I need help with loans and financial aid.

So I just got my financial aid package and it says that I got ~12.5k in Grants and Scholarships for the full Fall and Spring semesters and got the option to take 4k in Direct Sub and unSub loans and 10k in Parent plus loans. I got an estimation of cost of attendance for the full year and it’s 30k. Is this bad because I got less than half paied in grants and scholars while the other bigger half is loans? What should I do? Meaning that if I took the loans I would be 17k in debt per year.

It’s not good or bad, it is what it is. That’s what you were offered. YOU won’t be $17k in debt, but you’ll be $5500 and your parents will be 10k. The Parent Plus loan is a parent’s loan and you can’t take it out, only a parent can.

It’s a pretty standard offer, but it is still expensive. Only you can decide if this is the way you want to finance college. Can you reduce any costs, like taking a less expensive meal plan or dorm room? Can you get a job and work so that the parent loan is perhaps only $8k? Do your parents have any money saved for your college?

I have about 4k saved in my bank right now and I can prob make my cost of attendance a bit cheaper but thats pretty much all.

Im just really worried that my loans and parents loans will but us into heavy debt. But does a cost of attendance really average to 30k a year?

Every school has a different COA. I have one daughter whose COA is about $22k, and one whose is $58k.

Every school is different, every state public funding is different. You can probably save money by going to a community college first, but you did get $12k in grants, and that’s pretty good.

First of all, why are you just getting your FA offer now, not back in April at decision time?

Second, look at the costs the school will bill for: tuition, fees, room, board. You should have a good idea what that is by now if you have your room assignment, picked a meal plan, scheduled classes.

Then subtract all grants and scholarships and that’s the net price you have to come up with.

That can be paid with student loan, parent and student savings. And maybe some parent loan.

The COA usually includes a few thousand in misc estimated expenses like books, travel, etc

While you need to budget for that, you are not being billed by the college for these and might be able to buy or rent books and travel for less than the estimates.

You can get a campus job during the semester to help pay for spending money, laundry, etc

I have a question my DD got a level 1 ROTC scholarship everything paid but room and food, she got 2500.00 in FA, 2500.00 in private scholarships.
Does the school offer her a loan if so would we know by now?
Do we need to get a bank loan for the rest of her schooling?
We don’t know how much she needs guessing around 8,000.00.
They have payment plans three installments, sorry I don’t have 2,600.00 in the bank for one payment, not counting 3 times.
She is going to Purdue if anyone has info about them.
She is trying to get a job on campus.

@Leb17girl, you should start your own thread with these questions.

To the OP: are your parents willing to take out these loans? Do you have an alternative for next year is the answer is no? What are you planning to study?

You can look online to see the average FA generosity of this university - then see where you fall. That is, are you getting the average or below? One place to took would be the US News and World Report college rankings. Another place to look at the college board (google something like: Big Future, College Board, University name).

So for 4 years (IF you graduate in 4 years) the debt would be $68,000. I think that is much too high and would rethink starting there in the fall.

@NJRoadie I could try to work every summer and also maybe get a part time job to help the payments.

A general rule of thumb is that a total debt at graduation that is equal to your starting salary is a lot of debt but should be okay. A total debt that equals twice your starting salary will be very hard to pay off over a long period of time. Anything greater than that will be a huge problem.

This includes the debt that the student will pay off. The ability and willingness of the parents to pay off part of the debt themselves is separate, will vary a LOT from family to family, and will depend a lot on what the parents can afford (also considering whether there are other younger or same age kids who will be going to university, and considering the need for parents to save for retirement).

Depending upon major, some careers (eg, computer science) are fine with a Bachelor’s degree, but an increasing number of careers require a Master’s degree or more. This of course further complicates the issue and needs to be budgeted for up front.

It is not unheard of for students to find upon graduation from high school that they can’t afford the university options that they have, and have to take a gap year and reapply to less expensive schools for the following year. However, a total cost of attendance of $30,000 per year is not all that bad by US standards (although bad by the standards of most other countries in the world).

If your family can’t afford this school, then you should take a year off and look for places that are more affordable. No way would I have borrowed $10k each year on top of the federal student loans for Happykid! She spent two years at community college and then transferred to a state U that we could afford with only her federal loans.

@happymomof1 The issuse is I already paied enrollment and dorm downpayment and went to orientation…

@Brendan1225 You would be out some money by withdrawing now, but not as much as if you waited until after classes start or after you’ve racked up more debt than you and your parents can handle.

@AroundHere How much loans do you think I should take out each year? Or at least the max?

First, not all of these loans are yours, so you need to discuss the PLUS loan with your parents. Are they willing to sign for them and pay them back or not? How much are they willing to borrow over four years? Use a loan payment estimator website and see what the payments would be.

In terms of the loans to you, it depends on your financial situation and career prospects. Are you a superstar in economics who’s going from perfect grades in economics straight to Wall Street, or are you going to major in religion then become a missionary? Your financial future would be very different. Again, how much will you owe over your entire degree and will the payments be when you graduate?

Most of the folks here would not recommend taking more than the standard federal loans. That is $5,500 your freshman year.

Please don’t start college without a solid plan for paying for all four years. If you have to, cancel your enrollment for this fall and accept that you will lose some deposits. As written above, better that than getting in completely over your head financially.

“Please don’t start college without a solid plan for paying for all four years. If you have to, cancel your enrollment for this fall and accept that you will lose some deposits. As written above, better that than getting in completely over your head financially.”

Yes, I very much agree. There is something worse than graduating with a large debt: That is getting part way through university, running out of money, and not being able to graduate and still have the large debt.

The deposits that you have made to this point are very small compared to what you are about to need to pay to go to university.

Figure out what four years will cost, and how much of this will be debt, and how the debt is going to be repaid.

@AroundHere My Parents are willing to help me 100% because I’m their only child, but the issue is if I should make that commitment. Anyone know the average debt a person has on them after finishing from a 4 year Uni? Also I should add that I’m pursuing a Engineering major, most likely Mechanical.