Having trouble balancing finances with caliber of acaemics!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So here's a little background info:
I am an EXTREMELY low income student (family's total annual income is just $15,000, EFC=0). Anyway, I got accepted to some great schools, many of which I am afraid I cannot pay for since parent loans and the like are really out of the question (horrible parent credit, and I really want to be financially independent of my mother). I may be able to approach my grandmother for cosigning on private loans if necessary.</p>

<p>I am wanting to major in engineering (probably electrical), but would like some freedom to change my mind if I so choose. If engineering, I would like to go to grad school, which is a factor to consider financially. BTW, I am a California resident.</p>

<p>Here's my list of accepted colleges and their respective financial aid estimates:
Purdue University: --pretty sure that this is the best ranked of my acceptances.
Total Cost: $45,962
Grants/Scholarships: $6,845 (they don't give much for OOS)
Work-Study: $2,500
Federal Loans: $7,500
"Other" Loans: $29,177
Total 4-year debt: $146,468 +interest</p>

<p>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
Total Cost: $48,896
Grants/Scholarships: $24,224 (they waived OOS fees, how nice)
Work-Study: $3,000
Federal Loans: $8,500
"Other" Loans: $13,172
Total 4-year debt: $86,688 +interest</p>

<p>UC San Diego:
Total Cost: $30,676
Grants/Scholarships: $24,276 (includes CalGrant)
Work-Study: $1,200
Federal Loans: $5,200
"Other" Loans: $0 (This is ideal)
Total 4-year debt: $20,800 +interest</p>

<p>Case Western Reserve University:
Total Cost: $58,728
Grants/Scholarships: $45,815 (Nice merit aid)
Work-Study: $2,000
Federal Loans: $6,500
"Other" Loans: $2,413 (the loan allocation is flexible here, may be able to get more federal and forgo getting private loans)
Total 4-year debt: $35,652 +interest</p>

<p>Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: --I really don't want to go here...my high school is like a feeder school for this place.
Total Cost: $24,285
Grants/Scholarships: $14,717 (includes CalGrant)
Work-Study: $2,400 (they didn't put this in, but they do offer W-S)
Federal Loans: $5,500
"Other" Loans: $4,068
Total 4-year debt: $38,272 +interest (without w-s, which could lower need for loans).</p>

<p>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:
Total Cost: $61,896
Grants/Scholarships: $42,645
Work-Study: $2,000
Federal Loans: $8,500
"Other" Loans: $8,751
Total 4-year debt: $69,004 +interest</p>

<p>Worcester Polytechnic Institute:
Hasn't arrived yet</p>

<p>I got rejected from MIT, UC Berkeley, and CalTech...waitlisted @ UMich and UCLA (really disappointing). What school should I go to, balancing quality of education, prestige, job prospects, etc with financial aid.</p>

2

<p>I’d go with UCSD. It’s good for your major, will leave you in the least debt, and in case you do realize engineering isn’t right for you, it’s easy to change into another field (happened with my cousin’s ex boyfriend).</p>

3

<p>Isn’t the answer obvious?
Unless WPI gives you a better offer, go to UCSD (lowest debt by far; good engineering.)</p>

<p>Or you could take a gap year. As you’ve now discovered, state schools usually don’t give adequate n-b aid to OOS students. If you’re waitlisted at Michigan (OOS) and UCLA, you might have had a shot at a full-need private school with good engineering such as Cornell, Johns Hopkins, or Rice. But that wouldn’t be a sure thing at all.</p>

<p>UCSD with that aid package is a good outcome.</p>

4

<p>So you are saying to forgo academic prestige for cost? Case Western is next cheapest, how does it compare to UCSD academically?..I must say that going out of state (while more expensive) is definitely a draw. Furthermore, what are ,my chances of getting into a school like MIT, Stanford, etc for grad school if I were go to UCSD (assuming high grades, extracurriculars, etc).</p>

5

<p>I don’t see any issue here of forgoing academic prestige for cost. First, there isn’t much difference in the prestige of these schools. Second, even if there were, what tangible difference is it likely to make? What objective evidence do you have that, after controlling for GPA and other qualifications, any of these schools has a significant advantage over the others in graduate admissions or hiring? </p>

<p>Third, if your family’s total income is only $15K/year, how are you going to borrow more than the federal student loan limits (<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized)?%5B/url%5D”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized)?</a> Who will co-sign for your loans?</p>

