<p>Commute expenses for me to work 38 miles away are easily $900/month</p>
<p>Wow…your car must get awful mileage. That’s about 1600 miles a month commute. </p>
<p>If a car gets 20 mi/gal, then that’s 80 gallons. At $4 a gal, that would be $320 a month.</p>
<p>Commuting costs include more than gas – parking, tolls, and car maintenance all play into it. My guess here would be that the poster is including the cost of the car payment and insurance as well though, which is reasonable only if they really wouldn’t own a car without the job. (My DH and I share a single car, which is unusual, but enabled by us both working from home most of the time. We rent a car when we need a second, and it’s still much cheaper than owning, maintaining and insuring a second car year-round.)</p>
<p>sometimes,mostly kinnda always, life sux…</p>
<p>I’m an international…I applied to ONE (my first and only choice) WPI EA…got in…and I cant go…coz I’m short 10k!</p>
<p>Just 10k between me and my dream school…</p>
<p>and it’s not like I’m a bad student or anything…Was the first in my class and all…The only reason I actually set my eyes lower, coz I gave the SAT at a tough time (father had a stroke and was/is partially paralyzed) so I applied to a sat optional school…Got in…even got 30k in aid…but i need 40k :(</p>
<p>so yea, i feel your pain…</p>
<p>OP, I think you could make peace with it because you have the knowledge that you had what it takes to get into all of your schools, including your dream schools. It’s possible that something might have changed so you could have attended. It didn’t, but you have the satisfaction of knowing you did everything you could up until the very end. Suppose your parents won the lottery and could have paid for any of the colleges, but you didn’t apply. To me, that would be worse.</p>
<p>Actually your short $40,000 unless you intend to only go to college one year. Good luck.</p>
<p>While it might be a long shot, Haheho, have you called the admission office about your situation? They might be able to help. You can also do it by writing them a letter with your unfortunate situation, I personally know many stories where the schools went extra miles to help many of their applicants with difficult circumstances.</p>
<p>@LVVCSF…that’s right, its 40k in 4 years…i didnt feel that was necessary for this post tho :D</p>
<p>@ttparent…thx for the advice…infact i did appeal the aid office…wpi had a whole system for tht…but, they need new awards and stuff to increase the merit scholarship and since i didnt have any new ones (am on a gap year) i wasnt eligible for tht…</p>
<p>HaHeHo, take a loan for the $10,000. Your attendance could be life altering. Earning the $40,000 at the end of a life changing experience that could launch your career should not be that hard. I know it sounds like a lot but don’t miss the opportunity!,</p>
<p>Build a dog have you talked to the financial aid office at Hesse schools? Maybe you messed up the form if you did it on your own. Ask an expert.</p>
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<p>Maybe therein lies the clue. They didn’t have an idea how to go about the financial process or wouldn’t? Parents making $200k - I am sure they could have figured it out if they wanted to. OP, if they were not willing to begin with, yes, you did set yourself up.</p>
<p>But again, sometimes we have to go through life and learn those lessons ourselves. But luckily you ended up with a great opportunity - UNC.</p>
<p>Haheho, did you tell them your story and stress you can’t attend because of it? You might have but I just want to make sure you did that. All I am saying a heavy handed sobbing story would not hurt you in this situation.</p>
<p>@ttparent…i wrote 3 pages of that…even gave a peer evaluation by a very good friend 
the response i got was “While we were very impressed with your achievements and feel strongly that you would have much to contribute to the WPI community, unfortunately we are not able to offer you the level of funding you seek.”
