<p>I’m highly skeptical of the idea of starting at a college with a plan in mind of transferring (unless it’s a community college). I would only advise that if it’s the only financial option.</p>
<p>No guarantee that a student will be admitted as a sophomore transfer to a school they were accepted to as a freshman. </p>
<p>OP, has your D spoken to folks at Goucher and Rhodes to find out what their grads end up doing, and what internships their students snag during undergrad? She may be pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>It also looks like the OP’s D didn’t get any merit from American or GW, both schools which can offer substantial merit aid and which have strong polisci/IR programs. Given their locations and programs (especially Fletcher at GW), they should be strong choices except for the cost…and if the D really wanted them, it would be worth her calling the schools, saying she wants to attend but they’re not affordable as things stand…and then see if any merit aid is offered. Of course, if she prefers Rhodes or Goucher it’s a moot point. </p>
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<p>Tufts offers no merit aid, and would certainly be unaffordable for the family. </p>
<p>We’ve been focusing our deliberations on University of Wyoming, Rhodes and Goucher. Unfortunately, D is extremely unenthusiastic about these options. Of all the too expensive options I’m most intrigued by GW. She was admitted to the GW Elliot School. That seems like a pretty great place to study international affairs. GW offered $12,000 in merit aid which brings the net price down to 52K. I’m going to keep pestering them, but I’m not optimistic that they will improve their aid package.</p>
<p>Another factor to consider with the foreign service is the security clearance after you have passed the written and oral exams. From their website: "The process considers such factors as: failure to repay a U.S. Government-guaranteed loan or meet tax obligations; failure to register for the Selective Service; past problems with credit or bankruptcy; unsatisfactory employment records; a criminal record or other violations of the law; drug or alcohol abuse; and less than honorable discharge from the armed forces.</p>
<p>Candidates who hold dual citizenship (pdf), have had extensive travel, education, residence and /or employment overseas, or who have foreign contacts, a foreign-born spouse, immediate family members or relatives who are not citizens of the United States, should be aware that the clearance process will take longer to complete. The background investigation includes interviews with current and previous contacts, supervisors and coworkers."</p>
<p>So if you get in over your head with student loans, and miss payments, it could be a blocker.
If you go to school overseas, the process of getting a job will take longer. </p>
<p>This may be one of those rare cases that it may make sense to wait a year is she is “extremely unenthusiastic” about her options. Tell her in no uncertain terms that $30,000 is your limit and she needs to find something within that budget. Are there any other schools that have a reciprocal agreement with Wyoming? Going off to a school that she has no enthusiasm for sounds like a recipe for disaster.</p>
<p>We are in for an interesting 8 days. She will have only a few days to “mourn” the loss of her 1st choice schools and develop a positive attitude about the one’s we can afford. Nobody wants to pay a lot of money to send her to a school kicking and screaming. There are no reciprocal agreements with Wyoming but there is a program called WUE that offers reduced tuition to kids from western states. It seem to be hard to get. We were turned down for WUE at Portland State and Western Washington.</p>
<p>My 2 daughters applied to some of the schools on your list within the last few years. We have a high EFC, so we were not getting any financial aid. It seems from your list that you may have gotten merit aid from some schools. (Not based on $) If that is the case, you may have some negotiating latitude. Offhand I’d say that she may have gotten merit aid from Goucher, Clark, Lang, GW and Rhodes. Perhaps if you approach the schools with other merit aid awards from peer instuiutions, you may get bigger offers–I’m thinking particularly of Goucher vs. Clark (if that helps.) Barnard does not give merit–Brandeis gives very little and only to top candidates. Good luck!</p>
<p>There are a lot of costs at schools other than Wyo that you aren’t considering too, like travel. Flying to Rhodes or Goucher will be expensive. Doing things in those cities will also be expensive. It seems like she’d be pretty comfortable financially at Wyo, and have enough money to travel abroad, take a vacation during breaks, buy the expensive book for a class without having to search the sofa cushions for spare change. If she must spend all her earnings and loans on tuition/r&b, how will she afford the other things like books and movies and transportation to DC? And if she decides on grad school, she’ll start debt free. </p>
<p>I’m prejudice as my daughter is going to Wyo as an OOS student. Yep, she chose it and I’m terribly jealous of those paying instate tuition. She already has plans to spend a semester or year abroad, to travel. One thing I love about Wyoming is that the student ID card gets them into almost everything - D-1 football and basketball games, the athletic facilities, some concerts (or discounts), student activities. Free.</p>
<p>A trial year at B seems like a nightmare waiting to happen. </p>
<p>OP, we are in the same situation. My son, fortunately, took all of the schools not doable with our contribution of $35K that we said we’d give him off the table. We would have given him the $35K to do as he pleased whereever he chose. He picked a large OOS university, and we pay $35K a year towards that , he picks up the rest of the cost. </p>
<p>Had he picked a local school, free tuition, he’d have $$140K when he graduated as we would have put the money in an account for him. But that was his choice. He now admits that was not as grim of a choice as he thought it was at age 18. Some of his friends took that deal even without the parental contribution and they are happy and doing just fine. </p>
<p>She has some good affordable choices. Up to her, IMO. </p>
<p>Information Technology and Diplomatic Security are other paths to the foreign service…</p>
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<p>Again, for her career aspirations, she really should be planning on a graduate degree. She can get a good foundation for that anywhere – she can study history, poli sci, econ, stats, and one or more foreign languages.</p>
<p>All she would get from a “trial” year at Barnard would be some introductory courses, and the opportunity to exhaust family resources a lot faster.</p>
