<p>Below is an expected family contribution calculator that determines how much “should” be contributed by the family. It does consider parents age, income, assets, family size and other factors. It may be useful for you and your family in moving forward. How much any other family paid of children’s Ed expenses varies a lot, depending on resources, income, age, job stability, how much longer parents will likely work, retirement and other assets, and many other factors.</p>
<p>Some families pay 100% of their kids expenses while some pay none. Many pay an amount between these extremes, so the student has “some skin in the game,” and the parents don’t put their retirement savings at risk. The calculator below can give a starting point for conversation. Good luck!</p>
<p>so i talked to my parents, and with a lot of convincing, i got them to give me 60k of money (around 15k a year). so that will still leave me with 140k (for a degree at umich) or with 51k, with a york degree. </p>
<p>about the transfer to york, they still haven’t decided if they would let me transfer. i will update shortly after speaking about the transfer to length with them.</p>
<p>I would be happy if my bill for two children was anywhere near $300k :D. One is on her way to an architecture degree (wants a doctorate to teach) and the other likely med school or doctorate. Neither has good funding prospects that would cover 100%.</p>
<p>Look for vital organs to be appearing on eBay soon…</p>
<p>What about your eventual retirement? You wouldn’t be able to start saving for your own retirement until you’re out from this massive burden they’ve placed on you. The early years are the most important ones to be saving, and you’ll be giving up a good 10 years of compounding of your gains. If you’re living off of ~$20k you won’t be able to build up an emergency fund for your own expenses. You won’t be able to save for a house for yourself. You won’t be able to take vacations (well, maybe you will, but they’ll probably just be to your parents’ and be filled with resentment).</p>
<p>Personally, I’ve never understood parents that feel everything is their kid’s responsibility. They’re the ones that chose to have a kid, and they’re the ones who brought the financial obligations that come along with it.</p>
<p>For an interest-free loan of $300k, you could repay it in ~10 years with ~$3k monthly payments. If you really believe you can live on $22k/year, you will end up paying 1.5 times as much to your parents each year as you’re living on. $22k + $36k = $58k, times 4/3 to get your before-tax salary, means you’d need to be earning around $80k/year in a place where you can actually live on $22k/year. This is possible but doesn’t leave a lot of room for deviation.</p>
<p>You need to go to a school that will not leave you owing $140k to anyone. That is just too much debt for an undergrad. Did you and your folks run the calculator to see what the expected family contribution PER YEAR is?</p>
<p>I don’t understand that they make all the decisions and you are shouldering so much of the costs, especially if you’re to owe them $140k or more by following their orders. Is there a trusted relative or family friend you can all speak with to work further on this issue? It’s crucial you and your folks get a better handle on all of this while there are still attractive and less costly options available.</p>
<p>H got a computer engineering degree from U of M. I got a computer science degree from UCB. We both have worked in the software industry for a long time. </p>
<p>If you are good at CS, you probably can get well paid summer jobs by the end of second year of college. $15 to $30 an hour depending on your experience and location.</p>
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<p>A master degree on the average will get you $20k more as a starting salary. But it might or might not be better in the long run. First you would have worked for 2 years and likely gotten 2 salary increases before you even finish your master degree. You would have likely earned $150 to $200k in those 2 years.</p>
<p>I am not saying not to get a master degree. I think it can be beneficial. But if money is an issue, maybe working for a few years first then see if you want to do a master is a good option.</p>
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<p>Rent is very high in areas where there are lots of software jobs (i.e. Silicon Valley). $22k is definitely not going to be enough.</p>
<p>Something’s wrong with this picture, Hersh… It sounds like your parents are practically requiring you to rack up $140K of debt (allowing for the $60K you won’t have to repay), which is an enormous amount for undergrad school even in a field with decent employment prospects. If your parents don’t have the ability to comfortably pay tuition at UM (without imperiling their own retirement, etc.) or aren’t willing to do so, I’d recommend transferring to a less costly option. Check the school’s placement record for internships and jobs - some schools are better connected than others.</p>
