<p>If S1 wanted to take on $100,000 in loans to go to his
dream school - would the lenders even go for it? This
question is aside from is it a good idea. He's
a coder with high scores and he's confident of
his future earning capacity. </p>
<p>You would have to co-sign those loans (and it would be extremely risky to do so, and not necessary). </p>
<p>A great coder can earn a good income, but not enough to rationalize that much debt. Does he think he is going to live at home to save rent money? What if his job isnt’ near your home? </p>
<p>Companies do not pay someone more just because they attended some dream school. </p>
<p>Depending on the COL in the region he will be working, he may get paid somewhere between $50k - 75k when he graduates (the higher pay usually will be given in regions where rent/housing is high.)</p>
<p>Fast forward 4 years plus…your son will be working with others who GET PAID THE SAME and who DO NOT have that crazy debt. Won’t your son be extremely frustrated by that? Won’t he be frustrated watching his colleagues buying homes, and moving on with their lives while he is neck-deep in debt? Who would want to marry someone with that much debt.</p>
<p>Thanks for helping me think it through. Given our savings and his siblings I think it would take another 100k if he wanted to attend one of the private schools like Mudd or CMU. I found this loan calculator showing $100,000 would be roughly a $1,000 per month payment. <a href=“Student Loan Calculator”>Student Loan Calculator; We’re in Silicon Valley so he should be able find a job. Not sure he’ll want his old bunk bed spot but it’s there for him. He’s more interested in video games than life partners at this stage. </p>
<p>Your son’s federal Direct Loan limit is $27,000 total for the four years. You would be on the hook for any additional loans either as a cosigner, or as the taker of a parent loan. </p>
<p>Remember, if your son does not pay on loans you cosign, you are then responsible for payment.</p>
<p>So the question really is…do you, the parent, want $75,000 or so on loans?</p>
<p>Thanks much @thumper1. It’s helpful to know where the edges are. Hopefully we won’t need to test them. :-)</p>
<p>Also be aware of you being on the hook even if dire circumstances hit your child.</p>
<p>What if his siblings will want you to cosign big loans for them, too?</p>
<p>Why is it necessary to borrow that much? He has the stats for excellent merit elsewhere. </p>
<p>$12k per year may not seem like much in payments, but that is after-tax money…and as a single person with few/no deductions, he’ll be hit hard with taxes.</p>
<p>And, $12k per year for 10 LONG years will get extremely annoying…that will run into the time when he’ll want to buy a home, marry, have kids, etc.</p>
<p>I think your estimate of $1000/mo on $100k in loans is low. You won’t be making one large payment but many smaller ones. You can’t consolidate private loans with government ones. The interest rates will be different. Unlike a mortgage payment, most of the interest is not deductible. </p>
<p>Parentally cosigned student loans and parent loans are a bad idea in most cases (perhaps the main exception is if you have assets that you do not want to sell now but intend to eventually sell to pay the college costs or loans).</p>
<p>Consider any parentally cosigned student loan or parent loan as part of your contribution (in addition to any cash contribution). Would you be able and willing to spend this total parent contribution (cash contribution plus these loans) on every kid for his/her college costs?</p>
<p>Would you be paying list price at CMU, HMC, or other expensive private? If so, then it seems like list price in-state UCs and CSUs and some other schools (e.g. Minnesota, NCSU, SUNYs, big merit scholarship schools) would not require loans.</p>
<p>You’re in CA but would go into debt for CMU? Does not compute for me.</p>
<p>@scholarme I’m just trying to think through the options. S1 has great scores and interesting ECs - but then UCB and UCLA are very selective too. All the more so with the growing International full freight competition. Would he be better off career-wise (Software Developer likely) and long run financially say at Davis than CMU? MIT?? Maybe so maybe no. I personally know some grads of CMU for example that went straight into working on the core products of the biggest names in Si Valley. Perhaps I should view those young people as outliers. Perhaps those same types of opportunities have happened for Davis graduates too and I haven’t met them. I truly appreciate all the feedback here on CC. So many variables! </p>
<p>I guess it’s worth applying to CMU & MIT to see what their offers will be (assuming an acceptance) but the kids should be realistic about whether its affordable. Remember $100K in loans won’t stay at $100K once interest kicks in even if you start paying it off promptly. :(</p>
<p>Plenty of graduates of non-elite schools work in Silicon Valley technical jobs. The schools include UCD, UCSB, UCSC, SJSU, SFSU, CSUEB.</p>
<p>Note that many of the bigger name computer companies recruit widely, because they have more needs and more recruiting resources.</p>
<p>Being local does help for recruiting.</p>
<p>MIT and CMU may be better for Wall Street and management consulting recruiting, as school-elitism is bigger with those employers, and they are closer to NYC.</p>
<p>You can see how graduates of CS majors at different schools do in the career surveys, although caution should be used in comparing different schools due to variations in survey and reporting methodology.</p>
<p><a href=“University Graduate Career Surveys - #69 by ucbalumnus - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums”>University Graduate Career Surveys - #69 by ucbalumnus - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums;
<p><<<
You’re in CA but would go into debt for CMU? Does not compute for me.
