I got into my first choice University, but it is 54K to attend each year. I got an annual 19K scholarship and will be receiving some need based aid, however as of right now it looks as though it will be at LEAST 17k a year of I were to go there. My parents are telling me that I should go, but the thing is they are not helping me pay for my college at all. I can’t see how I would be able to single handedly pay off 68K in loans (after interest it wouldn’t be more like 90K), especially considering that I want to go into law school. I got into another decent private LAC that’s more affordable and where I would qualify for more merit based scholarships, and I have auto acceptance at UTSA, which is right in my hometown so I could just live at home and attend for like 9K a year (before scholarships I might add). I am really upset about everything with my first choice school, but I had my heart set on it so now I don’t know what to do
^There are a lot of spelling/grammar errors and I apologize. I’m on my phone 
You should treat admission that is unaffordable to be equivalent to a rejection.
You cannot borrow $17,000 per year without a parent-cosigned loan or parent loan. This is generally a bad idea for both you and your parents.
Attend the private LAC that is affordable! It will be a relief not to have loans, kick -ss there, and you can save for grad school!
You are very smart. You can’t afford it. Take pride in being accepted, but then set it aside. There will be plenty of times in your life that you wish you could have something that you can’t afford. This is one of them. Focus in on the schools you can afford. (And don’t put in any more applications to unaffordable schools, since app season is ongoing – use the net price calculators on each web site before deciding whether to apply). I applaud your clear eyed view of this – you will do well in life.
Yeah, you choose wrongly and you get no vacations, no new car, likely no home until you’re in your mid-30s. All for a diploma on the wall.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with choosing the affordable one.
Thank you all for your input, I really appreciate it. I’ll go ahead and apply at UTSA and then I’ll look at the other LAC I got into. I just don’t want to make the wrong choice for my future.
Could transferring over after one or two years help with the cost of attendance at all? Or do you think it would it be around the same annual price regardless?
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My parents are telling me that I should go, but the thing is they are not helping me pay for my college at all. I can’t see how I would be able to single handedly pay off 68K in loans (after interest it wouldn’t be more like 90K), especially considering that I want to go into law school.
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Frankly, if your parents aren’t helping, then their opinions about where you should go with big loans should be ignored.
I have a different view than the other people that have responded to this post. I don’t think $17k a year is unaffordable. If you are able to work part time through the school year (15 hours per week) and full time in the summer, you can make enough to pay for most of that expenditure. You are allowed to take out $5,500 per year in loans your first year without a co-signer. And you can make enough if you start working now to pay for most of your first year. If this is your dream, you can make your dreams come true!
Transfers generally are offered less aid than freshmen, so transferring to your dream school would probably result in a net higher price per year.
OP states they may want to go to law school. You do not want undergraduate debt! Law schools look at GPA and LSAT scores. If you have to work, you may not be able to achieve the highest GPA that you are capable of and you may not be able to partake in any of the extracurriculars that the college offers. Most definitely not worth the extra cost. Transfer students may lose credits and for the most part, do not receive the level of merit aid as freshman.
Echo law school advice: top grades at any institution in any major (nursing, theater, art, engineering, finance, gender studies, Japanese, whatever you choose). LSAT scores of 172+ (yes you can start studying now for your LSATs). And aim for a top 14 school. I’d say a top 5 school if possible just to be careful. On each law school website they post their employment stats. Look at those carefully and choose your school wisely. If you plan to go into government work or public interest work, then look for a school with a good loan forgiveness program–which implies a top school.
Best of luck to you.
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If you are able to work part time through the school year (15 hours per week) and full time in the summer, you can make enough to pay for most of that expenditure. You are allowed to take out $5,500 per year in loans your first year without a co-signer. A
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It is not realistic to expect the student to be able to NET&SAVE $12k per year by working. My kids worked part time during college and more hours during summers, and they didn’t net anywhere near that amount.
A kid working at Whole Foods part time (20 hours/week) will net about $1000 a month. It’s a lot of physical strain for the pay. But a lot of kids do it. Most of them live at home as commuter students (from what I can see). A work-study job is not going to help that much. A lot of kids can make about $3K-4K per summer. These are realistic numbers. Most that hire for summer-only won’t give full time because then they’d have to offer benefits. My kids made more babysitting than anywhere else. If you can nanny in a wealthy area the pay is great as far as summer work.
Working 20 hours a week makes it tough to get good grades. Not advised.
I agree with @lfrancis95 that where there is will there is a way. So you probably could swing it. But at what cost? Like the others have said, you would have to work like a dog outside of school. Your dream school is presumably more selective than your other acceptances. So you would be competing with tougher competition while you are working all the time, while you are trying to get top grades and study for LSAT’s.
Another way of thinking about it: design a pathway through school in which you can undermine your goals and potential. Go to a school that is too competitive and too expensive. Spend all of your free time working, maybe work study serving the other students their food, so that you can’t fully participate in the school culture. End up bitter, spent, with a B- average, etc.
So I would go the path of lesser resistance.
Colleges commonly assume that full time students can earn up to about $3,000 to $5,000 over the course of a year with part time and/or summer jobs. So that means that a student who takes a $5,500 federal direct loan and works can come up with about $8,500 to $10,500 total for the year, which is far short of $17,000.
So if your parents will not pay anything to help with your college costs*, your net price after all scholarships and financial aid grants needs to be less than $8,500 to $10,500, depending on how much work earnings you are willing to assume that you can make.
*If you live at home and commute to UTSA, then verify whether your parents will continue to cover your food, utilities, and commuting costs at no charge to you (parents commonly do this), or whether you will have “room and board” and “transportation” costs to cover.
Thank you all for your input!
And I understand that 17k is do able in a large city setting, however that is only with jobs that make well above minimum wage. The University is in a small town, where almost all the jobs will be minimum wage and will be competitive to get consequently. I currently work 20 hrs a week at a minimum wage job and my paychecks generally are around $150-200 every two weeks. It totals to a little under 3K a year according to my taxes and such.
Given the fact that I am also paying for my own phone bill, and am having to pay for a car and insurance, I could not feasibly pay $17K a year without any assistance or a huge loan–before transportation, books AND room and board.
^^I didn’t mean to go on a rant here, this whole decision and everything I have to consider is extremely stressful and I only have until the spring to figure everything out.
@ucbalumnus I could potentially live at home and commute, but am wanting to avoid that if I can help it. One of my friends and I were talking about getting cheap apartment & their parents would cover half of the cost for both of us. Overall, after scholarships I would be looking at around a 5-6K ish cost from my understanding. It would be around the same price for the other LAC I got accepted into, maybe a little less.s
Did you apply to your home-town Trinity University? You should be able to input your grades and test scores and find out immediately what you will receive for merit aid. Much smaller class sizes than USTA, and a beautiful campus with a strong academic reputation. Worth exploring.
You are making a mature, sensible decision. I have young lawyers working for our firm who are BURIED in debt. Don’t do it to yourself, as it really impacts your later life in so many ways.
Good luck!
Do you have any money saved up in college funds?