<p>I am looking to go to a private university (USC), but I am really turned off by the price. I will be a junior transfer student from a community college. The career I am looking to go for is something I am very passionate about and there is a great job outlook for it. I am also thinking about when I start a family and would only be able to work part time when my kids are small. So, how much debt did you go into for college, how did you pay it off, and how long did it take? Was the money you paid worth it to go to a great school and get a degree in a field you were excited about?
(I am putting this in the parent's forum because obviously you guys had a longer time to work and pay off your loans.)
Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi snowboard,</p>
<p>I see that you posted a question about Cal Grant earlier - are you currently receiving a Cal Grant? If so it is possible that you would qualify for financial aid at USC. USC has excellent financial aid. They use the FAFSA to distribute Federal aid and the CSS/Profile to distribute institutional aid (USC grants).</p>
<p>If you may qualify for financial aid it would be a very good idea to use the “Institutional Method” calculator available at the College Board website (the people who bring you the SATs!) for a rough estimate of how much you may be expected to contribute at a CSS/Profile school. That will give you a better picture of how much USC will actually cost YOU, and how much you may have to take on in loans.</p>
<p>Limiting debt is always a very good idea. I see that you are in California, so be SURE to investigate the wonderful UC and CSU systems - you can get a wonderful education at a bargain price - especially if you qualify for Cal Grant, which will cover systemwide fees for either system.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks alememom,
I probably will qualify for Cal Grant because my sister in a different college received it. I am also going to apply to a state school, San Jose State. The reason why I am applying to USC and SJSU (and another school in NY) is because they offer a joint degree program that I am interested in. I can save a year or two in graduate school if I get accepted to these programs.</p>
<p>My student loan only amounted to $5000 when I got my BS in 1987. The payments were only $50/month. I paid them until they were done.</p>
<p>My H had a loan,don’t know how much it originally was but it was $50 a month and he paid it off shortly after he turned 28.</p>
<p>I’m older than you guys - my loan payments were $23 month for 10 years. My husband paid the last 2 payments as I had just given birth and was no longer working - and 18 years later he still never lets me forget it!</p>
<p>You’ll probably get answers that won’t help you much here since many of the parents went to college so long ago when things were much cheaper. </p>
<p>I came out of undergrad with no loans to repay–I had a scholarship for tuition, my parents paid for books and I lived at home. It wasn’t the “college experience”, but my family really couldn’t afford to do it any other way.</p>
<p>I left law school with $5000 in loans and owing my parents $4500. Paid both of those off within five years.</p>
<p>You are right to worry about taking out a lot of loans for college. I would try to keep all loans no larger than the limits on Stafford loans, if you can.</p>
<p>Agree with ellemenope. When I attended two private colleges, students protested because tuition went from $4000 a year to $4300! I don’t remember what room and board was, maybe $1200 or so? My loan had an interest rate of 2%. I had to pay $35 a month for 10 years. When I went to grad school two years after getting my undergrad, my payments were suspended while I attended and then reamortorized for another 10 years after I finished grad school, so the payments were even lower. Naturally, I paid them off.
