School is university of Illinois at Urbana
Coa= 35,710
My efc= 1,158
My need= 34,552
Awards
Federal pell grant- 4665
Map grant- 4720
University tuition grant- 6854
Presidents award scholarship- 5,000
Total grants/scholarships- 21,239
Work study = 2,800
Direct Stafford loans- 5500
Parent plus loan eligibility- 3171
University loan-3,000
TOTAL financial aid package- 35,710
When did you receive the package? From email or mail?
@jhsiao I recieved it two days ago from website not mail
That right there means probably not. That’s not aid. That’s debt.
So, you’ll be paying $13,300 after grants and scholarships the first year? Whether it is a good financial package depends entirely on how much your parents are able to pay (I’m assuming with that EFC it is minimal), how much money you earn in the summers and can put towards school and what your other options are. Personally, I think its far too high unless you can count on half of it being in cash (summer earnings and money from your parents excluding loans and work study). Also, lots of time the COA published is higher than what you will actually spend so fine-tune that number to fit your circumstances. For example, my D’s school has books and supplies at nearly $1800/year and she spent about half that in total. They also had travel expenses as part of the COA which she spent about half of their estimate there as well. IMH, your work study $$ should be your spending/incidental money if you are living on campus so I wouldn’t count that in for the COA.
Your debt load of 8500/year is a little high but if you work during the summers you should be able to lower it to a more reasonable amount. What is the interest rate for the university loans?
Only your parents can determine if 3200 a year is good or not. It all depends on their current debt load and if you have siblings that also intend to go to college.
If you intend to buy back all the loans then 47,000 of debt plus interest is higher than what most here recommend for an undergraduate loans. Most recommend that you keep the loan cost to the direct loan limits (5500, 6500, 7500, 7500). What is your major and is graduate school in the picture?
Look at the COA and try to determine what you can realistically cut back on to reduce the cost.
@NEPatsGirl I will probably be earning minimum wage from McDonald’s over the summer. But that’s about it plus I live in Illinois. Illinois is broke. We have no budget and we’re in a financial crisis.
@noname87 the interest rate on the university loan is 5%. My major is accounting and I won’t be attending grad school. I have an older sibling in college already and my mother had to take out a parent plus loan of 20,000.
@bodangles you’re right uiuc shouldn’t have included that parent plus loan in my package. It’s not aid
That’s not even all the loans you have:
$8500 in loans per year for you, $3171 per year for your parents? With cost of attendance likely to go up every year? And your parents already have a loan of $20,000 out???
I think the coa is fixed for instate students at uiuc and yes my older sister attends spelman and my mother had to take out 20,000 in parent plus loans! So she said she won’t be taking out parent plus loans for me.
the question is what are your other options? If another school offered you 100% grants and no loans, that’s better! I don’t think this is a bad offer, rather reasonable that you/family are responsible for about 1/3 and the rest is grants.
The more you work and earn, the less you’ll have to take in loans. You may be able to shave a little off that COA too by taking a cheaper dorm option and smaller meal plan, shopping around for used books, opting for less in transportation (no car, don’t travel home as much).
@twoinanddone there’s really no other cheaper alternatives. This is the best school for my major. And I won’t be accepting all the loans, only the 5500 Stafford loan, the rest I will work during the summer
I wouldn’t go with that level of debt, especially not if you happen to be in engineering (just a wild guess since UIUC tends to top certain engineering lists). Engineering is very standardized under ABET, and you won’t get a higher starting salary for going to a name-brand school.
Oh please…accounting is offered at scores of colleges…UIUC isn’t the only school on the planet wher you can get an accounting degree.
I thought accounting was your intended major. Is it engineering?
If so…again scores of colleges are ABET accredited. Scores.
And if it’s not these tw majors…what is this very special major that can only be studied at UIUC?
@CourtneyThurston I’m going into accounting, plus I will not be accepting all those loans, only the direct Stafford loan like most other freshman
@thumper1 I understand that but this is my instate school. Trust me I will not get much better aid from an out of state public school. FYI, UIUC has the number 2 accounting program in the nation.
And you are saying UIUC is the ONLY instate public university where you can study accounting?
@thumper1 no, but you don’t understand how bad of a shape the other instate schools are in financially. They will be closing soon if Illinois doesn’t pass a budget. Mind you Illinois has been without a budget for almost a year already and it doesn’t look like they will be passing one anytime soon.
It might not matter at this point because applications are done and acceptances in, but accounting program ranking probably is pretty unimportant. As an example, my husband got a degree in accounting and our college is a pretty small one (doesn’t even make it into most of the college guide books I’ve seen) but that didn’t stop either him or his classmates from being recruited into great positions before they even graduated. At that time, it was the Big 6 accounting firms but I think nowadays it’s Big 4. Aside from those, his accounting classmates went into accounting in large insurance companies and other businesses ranging from big to small.