<p>Hey guys-
My concerns have probably been touched upon many times, but whatever. As I'm starting to receive some acceptances and financial aid packages, my parents are starting to get sticker shock and freaking out.
The lowest price we seem to have gotten my tuition down to is about 37K, with grants and loans the school provides, and my most expensive runs around 50K. We are barely getting any aid because my parents make well over 150,000 combined, but they still pay a morgage, three car payments, my brother's private school tuition fee and all the other life necesseties.
I am also not getting any merit based scholarships to help. I have applied to some small scholarships, but will be lucky if I get a few thousand. I will obviously be taking out loans.
So, basically, how is everyone in my same situation paying for college? The expenses seem ridiculous. When I graduate (hopefully grad school too), how will I be able to pay off these loans while still affording other needed items, when I won't make anywhere near six figures for a few years after graduation? The school I want to go to (if accepted) is the most expensive out of the schools I applied to; they are also a big school and won't really care if I can pay or not and won't try to help all that much.
Any response would be so helpful.</p>
<p>Here in the suburbs of Washington DC, parents in your situation send their kids to their home-state public universities and even to the local community college for the first two years. Take a long hard look at your public universities (and community colleges) and see if any of them would work for you.</p>
<p>Isn’t it kind of too late for that?</p>
<p>It’s not too late. Get your paperwork in for a county or state college ASAP. If it doesn’t work out this year due to timing then so be it, you can work and save money until then to help pay for your school (you are working full time, right?).</p>
<p>Not sure what field you’re getting in to but at least in IT I’ve learned the big name schools are pretty much worthless for teaching anything useful in your career. I learned more while I was at county college than at a private college. They’re great at scamming you out of money though.</p>
<p>I’m 26 and have been working in my field for 7 years, 4 at my current job. I did 2 years at county college, took a break to get a better job and save money for a BS in IT at a private school. I worked all through school.I went to Drexel Univeristy and they told me 2.5 years to get a degree, though I budgeted for 3. After many class cancellations, being bill full time for only taking part time classes after cancellations, and being charged $18k for 6 months (2 semesters) of no classes while on “cooperative internship experience” which amounted to working 40-50 hour weeks as I always have … I ran out of money since their shenanigans added another year of tuition. Tuition was $26k when I started and is now well over $40k (3 years later). I make $57k a year and an near maxxed out at my current job without a degree. I could get a job elsewhere making $10k-$15k more but cannot afford to relocate since I have $122k in debt between student loans and money the school is demanding that I do not have. After I save up enough to pay off school I’m looking at 5+ years of $2500/mo payments and an insane amount of interest paid over that time frame. School has ruined my life and hurt my career, don’t let it happen to you!</p>
<p>In retrospect I should have called the private schools on their lies and went to a stea school for $15k/yr which I could have paid cash out of pocket as I went since state school will do payment plans month to month and not charge a few thousand in “convenience fees”. My recommendation is to get a degree relevant to your desired career as cheaply as possible. Whatever number you figure it’ll cost, add 25%-50% to that to be safe. Pay cash as you go and do not take out loans. Loans will hurt your ability to be free to take chances on higher paying jobs and relocate if necessary.</p>
<p>post # 3: Not if you take a year off and re-tool your applications. If you can’t make any of the current choices work, start looking at lower-cost public schools. If your high school record makes a merit scholarship at some less selective private schools a possibility, look into those.</p>
<p>A lot of public schools admit for spring semester, if you have missed deadlines for Fall, 2011.</p>
<p>Don’t do the big debt option. Not for your parents, not for you. Some fields aren’t going to get you to that “six figure” position for a very long time, if ever.</p>
<p>Agree with the rest – what state do you live in and what major are you looking at?</p>
<p>I live in NY state and I’m looking to major in Poli Sci or International Relations</p>
