Midatlmom - I have only paid a $250 deposit, otherwise my loan would transfer to the other school I’m looking at. A year is about 10,000 and I have a loan for 11,000. I will pay back when school is finished in payments.
Check on whether this is even possible. Talk to the Financial AId office. I have my doubts. I think you are assuming quite a bit.
@Nicole2278:
You have to remember that not only did you choose this college, but they also chose YOU!
They saw something in you that the liked. They admitted you based on your talents and the community efforts that you will bring to them. You are being extremely hard on yourself. Please don’t do that.
You know what your choices are. Choose what YOU want. It is your choice. Your parents will be proud of you no matter what you do, or where you go. All of us parents feel that way about our children. We don’t want to see our children suffer or feel hurt.
If you determine that you want to stay home, STAY home; don’t feel guilty about your choice because it’s where YOU want to be. Follow your heart. It doesn’t matter where you go to college as long as you get that diploma.
Good Luck!
Repost and let us know how you are doing.
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paying for college myself and have a loan that would transfer to the college
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What sleep-away school only costs $10k per year? How much is the tuition alone? What school is this?
Try to get your classes on M-Th and go home weekends as many weekends as you need. 200 miles is not that far.
But if it makes you miserable take the $250 loss. Your happiness is worth more than that.
Mom2collegekids - I am in Nebraska and the school is unomaha. I have a 5,000 balance first semester and if I were to stay for second semester or go to the college close to my home it would be about the same there too.
Tuition + Room & Board is around $15,000 a year. Do you have a grant in there somewhere?
Nicole, does it help to know that what you are feeling right now is exactly what thousands of others are feeling? You are the first to leave home in your family so there’s no one there saying ‘this is typical…give it a chance’ so we’ll say it instead. Most people don’t become BFF with their college room-mates. Many people don’t make lifelong friends the first semester. Almost everyone is worried about whether they will fit in, enjoy college, discover their passion - and the answers don’t generally doesn’t arrive tied up in a ribbon in the first week, semester or even year. Stumbling around is normal too. It’s how you learn.
If you quit now, you will not find out that you are stronger, braver, smarter, and more competent than you feel at this moment. That discovery is so empowering that the feeling last a lifetime and will carry you through many other tough situations. It’s not that you can’t get it later - but by doing it now, you are opening your world to experiences you can’t even imagine. If you leave now, you are selling yourself short.
Set yourself some goals - just baby steps: Find someone to sit with a lunch. Invite someone to get some coffee with you after a class. Strike up a conversation with someone on your hall. Go visit a professor in a class you really like during office hours. See a school counselor. Participate in a dorm activity. Each time you do one of these things, it will get easier.
@N’sMom your post is what I wanted to say in my earlier post, but I am not as eloquent as you managed to be!
Can another poster speak to the OP about what appears to be her plan to borrow $40,000 to pay for her college education? No clue if that is the best way for her to get her education. It sounds high to me, but would love for others more knowledgeable to jump in and get more facts. Not sure if anything else would be more affordable for OP?
It sounds like OP will be responsible for all loans for her education. What would the monthly payments be? Not sure if OP has seen the big picture of what it will take per month out of her future paychecks to keep up these loan payments.
Powercropper - please do. We have a community college I could go to…my parents don’t have money to help me with school that’s why I would have to do it myself.
Hs2015mom - yes that is the highest amount you can spend on a year. You’re not required to get a full meal plan, which I didn’t, so the cost got cut down a lot from that. You don’t have to buy books from the bookstore here, they calculate that cost for their bookstore…so on so forth. For example…they list that it costs 1030 for books and supplies. I spent only 345 this semester
Posters here usually recommend maxing loans at the Direct Loan level - $27-30K total for the four years. I think the recommendation for a start in a CC is a good one.
Is pushing thru my anxiety and making myself miserable going to be worth it? Or is it going to make myself even more miserable? I can’t eat, sleep, I have to use the bathroom every 10 minutes, I get cold and hot sweats and I just can’t see how this is healthy to live thru
If what you have is anticipatory anxiety, you may do fine once classes begin.
I don’t know if it’s that kind of anxiety or not…I feel so out of depth here and it gives me anxiety because I’m in such a larger city than I am used to, I don’t know where anything is, I don’t know anyone and I don’t feel safe
If your parents can’t help pay for college, then choosing a school that costs you twice the federal student loan/year is too much. I’m not sure how you were even approved to borrow that much. Costs only go up, and you can’t count on books costing $345/semester.
