I agree but the loan calculator will not be a stretch for the step dad consigner who may not understand the severity/backlash of these loans
Squabbles over money can cause serious harm to marriages. I’m surprised the mom is on board with this plan. If I were OP, I wouldn’t put this kind of stress on my parents.
Reminds me of the apocryphal story about a new college grad coming home with his first paycheck asking “who is FICA and what is he doing with my money??”
Nope.
Death and taxes are unavoidable.
Debt is a lifestyle choice.
In our experience, debt limits your opportunities.
This may not make sense to you right now, but having the ability to make a life choice without worrying about how you will manage your debt is incredibly powerful. I know you think you’d be limiting your opportunities by not taking on this debt, but you’d actually be doing the opposite. It’s absolutely counter to how you see the world right now, and I can see you’re struggling with the cognitive dissonance of it, but the more you owe, the fewer choices you end up having.
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doesn’t everyone live in debt?
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Many/most middle/upper-middle class folks have a home mortgage. That is a debt against a valuable asset. That is NOT the same as debt for an undergrad education.
All debt is NOT equal.
You want to save the time for major debt for AFTER your undergraduate degree.
If your step-dad can’t afford to pay $2,000 a month for 4 years, how will he be able to afford 2,000 a month for 10 years ?
(a reasonable debt load for you would be $300-400 à month.)
Elizabethtown is actually a well-regarded college in the northeast, with excellent outcomes. It’s equivalent to lmu academically.
But if you don’t like it, do apply to as many nacac list colleges as you can afford and add a few ‘free to apply’ colleges from that list.
What’s your parents’ budget for college ?
What do you expect your first salary to be ?
For most graduates it’s about 35-40k a year. For many, especially if they didn’t have internships, it’s lower. For those in engineering and CS, it’s higher but those are not your fields of study.
35-40 take away 30% for various taxes. You have 20-25k left. If you wish to live in California, half of that will go to rent. Half of what you have left will go to food. And you still haven’t paid your phone bill, heat, electricity, gas and insurance for your car, personal health insurance … Finding $300 a month will be a real stretch. Everything else will have to be paid by your family, and if they can’t, they could lose their house and everything they own.
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your step-dad can’t afford to pay $2,000 a month for 4 years, how will he be able to afford 2,000 a month for 10 years ?
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The step-dad has no intention of paying one dime. StepDad thinks this student is going to pay it all back.
Fwiw, i had to look up LMU. Never heard of it.
I’m sure it’s a great school, most of the Jesuit schools are.
But yes, apparently not only unaffordable, but a great financial risk for you.
That is a LOT of debt. It could very likely cripple you financially after you graduate.
And that you’ve been taken off the waitlist means you were likely in the bottom quartile of the applicant pool.
At LMU, you’ll be starting out from a disadvantaged point, academically and financially.
How will you afford to live in LA, after graduation, with such huge loan payments?
Yet, you were offered substantial merit at E’town and Pace.
That could mean little to no debt, and you are apparently near the top of the applicant pool for your class at those schools.
Starting out near the top, and richer.
Consider which point you want to start from. Consider the progress you could make in your education and future career, if you had a good head start, rather than trying to play catch-up, both financially and academically.
And I’m not trying to be mean - just very honest with you. That’s a LOT of money you AND your parents will be borrowing, and you will not be able to take any unpaid/low-paying opportunities that could help you get get experience for a more lucrative future career. You will be forced to take the jobs that are there, right away, and not take the time to get the job/career you really want.
Debt has a tremendous power to kill dreams and goals.
Call Elizabethtown NOW and see if you can still attend in the fall, and still receive your scholarship. Small liberal arts colleges are great for humanities and languages.
Or take a gap year and reapply next year to other schools that would give you a similar merit award.
With a 29 I would think you would have more options in looking at the list of openings that are still available. There were a number of decent SUNYs on the list
Btw, if you want to go into law, you need GOOD GRADES and to do well on the LSAT. Attending a small school like Elizabethtown would prepare you well for admission to law school.
And… My husband is a lawyer, and thankfully graduated law school back in the 80s, when they still paid associates well and it only took a few years to become partner at a firm… Nowadays, law firms are still recovering from the recession a few years ago and are cutting back on the number of associates they hire.
The few associates hired at my husband’s firm stay associates for almost a decade or more.
And if you are lucky enough to get hired at a good, stable firm, you had better not have lots of debt, because the pay has gone down significantly for associates just starting out. Many are not paid any more than the secretaries and staff.
The market for lawyers will likely go back up again, but nothing can be easily predicted or counted on in the next few years.
Go to the cheaper school. Go to the school where you have the best chance for getting top grades. go to the school where you can save money for law school.
