This thread is a bit manic, but I kind of agree with your parents regarding your maturity level. I don’t think I’d want you to be too far away either. It does seem a bit odd that they’ll only pay 12k per year, presumably for both you and your twin, but they’re happy to incur more than 140k in debt (for just you) - especially if they don’t even own a credit card.
That being said, you have many financial safeties in NY alone, as mentioned by others.
Hold on!
Don’t assume that YOUR PARENTS intend to pay back those loans. Sounds like they’ll expect YOU to pay those loans. You need full clarification on this before proceeding.
As for FAFSA for this cc year…did you indicate one child in college or two? And what did the results say for EFC?
You need to make SURE that you are still considered a high school student while attending this CC. When do you formally graduate from high school?
Can you be considered dual enrolled?
@sybbie719 is this program similar to Washington’s Running Start Program?
Right…your parents don’t have debt, and don’t want a credit card even…but they are willing to take out $140,000 in Plus Loans for you to attend college?
Sorry…that doesn’t make sense.
OP if you live in Rockland, you can commute to SUNY New Paltz ( not the best commute but people do it) or to CUNY …Lehman, Baruch or Hunter. Problem solved.
SUNY New Paltz is a really popular campus. I wouldn’t consider it an admissions safety.
Agreed ^
My parents said they’ll pay back the PLUS loans if I pay back the federal ones. That could change though…
Going to a commuter school is not something I would be happy with. There will be tens of thousands of dollars in loans in my future, and I’m okay with that. I didn’t get 98th-percentile test scores and take AP classes to end up at schools where kids with sub-3.0 GPAs and ACT’s ten points lower than mine regard as safeties. I know I sound elitist right now but I sorely want to leave my toxic hometown and state next year. I’ve met kids from dozens of states throughout the country and from 20+ countries around the world. New York has the rudest kids out of all of them and it would be a shame if I had to stay here. None of my safeties are prestigious, but they’re not in New York. My parents are ignorant people who don’t talk about their finances with me and they assume I’ll get hundreds of thousands of dollars of merit aid thrown at my feet by elite privates because I struggle with autism and ADHD. There are no solutions involving no loans unless I get a full ride, so hopefully I can get one because my family can’t fork R+B. Don’t be upper-middle-class on paper.
Your parents would have no choice but to pay the Plus loans (which, by the way are federal loans) because Plus loans are made to the parent. They are not your loans and you are not even a co-signer on them. The loans will belong to (one) parent.
It is a mistake for the parents to take the loans with the idea that the student will repay them. The Plus loans cannot be combined with the direct loans to the student, so if the student is making payments, he’s making 2 separate loan payments. The Plus loan cannot be put into Income Based Repayment (or any of the programs) based on the student’s income. The student gets no boost to a credit score because he’s be repaying the loan of another person (parent).
The problem with this scenario is that you not going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars thrown at your feet by elite privates.
The other problem is if you feel that you are too good to attend the affordable options in NYS, you could find yourself with no options.
Time for a reality check. Your test scores are good, but there are kids with higher scores. Your unweighted GPA is… at best… a 3.5. There are students with perfect GPAs. Add to this the fact that you are from NY… an over represented state that is extremely competitive…and understand that you are not getting into “elite” schools. Take it down a notch … Or 2… and you still won’t be getting in… you still have average scores ( for those schools), a below average GPA (for those schools), and you are from NY ( the “anti-hook”). Furthermore… having high functioning autism or ADHD does not equate with merit from elite privates. I know students with autism and/or adhd attending such schools… It’s not uncommon. They had the GPA.
Here is your reality: you have about $20,000 ( more if you work part time all year) to spend if you attend a 4 year university. You can either attend a SUNY school, or apply to schools outside of NY that will give you merit. Recognize that if you leave NY… You will have to apply to schools much lower down in the rankings if you want merit. Much much lower down.
Best of luck to you.
Lots of students want that, and end up getting fine educations at their state schools, because they have neither the money nor the stats to go elsewhere. That is the boat you are in.
Remember, you can try to go out of state for grad school. Is grad school in your future?
Are there any other children in your family, apart from your twin brother?
The prospect of burdening your parents with $140,000 of Parent Plus debt is frightening. Have your parents saved up any money for retirement? Will they get pensions (what are their jobs?)?
I have a feeling that in the coming months you will become more realistic with your college search. I hope you will have some state schools on your list.
One more thing: Binghamton is not a safety for you.
Most students attend local schools because their parents can’t afford for them to dorm, not because they aren’t intelligent enough to get into other colleges. Your parents earn ~5 times the median US income. If they can afford to send you away to college you’re luckier than most people, not smarter. The Excelsior Scholarship is driving up apps and lowering admission rates, so I wouldn’t count on any of the SUNY campuses you deem worthy of applying to as being a safety. They aren’t, especially if your attitude seeps through on the application.
I think you need to sit down with your parents to clarify your options. You seem to be misunderstanding some things. You mention borrowing “tens of thousands of dollars” (enough to cover a ~$45k gap at one school), but you can only borrow the ~$5500/year federal student loan not $11k/year. Your parents will contribute $12k/year (coincidentally the amount it costs to dorm at a SUNY) and they insist you’ll receive “hundreds of thousands of dollars of merit aid,” so why would they need to take out $140k in PLUS loans ($200k with interest) for your last two years of college? Who’s paying for your twin’s education? Are your parents going to go $400k in debt so you can attend college OOS?
I think you need to find out if matriculating at a cc your senior year makes you a transfer student. If colleges consider you a transfer, you won’t be eligible for freshman grants.
A true financial safety would be a school that you could pay for yourself without relying on your parents.
Many good recommendations here. The OP has many things to consider and work through. Closing thread.