<p>OP - best of luck making it all work. Many previous posters have offered some very sound advice, as have your parents. Be VERY cognizant of the total projected amount of 4 year debt you plan to take on. If current retail COA is $45,700 and you potentially only have $20,500/year in gift aid ($10K from parents and $10,500 in merit aid) you’re looking at a total of $110K in total student debt assuming 6% inflation. Not to mention whatever increase in debt you may incur if you do transfer to a more “elite” college after two years. And that’s assuming you can secure the finances as you’ll be way beyond the $27K max in Stafford loans over 4 years.
Use this loan payment calculator link to formulate a debt repayment plan: [Mortgage</a> Calculator & Loan Calculator](<a href=“Mortgage Calculator”>Mortgage Calculator)
You can use this gross/net wage calculator to project your net available disposable income based on your estimated starting salary after college: <a href=“https://secure.gtmassociates.com/calculator.aspx[/url]”>https://secure.gtmassociates.com/calculator.aspx</a>
Do you really want to be locked in to student loan debt of $1,250+/month (or more) for the first 10+ years of your adult working life? It’s doable, just know that you’ll be stepping into the maximum payment allowed (asssuming a 36% DTI ratio) for someone with a solid credit risk and steady job making $40-$42K/year.
Bottom line - HAVE A PLAN! Those who fail to plan, plan to fail… not saying you will, just that you need to really think this situation through completely.</p>
<p>to play out 6lambs’ numbers one further step…</p>
<p>@ 40k/year (which is probably on the high side for a beginning journalist), that’s probably take-home of about 2250-2500 per month… if you’re paying 1250/month to loans, you are left with 1000 - 1250 per month to live on. </p>
<p>In other words, not enough.</p>
<p>Okay I think there have been enough posts on here. To be honest I was only expecting like 2 or 3. I am doing what I feel is best, which is to apply for scholarships that I am qualified for (and no, there are not any from Fastweb, or collegeboard which are imposible to get). I am applying for scholarships that are not 1 in a million chance of getting. So I am going to figure this out, and I think enough has been said. You really do not know me at all to push away my other options, so think this thread is done. I had originally posted when I was freaking out and didn’t know what to do, but I do know what to do now, so I am going with that.</p>
<p>2015hopeful, it is very, very late for scholarship consideration now. While you might have had a chance earlier in the year, it’s very unlikely now that you will be considered.</p>
<p>We are not pushing away your options. We all agree that you should go right on ahead and work on getting scholarships, jobs and other options. I think you agree that pushing your parents to cosign for loans they do not want and feel they just cannot have is a no go. The fact of the matter is that if you don’t have the money in time, you are going to have a big problem and fewer alternatives than if you make some other plans now. You need an awful lot of scholarships to make up the gap and they are not easy to get, even the local ones. You are not a top student or have any thing particularly striking to get an award. My son got one scholarship out of the dozens he tried to get and he had near perfect test scores and all sorts of things on his side. It’s that competitive even on the small time level.</p>
<p>If you go to a local state school and have your mother have an account for you to deposit your dad, other family member’s, your and her monies, including taking the as much as you can from the Stafford Loan, you will be more likely to get acceptance to a more selective university for transfer, and have the money to pay for it. Transferring from a school like DePaul is not going to be that easy without a striking reason, and the best reason for transfer is if the school you are in does not have the resources for your growing excellence in a field. Colleges love to accept those kind of kids, as long as their grades are great. DePaul is a school with sufficient resources that it’s pretty tough to say you’ve outgrown it. It’s a great school, in my opinion. Colleges are not particularly interested in accepting transferees who just want a more prestigious school in the rankings. </p>
<p>If you take all of the money your family has available on the front end, you may end up not finishing up the year. I have seen that happen many times. Kids who go off to school in hopes that the school will relent and give more funds if they run out and they are there already. Colleges won’t play that game. They know it. It happens all of the time. If they do it, it makes national news. So don’t even think that will work. They are very cold hearted when it comes to the money as they have to be in order to stay in business. It is a business, after all. </p>
<p>You can have it all, but perhaps not in the timing you want.</p>
<p>“You are not a top student or have any thing particularly striking to get an award.”</p>
<p>Again, you are only saying this in to regard of what you see on college confidental. You do not know me, or what things I have actually done in high school or my strengths, so I wouldn’t scratch off scholarships if you do not know me or my applications. </p>
<p>I really think there is not much more to say.</p>
<p>2015hopeful, I am saying this in regard to what I see hear that YOU posted regarding your stats, your class rank, your gpa, your test scores and the schools to which you applied. You are URM and have connections at a number of schools to which you applied, and you were still declined. You will be competing with kids accepted to such schools. This is just a reality check, not a slam from me. I am just using info you have supplied not making assumptions. </p>
<p>Again, do what you plan. It just doesn’t sound like a good use of your time when you have some great alternatives that get you most of what you want.</p>