<<</p>
<p>^ This…brief and to the point.</p>
<p>Absolutely no good reason to take on such debt when there are MANY very good schools in Calif where grads get awesome jobs in Si Valley.</p>
<p>If a private is desired, then look at Santa Clara…sounds like he would have the stats to get at least a $28k per year merit award. If you will pay the rest (or most of the rest), he could graduate with little/no debt. </p>
<p>Or look at USC. Is he a likely NMF? </p>
<p>Is CMU the goal because that is your alma mater? </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus That’s great information - thank you.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids CMU is rated one of the best in the world for computer science. It has more comp sci Professors than any place else. More than even MIT. <a href=“http://cs.brown.edu/people/alexpap/faculty_dataset.html”>http://cs.brown.edu/people/alexpap/faculty_dataset.html</a> Anecdotally I run into people </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus That’s great information - thank you. And that’s important to remember that a great deal of recruiting is done right here in the golden state. Apple for instance hires the most Engineers from San Jose State.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids CMU is rated one of the best in the world for computer science. It has more comp sci Professors than any place else. More than even MIT (137 vs 104). <a href=“http://cs.brown.edu/people/alexpap/faculty_dataset.html”>http://cs.brown.edu/people/alexpap/faculty_dataset.html</a>. Anecdotaly I’ve run into a seemingly disproportionate number of people who’ve ended up in software leadership positions from CMU. Then there were my other stories of grads landing impressive spots I could have but dreamed of at a similar age. (I know a couple of UCB grads like this too.) </p>
<p>All that said - a UC is probably most likely. I say that not with a heavy heart. 
But as I say I want to hammer out all the options, leave no stone un-turned for the best opportunity. He’s worked his fanny off. At least I can get on here and ask questions to find out what’s possible and bounce ideas as to what makes sense. </p>
<p>$100,000 in debt will constrain his options. For example, he may be required to chase the job with the highest pay, rather than take the job with the best career development opportunities. Of course, it can delay his financial goals (buy house or other things, save for retirement, start and support a family, etc.).</p>
<p>Also, if you use all of your money and debt(-cosigning) capacity for him, how will you explain to your later kids that there is no money for their college, so their choices are limited to big merit scholarship schools or CC -> local CSU?</p>
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<p>This is a situation that folks have posted about here on CC. They co-signed loans for Child #1 to go to the school of his/her choice. (and their credit takes a hit with each year’s co-signed loan!). Then, those loans are still outstanding when Child #2 (and any others) starts college…and the parents can no longer qualify as co-signers. Whoops.</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand what circles the OP must frequent if she is mostly only meeting CS people with fascinating positions who were CMU alums. This is a Calif resident correct? When I am in Calif, I can probably run into 5 people per week with fascinating CS positions…and none probably went to CMU. </p>
<p>I think once the OP and son visit some Calif CS depts and find out where their grads have landed, they will learn that the son can flourish and find great success based on his achievements, not a school name. </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus:
MIT is a Street target, but CMU not really.</p>
<p>Also, Mudd has some merit money (most are 10K/year over 4 years).</p>
<p>Even if your kid can’t get in to Cal or UCLA for CS (and really, if he can’t, what are the odds that he’d get in to CMU instead?), the alternative has to be UC-Davis? What happened to UCSD, UCSB (Creative Studies) or Cal Poly-SLO? Also, UIUC, Purdue, and GTech even at full-pay are slightly cheaper than CMU (especially with AP credits). Plus, he may get some merit money at some of those places. And yes, he may well get a good amount of merit money from USC as well.</p>
<p>It’s interesting just how kids think, though. My HS was in IL, yet I knew a few kids from my HS who went to CMU for CS even though UIUC CS has always been top 5. Granted, if you’re poor enough, CMU may actually make sense financially, and maybe some had families with enough money that they could choose purely on fit (and back in the day, even elite privates weren’t so outrageously expensive).
Still, while I know CS grads from my HS from both CMU and UIUC who have had successful careers, the most successful (financially) ironically went to UIUC.</p>
<p>BTW, if he’s confident of his future earnings capacity, then why spend 100K more if another school can get him there?</p>