Of course, our income was lower too. My first job, as a nurse with a Bachelor’s degree, paid $11,800 a year. When a competing hospital was paying more, my salary had a huge increase to $12,200 a year. Somehow, I saved money! My father, who had been an engineer for 30 years at that point and was in charge of major projects, made $29,000 a year. At that family income level, plus the money I had saved from working all through high school, I did not qualify for grants but did qualify for work-study jobs and low interest loans. Two years later, salaries had gone up because my husband, a new lawyer, made $24,000 a year, and I managed to get a stipend to attend grad school which paid $20,000 a year, in addition to tuition. Our two bedroom apartment cost $240 a month. We paid his loans off too, at $55 a month for 10 years. So, as you can see, our experience does not really compare, even if you take my college costs as a percentage of my family’s income.</p>
<p>Where is the advice from folks that just graduated, like in 2000-2005?</p>
<p>You’re right, elemenope. Costs are much different now. But thanks for the replies! Maybe some people that graduated more recently can reply…</p>
<p>I think what you are asking is not so much whether we paid off our loans a few decades ago, but if you should take on that debt. Well, you saved money for the past two years so you probably should pursue the career of your choice. When you graduate, live well within your means including the loan repayment and try to get it paid off before you embark on the mommy schedule. I think the debt will be worth it.</p>
<p>My husband and I commuted to state U, worked at student jobs and minimized out debt. We paid off our loans for undergrad and grad in ten years and had no extravagant homes, cars or vacations. I was then fortunate enough to work only part-time when I had young children. Life is full of choices!</p>
<p>We had to pay a small loan for my husband for the first year or two we were married. Since we were living in Germany at the time I got irritated by the cost of postage and suggested we pay it off in one lump sum. (As you can guess it wasn’t very much - I know I’d saved quite a bit from my previous job - pretty easy as my share of the rent was half of $65 a month!)</p>
<p>"Where is the advice from folks that just graduated, like in 2000-2005? " - Not in the Parents discussion area. </p>
<p>I have seen articles that suggest loans be no more than estimate of one year’s annual salary after graduation. But that is a lot, especially considering there is no guarentee that grads will get a job in their field and keep it. </p>
<p>I started a thread (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/897652-loan-payback-examples.htm[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/897652-loan-payback-examples.htm</a>) last spring to get ballpark idea of loan payback. I came up with this very approximate estimate:</p>
<p>**** STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED BALLPARK ESTIMATE *****
$5500/year x 4 ==> $300 monthly payments after graduation</p>
<hr>
<p>I graduated in the 1980s with $11K debt, but loans were subsidised and interest rates were as low as 3%. We had this (and husband’s $6K loans) paid off in the 4 years before children. Our jobs were excellent and the economy was better back then. Many grads streched the low interest loans as long as possible, but we wanted less debt and money back in the pool for other students.</p>
<p>If you use that finaid dot org calculator, you can figure out what your payments will be. My son will be graduating soon and will probably owe several hundred per month, depending on his length of repayment. But, he is graduating with two marketable graduate degrees and has offers. Also, he plans on living at home at first hoping to pay off a large portion of his loans right away. It really all depends on your situation.</p>
<p>Snowboard, I think if you enter a career with a promising employment outlook, you can afford to take out a few loans.</p>
<p>Let’s see. Tuition at my private LAC was around 12000 a year, but with merit aid, a Pell grant, an SEOG grant, and a state tuition grant, I ended up paying 1200 a year for tuition, room, and board. So, no loans for me. Then, I went and married a loan. Dh had three. We elected not to consolidate, and yes, making payments was rough. We lived like paupers until we could start retiring loans. </p>
<p>Were they worth it? I work in a very low paying field (Catholic higher ed), but with no loans it didn’t matter. Dh was a social worker. Never go into debt to become a social worker. You won’t make enough to get out of more than a minimal amount of debt. Dh and I are the only people we know who saw an increase in our standard of living when he left social work for the clergy.</p>
<p>
When I finished my first masters in 1982 I owed $10,000 … my loan period was 10 years but paid them off in a couple years … and yes I think it was worth it. In today’s dollars those loans would be about $20,000 … and that is about the limit of what I would advise anyone to take out in loans … if a lot more loans would be needed I’d consider a different school.</p>
<p>^Yikes! Im thinking about taking out about 50,000 dollars worth in loans. But I still have no idea how much fin aid I’ll be getting. Isn’t $20,000 just too low of a limit if you decide to go to a private university? I guess the only alternative would be to go to a public one…</p>
<p>snowboard129—if you take out $50,000 loan, at 7% interest, paying it off in 10 years will run you $580.54/month.
Hope this helps-</p>
<p>This is the way I would try to figure it out…Most banks look at qualifying for a mortgage, ~35% gross for loan payments (mortgage, car, property tax, student loan, personal loan…). Try to figure out how much money you could be making in the next 10 years, your estimated expenses, and see how much monthly payment you could afford for your student loan.</p>
<p>
For me I would not recommend going above about $20,000 in loans … and yes this might limit your choices … state schools are one option along with seeking merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I’d suggest spending about 10 minutes in excel thinking about your monthly cash flow after you graduate … you will have a rent payment and quitle likely a car payment … unless you get a super first job loan payments on a $50,000 loan will force a pretty limited social life … as APOL pointed out the loan payments would knock about $6k off your after tax income … whicih is a huge amount. IMO even worse having loans that large can end up delaying decisions like getting married, buying a house, or having kids. Personally I do not think going to a “better” school is worth that price … and I’m a believer that the education at highly selective schools can be better … but is may not be cost effective if it requires a lot of loans.</p>