<p>As others have suggested, postpone the Masters until you have an employer willing to fund it or at least have some experience and can decide what to focus on.</p>
<p>Prior to withdrawal, you should probably talk to the financial aid folks at your current school. As an international student whose parents have the resources to pay, you may not get much help. But, it never hurts to ask if you are otherwise really happy with the school and your program.</p>
<p>And, while some here think parents should pick up the tab for college regardless of cost, I don’t think a $15K annual contribution is unreasonable if a good in-province U or many solid US options can be had for $17K. Obviously, we don’t know (or want to know) all the financial details. </p>
<p>The EFC calculator is a starting point for what schools will expect, but just because a school says the family should pay $40K per year doesn’t mean that’s a wise investment.</p>
<p>Considering the apparent pressure you were/are under to attend a $50K school, you could try to negotiate a more generous arrangement for the first year. (Totally different story if you begged to go to UM, and they agreed reluctantly to loan you the money.)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is for the top CS jobs which are mostly concertrated in several areas of the country and mostly have high cost of living.</p>
<p>H’s company just did their annual salary review, being a manager he had to look at lots of salary data. Although this is data for one company, it is pretty average for the area. For software engineer positions, last year bachelor hires got between $80-95k, the master hires got $15-25k more than that. It is not unusual that a software engineer with a master degree start with a 6 figure salary around here.</p>
<p>Where do you get the $300,000 amount calculated from? And on what basis did you figure out 8 years to pay back?</p>
<p>Are your parents requiring you to pay them back, or is it just that you want to?</p>
<p>Did your parents support your decision to attend Michigan? If it is turning out to be too expensive for your family, for whatever reason, then certainly you should transfer. There are a lot of good but less expensive schools, both in the US and in Canada. And why do you need a masters?</p>
<p>There’s a very good reason that nobody but a parent would lend any student $300,000 to go to college. They know the student is very unlikely to be able to pay it all back and is very likely to default on the loan. The only way any private lender would lend a student that much is to pay for medical school, because physicians can reliably earn much more. And even that’s with the US government insuring those loans.</p>
<p>If you do well at York, or Toronto or Waterloo, I’d wager that an employer might value a bit less than with a U Michigan degree, but at <em>most</em> only $10-$20K/year less. So earn $10-20K year less for a couple years, then go to a funded (tuition-free) PhD program or a masters program with an employer paying the tuition bills. After that, where you earned your bachelors degree will hardly make any difference. </p>
<p>US college tuition is rising to insane levels. US citizens are starting to run north of the border to escape this madness, and when we do we pay MUCH more than you go to Canadian schools.</p>
<p>Not true. You won’t be paid any differently whether you went to one of the above Canadian schools, or Michigan.</p>
<p>When I first started working as a programmer back in '83, you might get a couple thousand dollars more right out of school if you went to Stanford or MIT instead of Fresno State. Those days are long gone, though. Employers have learned that for software, where you went to school has very little to do with how much you contribute to the company.</p>
<p>update: i’ve talked to my parents, and they said they would only allow me to transfer to a nearby university called oakland univerisity. It’s either that or michigan, and seeing that oakland university runs commercials on tv about their programs, i’m kind of reluctant to switch. it’s an unranked university, and i’m a little bit suspicious of it’s ability to get me, as a canadian, a job here in usa. </p>
<p>the good part is that it will cost only 12k a year to attend. so i would be at 36k, as opposed to 140k after graduating. however, what if i can’t get a job, and decide to do masters? could i get into a good masters?</p>
<p>however, if i do end up getting a job from here, will it be a significant pay-cut as opposed to michigan?</p>
<p>So is your real question, “where should I go to college”? You can calculate how long it would take to pay back $300,000 (the original question) by using any of the financial home loan payment calculators you can find online. Some families take 30 YEARS to pay that much off since it is as much as financing a home. Obviously, you ability to pay would be determined mostly by your income.</p>