Is This A Good Plan?

Paying for College
1

<p>My family has a low EFC (19K my freshman year, now 14K) and my parents orginally did not want to pay. I went to Bard College on a 24K scholarship this year, and will be attending Wesleyan University on a ~29.5K scholarship to finish college. My loans look like this:</p>

<p>Freshman year:
3500 Stafford
20500 Private</p>

<p>Sophomore year:
4500 Stafford
1700 Wesleyan
10935 Private</p>

<p>I'm expecting junior year to be about the same. Senior year my brother will enter college, so I'm expecting to cut my private loan in half. My fifth year my youngest brother will enter college, so it will likely be a third of my sophomore year loan.</p>

<p>My estimate of my totol loans is:</p>

<p>24500 Stafford
6800 Wesleyan
~31000 Private</p>

<p>My parents have agreed to pay 20500 of the private, so I will be paying:</p>

<p>24500 Stafford
6800 Wesleyan
~12000 Private
Total = 43300</p>

<p>Here is my plan that my mom has agreed on:</p>

<p>I will begin paying Stafford and Wesleyan when I graduate. The Wesleyan loan has a minimum payment of $40 a month. She will beging to pay my consolidated private loan + the interest untill she has paid her share, and then I will take over.</p>

<p>I think this should give me enough time to be able get a good job and save up money. I have $5700 saved up and will make $3200 this summer. Should I put around $6000 of that towards tuition for next year? I will likely either do that, or put it into a Certified Deposit. </p>

<p>I am double majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. I plan on doing the 5-year BS/MS in Neuroscience program, which I was told 80% of students in the major get into.</p>

<p>If I graduate with an MS in Neuroscience with a BS in Neuroscience and Molecular Biology/Biochemistry, do you think I will be able to get a good enough job such that my plan will be feasible? I have anxiety about my loans all the time, especially when I read this board. I'd love help, to calm me down just a bit.</p>

2

<p>Put your summer money and savings into an account that you have more ready access to than a CD. That way they will be available for your expenses this year, and possibly will help you reduce some of your projected loan burden.</p>

<p>As to whether, and where, you can get a job with your major, you really need to have a sit-down meeting with the career office at your college. They would be the experts on that issue.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>

3

<p>My son's COA is estimated to be about $47K. He is getting $10K in grants, $3.5K in Stafford unsub, and is working gangbusters to make another $3.5 this summer with two jobs. He has saved some money for college and expects to put $1.5K from savings. He also wants to find a job for 10-15 hours a week to make up for sundries and entertainment expenses. He's hoping to make about $500 first semester, and double that for the second term since he will work during spring and winter break. That leaves us with $27K to pay. We'll probably throw in more. What concerns me about your budget, is that you seem to be borrowing every bit of what you need instead of earning it with a job. I have seen kids do this, living a college life as though they were having it all paid for them, instead of facing the fact that they have to pitch in some money along the way. It will be painful when it comes time to pay the piper. If you can defray your costs with earnings and watching expenses very carefully, it would be so helpful. It would be a good way to live for later too.</p>

4

<p>I've had a 40 hour a week job since 8th grade. I do work, that how I have like 9K saved up. My parent's haven't paid for a thing since I entered high school. This year Bard ****ed me over with workstudy because it is almost impossible to get more than 4-5 hours a week and you get paid $7.15, which earns you pretty much next to nothing a semester. Because I wanted to transfer, I couldn't get a night job off campus because I needed to study every night. Regardless, it would be impossible to make 10K a year and do well at a top LAC attending full time. I work in the summer and I will try to find better work study when I get to Wesleyan, but that's all I can do. I don't know why you would even say I wasn't trying to pay some through work, when I said, "I have 5700 saved up and will make 3200 this summer, should I put 6000 towards tuition?". Sorry, I just don't like it when people tell me I don't work enough when I have worked my entire life.</p>

<p>What is easier to access than a CD, but won't come up on my FAFSA? If it's in a saving account, they will expect me to put it towards college. If I put it in a CD, it doesn't show up (as far as I know) and then I will save a little. I want to keep like 2500 in my account for spending (I definitely won't spend tht much, but I need the security of having it just in case) and want to either put the rest away or put it to tuition.</p>

5

<p>You are mistaken that CDs do not come up on FAFSA. They do. They are investments, just as savings accounts are. Your CD is simply restricted in terms of withdrawal, but FAFSA doesn't care about that. The only thing that doesn't show up on FAFSA is an IRA or other qualified retirement vehicle.</p>

<p>Yes, you should put about $6000 of that towards tuition. Or put a little less towards tuition and save the rest. But in this way, you will reduce your future indebtedness, which will be sizeable nonetheless.</p>

6

<p>Are you sure it comes up? Because the student contribution this year on my aid package was about 3.5K, and I had 7K in a CD and like 3K in my account, after making about 6K during the year. I don't why my contribution would be so low, if the CD is counted. I guess I'll just put it into tuition, that wil save me the most money because my own contribution will be lower.</p>

7

<p>It will not "show up" if you do not put the numbers onto the form. However, if they do an audit and it will show up, and can get you into trouble. The FA process automatically takes 20% of your assets into consideration when coming up with the numbers. However, they do not look for your assets; they rely on you reporting them. If and when you are audited, and it is discovered that you did not report all of your assets, you will have to make a retribution, and may also find yourself in trouble. Remember FAFSA is a federal form, and you are taking government money. You can be shut down very quickly and effectively if you are suspected of fraud.</p>

<p>I am sorry about missing your work and earnings Mlevine. That was my fault. I commend you for all of the work you are doing with trying to get this to work out. I have a lot of respect for people like you and hope it works out. In my experience, students like you who are so involved in your own finances, college costs, etc, will do very well in life. I know it is so very difficult now, but you are learning things that many kids will learn in a much harder way at a bigger price later. My cap is off to you.</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
I've had a 40 hour a week job since 8th grade.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I hope you mean that you had a 40 hour a week job (during summers) since you were in the 8th grade or that you were over the age of 16. If you were working 40 hours a week during the school year and were less than 16 years old, there was a violation of federal child labor laws. Also, individual states have their own, sometimes more strict, labor laws.</p>

9

<p>In 8th grade I did lots of random stuff, like umpire baseball games, but it might not have been quite 40 hours. During high school once I was 16 (sophomore year Septemember) I starting working 40 hours between two jobs. Freshman year I worked atleast 20 a week at one job not including the other odd stuff I did. The summers were probably 40, I worked every day. Some of my jobs were "under the table" so the laws don't really apply to them, haha.</p>