I have about 10k in my college savings account. I also have about 15k in a brokerage account. Sorry if that was confusing. And hopefully I will be able to continue working while in college if I do decide to take on some debt (but hopefully relevant internships rather than the type of work I’m doing right now). And I haven’t looked super in depth into loans because I’m even sure if I’m going to take one out yet. It might be wise to decide on that first before wasting time researching different places to get loans from.
Furthermore, the premed/chem stuff was in case Madison was my only option. From what I’ve heard, it seems like doing premed/chem opens up a lot more doors than finance there.
I hope you’ve taken into account the tax bill you’ll have when you realize gains (thinking kiddie tax here).
Quite a few posters have tried to gently suggest that you look into how you’ll borrow the money. To be more direct- you actually can’t borrow the money. You have no collateral, unless you actually own real property. Banks won’t loan YOU the money. It doesn’t matter to any bank that you’ve made an impressive amount of money in the past few years and it doesn’t matter to them what you may make in the future.
So… go to your affordable option and take whatever course of study strikes your fancy. Find a good internship opportunity during a summer and do a great job so you can get great recommendations. Use that to leverage for a better internship- maybe in a completely different field- the next summer.
Use the first four years of college to figure out what your passion truly is- it may not even be what you think it is now. Use the internships to help figure out what you don’t want to do in life. It’s a relatively easy way to explore your options without locking into a long term career. Join clubs on campus, try new things.
You’ll be so happy when you graduate with your bachelors degree and no debt. So many of your future classmates won’t be as fortunate. It really does clear a good path for you- you can pursue grad school or a great job opportunity in another state.
If you borrow even the $27k in federal student loans then you’ll need to figure out how to pay those back while also figuring out how to fund grad school or balance your rent and all your bills.
Life isn’t actually all about how much money you make. Lots of money won’t make your life happier. Don’t define success by the size of your bank account - otherwise you may miss true happiness.
If you are a US citizen or legal permanent resident, or fall into one of the other eligible categories (asylee, refugee, etc.), you can file the FAFSA, and you will qualify for the federal student loans. Depending on your financial situation, part of the loans might not accumulate interest while you are studying (subsidized loans). The loan amounts for each year are $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, $7,500 junior year, and $7,500 senior year. This comes to $27,000 total.
Any debt beyond that will require that your parents borrow the money, or that someone (probably your parents) cosign with you. So before you take the loan thing any further, clarify woth your parents as to their willingness to do that. Lots of us won’t.
There are decent chemistry jobs in some industries for people with a BS, but the really interesting work will require grad school. The good news is that while you might need to pay for an MS, a PhD would be fully funded.
Chances are, you will not be able to work in London.
You are demonstrating very black-and-white thinking. You think that if you go to UW Madison you will not be able to have a successful finance career. But if you go to an “elite” school you’ll be a master of the universe. It’s not black and white like that. So many people here have been telling you that, but you are ignoring it. You are DISMISSING it.
You only want to go into finance if you can have one of those master-of-the-universe jobs. You only want to study finance at an elite school. If you don’t go to an elite school, you only want to major in whatever is considered a top department at whatever college you attend.
You are very dismissive of the idea of working anywhere other than NY, or in any job other than an IB analyst to start. You said that you are afraid of making the “wrong” decision.
What is the wrong decision, and what would happen if you made the wrong decision? What is it precisely that you are afraid of?
My impression is that you are not going TOWARD a particular career, but you are running AWAY from … something. Fear of not being the "top"person? Fear of doing something non-prestigious? Fear of not being able to tolerate yourself if you are not at the top?
How much debt is “okay” for any particular student depends on what amount their parents are willing to borrow. Your parents make too much for you to qualify for need based aid but they’ve set a maximum contribution of $50k (the amount you need to attend U-Madison debt free). It doesn’t sound like they’re willing to borrow $50k/year to send you to a dream school. If your parents won’t borrow $200k for you then it doesn’t matter what other people would do or why. Borrowing your way through school won’t be an option. If that’s your situation you need to find schools you can afford on the budget you have.
Your current budget is $15k/year from savings + the ~$5500/year federal student loan + ~$3k if you work summers. That gives you ~$23k/year to work with. If you want to avoid UW-Madison, start looking for schools that offer enough merit for your stats to bring the cost down to what you can afford.
The maximum federal student loan amount is about $27k total. To answer your original question, that’s the amount of debt that’s generally considered reasonable for an undergrad student.
Proximity means you’re not seeing how prestigious UWisconsin is.
In addition, if you have the stats for Carlson and/or honors college at UMN you have a second excellent option.
Both will lead you to top jobs in finance if you are top of your class there.
UI Kelley is another excellent option for lzrit aid and finance/IB. The IB workshop is selective though so you’d have to be on top of your game there.
