"Also what’s not clear is that this scholarship requires you to do a major in SCA but what about minor in SCA, do you get to keep scholarship?:
yes. the scholarship is for SCA majors, It does not preclude her from doing a minor as well .
@OspreyCV22 From what I understand, they were hoping for somewhere around $500-800 per month. We’ll have to talk this over before I SIR, obviously. It’s a lot of money to just be spent arbitrarily.
AFAIK you don’t get to pick your payment. If they borrow over $100K the payment will be close to what I mentioned. Use the tool I linked.
“My parents will need to take out essentially pure private loans to finance this whole shebang, and it makes me feel a bit guilty.”
If the only way you can get an education at one of the places where you have been admitted for the coming year is if your parents borrow a total of more than $100,000 then you need to take a gap year and come up with a different list of places to apply to. Sorry. From your description, none of the places on your current list is affordable. You have no way of knowing if your parents will qualify for this level of loans for all four years.
To better analyse some of the money factors, run the numbers here: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletteradvanced.phtml
Go to Santa Monica College until you figure out what you want to do. Get your Gen Ed classes done there and don’'t strap your parents or yourself with that crazy amount of debt. Your degree will still say USC in the end.
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@TempeMom But if that’s how much it seems it would cost everywhere for me, would it just be more fiscally responsible for me to attend a local community college?
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Well, for sophs and juniors reading this…it’s only this expensive because of the schools selected. Wth her stats, she could have gotten better awards elsewhere.
I don’t like people assuming…“well college is expensive everywhere, so we’ll need to take out huge loans no matter what.” No.
@mom2collegekids I guess that was probably a costly error on my part. In the end, though, I guess this is what I am left with. I hate the middle class bubble. If we made just a little less money, my state schools would be much more affordable. Oh well. That’s the way it goes.
Is someone holding a gun to your head so that you have to start college this fall? If not, take a gap year and come up with a more affordable list.
Or go to CC. The UC’s with no aid would still cost a decent amount (though wouldn’t you be able to get something? Doesn’t CA have some middle-class fin aid program now?), but it would only be for 2 years, which means a manageable amount of debt. 6-figure debt is NOT manageable given your family’s circumstances. Especially taking on 6-figure debt while not having a defined plan for how to make money to pay it back does NOT sound like a good idea. In fact, it sounds like a family-wrecking idea.
@PurpleTitan We receive minimal funding from the Middle Class program. We were told that if we were to receive anything, it would be 10% of tuition (or a little under $900) per year. But you are right, that would be for just two years rather than four, so more affordable.
How much can your family afford is the real question. If nothing then go to CC.
It is not clear from your postings what the following are:
A. The amount that your family can/will contribute to your college costs (without parental loans).
B. The net price after grants and scholarships (not loans or work study) of each college.
@menloparkmom, Are you in the industry? Encouraging a student to pursue a school that the family has to borrow $100k+ for him/her to attend for a career as risky as filmmaking is a mistake. You have no way of knowing whether or not more aid will be forthcoming in subsequent years.
@Snowychan, You are picking a tough industry. You need as little debt as possible so you have the flexibility to take whatever opportunities come along. Why would production houses pay big money for a new grad when people are begging for for an opportunity and would gladly sweep floors for free to get it? I know people who freelanced for YEARS before getting a steady job. You can’t do that when you have hefty loans over your head.
If your parents make $100k/year, how are they going to borrow $20-30k/year for you? If they no longer qualify after a year or two, you’ll have huge loans but no degree. What will you do then? If they are able to borrow $100-120k for you, what’s the plan for your 2 younger siblings? Do your parents think they’ll be able to borrow for them if they owe that kind of money for you?
If I were you, I’d take a gap year and apply to schools that will give you merit aid for your stats. You can borrow about $5500/year in federal student loans. Take that, whatever your parents can comfortably give you out of pocket, and whatever you can earn from working and see what you can realistically afford. Don’t take credit classes during a gap year, though, or you may not qualify for freshman grants. Your other option is attending a cc then transfer to an affordable 4-year school. But taking on crippling debt because you’re under the impression that it’s what the current cost is and that’s how everyone else is paying for it is, in my opinion, a huge mistake.
It doesn’t make sense that if your parents knew what it cost, they wouldn’t have been putting aside money at least the last couple years to help pay for it, and instead just figured they would borrow all of it. I’m afraid that your plan will jeopardize your future, your siblings won’t have any money to attend college and your parents will default–don’t let them borrow on the house or they could lose it.
