The ones that close doors are the predatory for-profit schools where a high proportion of students drop out, and get left holding the bag for student debt to repay with no college degree to enable them to get a well-paying job.
There are scenarios where the parents canāt afford to contribute very much but have a not-insignificant EFC, whether because they own a business, have unusual expenses or didnāt prepare well. Add in a kid with stats that wonāt get major merit and state publics with high tuition, and even the 2 year CC + 2 years in-state public route could come out at more than 30K. Weāre not talking 160K here, but still more than could be covered with the federal loans.
I think as you get beyond the top 100 by group (national, LACs) you find many doors closing or with very small cracks. Exception might be companies within shouting distance of the school.
@barrons, only if you donāt do well enough in undergrad to get in to grad school. Lots of prestigious grad programs that get recruited out there. And opportunity is heavily dependent on field as well as geography. For instance, if you want to become a landman, some of the highly-regarded schools in that field are nowhere near any national top 100 list.
Likewise, UCincy isnāt in the top hundred, but it is one of the most highly-regarded schools in the design world (as well as a few other fields).
@lcb56787, however, loans + Pell grant + work-study should make the 2Y CC + 2Y in-state public route possible (and Iām not even counting summer job money). And if you donāt qualify for the Pell or work-study, I would think your family is able to contribute a few thousand.
How do you feel about taking extra money for a second degree? I have Pell and federal loans and could have work study (I turned it down because Iāve been working off campus for higher hourly wages [work study typically pays $10 an hour, right now I make $13.50, plus a 20% employee discount on a lot of things I buy on a frequent basis]), and I did community college for two years and go to a state uni, but Iāll be at around 33K borrowing for undergrad because Iām doing two senior years to double major and for several other reasons (long story short, I wasnāt ready for Summer internships this year and could use a shot at one next Summer before applying to Masterās programs, and I feel external factors interfered with my education most of my Junior year, leaving me needing more time to really participate on campus and bring up grades for grad school applications (My Junior year average was 3.2. CC was 3.8.)). Originally I was Urban Planning with no concentration, then I added Geography with a cconcentrtion in Geographic Information Systems. I think itās worth an extra 11K, but I wonder what more experienced people feel on the matter.
āI think as you get beyond the top 100 by group (national, LACs) you find many doors closing or with very small cracks.ā
Are you telling me UArkansas alumni are penalized for attending their flagship?
Assuming that the loans are limited to federal direct loans, this implies that the parents are willing to contribute by allowing the student to continue living with the parents. This cost is non-zero, but many people do not think of it as a cost, due to it being part of their usual household costs over the years. It generally is lower than if the student has to live away from the parents to go to college, which restricts the college options to those nearby, which can restrict academic options (e.g. majors available to the student).
Thatās a good point, @ucbalumnus . A lot of us canāt live with family. I got to live with my grandmother for two years while in CC, but that was a gift above and beyond what was originally offered. Doing it in university was out of the question, and my parents neither want me around (nor I them, as weād spend so much time screaming profanity at each other and threatening estrangement that Iād never have the emotional energy for school) nor have the money to pay their own rent and food costs, much less mine.
Plus, they live in Colorado, and Iām not a Colorado resident, and couldnāt be one off of their residency because I entered university at the age of 24. If I had moved in with them instead of going off on my own (I rent a room in an in law unit off campus, which is cheaper than living on campus by a large margin), it would have increased my debt quite a bit, not reduced it.
Yes, if itās not possible to commute to the 4-year college, the COA of even 2 years could be 15K-20K more than the max Stafford loans and you still have to get yourself through the 2 years of CC before that.
And not every family that isnāt eligible for Pell and so on is able and willing to pay even 10K a year.