<p>You can not afford the option she wants. So that means she has to either chose from those options she has which are affordable, or else go with the option of a gap year and regrouping. Given that your family EFC is too high, I think she is going to have to recognize that her options are probably limited to a public college and/or a school significantly down the prestige ladder that will offer substantial merit aid.</p>
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You wrote that you could afford about $30K – does that include loans for your daughter? I don’t see any likelihood that GW would throw in enough merit money to get things down o the level you are hoping for – but if the raised the $12k offer to $20K – that would bring the cost down to $44K. If you haven’t factored in loans and student earnings yet, that might help with bridging the gap. </p>
<p>I have figured student loans into the $30K budget I set. At this point our most likely options are Goucher or Rhodes, both at $34K, or U Wyo at $13K (but despised). No other LACs have come in under the budget, and the other state schools that admitted her don’t seem worth the price (PSU $27K, WWU $34K). It’s unlikely that any of the expensive schools will come down into that ballpark, but maybe if GW comes down to around $40K it would be worth an extra $40K in loans. I’m pondering that. Unlikely they will come down at all anyway. They claim they don’t allow appeals of merit money.</p>
<p>I have also factored student earnings into the $30K budget.</p>
<p>It never hurts to ask – but I’d suggest that you have your daughter contact GWU, rather than you making the cal. If they say they don’t allow “appeals” then call it something else - she could call and ask whether there are any other sources of funds she could apply for. Her basic “pitch” is that she needs more money to come.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that when you call, GWU sees a parent with a $64K EFC who is balking at paying $52K. If your D. calls, they see a kid who has only the resources her parents are willing to pitch in. </p>
<p>Also, putting this task on your daughter’s shoulders may add a needed dose of reality to her decision-making process. It will take the process outside of being a parent-child interaction (child pleading with parents to finance dream college) – to being an interaction between your child and the outside college. And to the extent that GWU might be willing to throw more merit money in her direction, the best thing she may have going for her is the potential of impressing them with her seriousness and dedication. (I wouldn’t count on it – I’m just saying that may be the best chance she’s got. )</p>
<p>That is a great post by Calmom. And she may (instead) get to hear direct from them “nope.” </p>
<p>Good point, but in her eyes it’s me who is standing between her and her dreams by not forking over the money that the EFC says I can, or co-signing on loans. When she talks to the colleges directly they tell her how much they loved her essay, and how much they would love to have her there, and how if only her father was more reasonable it would all become reality. It’s an adversarial situation not between the family and the college, but rather the college and the admitted student against the parents.</p>
<p>My son is the same way. He has some idea that we have buckets of cash buried somewhere. Always questioning me about our finances and asking how all the other similar families manage to pay. I’m hoping to head off an unpleasant situation next April by refusing to pay for apps/score sends to schools that I know expect $50,000 a year from us. We go round and round. I tell him we can sell the house (because I am NOT going to mortgage it and be in debt) and move to an apt. so we have cash to finance his desire to attend some swanky school that he doesn’t even have a clue as to why he wants to attend it except that it has wow! value. I ask him if he wants us to do that. We can. I don’t care about having a house once the last kid is off to college. Apartment works. But he is too ashamed to say that we should do that. Put in those terms he retreats. For a bit until he comes back to fuss at
me some more. It’s an ongoing battle. He’s trying to wear me down. Luckily his wish to attend a place like that is so shallow and uninformed that I’m not likely to be so easily swayed by his pleading. If he had a good reason, then I don’t know.</p>
<p>grossjh – each of my kids turned down a top choice college because of lack of financial aid. Fortunately they each had other affordable options they were happy with, but each knew from the start that my resources were limited to the cost of our in-state university-- and that attending a private college would depend on adequate financial aid.</p>
<p>The people who handle financial aid are not generally the same as the admissions staff. But I cannot imagine either a financial aid officer or an admissions staffer ever making a statement along the lines of “if only her father were more reasonable.” That comment suggests a different issue between you and your child, one that is separate from the college application process.</p>
<p>All of us bear responsibility as parents to let our offspring know the limitations of our finances before the first college application is submitted. You say now that you feel you can contribute $30K a year to college – and that’s very generous (that happens to be pretty much the amount that I told my kids was too much to allow them to attend their top choice colleges… I figured I could manage about $20K). But it isn’t clear whether your daughter knew that at the outset. </p>
<p>If you did tell her that $30K was the limit, then I think that as a parent, you can and should stick to your guns. It would be very generous of you to agree to a slight stretch to come up with the extra $4K for Goucher or Rhodes - and your d. is going to have to accept that. </p>
<p>If you did not tell your daughter the limits - or if you miscalculated your EFC or if these are issues arising only because of recent business setbacks --then I think you will need to have a frank conversation with your daughter about what has changed.</p>
<p>College costs these days are outrageously high, but </p>
<p>You’re right I’m probably being paranoid about what the financial aid office is saying regarding my frugality. I did run the EFC calculator and set a clear budget before the application process got going. The college counselor at her high school encouraged her to apply to the financial reach schools just incase they came through with some money. It’s a reasonable approach except for the fact that 17 year olds can get their hopes up. This has been a bumpy ride for our family - passionate discussions and frustration - but we seem to be making headway. </p>