I’d formally withdraw from the university (and make sure to formally withdraw from classes, cancel the meal plan, and housing), and commute to the local cc. You’ll enjoy college life so much more if you don’t have to stretch every dime. Go have an honest chat with your parents and let us know what happens.
OP, can you contact your current college and see what their rules are for withdrawing? You need to have Factual information from them, not from posters who are guessing or generalizing what colleges might do in your situation. Be sure to repeat their instructions back, and ask what else do I have to do? What other departments do I need to contact? And your contacts need to be in writing (you can call first to find out what needs to be done, then tell them you are following up with an email.) There may be several steps to take, and you need to be sure to follow through with all the paperwork to make sure you are not on the hook for this semester’s tuition/loans.
What you need to ask is if you can withdraw and not have to pay any tuition for this fall semester. Yes, you will probably lose your $250 deposit, but weighed against $40,000 in loans you just have to let that deposit money go. Get that information sent to you in writing via email, so that there is no misunderstanding. You don’t want to get some uninformed clerk who just answers the phone to say “yes”. You want to make sure you are getting the most correct information in written form via email. That way, if you receive a bill from the college later, you will have documentation of your conversation.
What is your intended major and future career goal? It is important to match the amount of your student loans with an eventual yearly salary amount? A good rule of thumb might be to borrow no more than half of what your potential first year salary might be. For my D, I thought a Chemistry major might make no more than $40,000, so we capped her loans at $20,000.
What were your high school stats? Weighted and unweighted GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, class ranking, AP classes. Did you get any offers of merit aid (based on your academics) from any colleges? What is your family’s yearly income, and what did FAFSA say was your EFC? These are things that will help other posters be able to guide you in your next steps.
What 4 year colleges are closer to your hometown? It still might be possible to get in, and you want to check out all your options, not just jump right into a community college.
I just contacted my college and talked to them about the tuition part of it, they have told me that withdrawing from classes will not result in me paying anything for my classes. I have then called the housing and they have told me since financial aid will be paying for my housing/meal plan, ect, that if i withdraw from school, those charges will be taken off and I won’t have to pay any out of pocket. I have called the main director of my housing building and left a voicemail for her to get a few more smaller detains and everything just to make sure this isn’t going to cost me heaps in the long run. No formal writing or anything needs to be done for withdrawing classes, not so sure about housing so hopefully she calls me back soon.
powercropper- i have no major at this point but i have decided recently that i want to go into nursing. the program is closed and the first semester classes i would be taking would be a waste of time and money as none of them count towards a nursing degree anyways… Nurses do make good money so I don’t think repaying my student loans would be too much of a struggle…
in high school i had a percentage GPA of 90.031… ACT was a 20, class rank i don’t remember but i was in the top half. I never took AP classes at my school but i took college courses over the summers and also during the school year. I have a total of 12 credits that transfer to the school i am at and the school i would transfer to if i wanted to choose that route. Family doesn’t make much money, they live paycheck to paycheck and even what the EFC said, it was way off. They would only be able to help me with gas to come home and if i needed a couple extra dollars for my car payment.
There is a 4 year college close to my hometown, it is about 45 minutes away in another town that is very similar to the town i am in right now. I was accepted to that school as well and i checked online to see if that was still available and it said that it was closed and i would have to reapply.
I reapplied as a transfer student but if i end up going home this first semester would i have to reapply as a first year?
You have gotten information over the phone from your college. Great job acting quickly! Followup is crucial. What these individuals told you over the phone will not stand up if you have to fight the school later to dispute a bill that shows up. Write down the name/department of each person you spoke with. And follow up with the Billing Department (sometimes know as the Bursar’s Office) to make sure your balances for everything is zero. It may take some time for all of the departments to report in.
My only question is that someone told you that “you have financial aid so you won’t have a bill”. You need to be certain that their use of “financial aid” doesn’t include any of your loans.
It would still be a good idea to get something in writing from your old school. I would highly encourage you to email at least one person to say in writing that you are officially withdrawing and list the departments you have contacted. Hopefully you will get a response from the school and you need to print out that email and put it in a safe place with college records.
Contact the admissions office of the new school you want to attend and ask them how to handle your application.
If you haven’t taken classes at any other college then you reapply as a Freshman.