<p>hey guys, I am in a critical situation right now of choosing which college to attend for this fall in 2012. I am a high school senior debating between 3 colleges of IIT chicago, RIT, and University of Portland. I got into all of their undecided engineering programs and received pretty decent financial aid. If i were to attend IIT, my parents would have to take 14k in loans. If i went to RIT in the other hand, my parents would have to take out around 12k. But out of those three schools Univ of Portland came out the cheapest because my parents have to take out around 10k. I am an oos student and was wondering which school would be the best to attend. I would love to see the city of chicago over the city of Portland and Rochester But, i cant really make a decision because i never really went to any of those cities. Lets just say for now, money is not an issue.So seeing this, what school would be the best college to choose? What are some pros and cons for each school? How are the school life? is one school harder than the other? Thanks guys, it would be greatly appreciated if you can give me some feedback!</p>
<p>You are asking your parents to borrow at least 10k each year for a minimum of 40k? Is this in addition to your own Stafford loans? Don’t you have anything that is more affordable for your family? You are looking at a combined 67k at least! That is a big chunk of money to have to pay off.</p>
<p>You know where I am going to come down on this issue: go to the school that will leave your family with the least amount of debt.</p>
<p>well, for IIT, the tutition was around 48k including room and board and i got grants and scholarships of $28,500. Also, i got student loans that i can take of $5500, so if i substract that from 48k then im left with around 14k. My parents will use a federal loan for this 14k. As for Portland, the tuition is around 43k and i got grants and scholarships around $28,800. that leaves me 14.5k and if i subtract $5500 with student loans, the absolute money my parentts have to pay is around 9k which will be federal loans. Yes, these amounts are per/year tutions. Are these too much for out of state students to pay?</p>
<p>Do your parents make good salaries? If they do and just can’t afford their EFC outmof pocket, it may not be a big deal. But if they are low income that’s a lot to borrow.</p>
<p>well my parents do not make huge salaries. they are around 40-45k i believe. and ya i dont think they can afford the efc out of pocket so they’re planning to have federal loans. So would univ of Portland be the choice then? how is univ of portland’s engineering compared to iit??</p>
<p>What are your in-state public options? Would any of those mean that your parents don’t have to borrow this kind of money? Can your parents pay anything at all out of their current income?</p>
<p>Some parents who don’t have any consumer debt, or home mortgage, can indeed handle the debt levels that you are proposing your parents to take on. However, not all of them can. Part of your responsibility is to make certain that your desire for a good college education does not run counter to your whole family’s overall well-being.</p>
<p>Ask your parents very specifically about their plans for paying off their loans. If they haven’t run any of the loan repayment calculators, help them do that. There are good ones at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and there probably are ones at their own bank’s website.</p>
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