Ok…so if they’re fine with paying it all back. are you sure that they won’t expect you to pay some/all of the plus loans back?
@mom2collegekids Of course I’ll help pay back once I graduate. It’s just frustrating that my best financial aid offer would leave my parents and I with a total of about $80,000 in debt between the 3 of us for just undergraduate school.
Welcome to the real world. Most parents, who haven’t saved a lot of money for their children’s educations, are trying right now, to figure out how to pay for their 2015 child’s education. It would have saved a lot of heartache if you had looked at costs before you applied.
Your parents need to be aware that the interest on some of those loans begins accruing almost immediately. They can change the amount of the loan that is offered if they have some savings to put towards your education. You are also expected to work in the summers to help pay for your education.
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@mom2collegekids they are fine with taking out the loan
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Of course I’ll help pay back once I graduate. It’s just frustrating that my best financial aid offer would leave my parents and I with a total of about $80,000 in debt between the 3 of us for just undergraduate school.
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Well, that’s a different issue. to say that they’re “fine” with taking out the loan sounds like THEY are going to pay. Then you say that you’re going to help pay back the loan. THAT sounds like you have convinced them that YOU are going to pay back a good chunk of the loan so they don’t have to worry about being stuck with it.
YOU are already going to have a good sized chunk of loans to pay back as it is since you’re being given full loans (stafford and perkins).
I think you’re wrongly assuming that you will be able to pay back those big loans as a future engineer.
Your test scores are borderline for engineering. I think it’s a huge risk to start out with taking out big loans. What if you don’t make it thru eng’g?
Do you realize how many kids start in eng’g and then have to change their majors because they don’t do well? You could be a sophomore and already have over $40k in debt and realize that you’re not going to make it thru eng’g. Then what??
Seriously…eng’g is like premed. Every year millions of kids start out in eng’g (or premed) and then by the end of sophomore year, 1/2 to 3/4 have moved onto something else.
I think you need to start at a CC, see how you do in eng’g, and then transfer as a junior. That is the safe track. If you do make it thru eng’g at a CC, then your family would only be borrowing $40k for your last 2 years…that is still a large amount of debt, but at least it’s not insane debt.
$85k of debt for undergrad is insane.
Ditto on the engineering information from @mom2collegekids. My dd graduated with a degree in Engineering. She told us that the kids drop like flies because they don’t have the natural ability to see how things work and predict systems using algorithms. She was naturally talented in math and physics, but the coursework was extremely difficult.
You can’t afford the school.
When my older son started college, he was in the honors dorm. All 3 of his suitemates, including him, were eng’g majors. By the end of the year, NONE of them were. My older son became a math major, which was better suited for his abilities.
My younger son also started college as an eng’g major. He was also in an honors dorm with 3 suitemates…all eng’g. Only he and one suitemate graduated in eng’g.
The point is that all 8 of these students started out in eng’g. All were in the honors dorms, which means an ACT 28 minimum, but most had a 30-34 ACT. Yet, out of 8 only 2 graduated with eng’g degrees. ONLY TWO.
It’s not enough to be “smart” and/or good at math. You also have to have an eng’g brain…a problem solving brain…a brain that can figure out the most elegant way to do things. Those smarties are a subset of all the smarties.