I don’t agree that all kids who end up on the waitlist are in the bottom quartile. Sometimes kids end up there because they appear overqualified or that they need too much FA and the school is concerned with yield. (My son was waitlisted at two schools where he was at or above the 75th percentile stats-wise.)
Regardless, while I understand the appeal of LMU for this student, it’s just too expensive. Period.
If Elizabethtown is unacceptable, I would also consider a gap year. What are your in-state options? Are none of them a good value for you?
Ok, I stand corrected, if that’s true about the waitlist situation.
But yes, doesn’t change the fact that LMU is not affordable for OP.
Okay.
I would like to hear parents’ opinions on going to a university in Germany? It’s free (besides a couple hundred Euros per semester & living costs) (degree earned in 3 yrs)
My mom hates the idea of it and gets angry when I try to talk of it. (She’s never been out of country)
I have 5 yrs of German under my belt and my visit to the country will be next month with my class.
And this is NOT a rash idea, I’ve brought this up in my house about 1000 times this whole school year- up to this day. Hard flr support though.
OP: Is your guidance counselor informed and of use? If so, you and your mom and step dad may need to sit down with him (or her) or some other party that can help you all fully, rationally, look at your options and the costs of each.
You also should apply to one of the schools mentioned on the list on this thread that are still accepting applicants. With a 29 ACT you should be able to get in and perhaps get merit aid from some.
The bottom line is LMU needs to come off the table. So, now what?
Germany? Maybe.Do you have concrete information on admissions and costs? If so, gather it so that you are not talking about something abstract, but something definitive.
You have the definitive information for LMU and it should lead you all to simply say “Okay, that school is not an option”. Plenty of kids walk away from offers they would love to take because they want the college, but understand that wanting and realistically affording do not always match.
Maybe you can study abroad for a semester or a year from E’town, and that would make you and your mom happy. t isn’t as easy as you think to just go to European countries and go to college. One of my kids direct enrolled for a semester abroad at a European university. She had to prove (via bank statements) that she could support herself the full time she was there before she could get a visa. The cost of living is not that low. And honestly, she thought the quality of the education was not so great (and this is a very reputable university). She thought the coursework at her 50-ish ranked US LAC was significantly more challenging.
Look at the NACAC list before you think of Germany.
If you want to study abroad, what about the immersion year abroad with Nacel, YFU…?
As for universities in Germany, you wouldn’t be allowed to enroll directly at a university, you’d have to attend a language school first.
A 200k loan, at 5% interest and a 10 year repayment term, translates to MONTHLY $2,120 payments. That’s $2,120 per month, every month for 10 looooonnng years.
Do you have any idea else what you could be doing with $2,120 per month? As a college grad fresh out of school, you’ll be lucky if your first job earns you enough to clear $3000 take home pay per month, after taxes & deductions.
More and more kids are turning down Ivies and top 10 schools because they refuse to have their parents be in debt for a quarter of a million dollars. My DS is one of them. He said there is no such thing as a dream school but only different paths to get to his dream job in aerospace engineering. He just finished his freshman year at an OOS school that offered $$$$ in merit scholarship. He’s already had so many opportunities, loves his school and feels like he belongs there. We are thrilled that he will graduate with zero debt and can start his working career ahead rather than the stress of being behind for years to come. It takes a wise kid to see so far ahead. You seem wise. Please look ahead, have a good talk with your parents and try to formulate a solid plan your family can be proud of.
There was an interesting article about attending college in Germany in Bloomberg Businessweek a few months ago:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-22/why-more-students-are-leaving-the-u-s-for-college
Here’s one of the more salient points made:
"There are nonetheless costs to studying in Europe. Universities there don’t own dorms the way American universities do, said Viemont; the cost of living off-campus varies by city and by country. Further costs such as regular flights home can tack on thousands of dollars.
The main thing that holds some Americans back from studying across the Atlantic is a fear that they’ll sacrifice quality—and North American career opportunities. “The biggest worry people seem to have is that a name from Europe won’t carry the same weight as one from the U.S., but there’s a serious upshot of graduating a year early and with a fraction of the debt,” she said. “Plus, you’ve seen the world.”
If your mom is getting angry about it and saying no, then I’d let it go. As a mom, there are some places the girls are interested in going that is just not going to happen as long as I live and breathe. It’s the golden rule-she who has the gold, makes the rules. The kids may not like it, but telling your mom a bunch of strangers on the internet think it’s a good idea for you to go to college in Germany is not going to change her mind.
Focus on what you can do and where you can go. You have your entire life to go and do stuff independently. You’re not there yet-you’re still tethered to the purse strings. Accept it and get the most out of it, and then you’ll have a lot more options when you’re an independent adult.
^^ Great post, @MotherofDragons!