It is adult stuff for sure. Someone needs to tell this student that $86K is too much in loans and show him the the monthly payments he will have, every month for 120 months (10 years), and the ways that will impact his life (less flexibility in choosing a job, inability to get credit to buy a home or car, etc. etc.)
Other considerations include his likely major, whether grad school is in the future, and if there are younger siblings. Will the parents even qualify for nearly $60K in loans (student can take max $27K over the four undergrad years)?
@joshsmother These are very adult things for a 17 year old to be dealing with, if his parents don’t speak very much English and don’t understand the terms of the loan agreements, they definitely shouldn’t be signing them - these loans aren’t dischargeable and while he may want to take them over, there isn’t a guarantee that he will be able to. Your experience from over 20 years ago may not be accurate now (sort of the theme of the college landscape, everything is constantly changing).
These being very adult things also points to why the best decisions right now for this child may not be going straight to college. Not understanding the effect of this indebtedness upon himself is something that he should be getting assistance with. You’ve talk very eloquently above about how difficult it was for you to pay off $60k over 22 years. $86k is going to be harder, and grow bigger and faster. How are his parents going to manage the payments while he is in school? Parent loans are accumulating interest from day one. If they put those loans in deferment, they are going to be way more than $86k by the time he graduates.
Nobody on this thread is saying any of this is easy. It is not. But it also doesn’t help to say, “The cost is the cost” and watch someone unknowingly enter into a possible debt spiral that will take decades to get out of. Mizzou isn’t worth $86k of debt.
I do not believe that college should be a luxury item. The same way I do not believe that health insurance should be a luxury item. Just because it is that way now doesn’t make it right. But, I also realize that how things are now is all that matters, as unfortunate as it may be.
Sunk cost fallacy? Meaning what I’ve spent already in this process? I will definitely look at the list for my son, but even more for my son’s friend. It’s a terrible cost indeed.
Most (all?) of the other public universities in the MO system offer many merit awards. At UMSL, he could get enough to bring the cost down to about $15K/yr, which would save you over $25K over four years. That’s for an ACT of 28. There is a sliding scale, so even if he doesn’t qualify for that one, he might qualify for the $5K/yr or lower ones.
At UMKC, they have a similar auto-scholarship structure. Also at UMKC, there are also competitive scholarships of up to FULL RIDE (Tuition+R&B+books) for an ACT of 30. There are $ scholarhips that start with ACT scores of 22 ($2000) and go up to ACT 29 which includes full tuition but not R&B.
All the UM schools besides UM offer a bevy of merit scholarships. I’m impressed by the total number and the individual amounts.
BTW, some of the scholarship application deadlines extend to May 1. It’s not too late.
The Val and his parents have clearly said, “The cost is the cost” if they are seriously considering taking out $86k in loans to pay for Mizzou. They need to be looking at other more affordable options.
@EconPop has already shared other MO schools that would cost less and have merit available. The choice to go to Mizzou over them is a luxury choice. That’s what I meant by the idea that college is a luxury choice. There are ways to go that cost a lot less, but choosing Mizzou is choosing school not only for the education but for the name and premium experience (sports, rah rah, etc).
Ok…he’s not my child, so I can only do what I can do. Mizzou IS the affordable option in relation to the other schools to which he applied. It is literally the least amount of money. Which is isn’t saying much. I will suggest he consider other UM schools.
I think you are all taking for granted because you have all of this information so too does the rest of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course which college you choose is a luxury choice. No one is arguing that. College itself, which is what you said, should not be a luxury.
Val and his parents are making an uniformed decision because they (LIKE MOST OF US) don’t know any different. Not just throwing up their hands saying “the cost is the cost.”
I literally just looked up the UM system scholarship information. I did not know the specifics until I posted them.
Again I know it’s frustrating. And I know your family may consider the other UM options to be unworthy, which may add to the frustation because I’m saying “look at these affordable options” and you may be saying “but Josh will scream if I tell him he has to attend any UM school that is not UM.”
And I’m not telling you that you * should * send him anywhere specifically. If you choose UM and have no trouble paying the bills, I am certainly not going to tell you not to. You know your budget much more than any of us do.
I’m just pointing out that for families with more restrictive budgets, there are less costly options in the UM system. If you know of families that don’t have a flexible budget, it might be helpful to them to know of the options.
OP- I am not judging you. This is not some TV reality show-- folks come on here once their kids are done with college to help newbies navigate the application and financing piece of college.
You have the option to ignore the points of view which don’t align with your own. That is your right.
Many people assume that their kids can borrow “whatever it takes” which is not accurate. The caps on student’s ability to borrow may be frustratingly low, but are there as guardrails to keep 18 year olds from ruinous financial consequences.
We all get that others don’t have this knowledge, that’s why we are all on this thread sharing our knowledge with you. That’s why @EconPop just looked up schools in MO to try to help you and your son’s friend. That’s why the NACAC list knowledge was shared at the beginning, that’s why so many have been trying to educate you on how the process works rather than how all of us have probably wished it worked.
My biggest wish is that more families would realize they don’t know much of anything about college admission and do some research before sending those applications in…think about how your son and his Val friend could have changed their school choices last fall if their decisions had been made based on facts rather than assumptions.
CC is here, and my experience with other posters has been that they are ready and willing to share their hard earned experience and knowledge with newcomers. It is ok to be frustrated by this information, it is even ok to be a bit frustrated by those trying to help. I know I was when I first posted some questions/thoughts on this board. All these experienced parents swooped in and told me thing I wished weren’t true.
It is complicated and time consuming but can done by bright college-bound students. I’m likely one of the youngest parents on CC, and as a low income, first-gen student in the days before the internet was big (and I didn’t even have a typewriter or word processor at the time -too expensive), I did it all myself to great outcomes. And I wasn’t even a val/sal. I created a balanced list of schools, networked with the admissions reps, worked with financial aid offices to get non-custodial waivers, got colleges to pay for me to visit, applied for competitive scholarships and outside scholarships, asked for more aid - I did it all. The process is still the same today and made easier with the internet, including net price calculators.
Residential college is a luxury item. In some states so is cc because the cost and/or distance makes it impossible for a lot of people. But some families turn their noses up at the cc to 4-year route because they think their kids worked too hard to go to a cc. For a high stats, low income student cc may not be the best start because they lose freshman grants, but for middle income families who aren’t getting aid it can be a huge savings.
If you can pay ~$21k/year then with the ~$5500 federal student loan and ~$3k summer work earnings you have a budget of ~$30k/year. That’s a very healthy budget. What you need is a financial safety (an affordable school your son is sure to get in and would be happy to attend). Check the NACAC list in May to see what’s available.
