<p>Ok, D got half her tuition paid for by scholarships, now it's time to find the other half ($20.000). What are the best avenues to pursue, Our bank with a home equity or student loan, Federal loan etc. Any advice for this first timer. Thanks</p>
<p>Other scholarships to start. Have her fill out as many applications as she can. It’s a lot of work but worth it in the long run. There are scholarship search websites or you can have her check with the guidance office at school.</p>
<p>DO NOT use the equity in your home to finance college, EVER (unless you have the cash in the bank to pay off the equity line that is earned better returns than the interest on the equity line and you can take advantage of the tax break).</p>
<p>Have you gotten the complete aid package back from the school yet?</p>
<p>Maybe try posting in the financial aid forum. The people over there have a lot of experience when it comes to financing college. Good luck!</p>
<p>[Financial</a> Aid & Scholarships - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/]Financial”>Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>Don’t borrow $20K/yr- not you or her-it’s crazy for undergrad.</p>
<p>Waverly, what other choice do I have? Yes we received the final financial aide package from the school. It does state that if she gets any scholarships it would get deducted from there side of the aide. I have been searching the financial aide forum but was having a hard time finding my answer. Thanks for all your advise, please keep advising. Thanks</p>
<p>Jknmcd,</p>
<p>you might not realize it now, but borrowing $80K for undergrad is not really choice. The only choice you have is to find affordable option for your child.</p>
<p>It may mean taking a gap year and applying to more affordable schools next year.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why it is not a choice. OP’s EFC is probably 20K, whether she has it in her savings to pay for it or borrow, those are the only choices she has. Unless her kid has great stats and just didn’t apply to schools which would have offered full merit FA, I don’t see what a gap year would do. College does cost money. Frankly, taking it from home equity isn’t such a bad idea. If it is structured right, it is tax deductible, and you would have 30 years to pay back at a very low interest. </p>
<p>D1’s BF graduated with 60k+ student loan. His parents were paying 15k+ for him. They did it by his mother going back to work. Now he has graduated, his parents continue to take what they would have normally paid for college toward his student loans, and he is paying maximum of what he could afford every month. </p>
<p>For people who weren’t able to save for their kids college tuition earlier, the only way to do it is by using future earnings, unless you don’t want your kid to go to college.</p>
<p>So…you need to come up with $20,000 for the other half of tuition.</p>
<p>Do you also need another $10,000 for room and board?</p>
<p>Either way, is sounds like the school selected is not affordable without massive loans. You might consider doing what oldfort suggests but perhaps at a less expensive school???</p>
<p>I agree with the others. 80K+ (not factoring in tuition increases) is too much. From other posts it looks like your D is going for envir sci. She will probably need a masters at some point. Where will she get the money for that? Is she your only child? If you have other children, how will you pay for their education?</p>
<p>What other schools did she get accepted to? What are their costs to you? You will read all over CC about “love thy financial safety.” It is very important to not only have a safety but a financial safety that your child would be happy to attend. </p>
<p>I am sorry that you have fallen in to a trap so many parents and children do nowadays who find themselves without a nice affordable alternative. This is something that should be taught to every family with a HS jr, imo.</p>
<p>jknmcd–what was your thought process when your D was applying to schools? Did you give consideration to how she was going to pay for school? Are you really willing to borrow 80K+ for her to go to college because she won’t be able to get that kind of money on her own. What other options does she have? Where else has she applied? What kind of money did you get from those schools?</p>
<p>What is your monthly cash flow like? Could you possibly just pay for this on monthly installments? Most schools will make arrangements for a payment plan. How much money does she have saved? Does she have a job? If not, sounds like she better get one and then maybe 2 more over the summer.</p>
<p>If it’s 20k, your kid could get summer job and part time work at school to contribute 5k. Not sure of your finance, if you cut back on eating out, vacation or other incidental, you probably could find another 5-10 ka year.</p>
<p>On similar lines to what oldfort said, can you or your spouse pick up additional work? And look at expenses closely to see what can be cut. Cutting $2400 a year, $200/month adds up to almost 10K less you have to borrow over 4 years. With additional work and cutting back perhaps you don’t need 80K.</p>
<p>Oldfort,</p>
<p>having to come with 20K does not mean that OP’s EFC is 20K, because not all schools meet need. </p>
<p>You are right, people who could not save for college have to use future earnings to pay for college. That does not mean they have to get themselves heavily in debt to afford to send a child to college. Depending on child’s stats, it might mean starting at community college and transferring to another school later or starting at the state flagships.</p>
<p>P.S. If OP daughter’s scholarship is need-based, picking up extra work will result in higher EFC in subsequent years, meaning the scholarship will be lower in subsequent years.</p>
<p>It really depends on your financial situation. Is it $20K total that your D needs to find, or does that only cover the tuition? Did the school give $20K in grant money, or are loans already in that amount? It is unusual for a school (except for a few ) to meet need 100% with grants. </p>
<p>With our son, we split the tab into our part, his part. Then each part got split into savings withdrawals, current income use, and loans. The amounts were diminished by any scholarship, he might get, but in your case the school award will be diminished by outside scholarships, so other sources should be pursued.
