<p>I have had on and off trouble with financing for college with my parents. They didn't fill out fafsa because they don't want me to get loans, they don't want loans, and we make to much money to receive any other type of aid. Here is my problem though. They can/will pay 35,000 a year. This leaves 15,000 left unaccounted for. So far, I have 1,000 from one private scholarship, I am working on applying for more. Do I have options? Would working over summer, and during the school year be able to make a dent? Can you get work study without fafsa? How much would I even be able to make? The other schools I have got into so far are Purdue, Indiana University and University or Oregon. I live in california, but I only applied to UCLA and Cal, and was rejected from both. I really want to go to Smith, I am so excited to have gotten in.....</p>
<p>Well, this doesn’t really help you, but I think not filling out the FAFSA was probably a mistake. Even if your parents didn’t want you taking out loans, at least doing the FAFSA and PROFILE would let you know what you qualify for. </p>
<p>If your parents can’t help you with the $15,000, I’m not sure that it’s realistic. You can apply for some more scholarships, but you’ll need 15 more of at least $1,000 and you’re kind of running against the edge of scholarship season now. Work study can supplement some, but you would need to be able to give all of your work study money to your educational costs, so your parents would need to be supporting you with spending money, laundry money, books, etc. You wouldn’t even be able to apply for an on-campus job until after October 1 because you’re not on work study, and it may be difficult for you to get one at first (actually, you can almost always get one washing dishes). Work study pays $8.25/hr and you can’t work more than an average of 10 hrs/week as a first year, and 12 hrs/week after that (occasionally you can work more, like if you’re filling in for a special event or something, but not regularly). So that’s only $82 a week. Working over the summer helps of course too. You could maybe pull in 4,000 or a little more, depending on how much you make and if you can get a 40 hr/week summer job, and again, assuming you don’t spend any of it on your own expenses. </p>
<p>I think it’s pretty impossible to do without taking out loans. I think it’s tough to do even with loans, though maybe not impossible. But, if your parents aren’t going to let you take out loans, you might be stuck.</p>
<p>Why not go to a less expensive school? As the great philosopher Mick Jagger once said…</p>
<p>Dconfused, I’m not sure I’m going to able to answer all your questions, but I’ll do what I can. Congratulations on your acceptance at Smith! I really appreciate how much you want to go there. Perhaps you could get 2,000-3,000 in scholarships, maybe more; it all depends on how hard you work at that. On some of these scholarship websites, there are determined students who really rack up the scholarships; maybe you could, too. Perhaps over the summer you could earn $2000, maybe more? Maybe your parents can network for you through their business contacts, friends, relatives and other contacts. I did that for our son and it worked pretty well. Have you worked previously? Perhaps you could work at a part-time job in Northampton during the year. You can’t get any work-study without a FAFSA and I saw on another thread that your parents most likely make too much money for you get any work-study, anyway. How expensive are the other schools? I would think University of Oregon would be the cheapest.</p>
<p>I see that SmithieandProud answered above. She’s probably got the best handle on earning options; I’m just a first-year mom who wants to help prospies.</p>
<p>I think the “no loans” philosophy is a non-starter in terms of realism for most families. It’s a question of “how much is justified?” I’d pay a good penny extra for my D to go to Smith instead of U/Oregon, Purdue, or Indiana U. Vastly different qualitative experiences. A college education is one of the few things that’s absolutely defensible to take <em>some</em> loans for, the others being the purchase of a home and an cost-appropriate vehicle. </p>
<p>D worked, both STRIDE research first two years- and as a TA/grader for senior year. (Was away junior year.) She took out a little over $20K in loans and has already paid back about half. </p>
<p>As for parents, parents are expected to do one of two things: to have saved or to borrow. We had not saved, our finances early in our marriage much more marginal than by the time D hit high school. Therefore we borrowed an amount equivalent to that for a luxury SUV. A Smith degree is a <em>far</em> better use of the money.</p>
<p>If you can’t get your parents to reconsider the “no loans” stance and fill out a FAFSA, then I’m afraid you’re screwed.</p>
<p>By any chance are you in the LA area? You’re going to be invited to a party for admitted students on April 11. If you are, see if you can get your parents to come with you. (It’s for both parents and students.)</p>
<p>I’m in a similar situation, except it’s more like 10K from my parents and apparently none from Smith. I’d consider waiting a year, then transferring in 2011, but I’m afraid I still wouldn’t be able to afford it. I’d be looking at over 100K worth of debt.
