I need a true financial safety.

Paying for College
101

Slavery? Time to grow up a little.

You’re on a very tight budget, you’ve got a raft full of odd restrictions from your parents, and yet you’re clinging to this notion that you can go to college without debt. Just let it go. You really can get a decent education for pretty cheap, so take some loans, get the degree and then attack the repayment schedule. It doesn’t need to be $50k, but $0 isn’t a good idea either. Don’t make this needlessly impossible: borrow enough to get what you need, stay frugal and pay more than the minimum to retire the debt. You can do it.

102

With dual enrollment it is up to each specific college to decide how many credits you will get and how they will be utilized. It isn’t until after you apply, get accepted, and put down a deposit that they will do an official evaluation. Some schools have online guidelines to help but nothing is guaranteed. The school will want official transcripts sent directly from the college as well as your high school transcript and may request additional information such as syllabi. Admissions isn’t necessarily the department that makes the credit decisions.

It sounds like you need to pay for dual enrollment? Would it make financial sense to stick to high school classes and try for more AP credits. You could still end up with a lot of credits but not pay for senior year classes and stay a freshman when applying to schools even if they officially start you with advanced credit. My daughter did dual enrollment but it was completely free including books. My daughter did two years of all cc classes but was not considered a matriculated student and was counted as a freshman at every college she applied to.

103

Aren’t you dual enrolled, meaning you don’t fill out FAFSA and your district takes care of costs at the community college?

104

@apost12

You need to clarify your enrollment at the community college. My kids took dual enrollment courses at their CC, and never needed to complete a FAFSA or apply for admission…they were not matriculated students at the CC.

If you ARE a matriculated student at the CC, this WILL have an effect on merit aid awards that are for freshmen only as you very likely will be considered a transfer student…and those freshmen awards will not be available to you.

I’d clarify this ASAP…very ASAP!

105

See post # 47
I believe that Op is a matriculated student at Rockland CC, as she is there through their Early Admit program. This may mean that if OP is taking courses here, she will be a transfer student by the time that she graduates high school (which is why she is filling out the FAFSA).

Are you/parents paying for classes at Rockland or are they free through your dual enrollment. How many courses will you be allowed to take?

106

@sybbie719 is the FAFSA a required submission for this community college program at Rockland?

107
108

That’s a little confusing @sybbie719

It sounds like students who want to get the Pell are required to file a FAFSA…to determine if they qualify.

But this student would not qualify for a Pell at all.

I guess it doesn’t matter with regard to the OPs question now.

The issue I would want clarified ASAP is whether this student will be considered a transfer student when she applies for 2019 fall admission…it sounds like she WILL be. If that is the case, there are merit awards that she will not be eligible to receive…because they are not for transfer students.

109

Looks like OP would have to apply to the college

110

RCC has an articulation agreement with several SUNY schools: Binghamton, Brockport, ESF, Cortland, Oswego, Stonybrook, Purchase. That might be your most… or only…affordable option if you don’t receive merit. You can commute to RCC and work part time while living at home for 2 years. You will be able to save enough money to pay the difference for the remaining 2 years. Many students do this… although I am confused as to how this ties into attending RCC during your senior year of HS. I would find out how it works.

111

Yes… I will need to clarify this. I indeed am matriculating there senior year, but I will have 30-45 credits by the time I’d transfer after a year.
I guess since everyone thinks prudent student loan debt isn’t a bad thing, I should obviously take money out of my savings to pay off an increasingly worthless bachelors’ degree. Is it possible to make up the costs while working full time next year?

112

I’m not a girl btw

113

Honestly, I think I’m coming close to a decision. Since my parents would take out $140k+ in PLUS loans rather than send me out west, I’ll just apply to where I want regardless of merit aid, since they’ll let me take out whatever I want. So I’ll take out the federal loans, and they can blow their retirement money sending me to a fancy LAC that they can brag about. Win-win.

114

You can’t work full time while going to school. Anything above 15hours/week has been shown to decrease grades.
The rest of your second paragraph doesn’t make sense.
Earnings aren’t savings aren’t loans. Private loans are totally different from federal loans.

115

@apost12

So you’ve gone from not wanting ANY loans to having your parents take out tons of loans. Say what?

You do know…there are options in between NO loans and HUGE loans, right?

It’s just that…you don’t like any of them.