Since she is already accepted, she might want to take on a part time job now to start preparing to pay for college. Our cousin did this and was able to rack up some serious savings between April and September towards his college. She also should discuss job possibiities at the college to meet some expenses. </p>
<p>You will likely save some money with your student gone away to school (or is she commuting?) I know that our water bill, our electric bill, our gasoline bill and food biil have been impacted. So you might be able to put some money towards those costs too. Borrowing is the very last line to hit.</p>
<p>It sounds like the OP plans on borrowing most/all of their EFC…which means substantial debt in the end.</p>
<p>When people do this, I have to ask…If you can’t pay much towards your child’s college costs at this point (not enough money leftover each month to put towards college), then where is the money going to come from to pay back this debt.</p>
<p>I see that your D plans on attending Elizabethtown College and majoring in Environmental Science. The basic costs are: </p>
<p>tuition and fees:… $36,550
Room and board: $9,050 </p>
<h2>Books and supplies: $1,000 </h2>
<p>about $47k …unless she’ll be commuting. </p>
<p>Do the above costs sound right (and they will rise EACH year)? </p>
<p>If you go the private loan route for about $80k, then your monthly payments would be about $1000 per month for about 10 years. </p>
<p>I think this school is unaffordable. Does your D have any financial safeties? Do all of her schools require you to go into huge debt?</p>
<p>Larkin - you are right about higher earning means higher EFC. </p>
<p>OP is going to have to pay something no matter what, even if her kid ends up going to CC or in state. If the kid ends up with 20 to 40k student loan, it is not that much.</p>
<p>This is great information, I did post over in the financial aid forum so there is more info I can share with you there. Also, this is not a dire straights situation, I’m just looking for the best routes to go. We can afford to pay the school, not easy, matter of fact, like anything it will take some sacrifices, but we are just looking at how people have done it successfully. This is a good discussion and I am learning allot, please excuse my ignorance on the how to’s of paying for college. Some sort of structure which I feel I’m getting from reading your advice. Thanks keep them coming.</p>
<p>I would no o into debt for a school like Elizabethtown for 4 years. It will be easy to transfer into after 2 years at a CC.</p>
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<p>Ok, leaving the $20K, if they are looking at $1000/month for 10 years borrowing that 80K, why not just pay $1000/month for the 4 years your DD is in school (10 months so $10,000/year) have your DD max out her federal loans for another $5000ish/year and have her get a couple summer jobs and a very part time job in college for the other $5000. Does something like that work with your finances?</p>
<p>OP- I think you need to take your tax returns, your credit card statements, and any other recurring expenses (mortgage, car loans) and put everything out on the kitchen table.</p>
<p>I have lots of relatives and close friends who have gotten into trouble by thinking that even though they couldn’t save 80K for college, they could borrow it and pay it off over time.</p>
<p>Guess what- a borrowed 80K costs a lot more than a saved 80K. My sister kept telling me, 'well we would have saved it but last month the brakes on my car went, and the month before the compressor on the refrigerator died… etc."</p>
<p>Hey- you’re still going to want a car with safe brakes once your kid goes to college. And presumably you’re not going to want to come home after work and see melted ice cream on the kitchen floor either.</p>
<p>Those unplanned for expenses which eat into the money you intended to save for college keep rolling along even after your kid leaves for college. And although people mean well by telling you that your household expenses go down when they leave home, in our experience, the $20 you’ll save on your D’s endless showers are more than off-set by the fact that she’s now living away from home and buying “emergency” snack foods and getting to the dining hall after it closes so she needs a $10 sandwich/salad combo at a nearby diner. So don’t overestimate the savings- they get chewed up by extra expenses pretty quickly.</p>
<p>I think if you can make structural changes in your finances you can swing the debt. What is structural? Eliminating the second or third car if you have one. Increasing the deductibles on all your insurance policies if you can. (we saved a bundle by essentially becoming self-insured on our health care except for major medical. I pay out of pocket for everything- our deductible is huge. But we are mostly healthy, thank god, and I am not afraid to tell my doctor "I need generic prescriptions since I pay for them myself’.) If you have a whole life insurance policy check the fine print- you may be fully paid up on what you need (the death benefit) and are just adding to your coverage by continuing to pay. You may be able to suspend your payments. Check your mortgage- rather than a HELOC do the math on refinancing to free up an extra couple of hundred a month. Don’t allow your 16 year old son (if you have one) to get a driver’s license yet. The insurance will kill your budget. Drop your cable, move to a budget cellphone plan, tell any family member who goes over their minutes that they’ll pay for the increment themselves.</p>
<p>Then make a decision about how much money you can allocate towards a college loan. But don’t look at the payment plans and say, “gee, a thousand a month, how hard could that be?” Your D is 18 years old. If you’d been able to sock away $1000 a month since she was born, you’d be looking at 216,000 in college savings, plus interest/dividends/capital gains.</p>