6

<p>UCSD is a perfectly good school for engineering (and pretty high ranked, if that is what you care about). You are not really foregoing much (if any) prestige by choosing UCSD over the other schools.</p>

<p>Given that it is the only school that offered you enough to make total debt <= Stafford loan maximum, go there.</p>

7

<p>Choose UCSD.</p>

8

<p>Any other opinions with reasoning? Also, do any of these schools offer anything particularly special (labs, programs, etc) for one interested in robotics?</p>

<p>I really hate that the poor choices of other people (my mother) can have such an impact on my life’s potential, especially regarding private loans…It’s rather stupid for the system to continue to hold my mother responsible for my education after I am 18 when she clearly can’t help; yet, they still have limits on the loans I can take out on my own and only give additional loans (Parent Plus or Private) with cosign, etc. It almost seems like all my hard work up 'til now has really been for nothing (all those hours studying for AP classes wasted…ugh).</p>

9

<p>If you want to save the most money, swallow your pride and attend a CC for 2 years…then apply to UCs again as a transfer student. You’ll save a lot of money going this route. You just need to dedicated and disciplined during your time at CC.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>Actually, with EFC = $0, you are going to get the maximum need-based financial aid that any school will give.</p>

<p>The problem is that most schools do not come close to meeting need using need-based financial aid alone. With very few exceptions, out-of-state public schools (e.g. Purdue, UIUC, Michigan) do not come anywhere close to meeting need for out-of-state students (and some, like UIUC and Penn State, are notoriously bad for in-state students). Among private schools, it is mainly the most difficult to get into schools (e.g. Stanford, MIT, etc.) that give good need-based financial aid – as you found out, CWRU and RPI do not.</p>

<p>Fortunately for you, the University of California campuses do give in-state students enough need-based financial aid grants to give a net price of EFC + ESC, where ESC (expected student contribution = student loan + student work) may be up to about $8,500 (it appears that UCSD is offering you a lower ESC than that). Since your EFC = $0, your net price is just your ESC.</p>

<p>In retrospect, your application list should have been different. Appropriate candidates for your application list would have been:</p>

<ul>
<li>UCs that have electrical engineering.</li>
<li>CSUs that have electrical engineering (although it seems that Cal Poly SLO is right on the edge with a net price of $9,568</li>
<li>University of Virginia (one of two public schools that meet need for out-of-state)</li>
<li>Private schools whose net price calculators indicate that they would meet your need.</li>
<li>Schools (public or private) with big merit scholarships (you would need close to full ride).</li>
</ul>

<p>However, that is water under the bridge. You have a great, affordable choice.</p>

<p>Go to UCSD.</p>

<p>(The CC option may not be that great if your target school is Berkeley, UCLA, or UCSD for electrical engineering, due to numerous lower division EE and CS courses that are not available at CCs, according to <a href=“http://www.assist.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.assist.org</a> .)</p>

11

<p>Disregarding the financial aspect, how would you rank each of these fine universities against each other?</p>

12

<p>Aside from Cal Poly, all the schools are roughly comparable. I would definitely choose UCSD.</p>

13

<p>Pretty much everybody else has said this, but I would choose UCSD too :)</p>

14

<p>How they rank may depend on fit issues specific to you; for example, Cal Poly and WPI have somewhat different educational methodology from the others.</p>

<p>But the biggest fit issue is how much debt you would need for each one; this overrides everything else between these schools. UCSD is the only financially realistic choice and is great place to go to school. Do not major in debt.</p>

15

<p>We have pretty much the exact pool of schools lol</p>

<p>Anyways, In terms of engineering UIUC is ranked highest out of your schools (#5 nationwide actually), but the cost is high
Purdue is after uiuc, followed by rensellear/ucsd. Others are after them (based off us news and some other ranking sources.</p>

<p>I agree with others about ucsd
Ucsd engineering is great and at amazing for having the least amount of debt out of all the schools</p>

16

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<p>“The system” in this case comes down to other people’s money. There is only so much of that money to go around. Unless you can find a rich benefactor, nobody is going to risk a big private loan without some assurance they’ll get their money back (with interest). </p>

<p>You really only have one viable choice here. There is no point getting into dubious rankings, etc., unless you want to take a gap year and start this process over.</p>