Interpret my financial aid package - good or bad?

Paying for College
1

<p>I got a package from the University of the Pacific (UOP) today with its award estimate. I'm kind of illiterate when it comes to money and finances, so I was wondering if this financial aid package is reasonable.
If I attend UOP, I will be participating in its seven-year accelerated pre-dental program (four years undergrad, three years for DDS; I will try to see if I can get into the six-year program instead so I finish my BA in three years). My major is biological sciences.</p>

<p>FAFSA EFC: $10,642</p>

<p>Award Program:
. UOP Grant - $9,500
. Regents' Scholarship - $10,000
. Work Study - $2,500
. PLUS Loan - $20,058
. Subsidized Stafford Loan - $3,500
. Unsubsidized Stafford Loan - $2,000</p>

<p>The scholarship is renewable for up to four years at the undergraduate level, I believe, as long as I keep my GPA at or above 3.0; I couldn't find any information on the grant.
Estimated cost of attendance is roughly $47,500 per year; at the School of Dentistry (i.e. post-undergrad), tuition and fees add up to around $91,500... it's looking pretty expensive, but I'd be graduating at least a year earlier compared other dental students.</p>

<p>Whereas, from my understanding, at Arizona State, I will qualify for its National Merit Finalist award (National</a> Merit Finalist Scholarship | University Student Initiatives) if I change my first-choice college to ASU. That will be $23,000/year, totaling $92,000 over four years. However, I'm majoring in graphic design if I go there. The estimated COA is about $32,000 a year, so that would leave $9,000 of the bill left, which I think my parents can afford since that's almost as much as what they're paying for high school tuition right now.</p>

<p>looooong post. Sorry about that.</p>

2

<p>Do your parents want to borrow $20K per year for UOP on top of your own loans? Those are major loans! This would not be considered a good package for a family with a $10K EFC. Go to Arizona.</p>

3

<p>Bad package. Save your money and go to ASU.</p>

<p>PLUS loans are for your parents, and IDK if they are willing to go into $80,000.00 debt for UOP</p>

4

<p>So I showed my parents my financial aid package, and they still want me to go to UOP. Their arguments (well, mostly my dad’s) are that I’d be better off as a dentist than as a graphic designer, especially given the economy. It’s more secure.</p>

<p>I offered an alternate route to dentistry: take the courses necessary for dental school at ASU while majoring in graphic design since there is no required major, and then apply for dental school after I graduate. My dad says that there is no guarantee I will make it into dental school or pass the DAT (apparently he has low confidence in me since my SAT II for Bio-M is only 680), but at UOP I will automatically advance into the School of Dentistry after four years.</p>

<p>Opinions?</p>

5

<p>Are you sure the UOP dental program guarantees admission into the school of dentistry? I heard from my friend who was also accepted into the program that they only guarantee an interview, not a spot.</p>

6

<p>Do you want to be a dentist, or a graphic designer? If you don’t want to be a dentist, then it doesn’t matter what the UOP is offering if it’s going to lead you to a profession you’re not interested in.</p>

7

<p>If you go the dentist route you and your parents will owe between 300,000 to 350,000 (depending on 6 or 7 year). Given you are able to keep your scholarship & grants for all those years (or the amount you owe will go higher). You must also remember there are caps on the Stafford loans. Also the unsubsidized loans start compounding interest immediately so that will add thousands to the ultimate cost. Lots of people don’t realize how much that adds up to what they owe in the long run.</p>

8

<p>any credit worthy parent can get a PLUS loan - it’s not really financial aid.</p>

<p>The financial aid you are getting is $19500 in scholarships and grants (“free money”), $5500 in loans that YOU will take out and $2500 work study.
The work study should buy your books and incidentals.</p>

<p>Your parents and you will be expected to pay $20,058. this can be paid in cash or a loan. Only you and your parents can decide if they and you can afford $20,000 to go to UOP.</p>

<p>IMO - this is actually a pretty good package. They are only expecting you to pay twice your EFC.</p>

9

<p>I don’t think paying twice your EFC by borrowing is a great deal for your parents, especially when they are coming in with a $10K EFC. You are talking about 16 years of payments averaging $800 a month, given the 8.5% current interest rate PLUS has. Also, you don’t even know if they qualify for PLUS; they have to be credit worthy and apply for it. PLUS is not financial aid.</p>

<p>However, if YOU AND your parents can sit down and see a way to come up with, say $10K of the amount elsewhere, like cutting the family budget down, you earning lots of money during the summer, weekends starting now, school breaks, selling junk you don’t need-garage sales, getting some help from relatives, the combined effort would put you in what the government feels is reasonable. This is truly a family matter. We are doing this in our family.</p>

10

<p>No one said the parents had to borrow. just because a plus loan is offered doesn’t necessarily mean the parents have to borrow the money.
we just don’t really know how the parents plan to come up with the money.
$20,000 is just the balance due.<br>
that said - I wouldn’t borrow $20,000 to send my kid to college or cash in my retirement. (not that I have $20,000 left in it - lol)
If it were my kid I would pay half the price for ASU.</p>

<p>what I don’t get is the dentist/graphic designer dilemma. Certainly one can be a dentist coming from ASU.</p>

11

<p>I don’t get the graphic design or dentist dilemma either. You certainly could do a pre-dental program at ASU if that’s what you want.</p>

<p>And are you aware that you are NOT automatically guaranteed admission into the graphic design program at ASU, even if you have been accepted as a freshman GD major? There is something called the “degree milestone” at the end of the first year, where you have to compete against others for the limited number of slots available (roughly 35 - 45) in the GD program for the second year.</p>

12

<p>Will this be your debt or your parent’s? If they are willing to pay it off that’s their choice to make. If it’s your debt and then you have dental school debt to follow, it will put off a decent lifestyle, even for a dentist, for a decade or two and prevent you from having the money to start your own practice.</p>

13

<p>To give you some perspective, let me tell you about our situation. We are NOT eligible for financial aid. We (H and I) borrowed $10K this year,and will probably continue doing this for the latest one’s college. I’m not even really going to go into the others’ college costs. It really worries me that we are going to owe $40K in 4 years, with a monthly payment close to $500 a month for the next ten or so years. And we are a family with assets and income that put us out of the range for need based aid. </p>

<p>That’s why it is important that you talk to your parents and find out where they stand financially. For them to borrow $20K a year or have to come up with it out of assets or income is not going to be easy on their incomes.</p>

14

<p>The graphic design vs dentist bothers me too. I don’t know very many 18 year olds who stick to their plans even when they are bound and determined to go a certain direction which you are not. There is a big difference between your two interests. Just because you are in a guaranteed admission program does not mean that you will end up in dental school. I know too many kids who did not make the qualification to get into a guaranteed program. There are always stipulations. Also kids change their minds a lot. You may decide that you despise the very though of dentistry. That is one of the pitfalls of pre professional programs. I’ve seen some very upset parents who had it their heads that their students were going into a certain career field, only to find that they just could not tolerate the thought as they went through college. It is very naive to assume this program is going to shunt you directly to dental school.</p>