<p>2015hopeful, one last thing: we really do wish you the best. If things work out well with DePaul, that’s great. But if in the future you ever end up needing advice on anything college related, be it finding a good gap year or good schools to apply to, please come back here and ask for help. </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your advice. Although I am a bit stubborn (well, REALLy stubborn :), I do appreciate the advice you gave me.</p>
<p>What was the outcome of your app to UMass? Is it too late to call them? It seems if you are dying for the dorm experience you’d be wiser financially to try to afford your state school with loans and scholarships efforts?? No?</p>
<p>40k is VERY optimistic for a starting journalist salary. Average starting pay for a sports journalist is $23,000.</p>
<p>Oh, dear - this is a previous post from the OP (on Mar 22):</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And a few post later on that thread:
“Well I am serious about getting a 4.0 next year and 36 act. It is going to happen.”</p>
<p>On April 1, the list of schools to which the OP hopes to transfer was updated to:
</p>
<p>The OP doesn’t seem to realize that A) students w/ test scores in the 99th percentile who are at the top of their HS classes w/ majorly impressive ECs get rejected from these schools all the time. B) unlike 30+ years ago, financial aid for transfer students is very hard to come by at most schools.</p>
<p>okay sorry, but can we please end this thread. I really want it to be done. I don’t want to keep having people go over and over and over it. thanks</p>
<p>The best way to end the thread is to stop posting to it. Eventually people will move on. You can click “contact us” at the bottom of the forum page to try to have the thread locked, but that’s not typically in practice with CC’s policies.</p>
<p>Wow. Just wow.</p>
<p>Wow whee…I just finished reading this thread…I can think of 5 colleges in a blink of an eye that would have “fit” this student far, far better than the list in the post above. OP seriously consider a gap year and ask the parents here for help with a solid list for your interests, your abilities and your financial need and start over with next year’s class of students. Not only would taking a year off help you put a solid list of potential colleges together, it would give you a year to work and save money as well as a year to develop a solid writing portfolio to use for scholarships.</p>
<p>I searched and found some of your stats and the schools to which you applied. First, I want you to know that I think it is very hard to get accepted to a school as a transfer if you weren’t accepted there as a freshman. The one big exception is probably state schools because they sometimes have articulation agreements or are very stats-driven. But, when it’s time to transfer, please do not reapply to the privates that turned you down the first time.</p>
<p>I am surprised your parents paid for the application fees to all those schools where you had little chance. I think in light of the way it turned out (that they were correct in their advice that your list was not a good one), you owe them the respect of trying a different tactic and having a Plan B. </p>
<p>One of my kids had a poor high school gpa and, despite a tremendous upward trend, did not get accepted to the desired schools as a freshman. Kiddo went off to a state flagship and was eventually accepted as a transfer at a top school (with rather poor aid, I might add). HOWEVER the upward trend began way earlier than yours-- soph year. Doing poorly junior year is a real problem because schools want to see as long a track record as possible. So I think realistically, if you <em>could</em> afford DePaul, it is unlikely to put you in a position to transfer to a top school because you would only have 3 great college semesters there. </p>
<p>Honestly, if it were my kid, I would encourage her to look at the list of schools that still have openings and look at our state schools and see if there are any affordable options there. I also want to tell you that sometimes in life, what we deeply desire is not what is best for us. Consider the possibility that this time is a <em>gift</em> to spend with your ill father. Talk to him. Write his life story. (It sounds like it would make good material for a book or even a few books.) Film him.</p>
<p>* Stop telling me to find plan B and give up on plan A. you sound like my father. *</p>
<p>Why do you think that your dad doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Don’t you know that life is filled with having a “Plan B” just in case Plan A doesn’t work out? </p>
<p>I’m glad that some people here “sound like your father.” There are many people on CC that are very wise :)</p>
<p>What is wrong with having a Plan B? What is wrong with having a plan in case you don’t get the scholarships that you’re hoping for?</p>
<p>You didn’t have a Plan B when you submitted your apps, and see where that landed you.</p>
<p>We do hope things work out for you, but my gut tells me that in a few short months you’ll be scurrying around trying to find a new plan. </p>
<p>(And taking it “year by year” is not a good idea at all!! That’s what got you into this pickle…living for today, with little thought about tomorrow.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>CONSIDER IT AN INTERVENTION.</p>
<p>Clearly, you’re not hearing us. Guess what. I am exactly your type of future employer, and I am telling you that IT IS REALLY REALLY STUPID TO SPEND THAT KIND OF MONEY ON DEPAUL CONSIDERING YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.</p>
<p>If you do not possess the critical faculty to comprehend this fact, life will give you its own reality check. But if this is true, you’re not likely to be successful in journalism, where it is important to DEDUCT the meaning of what is being said, and to HEAR the sense of it.</p>
<p>god help you. I’m scared life is going to end up slapping you in the face.</p>