I guess what I think is that it’s probably not worth it, even though Smith is/was my number one.</p>
<p>Chimichonga, have you received your fin aid package in the mail yet?</p>
<p>I got mine and it was VERY generous</p>
<p>rocket6louise, I am so very, very happy for you! I know you were so worried! Now let’s hope the others will have fin aid packages that work for them. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Thank you!
I am not sure what is considered LA area as I live about 2 hours away, but living in a cultural wasteland means you head out that way every chance you get… :). Thank you for all the advice. I have been explaining to my parents what a great educational opportunity smith is, and I have FINALLY made headway. As my mom only did community college and my dad did the same and then went to a cal state, they do not know very much about prestige in schools. They are becoming more agreeable with the whole situation, and have agreed that I can take out loans, and are going to help me with this. Thank you again!</p>
<p>dconfused, I believe it’s not too late to fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile. Please have them do it! They may assume they make too much money but maybe not. We haven’t gotten our package for Smith yet but other elite LACs have been more generous than I expected.</p>
<p>can we still apply for financial aid after we’ve been accepted?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/policy.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/policy.php)</p>
<p>Because aid is consider in the admission process for a limited number of students, I’m sure you understand why Smith requires a level playing field, so to speak.</p>
<p>Call the financial aid office. We applied before acceptance, but certainly didn’t meet the deadlines.</p>
<p>I wish it were easier, my daughter received some aide from Smith but will still owe nearly $35,000 per year( of course each year will be more). Is an undergrad education worth over $140,000? Also I was willing to get another job but then the grant money would be reduced. So we could end up with tuition of the full amount. of about $54,000 then it is over 200,000 for an undergrad education. I just cannot believe any college for undergrad is worth that amount can anyone justify spending this much on undergrad? I have a duaghter who just finished med school and that is about what her loans are. If her undergrad had been the 200,000 then she would be early half a million in debt.</p>
<p>How much it is “worth” is a subjective question. And it might be worth different things to your daughter than to you. Was your agreement that you would be paying the full amount for her education or was the agreement that she would take on some of the burden? It seems to work best when parents honestly just tell their kids “this is how much we have to pay for you. If you want more than this, then you’re going to have to finance it yourself.” </p>
<p>I know friends who took on $60,000 in debt just themselves, outside of the debt their parents assumed, because Smith was “worth” it to them. There have also been plenty of people who decided that such a committment wasn’t worth it. </p>
<p>Certainly if someone plans on going on to medical school, then debt should be a conisderation, because it will impact their choices. For other grad schools, it can vary. Some law schools, for example, have generous aid and also will relieve a student of loans if they serve in hte public sector for X number of years, and for graduate school there are TA jobs and other kinds of fellowships and financing. But those are not garaunteed either. </p>
<p>So really, there’s no way to answer this. The decision rests with you and your daughter and your own values and priorities.</p>
<p>Mo3G, I’m firmly in the camp (when am I not firmly in one camp or another…hmmm) that the student needs to, as they say, have some skin in the game. For starters, the student should be willing to accept something like $22K in loans on their own. Some rule of thumbs extend that upward to an amount equivalent to their first year’s salary upon graduation…I don’t know that I’d go <em>that</em> far. A student should also be willing to work 8-10 hours per week during school and, absent extenuating circumstances, bring in $2K during the summers. All told, the student should be able to bring down the parental component by at least $35K over four years.</p>
<p>As to the question of what the Smith degree is worth, it depends on what the options are, not only in price per unit/course/degree, but what the qualitative differences are and what value you assigned them. We had not saved much and thus had to take out extensive loans of our own to fill in the gap between cost and the aid D was offered…best money we ever spent, at least after our home.</p>
<p>Mo3G, if it’s any consolation, we have first-year twins in college, both at LACs (our daughter at Smith and our son elsewhere–of course!). We just got our federal and state income tax back and received a sizable refund, partly due to having our kids in college, so there is some potential financial relief in the new tax code. You could check into how that would affect your finances in the future. Both our children received about $15,000 each in scholarships, so we expect them to work part-time at school and work during the summer to offset some of the expenses. Is it a stretch? Yes. Is it worth it? We think so. And there’s a very good chance both of them will consider grad school/law school, but we’ll figure it out one step at a time and perhaps they will be able to utilize some strategies to minimize the expense as S&P outlined in post #16.</p>
<p>I hear your “cri du coeur”–your worry about increasing debts and your desire for the opportunities Smith offers your daughter. You and your daughter are the only ones to weigh the choices available to you. I wish you well in this complicated decision. Let us know what you choose.</p>