What does no help from parents mean? Does that mean just they won’t pay or they won’t cosign on student loans? If the former, then take out private student loans after you’ve maxed out subsidized student loans. If the latter, your situation is a lot more challenging.
OP can only borrow ~$5500/year on his own. There aren’t any private loans for undergrads.They would need a qualified cosigner, and my guess is OP’s parents won’t be signing any loans.
Sometimes, people in your situation have to just suck it up and go to the closest, cheapest school. I did. I hated every minute of college but I worked hard and went to law school, which I absolutely loved. College is 4 years of your life. I viewed it as a means to an end and that helped me to get through it. It would be wonderful to have that amazing, away from home, living in the dorms and all that jazz, but if the ultimate goal is an education, then you will do what you have to. Believe me, you can survive and thrive and have a good life even if you don’t go away to college.
Perhaps you can look for a community college that has an automatic admission program with a 4 year college and that offers transfer scholarships. In the interim, you can work and save money to pay the difference. Maybe you can apply to be an RA and get free or reduced room and board. That way, you can maybe spend at least one or two years at a residential college.
“If the former, then take out private student loans after you’ve maxed out subsidized student loans. If the latter, your situation is a lot more challenging.”
Who is going to give a kid private student loans without a cosigner
@5amwe5t Are you an underrepresented minority?
But UWGB is a good fit for you financially, and that fit trumps all others, don’t you think?
If your choice is gap year to work or uwgb which would you pick ?
If looking at umn Twin Cities apply fast as priority deadlines are past.
Umn Morris is another possibility.
Happykid commuted to our local community college for two years then transferred in-state with a guaranteed transfer program. Lots of students at her CC had parents with incomes like your parents have. If you end up commuting to UWGB or a community college you won’t be the only one in your situation by any means.
So find out if your parents will feed & house you if you commute. Then get the UWGB application filed, as well as any applications to commuting distance CCs. Don’t forget to check for merit scholarships at UWGB and the CCs. Your GPA and ACT score would have locked in a full-tuition & fees merit scholarship at Happykid’s CC.
Where did I ever claim the OP would get a loan without a cosigner?
@CourtneyThurston, I like your thinking on undergrad “name” versus a little known name school. Do you think that employers are not really considering this these days? Probably depends on your field. This is kind of a general/basic question, I know.
I have been hiring for large corporations for over 30 years.
Big companies- there is almost no such thing as a “little known name school”. Even if the person reading your resume has been in business for three years, his boss, or bosses boss, or bosses bosses boss has likely been in business for a long time and if their function is to hire, they’ve heard of the school. This is a good thing and a bad thing- I have a list in my head of schools where you can graduate with a good GPA without ever really challenging yourself. I know where being a math major is really tough and requires a lot of work and analytical horse power, and where being a math major means that you are likely prepping for a career teaching third graders how to do fractions. Not that this isn’t valuable- but it’s not the same as studying math at Harvey Mudd or U Chicago.
Small companies- it depends. Some are savvier than others when reading resumes. Some don’t care as long as you are local and have the right experience. Some care more. No single answer covers every field.
You can graduate from a less known school and still have terrific professional opportunities, but you’ll need to work harder while in school, and then work harder to find a job if the kind of companies you want to work for don’t recruit on your campus. If you are a self-starter with a lot of initiative you can do it. If you don’t like to network and don’t like to plug away at something boring and time consuming, going to a college with a robust career services team is a safer option.
@blossom, thanks for your input. By lesser known, do you mean known but not well regarded (like maybe a state directional U); or really lesser known (like a small LAC that no one has heard of)?
Since this discussion is all about cost and being savvy about that, would it not be understandable, if not even smart, if a student/prospective employee took the road of less debt? I guess I wanted to understand if the statements that many undergrad degrees are created equal rings true.
@CourtneyThurston What have you learned in the last 2 years specifically that changed your mind on this?
