summers). Assuming I get a decent ($8/hr) job for 20 hours a week during the semesters, that number should decrease because I would be able to pay some of the tuition out of pocket and I probably would start sending in checks to at least cover the interest incurring on the unsub loan I took out for last semester so that doesn’t kill me by the end. I’m also applying to a local nationally-ranked hospital to pay for my tuition as long as I agree to work for them when I graduate to pay off that debt. It’s better than the federal loans.</p>
<p>The reason I didn’t totally mind the debt was because I knew I wanted to go to graduate school for the sciences where the tuition is waived if I TA and I get a stipend so $30k debt wouldn’t be that big of a deal when all was said and done for a PhD and there are government funded programs that will waive certain portions of that debt if I teach or do research in a lab they fund. Now I’m starting to question that goal so it’s starting to make me more and more uneasy. However, I will say that $80k for undergrad is way too much. Unless the school you go to is the only school in the country that offers your program, I would strongly consider packing up and going to a cheaper one or going to a community college to knock out the general education requirements. Usually, if you live in the same county as the CC, the fee per credit hour shouldn’t be more than $100/credit hour which is a steal. As a humanities major, to boot, where you’re going to likely attend graduate school that you’re going to pay for out of pocket, don’t take on that much debt. It’s not a wise choice in the long run especially if most of that is private loans. They (and Uncle Sam) will hunt you down for that money until the day you’re worm food.</p>
<p>If your family contribution is 12k, you HAVE to talk to your parents about how much they can actually afford to contribute. No college student is going to make 12k a year working, and you don’t want to take out that much in loans every year. Even if your parents could only pay half of that, 6k a year is SO MUCH more manageable than 12k would be. You can take out $3,500 in subsidized loans as a freshman, and realistically you’re probably not going to make more than a few thousand dollars a year working part time while also taking a full schedule. You can make this work, but you’re going to need to communicate well with your parents, plan ahead of time, and make sure you get a job ASAP to start socking away what you can.</p>
<p>And if the financial aid doesn’t materialize at any of the schools you applied to, DO NOT ACCEPT AN OFFER THAT WILL COST YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN AFFORD. It’s better to be humble and attend community college for a year or two than it is to go into massive debt because you think you need to go to a prestigious college. It simply isn’t worth going into that much debt to get a bachelor’s degree. A good rule of thumb is that it becomes much more difficult to manage college debt after it goes over $30,000 a year, since that’s about as much as you can expect to reliably make the first few years after graduating. If you get an offer that would require you to go into more than $7,500 of debt per year, it would put you over that.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that Pell grant people usually have EFCs of around 3500 or less…how could I have 12k???</p>
<p>I applied to 2 in-state publics; one offered me 1k/year with an 11k tuition, and I was deferred from the other.</p>
<p>Estimated Costs of Attendance for a Student Entering in Fall 2011</p>
<p>Estimated Tuition and Fees
$36,674</p>
<p>Estimated Housing Costs
$3,678</p>
<p>Estimated Meal Plan Costs
$3,824</p>
<p>Subtotal: Comprehensive Fee
$44,176</p>
<p>Estimated Transportation Subsidy
$300</p>
<p>Estimated Health Insurance
$700</p>
<p>Estimated Books and Supplies Costs
$600</p>
<p>Estimated Personal Expenses
$900</p>
<p>Total Cost of Attendance
About $46,676</p>
<p>Estimated Grant Aid Available for a Student Entering in Fall 2011</p>
<p>Institutional Grants & Scholarships
$25,880</p>
<p>Federal Pell Grant
$1,000</p>
<p>Total Grant Aid Available
About $26,880</p>
<p>Net Price of Attendance
About $19,796</p>
<p>Estimated Other Aid Available for a Student Entering in Fall 2011</p>
<p>Estimated Employment Earnings
$2,000</p>
<p>Federal Direct Student Loans
$5,500</p>
<p>Total Other Aid Available
$7,500</p>
<p>Estimated Cost of Attendance after all Financial Aid
About $12,296</p>
<p>I won’t need insurance</p>
<p>Dad covers it. I’m very lucky and very grateful for it. I agree with the other students saying don’t go into super deep debt (I’d say there are only a handful of exceptions). It’s a good way to end up in some OWS protest.</p>
<p>My parents were willing to pay for it but luckily they didn’t have to because I got enough scholarships to pay for it all (National Merit, etc.) in addition to the prepaid plan they bought when I was a baby. They bought me a slightly used car instead as a graduation present (I’m graduating this May). I would not have been comfortable going into any amount of debt and that’s why I picked a school that would give me enough scholarship money that I could graduate debt free.</p>
<p>I am so fortunate that my parents are willing to pay for my undergrad education. After that, I’ll be on my own. They’ve been saving money for college ever since I was a baby. I’m also lucky that I’m an only child. We have loans, but I have no idea whether my parents were planning to pay those off or if I’m responsible for those. If I have to pay them, I’d probably be around $30K+ in debt …</p>
<p>My parents pay for everything.</p>
<p>Some of you are very careful with debt. I’ve never been in debt, and my first college loan will be my first. I was talking to my mom this morning (I was practically crying) and she told me that she’s not worried; she think it’ll work out. I dunno. She’s pretty good at judging what will happen.</p>
<p>I would not say that I’m conservative with my money. I don’t waste it, but I will spend it if I know it’s going to a good cause.</p>
<p>I don’t really want any extravagent items when I graduate from college; a beater car will do and renting a studio apartment would suffice. If I’m going to spend a large amount of money, I would want it to go toward my education. I will probably live overseas, otherwise.</p>
<p>My mom will cosign, but ultimately I’m responsible. I’m fine with that. It’s my life, not hers.</p>
<p>I need to feel what it’s like to be struggling. Put some values in my life.</p>