How much debt is TOO MUCH debt?

Paying for College
1

<p>So here's my personal situation:</p>

<p>I spent the last 3 semesters at a community college where I pratically paid $0 (I am very fortunate and grateful) however I was recently accepted to Northeastern University (Boston, MA) as a transfer for this upcoming fall. </p>

<p>NEU has been my "dream school" for quite some time and I was actually rejected when I applied as a high school senior. Now that I earned a 3.6 in 1.5 years of college, I have the opportunity to finally enroll as a student.</p>

<p>(Insert major dilema here)</p>

<p>So tuition costs at NEU are roughly $30,000/year along with approx. $8000/year for housing. I am one of two children (oldest) in a single parent (mother) household. My father does not contribute financially to the family, so as far as parental assistance goes, my mother is "solo". She only earns an annual income of approx. $20,000 so she would only be able to pay a small amount of the $38,000/year overall costs.</p>

<p>So, after basic addition, 3 more years as a NEU student would run my mother and myself approx. $114,000 total <em>insert GULP</em>. The financial aid package offered to me from NEU is nothing special and most of which is comprised of loans.</p>

<p>By this point, you can sense what my main problem is. One one hand, we have the opportunity of a life time to attend a great school in a wonderful city and have an experience like no other. However there would be a catch. A six figure catch (plus interest!). I decided I would turn to the advice of the anonymous public in my time of financial crisis and ask for some opinions. </p>

<p>I feel like NEU would offer me a great education and some great opportunities, but is it all really worth me taking on such an immense amount of debt so early in my life? I plan on applying to law schools after undergraduate so I'm taking that into consideration a great deal. I'm beginning to cope with the idea of not being able to afford NEU by telling myself if I work hard enough in an in-state commuting type university that I could go to a great law school down the road. </p>

<p>Well folks, I appreciate you taking the time to read this and I really look forward to hearing some of your feedback!</p>

2

<p>I'm pretty much in the same boat, though not as high of a boat.</p>

<p>It's going to cost me roughly $40,000 to attend ITT, just for tuition, and on top of that I figure $30,000 for housin/bills/etc while I am in school.</p>

<p>I have no credit, and I am going to muster up the guts to go ask my grandma to cosign for me (I'm like 80% sure I'll just get the chewing out of my life and no cosign) for a $30k loan to pay for housing for a year, the $6k I owe ITT for this term, and then have about $8k left over to apply towards school the next term.</p>

<p>It's something I really want to go for though, because it's better than any of the schools here. It's a really good school, which means a degree from there would be worth more, and I'd make more money (hopefully), which is why I'm wanting to go for it.</p>

<p>College should just be free to go to, we pay enough in taxes. Our goverment should just stop blowing money left and right and use it to help the people in their country better themselves... But I guess that'd make too much sense.</p>

3

<p>have you actually applied to Northeastern and gotten a FA package from them?</p>

<p>Based on your mother's income unless you have some hidden assets, you would at minimum be eligible for a pell grant, and some need based FA (even though the school does not meet 100% of your demonstrated need)</p>

<p>The down side is according to the college board NE meets 64% of your demonstrated need. Between the GAP -the amount of need they don't meet and the high percentage of loans they give out in their FA package I could see where where you would have to take out almost 30K/ year.</p>

<p>It is not to late to look at other options, you will be doing a lot of legwork over the next few days. Check out the NACAC list of schools that are still taking transfers.</p>

<p>I would suggest looking into Arcadia. They are on the NACAC list for still accepting transfers, they have institutional FA (they meet 82% of your demonstrated need,so even if you were to get loans they would be cut by 2/3rds) along with limited housing. They also have a business co-op program.</p>

<p>Arcadia University
<a href="http://www.arcadia.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.arcadia.edu&lt;/a>
Enrollment: 1,000 - 4,999
Private
Mark Lapreziosa
<a href="mailto:lapreziosa@arcadia.edu">lapreziosa@arcadia.edu</a>
215 572-2910</p>

<p>Hanover is still taking limited spots for transfers and they still have institutional aid (77% NEED MET, 82% grant aid) the online app is free Out of 57 transfers that applied 30 were admitted.</p>

<p>Hanover College
<a href="http://www.hanover.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.hanover.edu&lt;/a>
Enrollment: 1,000 - 4,999
Private
Jenny Winston
<a href="mailto:Winston@hanover.edu">Winston@hanover.edu</a>
1-800-213-2178</p>

4

<p>Question by OP: "I feel like NEU would offer me a great education and some great opportunities, but is it all really worth me taking on such an immense amount of debt so early in my life?" </p>

<p>$114,000</p>

<p>Answer: NO</p>

<p>You already know the answer. You stated it in your post. Commuting to an in-state university that you CAN afford and then moving on to law school. Good job on the 3.6 college GPA!</p>

<p>Kat (single parent to 5)</p>

5

<p>You will find many opportunities equal or better than the ones at Northeastern, don't do this to yourself.</p>

6

<p>Astro,</p>

<p>What is your intended major at Northeastern? If it is computer science, engineering, business, or pharmacy, you should be able to defray a substantial portion of the tuition costs with co-op earnings (avg. NEU student in one these majors earns about 50k over the course of three co-ops). But if your intended major is English, History, or philosophy, you see where I'm going with this, you may want to go to your state school.</p>

7

<p>English.</p>

<p>In-State it is.</p>

<p>Northeastern Law School 2011 possibly? I guess time will tell.</p>

8

<p>Well Northeastern does have an excellent law school.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>