<p>My son is leaning toward Eckerd College in Florida and will take on $20,000 a year in loans. Personally, I'd like him to choose Lewis and Clark in Oregon where loan burden would be the same. He has better offers at Clark U and Hampshire and a full scholarship at College of the Atlantic in Maine where he feels he would miss sports and be too limited with small population. He has until Monday. Your input is greatly appreciated. I feel frustrated that we didn't have better advise about how to take a kid with good academic record, great community service and volunteer history, strong essay, but poor SAT scores and figure out who could afford him based on demonstrated need and college endowment. Any suggestions for my next go around with now 12 year old and a 20 year old thinking about going back to tech school this fall?</p>
<p>20,000 dollars a year is too much debt for a college grad to take on,it will severely limit any future goals and plans. it may be best to take the affordable option.</p>
<p>Eckerd is a good school, but $20K a year in loans is likely to be $100K in debt by the time he finishes. Or more. That’s really, really a lot of debt, especially with two other kids heading to college eventually.</p>
<p>This might be a really, really good time for a gap year, with some real time spent figuring out better (financially and fit-wise) places to apply to, and perhaps digging in and doing some ACT/SAT prep to bring up those scores a bit. (Did he try the ACT? Some kids do a lot better on it.)</p>
<p>When none of the choices are a good fit for your family, time to take a breather. He can’t get $20K a year in loans – you (or someone else) would need to cosign, and that is a huge, huge burden.</p>
<p>^Agree. $20,000 is just too much for one year. (and don’t forget, that’s only one year.) Have you spoken with their FA office? They may help more than you realize. If they don’t, maybe this isn’t the college for him. Consider a community college for the first two years. Then he’d still have at least $40k to complete, but you may have a change in plans by then. Or go to a cc for the first year and apply to your state uni.</p>
<p>Just joining in that 20k is way, way, way too much. I am a new grad with a lot of debt, but significantly less than that, and my opportunities are so constrained by my loan payments it feels like they run my life… no college is worth that kind of money!</p>
<p>I agree with the others…$20k/yr loans will adversely affect any future plans once he graduates …ie buying a home, possibly marriage/family etc. Eckerd is an awesome school but 2 years at a community college and transferring is a much better option if he feels the same at that time.</p>
<p>He’ll miss out on a lot more than sports after graduation with that kind of debt. Please don’t let him do it and refuse to co-sign loans. He has really good alternative options.</p>
<p>Clark U is a great school. Not knowing anything about your kid, I don’t know if it’s right for him, but if it’s more affordable, it’s something to consider. It’s a really good school and kids who go there accomplish a lot.</p>
<p>How did you get this far on the calendar without knowing what the outcome will be??</p>
<p>Who, exactly is co-signing those loans with him? You?</p>
<p>He can only borrow the Stafford Loan maximum (and the Perkins Loan maximum if it’s offered by the institution). The Stafford maximums are:
$5,500 freshman
$6,500 sophomore
$7,500 junior
$7,500 senior</p>
<p>Unless you apply for a parent PLUS loan and are rejected in which case he can borrow $4000 more each year (I think, check with kelsmom over in the Financial Aid Forum).</p>
<p>If you co-sign and anything happens to your son, you will be stuck with that debt until it is paid off or you die. Private student loans cannot be disposed of through bankruptcy proceedings. There are published cases of parents whose children became permanently disabled or died after accumulating a bunch of co-signed private loans. Again, there is fun reading on that topic in the Financial Aid Forum. Not to mention of course that even if you qualify this year, there is the possibility that you won’t in future years leaving your kid with half of a very expensive degree and scrambling for an affordable transfer-to school.</p>
<p>It is up to you to determine whether you can afford to take out PLUS loans which are forgiven in the case of a student’s death. But those are your debt, not your kid’s. And even though they are pretty easy to qualify for, there is the chance that you won’t in future years.</p>
<p>Have your child run all of the numbers through this handy calculator from our friends at FinAid.org [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) Then have him run some of the loan-repayment calculators at that website. If he decides that he can’t bear to attend any of the affordable schools on his list, have him take a gap year and put together a better one. He could even re-take that SAT or try the ACT during the gap year and his options might change immensely.</p>
<p>He is facing paying $20000 a year for school with no endowment that has given him max “tuition discount”. He has applied for 20 or so scholarships (this mom is tired of editing essays!) but many of them don’t come in until June/July and we got a late start at it. Could we just rewind the clock to early Junior year…jk… I’m tempted to give the deposit and then ask for a deferment and do a gap year and he is open to that. I wish I could count on some scholarship help…I’m sure he’s a viable candidate for many. Any suggestions for other scholarships he might consider with a strong community service and volunteer background with many extra curriculars and solid essays?
