Financing an education at University of Washington on the hopes of a Computer Science Career

My son has been accepted as a pre-science student at the University of Washington. He is an in-state student and scored fairly well on his SAT (1980). His strengths are math and science. His education will be about 20k per year. This is his dream but I would have to co-sign for the loans. I have three younger children who are all doing well and will likely also want a good education. I am looking for feedback from a Univ of Wash parent who may have already survived this decision making process. I know its a great school for CS, and related fields, but 80-120K seems like too much. How likely is he to land a job that makes this amount of debt seem tolerable? Thanks.

Too much debt…way too much debt.

It’s also a bad precedence. Those loans will still be outstanding when the younger ones go. The banks will likely decline you at some point. Then what? And what would happen if the banks decline you before THIS child finishes?

And what if your child decides that CS isn’t for him and changes to another major?

UW usually gives good need based aid to instate students. It sounds like your child didn’t qualify for any need-based aid. Is that true? What was your EFC? How much are you contributing each year?

If you can’t contribute much/any, then why didn’t he apply to schools that would have given him merit aid so this crazy debt wouldn’t be needed.

He can start at a CC, get those two years done, and then transfer.

Why didn’t he do Running Start??? He could have saved about $40k right there!