I really want to go Purdue University but I would have to take out loans of $27,000 every year. I am willing to attend a CC in the summers when I return home to reduce costs and I plan to work but my mother says it would be dumb of me to go there and do all of that when I can go to Michigan State University(my state school) for a much lower costs and be less in debt. My parents are unable to pay a single penny of my college tuition so I will have to take out student loans no matter what, but I am not sure if it would be worth it to go to Purdue if I will be drowning in debt even though I really want to go.
^^Your parents have to cosign those loans. You can’t take them out on your own.
Go to Michigan State. Be happy.
Your mother is correct. $27,000 in loans per year would be a bad idea, and your parents would have to cosign most of those loans (which makes it even worse).
Go to Michigan State University. $27,000 x 4 = $108,000. Is Purdue, or any university, worth $108,000 in debt for four years of undergrad?
“Is Purdue, or any university, worth $108,000 in debt for four years of undergrad?”
In case you didn’t know the answer, it’s no.
;
You would be better off going to your state school. Plus, a job or two down the road and your degree won’t matter. Don’t get me wrong purdue is a good school but not good enough to be drowned in debt after you graduate.
Registering one more vote for Michigan State. $108,000 is a huge nut to pay off–much bigger than you probably appreciate as a high school student.
Purdue is too expensive for you. Lots of people are in the same boat. It stings to get accepted to a school you love then not be able to go because it’s unaffordable to you and your family.
My oldest D did two years of community college, working and paying her tuition, then transferred to our state flagship as a junior. She worked very hard over the summer, two jobs, and still took out a loan. She’ll have to work hard again this summer, and take out another loan for her senior year. But those first two years were debt free.
My youngest was accepted to some very fine schools, but in the end, she is taking a generous scholarship to her third or fourth choice.
Be smart. It’s a very emotional decision, and it won’t be the first big money decision you make in your life. Don’t put yourself in financial handcuffs for years and years.
Folks…it sounds like MSU is too expensive as well, unless he qualifies for aid. I doubt he qualifies for merit since his ACT is a 21.
He says that his parents can’t pay ANYTHING…so he’d be borrowing for MSU as well.
What is your EFC?
What aid would you get from MSU? How much are you supposed to pay for MSU?
I don’t understand the Purdue amount that you quoted unless that was after a full Pell Grant, loans and work study. What was in your Purdue aid pkg?
You applied to a bunch of expensive OOS publics.
You want to be a vet school or med school. Right now, it appears that you wouldn’t test well enough to get into vet or med school.
Either way, you should not be borrowing much for undergrad if that is your goal.
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My parents will pay for college as long as I get good grades and attend my classes.
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Ok…so were you hoping that your parents would pay for college, but now found out they won’t?
What is your EFC?
This story makes no sense. What is his COA for each school after all grants and scholarships.
Can his parents afford to pay for college and are just refusing to, at either school?
How did he get into Purdue with a 21?
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Accepted Objective: SAT I (breakdown):1510 (Math-430, Critical Reading-570, Writing-510) ACT (breakdown):21 (Don't remember the subscores) SAT II: N/A Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8 Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):Top 10%
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Parent income < $20,000
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Ok…I’m going to be a little harsh. While it may be too late for you, hopefully some juniors will read this thread and learn from this.
You were asked last fall about paying for college and you said:
“My parents will pay for college as long as I get good grades.”
Obviously, your parents can’t pay for college with an income of less than $20k. It appears that you gave that answer just because you didn’t want to deal with the cost aspect, but instead wanted to waste time coming up with lists of OOS publics and waste time applying to schools that were never going to be affordable.
Your parents want you to go to MSU. While you will get a full Pell Grant, Direct loans, and possibly a MI state grant, work study and Perkins loans, you probably will also be gapped.
Have you run the MSU NPC to see the results? What are the results?
You can’t take $27,000 a year in loans to attend Purdue. You will either need a cosigner, or your parent will need to take out loans.
Your mom is right. You can’t afford Purdue. Agree with others…I’m not sire you can afford MSU either. Have you gotten your financial aid award from MSU? What is it? How much is left for your family to contribute?
Your FAFSA EFC with an income of <$20,000 would probably be in the $0 ball park. Your family cannot likely contribute to your college costs.
Who helped you craft yoir college application list? Was any thought given to ability to pay for these schools?
COA is the cost before grants, scholarships and anything else is taken into consideration. What you’re probably asking about is the net cost.
@mom2collegekids
No. What happened was as I was applying to schools, my mother told me I did not need to worry about money for school, and that she would do anything she could to get me to go. So I never worried about the money part until now that I got in and now my mother is telling me that she is unable to pay anything and I(we) would have to take out loans. I had questioned her multiple times about the financial aspects of everything but she kept brushing me off and telling me not to worry about it so I had assumed that meant she would be able to pay for it somehow. My EFC is $0 and I got a financial aid package of around $14,000 from Purdue.
@thumper1
I have not received a financial aid package yet for MSU.
I’m a girl btw
Then the only thing you can do is wait to see what MSU offers.
In the meantime, maybe start thinking of plan B just in case the finances don’t work out!
That is not the way the phrase is generally used. COA for a given student is THEIR cost after all the various discounts/scholarships are applied. Sure, you can talk about COA for a college, but we also use that phrase for a given student’s COA after they get their FA package from the college. Net cost is another way to say it, but we do say COA out here too for the student specific cost.
Honestly I’ve never seen anyone use COA to describe a student’s net cost. It’s misleading. the COA is the college’s total cost, including direct and indirect expenses. This is how most colleges define the meaning of “COA”. Net cost is typically the term used to describe the net cost to the student. I think flipping the two is very misleading.
Well, I guess we’ll have to disagree on this. My understanding is that Cost of Attendance is the total of Tuition + Fees + Room + Board (theses are all Direct Costs, meaning billed by the school) + Books + Travel + Personal Expenses (these are all indirect costs, not billed by the school but still needing to be paid). COA is the starting point and everything else is figured from there. It really is the “Cost of Attendance,” because somehow, all those costs will be paid, whether it’s by the student and/or parents out-of-pocket, loans, merit aid, scholarships/grants, gifts from grandparents, or a combination of any of these. I believe if you go to various school websites, you’ll see that generally the phrase “Cost of Attendance” or “Cost of Attending” or simply “COA” is used as I have described, as opposed to being equivalent to what I call the student’s net cost.
If you really want to go to Purdue, you’re gonna have to apply for a lot of scholarships. Maybe go to MSU for a year, and during that year, collect a hella ton of money in scholarships and try to transfer to Purdue.