i guess they are low on funds or so…no hard feelings 
they do know i cant attend…10k is quite a lot…if the was was 3 to 4k id be able to fill tht…but im told that their policy is to give everyone some sort of aid instead of giving one person a lot and also for what its worth they never guaranteed to meet full need. altho some do have their full need met…all dont…unfortunately im in the latter list of those whose is not…tough times…</p>
<p>How about try asking them for work study and/or loan? Is there any scholarship anywhere for international students that you can write to? It is not a huge gap.</p>
<p>Sorry, that is very tough, but don’t give up yet, keep trying…</p>
<p>thanks …yes i havent given up…im trying to get a local scholarship and finding other ways to fill tht gap i have till 1st may after all…gonna make each day count!</p>
<p>Well, 200K really doesn’t go that far in paying 50K for a dream school. The tax rate is 33%–leaves you 134K. Minus another 7-8K for state tax (NC), so 127K left. And now pay 50K for a dream school–78K. To support TWO households plus you don’t know what else. I would not pay the 50K in this scenario–it just doesn’t make financial sense especially since UNC is such a good school. And I love my kids.
And operadad–your comment about OP parents was just way out of line.</p>
<p>To be fair, no one pays resulting 33% tax rate, seriously. There are all kinds of deductions especially when you do make a lot of money. Also if you make that much money, most people plan ahead and put away some money and then could borrow some to spread out the burden over time. To each its own, and I am not going to judge one way or another without knowing the details. It could very well be that UNC is the best option given all the factors and the parents only agree to that because of it but present it to the young man as a financial situation.</p>
<p>“most people put away some money”</p>
<p>Actually, most people don’t. And a fair number can’t because they have other financial responsibilities.</p>
<p>Not everyone can borrow even with a relatively higher income - again because of their responsibilities. Nor should most parents be borrowing money for their kid’s education. If we learned anything from the economic downturn, we should have learned that no one’s job is safe.</p>
<p>*Well, 200K really doesn’t go that far in paying 50K for a dream school. *</p>
<p>Again…the $200k is NOT FOR ONE HOUSEHOLD. The parents are divorced. We also don’t know if higher income dad has a wife and more kids that he’s supporting. </p>
<p>As for the parents not knowing about the FA process: It sounds like low-income mom is the custodial parent. High income dad is the NCP. It’s not unusual in these cases for NCPs not to be that involved at all in any aspect of the college app process. Low income mom may not be at all savvy about any of this.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that instead of “hoping” that schools would ignore the dad’s high income, the student didn’t apply to schools where his dad’s income wouldn’t be considered OR he found schools that would give large merit OR he had gotten a commitment from dad that he would pay a large sum towards college. Instead, a lot of magical thinking was going on and now the bubble has been burst.</p>
<p>“Actually, most people don’t. And a fair number can’t because they have other financial responsibilities.”</p>
<p>Please quote or reread the whole original sentence!</p>
<p>“Again…the $200k is NOT FOR ONE HOUSEHOLD. The parents are divorced. We also don’t know if higher income dad has a wife and more kids that he’s supporting.”</p>
<p>Again we don’t know the real situation. All these are speculations.</p>
<p>“Also if you make that much money, most people plan ahead and put away some money and then could borrow some to spread out the burden over time.”</p>
<p>We have continual evidence in this forum that many people who make “that much money” have not been able to “plan ahead” and “put away some money”. The reasons why they have not done so vary by the individual, and yes some are feckless, and yes some are heartless, and yes some spend their money frivolously. At the same time there are others who are just now making that kind of income and so have had no opportunity to save even “some money”, or have huge medical costs, or who have responsibility for members of their extended family, or are divorced and have the two-household issue, or something else entirely.</p>
<p>As for borrowing against future income for a child’s education, I have a great deal of difficulty in recommending that to anyone. On 2/28/2013 I spent nearly an hour on the phone with one of my husband’s former colleagues who was axed in the same massive lay-off on 2/27. Their family income went from nearly 200k to half of that overnight. They have been nearly full pay at a top university that is known for its generosity. But unless that institution comes through for the remainder of the year, and proves generous in the fall due to the change of circumstance, the student could well be home for a year (or more) instead of graduating in 2014. For that family, unless the unemployed parent scores big in the job market very soon, there will be no further borrowing at all.</p>