Someone asked how we got so far in this without a “plan”…didn’t get many of the financial aid packages til the last week and had sent in appeals which did result in more aid at a couple of schools.</p>
<p>huggcary,</p>
<p>Unless those scholarships are ones that his guidance counselor has experience with, no one can predict the results. Lots of young people apply for many, many, many scholarships and don’t see a cent. Again, there are multiple threads on that topic in the Financial Aid Forum. I’d suggest that you click on the link to that forum on your computer screen, and go do some reading. You may find the advice you need has already been given to someone over there.</p>
<p>Wishing you and yours all the best.</p>
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<p>An EXCELLENT alternative to taking on $20K per year in debt.</p>
<p>I would pick Clark over Eckerd regardless of the money. Has he visited College of the Atlantic? Yes, it is very small, but does he realize how spectacularly gorgeous Mt Desert is, and how much he can do in terms of outdoors activities like hiking, kayaking, and so on? Has he considered the wealth of opportunities open to Hampshire students through the 5-college exchange?</p>
<p>If the student has earnings during a gap year, it will adversely impact need based aid. For example, if the student earns $10,000 by the end of the year and manages to keep $8000 of that in savings, when the FAFSA is submitted for the following year, the combined income & savings will increase EFC by several thousand dollars. </p>
<p>It seems to me that the choices are Clark, Hampshire, & College of the Atlantic. </p>
<p>Don’t allow your son to go to the schools where his loan debt would be $20,000 unless YOU are willing to take on $15K of that debt as a parent PLUS loan. It’s just not fair to your son. </p>
<p>Think of it this way: as a parent you want what is best for your child. Right now it feels like that means allowing him to go to the college he likes best. But saddling your son with a heavy debt load at age 22 is not good for him. As a parent, you need to make tough decisions, based on reason and not on what feels good now. So the best choice you can make is one that will protect your son’s financial future. </p>
<p>If Hampshire is manageable without much debt, I think that might be the best option, given its place within the 5-college consortium.</p>
<p>Do not co-sign your son into 80-100K worth of debt. That is just insane. </p>
<p>He can go where he has better offers. Do not count on those outside scholarships, the odds that he’ll wind up with a significant amount of money that way is very, very slim.</p>
<p>Just chiming in that $20K a year is just way too much. We expect we will end up with about $20K after 4 years, and that is about all we think is reasonable.</p>
<p>Has he applied to any public schools?</p>
<p>The Bonner Scholars program at a number of colleges is aimed at students with strong social commitments. Google it and read up on it. Probably too late for the fall, but maybe not too late for the spring. One gap semester might not be bad. Guilford College participates, I know a recent grad with stellar grades and 29 on the ACT who was a Bonner Scholar there.</p>
<p>Bowdoin College is test optional and might be one to consider - meets full financial need with no loans.</p>
<p>Just a reminder that there might be other options: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1334446-still-space-left.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1334446-still-space-left.html</a></p>
<p>I am not sure he. Will have better options if you wait unless you have a school he can commute to. Is there a public you neglected to apply to? There are very limited spaces at meets full need schools. And test scores are the basis of many merit scholarships. He might fare better but he might not unless his grades are spectacular. He also doesn’t seem that flexible about where he’ll attend.</p>
<p>What would the debt be from Clark or Hampshire? That’s an important piece if information.</p>
<p>Why did he apply to college of the Atlantic if he had no intention of going?</p>
<p>It’s sad not to be able to have one’s heart desire, but I agree with everyone else. With that level of indebtedness that will be true for the rest of his life.</p>
<p>huggcary–while it is very difficult to tell a child no if they have their heart set on something, in this case, I would definitely not deposit at Eckerd because it seems to me that’s just putting off the issue until next year. I think that you should tell your son that you are uncomfortable co-signing for this type of debt and that Eckerd is not a realistic financial option for either you or for him.</p>
<p>I agree with others that Clark and Hampshire are both very fine schools that offer terrific opportunities.</p>