Try running some numbers if your parents are being irresponsible. Run numbers on payment and interest for the actual borrowings. Make a spreadsheet for everyone to look at.
Borrowing 25k year 1 will be payments around 300 a month
…year 2 will be 600 a month
…year 3 will be 900 a month
…year 4 will be 1,200 a month
…year 5 will be 1,200 a month
…year 6 will be 1,200 a month
…year 7 will be 1,200 a month
…year 8 will be 1,200 a month
…year 9 will be 1,200 a month
…year 10 will be 1,200 a month
…year 11 will be 1,200 a month
…year 12 will be 900 a month
…year 13 will be 600 a month
…year 14 will be 300 a month…in 2028 Assuming your parents get qualified to borrow 100k and you didn’t drop out from lack of funds first
Or something like that, I didn’t go over it to make sure I got all the years right. But you would have paid back the principal and 35 to 45k of interest. Now add the cheapest cost for the next kid to the appropriate year, and the next kid. When will those siblings be in college by the way? Where is all this money going to come from if they didn’t even manage to put any toward you college savings last year?
If you go to CC for 2 years and transfer to UC you will pay the 33k each at UC for 2 years and if you have siblings in college you may get some help then, so the timing is important. And your family could start saving each month toward that so the debt burden is lessened.
Or you can take a gap year and try for some colleges that will pay a lot more for you. It is hard after getting into an exciting program. I wish there was money in the bank for you to go. But you have to believe in yourself that that you will get through successfully another route rather than believe that the money situation will magic itself away and not be a huge nightmare. What CC are you near?
Yes, I agree with the above. Don’t go to USC assuming that they’ll give you more financial aid later because they want you to succeed. In fact, they probably won’t it’s not uncommon for students to get their financial aid adjusted, but it’s not exactly commonplace either. I would say it’s probably uncommon for students beyond the freshman year to earn scholarships big enough to make a substantial dent in the amount they pay.
You’ll need to either take a gap year and apply more widely next year to some colleges that can offer you some merit aid (or better financial aid), or you can start at a CA community college and transfer to a UC after 2 years. Although the costs might be the same, $50-60K of debt is way more manageable than $100-120K.
My daughter’s roommate only borrowed $30k, this is the portion that her bio dad was supposed to pay but because of circumstances, he couldn’t and I believe she was making between. $50k-$70k. Still the experience caused her to eliminate USC from grad school despite coming from a strong Trojans family.
At this point, USC SCA is your best choice - just make sure to double major. it truly is the best school in the world for this, and you can get involved in SO MANY aspects - I remember someone who dealt with strictly the business aspects and made a lot of money (doubled majored in economics, I think, or maybe even minored?)
However, 27K is how much you’re supposed to borrow FOR ALL 4 YEARS!
if USC is 26-30K per year, how do you end up with 27K in private loans???
part time job now and during the year + full time job in the summer+ federal loans = about $10,000.
if your parents contribute nothing you wouldn’t have to borrow 27K per year?
[url=<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/undergraduates2/costs.html%5DUSC%5B/url”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/undergraduates2/costs.html]USC[/url] costs nearly $70k/year, not $30k. Maybe $30k is OP’s net cost after grants…
post #37, she got scholarship from post #1. Why are we discussing $70K?
You could probably save around $5,000 of that $27,452 at SDSU since your transportation costs as an instate student are unlikely to be as high as $1,454, and you could choose a cheaper housing and meal plan (these kind of savings will probably also be possible at the other colleges you are considering).
https://newscenter.sdsu.edu/housing/costs.aspx#2015-16
Your parents will probably also be able to take the American Opportunity Tax credit for your tuition costs which is potentially another $2,500 savings.
http://taxes.about.com/od/deductionscredits/qt/American-Opportunity-Tax-Credit.htm
The future of the Middle Class scholarship is up in the air at the moment but if it survives SB-15 it could provide a 40% tuition discount by 2017 if your parents qualify. I’m not sure if assets are considered for this scholarship as the wording is ambiguous.
http://www.csac.ca.gov/mcs.asp
SDSU also has scholarships you can apply for.
http://go.sdsu.edu/student_affairs/financialaid/sdsuscholarshipshowtosearch.aspx