How much student loan is too much?

Paying for College
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<p>By hard work and by luck, my son got accepted into Northeastern, BU, Bentley and Suffolk Honors class of 2017 to study business. Suffolk gave him a very generous financial package and we can cover the remaining tuition with his 529 funds so he can graduate without debt. However, he has his heart set on Northeastern which gave us $13K/year. With tuition being more than $57K/year, that leaves us a tuition balance of $44K/year or so to cover with savings and mostly loans which will take us decades to pay them off. I wonder if NEU is worth taking out $30K/year in loans to attend? We are a family of limited means and I have a second child who will go to college in 2 years. How much loan is too much? I have been wrestling with this question for 2 weeks now and don't know what to do.</p>

<p>Thank you very much for your input and advice!</p>

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<p>How much is the gap with Northeastern, after you pay from your savings and current income, and your son’s? In other words, how much are you talking about borrowing this year and all things equal, future years?</p>

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<p>$30K year = $120K over 4 years </p>

<p>Way way too much. Even $30K is a lot. I would go to the school that offered you the best package and stop trying to compensate for why you should spend more on a school.</p>

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<p>You also need to consider your ability to qualify for loans in each future year that your son is in school. Every time you take out a loan it’s going to impact your credit rating, and thus your ability to qualify. Do you want to take the risk that your son reaches his junior or senior year and you find yourself unable to qualify for the loans needed for him to graduate? If your family has “limited means” as you say, I certainly wouldn’t risk it.</p>

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<p>Crunch the numbers here with your kid: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)</p>

<p>And nope. No dream for your kid is worth leaving YOU with decades of debt and the possibility of strangling the dreams of kid #2. Hand your kid a box of tissues, and move on. NEU is not affordable.</p>

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<p>cptofthehouse, the gap would be about $30K/year for the first year and a little more after that due to tuition increases.</p>

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<p>Yes brendank21, the rational side of me totally agrees with you.</p>

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<p>“You also need to consider your ability to qualify for loans in each future year that your son is in school”</p>

<p>Wolverine86, Thank you for pointing this out. It never crossed my mind that my credit rating would take a hit. So I have one more thing to consider then.</p>

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<p>Thank you happymomof1. It breaks my heart to tell my son that I can’t afford to send him to NEU. I hope he will get over the disappointment soon.</p>

<p>So it looks like the consensus here is it’s not worth going into debt to send my son to his dream school. Thank you all for your advice!</p>

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<p>Do yourself a favor and don’t take out all of those loans! I’d hope that your son would understand…As a 17 year old, I knew from the beginning I wanted to avoid any debt and to accept the best offer. I think your son will be okay!</p>

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<p>Not worth it. If you haven’t been able to save $120,000+ over the last 18 years, it’s probably not reasonable to think you’ll be able to pay off that amount over the next 10 or 20, especially with another child approaching college age and retirement looming. And think of how bad you’d feel if you were unable to send your younger child to HIS dream school (or possibly any school) because you were so strapped from sending the older one to Northeastern. Fortunately, my D never had a dream school (as her younger sister says, any dream about school would be called a nightmare) so we never had to deal with this, but I’d think that the sooner you let your son know this school is not a possibility, the sooner he’ll move on and get excited about the school he WILL be attending.</p>

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<p>Not worth it. Not fair to you. Not fair to your 2nd child. Your son is going to have to deal with his disappointment. And don’t let him guilt you into it. This is not about him - but what is best for your entire family. It is not fair that all of the rest of you suffer and pay for the next 20 years (or longer) so he can have his dream.</p>

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<p>You and your son have done well to apply to a range of schools to insure there are affordable options available. This time of year we get a flood of postings by students who have no acceptable financial choices because they didn’t plan well.</p>

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<p>$120,000 for a bachelor’s? </p>

<p>NO!!!</p>

<p>I have $100,000 plus in student loans from a bachelor’s degree at GWU.</p>

<p>B-A-D idea.</p>

<p>First, if you haven’t saved $120K in the past 18 years, you likely won’t be able to afford to over the next 25 years of repaying those loans.</p>

<p>Plus, your credit and debt-to-income ratio.</p>

<p>Plus, it’s unlikely that his career will start out prosperous enough to even afford loan payments on that kind of debt.</p>

<p>Plus, what about your retirement savings and planning?</p>

<p>See my other threads. I paid the price for a bachelor’s degree, and will be repaying those loans for decades to come.</p>

<p>Yes, it sucks to not get to attend your favorite university. But, $120k in debt sucks harder. Most people don’t even make $120K a year. That’s a LOT of money. </p>

<p>It would be very, very difficult to repay those loans when he graduates. The loan payments would EAT his starting salary! See my other posts about just HOW much of his starting salary it would eat. Average starting salary in DC for grads-- mid-$30s - $40K. Yeah. And, he wants loans for $120,000? Ummm…</p>

<p>Perhaps he could attend a cheaper school now and transfer later after trying to get more aid somewhere else.</p>

<p>And, he could attend graduate school later at his school of choice. Graduate school sometimes have more merit aid options. That, or he would work at his desired university full-time and get tuition benefits and get a nearly free graduate school education at his dream university.</p>

<p>A bachelor’s degree does NOT equal a golden ticket to career success.</p>

<p>A bachelor’s degree from anywhere is NOT worth $120,000 in debt.</p>

<p>We all have dreams. A $120,000 loan would turn that dream into a 25 year nightmare. 4 years of fun at college isn’t worth a 25 year long loan repayment nightmare. $120,000 could buy a HOUSE in the midwest. $120,000 in investments or retirement savings could be huge investments. $120,000 could mean multiple trips around the world, literally including an Antartic expedition. A house in the midwest. A BMW. A bachelor’s degree from another school. Money in the son’s retirement IRA that could be HUGE, HUGE money when he retires one day. $120,000 could do many things, much greater than a BA.</p>

<p>That’s $120,000 PLUS INTEREST. That $120,000 will drastically grow over the years. So, you’ll have paid much more than that $120,000 for a bachelor’s degree when all is said and done. </p>

<p>In one word: NO!</p>

<p>Seriously. </p>

<p>NOT.</p>

<p>WORTH.</p>

<p>IT.</p>

<p>And, yes, I got my degree from GWU and paid in all cash and private loans. Those loan repayments SUCK. Hard.</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone for your advice. My son has decided to attend to Bentley University, his other top choice school who gave us a larger financial aid package. He really loves this school after the Admitted Students Visit yesterday - smaller school with a completely different atmosphere than NEU but it really suits his personality.</p>

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<p>Good luck. Hopefully you can pay for Bentley University.</p>

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<p>Hey @gwgrad, is $90,000 for an engineering bachelors degree “too much”. My amazing Asian parents are willing to pay just about anything for my education, so I don’t know if I’m putting them through too much…</p>

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<p>This thread is a year old, and gwgrad hasn’t had any activity on this forum since May 2013.</p>

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<p>I am closing the thread since it’s old.</p>