<p>Its mid- March and I doubt there are any schools taking applications still. I reallyyyyy do not want to go to a CC. I plan on either doing work study or working a part time job as well.</p>
<p>SUNY Stony Brook has a solid poli sci department. Maybe you could apply for next spring or transfer from a community college?</p>
<p>Why do you not want to go to a county or state college? At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what’s on your degree. At my current job if I had a degree with my name on it from bumble**** University I’d be making at least $20k more and on track for management and six figures eventually. Some companies value degrees, others not so much. I could relocate and take a job making more money and on that same track but cannot since I have obscenely large debt. Don’t fall victim to it.</p>
<p>What jobs are you expecting to get into once done your degree? How much do you expect to be making while in school and how much when done? Check monster.com and other sites for job listings and market pay rates. Check salary.com for an idea of what you might make (look at the bottom of the bell curve if you have a degree and no experience).</p>
<p>Like I said… My situation is $2500/mo just to pay off my loans in a reasonable amount of time and I didn’t even get a degree (and may never, due to the cost). Can you afford $2500/mo payments for a private school? If you have to take out large loans are you willing to put your life on hold for 5-10 years? No new car? No house? None of those nice things your friends will have?</p>
<p>You have no idea how crippling debt is. Don’t wind up like me. You will obsess over it all the time. Instead of spending free time relaxing you’ll spend it crunching numbers and worrying about how $5/gal gas will affect your life and the amount you can pay on your loans. You’ll be looking at jobs that are a 150 mile round trip commute and weigh 3+ hours/day commute and $6000+/yr additional gas costs to get to work against a $15k raise. Then you’ll crunch numbers on how that additional commute time will bite into your side work to make extra money (for me it’s automotive repair, building engines, transmissions, axles, etc.). You’ll be indecisive and afraid to take chances on higher paying jobs that could get you out of debt faster because you’re walking a tightrope all the time. At the end of the day you’ll have a few beers, resign to your bad situation, accept your failure at life and get a few hours of sleep before doing it all over again the next day. All this while trying to find a steady second (third?) job that you could do in your sleep (since you’ll be doing it instead of sleep) and dealing with constantly being rejected for being overqualified to stock shelves, work retail sales, etc. Welcome to my life. It will continue to suck for the next 5-10 years. Don’t make the same mistakes I did.</p>
<p>Have a look at this article:
[Dreams</a> Deferred: The High Cost of Student Loan Debt - DailyFinance](<a href=“Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance”>Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance)
This guy made out well, he’s working at a decent job in his field but can’t do waht he wants to. At least he can make his payments. Look up other articles and stories of those who have large student loan debt. There are many who started with similar or less debt and either couldn’t find a job or lost their job in the economic downturn. Many of those people have had their debt balloon to $200k or more from default interest rates, late fees, etc. Compared to them, I am lucky. That is a sad thing.</p>
<p>danielledepo</p>
<p>Pick up the telephone and call the SUNY/CUNYs. This week I took Happykid and two friends who are attending our local community college to visit two of the public universities in Maryland that they may transfer to after finishing their AA degrees next year. During both of the college tours the admissions counselors told them that even though the priority dates are past, these universities would continue to accept applications for freshmen and transfers “as long as we have space available”. You should also ask about admission for the summer and/or second semester. Often it is easier to get space if you apply for those terms.</p>
<p>You are fortunate to be in NY state where there are a number of excellent community colleges. Call them too. In Maryland our community colleges continue to accept applications right up through the first week of classes. In NY the cut-off dates may be different.</p>
<p>I know sometimes, other then maybe your first job, where your degree is from doesn’t matter that much. But, I look at it this way- I want to be able to go to the best college I can, providing I can get in. I want to have the sense of pride and accomplishment that I was able to do that and graduate from there. I also want to be albe to get the “full college experience” and I feel that CC would not give me that.