It can matter in some industries (like investment banking). In engineering (my field), it doesn’t.
The last time I was stumped about a college on a resume (about two years ago) it was a small Bible college in the Midwest with a graduating class of 80. The state directionals are significantly larger than that, and if you are interviewing in the region where you went to college, everyone will have heard of it.
You are in a tough situation- I don’t think you have the luxury of “less debt”. You need to figure out how to pay for college, period full stop. The federal government limits how much you can borrow. That’s your debt ceiling. If that means starting at community college for two years and then transferring- great. That’s your plan. Figuring out how to pay for a college that would require 30K per year in loans (which you cannot take) is a waste of time. Nobody is going to lend you the money.
By less debt, I was talking about choosing to attend a school that costs much less, but admittedly having a degree from a less prestigious institution. I wasn’t really thinking about known vs. unknown (or unheard of), I was asking about less known vs state directional (and much less expensive). Because for many of us, the decision isn’t Princeton vs. Bloomsburg, where the decision may seem more clear cut.
Would an employer really care whether a student graduated from Rider University in NJ or Lynchburg College in VA, just as an example? Assuming limited merit aid, one is MUCH more expensive than the other. There are many decisions that go into this understandably. In this scenario, yes, it would be less debt.
I will guess that Rider has a better reputation in NJ and Philadelphia/NY than Lynchburg, and vice versa. So it depends on what/where after college. And I’m not a “no debt ever” advocate- sometimes stretching financially is worth it, sometimes not.
I wouldn’t advocate taking on huge loans for a second tier private engineering degree if you can get into your state flagship. Most of the time your state flagship is going to have a stronger program, better resources, more companies recruiting on campus, etc.
Where it gets dicey is for smaller departments- go into debt for a strong Classics department vs. a weak one? More debt for a well regarded program in urban planning vs. cobbling together your own major at a college that doesn’t offer a program in urban planning but has enough other classes to make it work?
I think that’s a case by case situation.
5amWe5t (the OP) isn’t talking about high debt vs less debt; his situation is that his parents make too much to qualify for need based aid but don’t intend to help him pay for college at all.
He can’t borrow more than the federal student loan (~$5500/year), so discussions about how much debt is worthwhile won’t help him. I agree with Blossom; worrying about how to pay for a $30k college when you don’t have access to $30k is a useless exercise. OP doesn’t have that kind of money and can’t borrow it. He needs other options.
- You might be able to use AP scores and an extra course in a few semesters to cut down how long you need to be in college by a semester or even two.
- That list of full ride schools above includes Alabama. Its deadline for a full tuition scholarship, which you're eligible for, is actually it's Dec. 15. Borrowing $25K could give you two years of R&B. Maybe you could work hard (might need to take a semester or two off) to save for the rest of your R&B and expenses.
- UWGB does seem doable without other parental money if you work hard and live at home.
- Even if you can cut time in school back to 3 or 3 1/2 years, and live cheaply off campus, a UW Madison degree looks like it's $60K or more. Even borrowing $25K and working and saving up for a semester or two while not in school probably leaves you short.
I’d suggest you apply where you can, and come up with plans about how to shorten time in school and save up money. Then show your parents how hard you’d be willing to work, how much you’d borrow, and what you’d need from them (either just living at home or some money). Maybe they’ll pay $5K or even $10K a year to get you out of the house.
I didn’t know it was possible to take on more classes and graduate in less than four years, which is helpful. After talking to my parents, I think they would be willing (or at least don’t have any other options) to take out loans to allow me to go to Madison. They really want me to go there, and I really don’t want to go to UWGB, so it’s a good compromise. The UC schools are obviously out of the picture but I am still curious about whether I will get accepted to any of them. From my understanding I am not able to take out loans over $5,500 per year as a student, correct? at least on my own?
The amount increases over time:
Freshmen may borrow 5500, sophomores 6500, juniors and above 7500
Maximum total is 31000 over the time it takes to get an undergraduate degree.