116

And you know that “worthless” has no empirical proof, right? People with BA’s out-earn people without throughout their careers.

Not sure why you’ve taken a passive aggressive tone with a bunch of strangers who are trying to help you. Nobody thinks your parents should blow their retirement funds. Nobody thinks you should go to a fancy LAC if you can’t afford it. But I think most of us agree that if you’d at least consider taking out the federal loans, clarifying your enrollment status at the CC (i.e. will it make you a sophomore transfer, is there an articulation program in place so that you’ll enter one of the SUNY’s as a junior with all your credits transferring), and dropping the attitude, we can probably help you with a rational college list.

That’s on you.

117

Selective privates might not even accept CC or AP credits, or accept you as a transfer.

Your parents can’t afford much now. Why should they borrow hundreds of thousands of $ for you and your twin?

And then try to pay that off when they are even older?

That’s your reality. You can get a degree in your state at SUNY. You will save money as a junior transfer.

Also what do you want to do with political science? If law school is in the future, even more reason to save money in undergrad.

118

@apost12,

You really need the straight no chaser talk.

Your parents have told you that they are only willing to pay 12k for you and your twin sibling to attend college. The reality is that 12K is not going to cover the fees room and board costs at many schools.

Unless you are attending school where you have family/friends that you can stay with, you are still going to have to get back and forth to school minimally 4 times a year (2 round trip tickets) fall, round trip winter break, round trip spring , home for the term. You have to get yourself to and from the airport ( I remember it being about $100 going from school to airport and going from the airport to our home- in the city). those $$ add up.

Your EFC for 2 kids in college is more than the COA at SUNY.

While you have a great SAT score, your overall gpa is too low to get you into the honors program at Albany, Bing, UB and Stony Brook where min GPA is 95. Your GPA is 92, which is lower that the low end gpa at most of the other Honors college. You will be picked up regular admissions, with some token money, but not enough to put a dent in to what you will have to pay full freight at SUNY.

With the Excelsior scholarship, SUNY is now becoming more competitive, because those who fall with in the income limits are now taking advantage of free tuition.

If you plan to stay at Rockland to get your associates, take start researching their articulation agreements now.

http://www.sunyrockland.edu/campus-life/services/transfer/transfer-agreements/articulation-agreements

If your parents can bank their 12k for 2 years (24k) and 12k junior and senior year you will have enough to finish virtually debt free. Otherwise, if you can borrow your freshman, sophomore and junior amounts ($5500+6500+7500) you will have enough to cover your remaining 2 years with out onerous debt.

At the end of the day, you have to go where your grades and money will take you. The pool is wide and the pool is deep when it comes to families chasing merit. there will be students with your same scores who will have GPAs that will knock you out of the box and are also willing to follow the money.

119

Do you have to matriculate at the cc as a senior? Why not do dual enrollment and apply to colleges as a freshman instead of a transfer? You’d qualify more aid as a freshman.

If you want to be “financially free,” asking your parents to borrow $140k for your last 2 years of school isn’t the way to get there. What does your twin think of you taking all your parents’ borrowing power to fund your college dream? What about their dream?

120

With your stats you should be able to get into all SUNYs including Bing/Harpur. Bing SOM or Watson probably not.

Oneonta or New Paltz might be a wild card. I’ve seen some weird rejections lately, but you are probably OK. I’ve also seen some top students go to Oneonta recently.

I’m going to recommend Albany for you. The new campus center extension is FINALLY COMPLETE which makes hanging around campus nice. (I’ve been waiting for that since way before you were born.) The food was pretty good and they have some local vendors. In the old days dutch Quad had kosher food. You need to do homework on that if it matters to you, since I have no idea.

You have a chance at a scholarship (~4,500/yr). Two years ago my son’s friend with similar stats got it although he went to a different school.

With your AP/DE credits you can get out in 3 years. After dorming for a year or two, living in the student ghetto is cheap and your food costs will drop. There is enough retail close to the school to find a job if you can’t find anything on campus.

Finally if you want, the state legislature and state comptroller have internship programs. Unpaid, but it replaces 12-15 credits. All my poli sci roomates did it for a semester and then went to law school. The nice thing was they lived in their student ghetto apartment and just committed to downtown Albany by bus (15 minutes tops). You probably could take a extra course at night if it fits in. Believe me, they had plenty of free time at night!!! They are all partners in NYC law firms now and make way way more than your parents.