<p>I'm in a huge dilemma and need some advice on what to do.</p>
<p>I was accepted and chose to enroll at my dream school--Vassar College. The original FinAid package required that my parents pay 40K/yr but we got that reduced to 30K/yr which my parents thought would be completely manageable. However, my parents planned on using my father's G.I. Bill to pay some of that. We then found out that the Bill counts as outside scholarship and would go to reduce the school's financial package. Unfortunately, we found this out waaaaaaaaay too late. </p>
<p>I was granted admission to Denison University with an 18K scholarship and they're allowing me to decide after the May 1st deadline but as soon as possible. Because of the 18K scholarship, my parents have to pay 32K/year. And because I only received merit based aid from here, any outside scholarships I win will go to reducing my family contribution unlike at Vassar.</p>
<p>Sadly, Denison is really, really not where I want to go and I can't see myself being happy there (26mi away from Columbus, really?) so I'm at a stand still with regards to what to do. </p>
<p>I can turn down Denison with the hopes that I make about 28-30K in scholarship money (won't know until end of May/ early June) which will cover all of my Vassar FinAid and my parents can cover the rest without the G.I. Bill going to waste. Or I can even ask (see: Beg) back for my spot at other schools I was accepted to that gave me no FinAid like Pomona, Bowdoin or UChicago.</p>
<p>But, if I don't make <em>enough</em> money, I have two options: 1) Ask (See: BEG) for a spot at Denison or George Washington Univ. which offered me 15K/yr in merit or 2) Restart the admissions process again and apply to places with more merit aid like Emory and WUSTL. The problem with the latter option is that there is no guarantee that I will be as fortunate in the next cycle as I was in this one with regards to acceptances. Also, I don't know if I'll be able to defer any scholarships I win to a following year or re-apply for the next year. Additionally, a gap year is never something I wanted for myself and never imagined myself taking that route seeing as I have waited so long to finally graduate and begin my college career. Waiting another year would kill me.</p>
<p>Sorry this is so long but I really need help. Thanks for everything and feel free to ask me any questions.</p>
<p>To be honest, I would go to vassar.</p>
<p>You said it’s your dream school, and how much more would you really be saving by going to Dennison? You can’t succeed in an environment you’re not in love with. It’ll bog you down. Try to take a loan yourself instead of making your parents pay It all. Unless you’re already taking a loan. Very unfortunate situation, good luck with whatever you decide!</p>
<p>This was my plan: I feel pretty confident about my chances of earning enough scholarships to cover my $3,500 loan and $1,750 campus job. These are reduced first by outside scholarships. After this, I would still take out a $5,500 Stafford Loan and pay off the monthly interest with an on-campus job. This would reduce my parents contribution to 25K/yr. My parents still aren’t sure how well this will work considering costs are raised yearly.</p>
<p>My 2nd plan was to earn enough scholarship money to cover the loan and work parts of my package and take out a private loan for 40K over 4 years. This would make my parent’s contribution only 20K per year which they find to be very doable. The problem is that I don’t know of any loans that allow you to begin repayment after undergrad and I don’t know if a campus job will be enough to cover the loan payments if they begin while I’m in school. Furthermore, I am considering (tentatively) law school or other grad school options and don’t want to be bogged down with too much debt after undergrad.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting. Any advice considering these two things?</p>
<p>OP please take the advice of addymithas with a grain of salt. It appears he/she is a high school freshman.</p>
<p>You need to talk to your parents. You will be unable to take out private loans unless they co-sign which will make them on the hook for paying the loans back. Your parents may or may not want to do this.</p>
<p>Additionally, if you have grad school or law school in your future you need to keep your undergrad costs down as low as possible. Outside scholarships are not that easy to get and usually are for small amounts. You can’t count on them.</p>
<p>I know. I checked out the profile and I know that this is the internet so everything has to be taken with a grain of salt. Thank you.</p>
<p>Are there private loans that begin repayment after your four years?</p>
<p>Frankly, it’s inadvisable to take out a loan that big. Have you tried negotiating with Vassar? Explain your situation and your family’s confusion with the GI Bill situation and see if they’re able to help.</p>
<p>“You can’t succeed in an environment you’re not in love with.”</p>
<p>That would be REALLY unfortunate…</p>