As for what I would do with my degree, I still have no idea. I just know what I want to study and hopefully the rest fall into place.</p>
<p>It’s alittle late in the game if you’ve only been looking at $50,000 privates! What are your parents telling you? How much are they willing to contribute? Worse case scenario is you take a year off and regroup and start with a fresh list of colleges…there are many that aren’t $50,000 a year. It’s not necessary expensive east coast private or junior college.</p>
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<p>Three car payments and private school tuition are not life necessities.</p>
<p>Your family makes more than enough money to pay for college, ergo you’re not going to get any need-based aid. Your parents are making choices about the way they spend money.</p>
<p>Find out how much your parents are willing to pay, and find a university that fits that budget. There are lots of quality public schools with tuitions, even out-of-state, in the $20,000 range and even less.</p>
<p>You know that you are good enough to get into the schools you got into. However, you can’t pay for them. That means that you have to adjust your plans and/or you and your parents have to adjust your lifestyle. Every single year many, many, many students have to do exactly this same thing. You are not alone.</p>
<p>It is OK to sit down with a box of tissues cry about your “dream” that isn’t going to work out the way you had hoped. But please, when that box (OK maybe when those two or three boxes) is empty, go wash your face, pull yourself together, and start working on creating an even better dream for yourself. The motto at Happykid’s community college is “Endless Possibilities”. Your possibilities are endless too. You just may need to start out at a place that you had never expected.</p>
<p>I meant to say plus life’s necessities. </p>
<p>My parents said with all of the things they are paying for, they wouldn’t be able to make the monthly payments. I think that I really need to sit down and have a discussion with them.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice guys. I really want to go and talk to some teachers and get their opinions.</p>
<p>I do believe that SUNY’s all have rolling admissions and accept applications until they fill their classes.</p>
<p>1) You need to find out how much your parents will pay. They’ve known all along what their expenses were so they were very naive not to make sure that you applied to some affordable schools. </p>
<p>2) Get some apps into some SUNYs. Some are still taking apps.</p>
<p>3) YOU will NOT be able to borrow much. YOU are limited to the following amounts for federal loans…</p>
<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>
<p>For larger amounts, your PARENTS would have to either take out PLUS loans…or …they would have to co-sign Sallie Mae or private loans (which most parents won’t do). </p>
<p>There’s a reason why federal student loans are limited to the above amounts…you won’t be earning much when you graduate so that’s what will be affordable. </p>
<p>There’s no point to talking to teachers about your situation. They can’t change your financial aid situation.</p>
<p>how is everyone in my same situation paying for college?</p>
<p>People in your same situation aren’t paying for college unless they have idiot parents who will co-sign huge loans for them.</p>
<p>Other students who find themselves in your situation…</p>
<p>1) They are going to less expensive schools</p>
<p>2) Their parents are paying</p>
<p>3) They got great merit scholarships</p>
<p>4) They qualified for great merit scholarships.</p>
<p>How do others pay for colleges at those amount? Many borrow the money and/or their parents do and they end up in financial gridlock for a long, long time. I have a very dear friend whose daughter owes $90K in student loans and works at a coffee shop part time. My friend has also assumed about $60K in loans for her other kids, and can’t pay. They’ve lost their house and are declaring bankruptcy, but guess what? The student loans cannot be discharged. Yes, she will still owe for those loans. Not a good situation to place yourself and/or your parents.</p>
<p>There is an excellent thread here by Momfromtexas about getting a full ride to colleges. If you want to give it a go for next year, there are strategies and advice there that can answer some of your questions. The colleges that are likely to appear on a list like that are not the name brand schools you know, but these are some options where you can go away to school and have most expenses paid. Who did you expect would pay for your living expenses, room, board and private tuition at college? Surely not the government and colleges are not in business to just give out the money. The very, very few who get substantial aid and awards from college are the ones the colleges feel they need to attract more students who can pay. If you are not in that tiny group, you are what they are trying to get to pay their expenses. It is a big myth that most people go away to college and even bigger that they get their expenses paid by anyone other than their parents.</p>
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<p>The “best” college is the one you can afford. </p>
<p>If your brother is in private school, I’m going to assume you went to one, too. And you’re looking around at your friends, all of whom are from families with money to afford private school, and you’re seeing them, going away, living on campus, and name dropping ranked schools like there’s no tomorrow. And you want what you think everybody else has. </p>
<p>My kids don’t go to private school (only option around here would be the Catholic school, anyway). Still, among the students in the top of the class, the kids are waiting to hear from Yale. And another one is off to Grinnell (accepted ED). And a third wants to join her boyfriend at Stanford. You get the picture. My d1? Going to the local college where I am employed. Was it her first choice? Oh, heck no. Is she disappointed? Oh, heck yes. But when she graduates, she’ll be (almost) debt free – she might run out of money and have to borrow for her last sememster. She could have opted for the first choice school and taken on debt. But she didn’t. And she’s happier and happier with her decision every day. Not saying there aren’t ever pangs of jealousy, though.</p>
<p>Bottom line, you’re living in an evironment that is encouraging this notion of “best” and it is a miguided notion. Look a little farther and you’re going to see all kinds of people redefining that term (“best”) as what’s best for them. Look at your state schools. Chances are you’re not going to qualify for need based aid, so don’t worry about missing the FAFSA priority deadline and apply to places still taking apps. THe “full” college experience is the one that lands you a degree.</p>