<p>Yes, you could potentially go where you want…</p>
<p>1) Private student loans.</p>
<p>2) Full-time job at your desired university, getting income and tuition benefits (i.e., free tuition).</p>
<p>No school gave me a dime of financial aid. Yet, I went to a top tier school (GWU) and paid for it myself. Private student loans SUCK, but I made it happen through a combination of private student loans and working during college.</p>
<p>With that said, an undergraduate BA is NOT worth $200,000. No way, no how.</p>
<p>Save the money and study abroad. State schools have better parties, anyway, and you have have fun during it. </p>
<p>Or, get a full-time job or part-time job and private student loans at your private school of choice and attend the school on your own. I did. </p>
<p>Or, work a year or two (or, however long it takes) and save up some money, then attend your dream school.</p>
<p>gwgrad, you did that for undergrad? And how long ago? I would think with tuition and cost of living being what it is today, that route with low paying job for just high school education is a lot harder today. A lot of schools now outsource their low paying jobs, so they might not even be eligible for tuition benefits. Grad school, maybe, but undergrad is really tough. I would not wish that on anyone to go through.</p>
<p>Okay, so this is kind of similar… I have practically a full ride from Harvard and am very happy about it, but I really wanted to go to Yale. They’re asking for a $10k EFC that we don’t have. If I email them with Harvard’s offer, will they reconsider of not? It’s meant to be 100% need met…</p>
<p>I got private student loans to finance a great deal of my tuition.</p>
<p>It’s still possible to get a full-time job as an admin assistant at a college and get some tuition benefits. I know a variety of people still doing it. Those jobs pay, in urban areas, in the upper $20Ks and lower $30Ks. The main benefit of those jobs is tuition benefits. There’s a cap on tuition benefits a year, so it’s a work/study longer term plan for those who go that route. </p>
<p>Some people also postpone college and work full-time a year or two while living at home and saving up money for tuition. Or attending some cheap community college for a year or two, while working full-time and saving up money-- then transferring to a university.</p>
<p>I feel your pain! Combined, my parents make about 85k annually, and all of the private schools I applied to want them to pay about 35k-40k! I thought that merit aid (I got about 20k from several schools) and the fact that my EFC is 8k would help, but nope. I would rather them just send a letter saying “what we want to give you would not be enough,” than send these elaborate FA packages.</p>
<p>Sorry that you can’t afford your dream colleges, but I bet you will do great at any school you choose! There’s always graduate school :)</p>
<p>I actually drive an average of 500 miles/week, to two jobs 40-45 miles in opposite directions from my home. Husband has to live within 10 minutes of work, my job is specialized enough that there are only maybe 5 people doing it in my region. /threadjack</p>
<p>I drive an average of 500 miles/week, between two jobs each 40 miles or more each way and an aged mother 30 miles in the opposite direction. I actually get closer to 28 mpg in a 2001 car with 180K miles, so I do OK. Sure wish I could work closer to home, but my occupation is rare enough that I have to take the jobs no matter how far away. My husband has to live within 10 minutes of his work, so that pretty much dictates how it works out. By IRS standards, according to our accountant, my last year commute expenses were easily that according to how many miles I’d driven. And I pay extra for insurance on all those miles.</p>
<p>I do feel for the OP, but also understand how it can be that $200K – which is a lot of money, yes – does not mean that 25% of that pre-tax income can go to support a private school career. Especially if a NCP is unwilling to participate, as so many are. I hope all our kids can find a way to have their dreams. I’ve made DD sign up for Cappex and Fastweb. There are some not-so-difficult ways to make money. One of them involves writing an essay and getting friends to vote for it on FB. Given that DD has over 1300 “friends” (not sure I know that many people), she should have a shot at it. And I know that people are reluctant to take “corporate” money. OTOH, many reputable companies do offer excellent scholarship money, and although it’s late in the game, there is still money out there if the kid puts the time into it. Hard to do – I swear our school has piled it on more than ever this second semester of senior year – but if you win $500 for a two-hour essay, why not?</p>
<p>“FAFSA isn’t a joke. It’s just an app to find out what fed aid a person might qualify for. The aid is from TAXpayers. Why should taxpayers, who earn a LOT less than your family, be providing for YOUR aid?”</p>
<p>Why should taxpayers pay for many of the things we do? I don’t want to pay to subsidize Big Oil or the banking industry but my taxes do. I’d much rather provide for the OP’s college education! At least then, I am indirectly contributing to the well-being of the nation!</p>
<p>ABSOLUTELY agree gouf78… we make over 200k, and are NOT supporting 2 households. We will be paying a hefty chunk to make sure S doesn’t have any debt when he graduates, but we (and I mean S and us in mutual agreement) decided that the school that costs $52K just doesn’t make sense. COULD we do it, probably, but is it smart? In our case, not really. I find it offensive that you make a call about someone’s parenting based on whether or not they are willing to fork over 1/3 to 1/4 of their income to fund an overpriced education. But I’m apparently supposed to feel sorry for the family of a kid I read about on another thread who live on $20,000 for a family of 6 but have $200,000 in debt and their kid basically got a full ride to Harvard? Really? I guess I would be a better parent if I took a minimum wage job and charged up a bunch of bills I can’t afford to pay, but AM able to get my kid a free education at Harvard. Give me a break…</p>