<p>proudwismom,
Our entire family uses the account. Us parents and our sons. </p>
<p>Now, back to the topic: Hmmm, proudwismom is absolutely correct, you should do that and see what they’d be willing to pay. Other than that, it’s pretty hard to say anything. Of course, the co-signer option is there but it’d be hard to find someone outside your immediate family to contribute.</p>
<p>About what proudwismom said though about keeping costs down if you want to go to grad school later, I disagree with that to some degree. Yes, it would be nice to have money for later education, but is there really a point in doing that if you can’t go to the grad school of your choice? My point is, if the undergrad school you go is somewhere where you don’t think you’ll have a high chance of a grad school of your dreams, will you have a beneficial experience at either one? It’s difficult to say, but I would think being in an environment you’re most comfortable at will give you best shot at succes, not the one which offers you more cash to go there. It’s your choice, of course, best of luck with whatever option you go with.</p>
<p>Would it be good practice to appeal twice? They were so generous after our first appeal that I figured it would be pushing it to ask for more.</p>
<p>So addymithas; has this ; “You can’t succeed in an environment you’re not in love with.” been your experience? It’s hard to imagine how most people would manage.Maybe that is off topic, but I disagree. OP sys she “I can’t imagine herself happy”, fair enough, but to suggest you can’t be successful unless you’re in love could be discouraging,</p>
<p>@Shrinkrap: Haha. I’m a guy.</p>
<p>Ehh, all I know is, my brother’s son went to Columbia instead of Harvard because Columbia offered more aid. He regrets it and says he isn’t having a fulfilling experience in undergrad and isn’t doing too well because of his disconnection and desire to be away from Columbia.</p>
<p>Ugh… This is so frustrating. 
I really don’t want to do the gap year option as I’m afraid that I won’t have as many positive responses as I got this year.</p>
<p>You need to find out if your parents can pay that 25k+ each year for four years at Vassar. If they can’t, they can’t. That would mean that you flat-out have to come up with a less expensive place to study.</p>
<p>Do not believe for one second that you can only be happy at one college or university. Anyone who feels that way is a, ahem, whiner. </p>
<p>If you don’t like any of your affordable options, take a year off. It will not wreck your chances, and may improve them. At the very least it will give you time to think about what you want to do with your life, and you may end up with an entirely different list of places to apply to. For inspiration, read this old (but still good) thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/192395-no-acceptances-one-kids-story-year-later.html</a></p>
<p>I’m having trouble following you about the exact amount you are short for Vassar even with the GI Bill. You mentioned 28-30K is that for one year or for 4 years. That doesn’t seem like too much to borrow total for four years, but way too much to borrow per year.</p>
<p>If you want you could post this in the Parents forum to get adult responses quicker. They’ve always been pretty helpful with financial aid matters.</p>
<p>Sorry about all of the confusion!</p>
<p>Vassar costs about 58K. They’ve offered me 28K so I’m left to foot a 30K bill. My parents found this doable if they could use my father’s G.I. Bill to reduce some of their costs. However, we found out that it counts as outside scholarships and would go to reduce the Institutional Aid (self-help followed by grant) instead of to reduce my OOP costs. However, if I get enough outside scholarship to cover all of my institutional aid, my parent’s G.I. Bill will go to reducing the family contribution.</p>
<p>With Denison, I’ve only received merit scholarship so any outside scholarships including the G.I. Bill will go to reducing the family contribution and I can keep my scholarship.</p>
<p>My parents have stated that they can only do about 20K per year so I was thinking maybe I can take out 10K per year in private loans provided I can begin repayment after undergrad although I’m not sure if this is possible.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>You can’t borrow more than the Stafford Loan maximum without a co-signer. An additional 10k each year is too much. The Stafford total after four years would be 27k. Your hypothetical private loans would be another 40k, for a grand total of approx 67k. Run some of the calculators at FinAid.org to find out just exactly what this kind of debt might mean for you. Start with these two:
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Loan Payment Calculator - Finaid)
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)</p>
<p>For fun reading on just exactly how quickly college debt can go bad, see <a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/[/url]”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/</a></p>