Those are your three main options.
Are you sure you have enough from your parents and your own savings to attend UWisconsin debt free?
15k + 5.5k federal loans may not even be enough for UWisconsin - run the NPC and check.
i read this and then thought, hmmm, what’s wrong with Wisconsin Finance program and then found this. https://wsb.wisc.edu/programs-degrees/ms-in-finance This looks incredible!! GO FOR IT
The interest rate really isn’t your main issue.
I would strongly urge you to go to a bank or credit union and sit with their loan officer. Find out exactly how much YOU can get in loans without a cosigner.
Is this $10,000 in addition to whatever your parents have?
As noted, any withdrawals from your brokerage account will be subject to taxes, probably at the kiddie tax rate. This means your tax RATE will be what your parent tax rate is…I believe. @BelknapPoint
This is the financial aid section of this forum…so I really have tried to stick to that topic. But…what would I do? Well, let’s start with the finances…you can’t go to a more costly school if you can’t pay the bills. I believe a hard working, motivated, and smart student can have potential earnings that are high coming from ANY college. In addition, there are those graduating from elite schools who don’t get higher paying jobs. And you also have to consider the cost of living where you have that job. Read about “cash flow”. You might actually have better cash flow in a place with a lower cost of living, and less in a place with a higher cost of living.
There is NO such major as “premed”. You know…you can major in finance, and take the requisite courses to apply to medical school as electives. You know…you can have it both ways.
I don’t see how premed anything opens up more doors…at all. Remember…acceptances to medical school aren’t guaranteed…at all. In addition, it would be smart to do some significant medical shadowing experience…or get certified as a medical assistant or CNA so you can have some actual medical experience. Helping at a blood drive really isn’t going to be considered as “healthcare experience”. @WayOutWestMom ?
And…if you would like to not have loans…medical school definitely should NOT be your choice…because to pay for THAT you will have loans, loans, and more loans…HUGE loans!
For tax years 2018 through 2025, the kiddie tax will be based on the same rates applied to trusts and estates.
@BelknapPoint ah…yes.
Can you please link the publication about this so this student can read it.
That tax rate will still be higher than what he would be paying on earned income…right?
And also…withdrawals are considered unearned income…right? Do they fall under the standard deduction?
Do you live within commuting distance to UWiscM? If not, how would you graduate debt-free from that school?
Doesn’t sound like your parents would be willing to cosign 200k+ of debt for you so you need to deal with your exact situation and stop wasting time on impossible ideas.
You have the stats to get large merit from many good schools and graduate debt free. While you may be concerned that their “names” aren’t Wall Street worthy, you need to realize that many students go to good undergrads and excel, and THEN go to tippy-top grad schools, and then go to Wall Street. If you go that route, then your grad degree loans would be easily gotten by you alone, via Grad Plus and/or Direct Loans (no cosigner needed for grad school).
None of the IRS pubs or forms for tax year 2018 are out yet. Here are the 2017 instructions for form 8615 (the kiddie tax form), but as mentioned above, different rates will apply for tax year 2018:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8615.pdf
Generally, yes. The trusts and estates rates are much more compressed, and skew towards higher rates anyway, than the single rates for earned income.
Yes, investment earnings are considered unearned income, and they do not get the same favorable treatment under the standard deduction for dependents that taxable scholarships and grants receive. If someone else will be claiming OP as a tax dependent, only $350 of investment earnings will be covered by the standard deduction, given the amount of earned income that OP states he has.
OP needs to get activated. He may think he is, because he works and studies. But now it’s time to focus on the college direction. I don’t see any hint that, in the last two days (or the months leading to it,) OP has looked at the right issues. I don’t think all this ‘background noise’ about worthwhile and NYC and whether or not he wants to study abroad or really be a doctor, etc, is productive.
You can afford 15k/year, maybe take 4k out of your assets, maybe take the 5500 student loan, that totals 24.5k. Find the colleges you can afford. A college with a business and/or finance program. All schools will have the pre-med courses.
I think you’re distracted, OP. Spinning your wheels, going back and forth, and then annoyed at us.
Chances you will get private loans are nil, without parent support. Your budget is 15k - 24.5k.
My bet is the parents don’t want all these schmancy ideas until they see the right growth and focus.
I don’t know where you’re getting the idea that I won’t be able to get a co-signer. My parents have expressed that they would be willing to (obviously not to 200k of debt, but a reasonable amount). I also don’t know why we’re still talking about 200k of debt. I thought those schools were out of the picture. And if I’m able to work during the summer, I’d hope I’d earn more than 3k—this summer alone I made almost 8k.
And of course premed isn’t a major, that’s part of the reason why I mentioned chem.
And thumper1, you still didn’t answer my question…just tell me which scenario sounds better.