<p>And as for kids applying to schools they later realize they can’t afford. Not everyone is as savvy as most CC’ers. S has great stats, and when people less “in the know” hear where he got in, they automatically assume he will get scholarship money to go. I think kids apply thinking their stats are good enough to get them some merit money, but are shocked to find out there is not much merit money that is not need based, and that those schools in fact RELY on their parent’s money. I definitely don’t think my S is entitled to any money, but it IS a kick in the pants to realize that NO ONE in my house is going to benefit in ANY way by their hard work with respect to college tuition.</p>
<p>@granipc I couldn’t agree more! You have put it so eloquently. And your comment about taking a minimum wage job: my dad has said the same thing. To receive maximum aid, you may also wish to frivolously spend all your assets.</p>
<p>OP, I feel your pain, having been gapped at ALL the colleges that accepted me.</p>
<p>I just need someone to tell me it’s ok to take out $15k a year in loans, and that it won’t ruin my life. I mean there are people who do this, do not go into ridiculously lucrative careers, and still have happy, successful lives, right? Because I have basically been conditioned to believe that student loans are evil monsters that will ruin your life.</p>
<p>MMMgirl: There is a huge huge difference in total costs of private loans vs. federally subsidized loans. That is why the first $25K or so is usually not too painful for a smart college student in a program where there are at least modest job opportunities. For many people, that level of debt means they have to delay buying their first new car for a few years. However, the next $25K or beyond in loans can be truly burdensome and life-constraining. It is because the subsidized Staffords and any Perkin loans that are offered not only have lower interest rates, but also involve the feds paying the interest while you are a full time undergrad or grad student. Other loans involve interest accrueing and multiplying while you are still in school. </p>
<p>Therefore, if you need to take out any Parent PLUS or private loans, do it as late in your college education as possible and pay them off as soon as possible. Also, before you sign, make sure there is not any penalty for early pre-payment.</p>
<p>Mmmgirl, you want to hear what you want to do instead of the reality. You think owing $60K at age 22 is ok, when you have little or no financial support from home, and are looking for your first real job, needing to get a phone, car, wardrobe, apartment, etc? That’s a house in some parts of the country, but you still need to find a place to live since yours is not a house. How do you think you are going to get reliable transportation , a deposit for an apartment and all that stuff when you leave school? School is a subsidized amusement park. When you get out into the real world, it’s a whole other story. FInding a job for $10/hr is not easy, and you can be fighting and scrambling for hours at a minimum wage jobs. it’s really terrible the way it works. I see kids with jobs that are min wage and the employers mix up the hours so that having two jobs is nigh impossible since a lot of employers do this, and they refuse to give more than 24-30 hours a week and won’t commit to regular schedules. The hours vary each week. It’s positively insane. And half the workers at those jobs are young college grads, a lot of them with degrees from selective schools., ironicallly livign back home after borrowing to go to sleep away college. Very discouraging and scary.</p>
<p>mmmgirl, your conditioning is right. $15K/year is too much debt. And if you need to take $15K to fill your gap now, you’re going to need to take more each year over the next 3 years to make ends meet because tuition and room and board will go up each year, and your aid (unless specifically tied to tuition, like “half tuition scholarship”) will not. Even if you only borrowed $15K per year, you’d accrue an additional $5K or more in interest before you even graduate. So you’ll graduate owing at least $65K. </p>
<p>Assuming an average interest rate of 6.8% (the rate on unsubsidized staffords – perkins and subsidized staffords are less, private loans will be more) you’d have a monthly payment of about $750 to get it paid off over 10 years. During that time you’ll pay an additional $25K in interest. </p>
<p>How much do you think you’ll be able to make when you graduate? To be able to comfortably pay back that level of debt, it is estimated that you’d need an income of $90K according to that calculator site (although you may be able to get by on as little as $56K depending on how close to the poverty line you’re willing to live for 10 years after graduation).</p>
<p>Actually the way financial aid works is odd. JHU is a good example. We had a family friend who went there. She was not offered a lot of money, so her parents had to take out loans. However, she offered a lot more money her sophmore year. Why? Because during freshman year there is a lot of turn over and people leave, so JHU is tight with the money. However, since they are sure people are staying since they return for sophmore yeaar, they are willing to hand out more money.</p>
<p>My understanding is that the scenario of being offered MORE money sophomore year is pretty rare. Most schools will guarantee that your aid will remain fairly constant if your family financial situation does not change, but some schools offer the best packages freshman year to lure new freshmen, and then offer worse packages (more loans) in future years. Don’t count on getting a better package sophomore year, and be sure to find out exactly how things tend to work and what is promised by any school you are strongly considering.</p>