Loans, financial aid, scholarships - I need help

Grass is always greener. lol. I would kill to be back in Fla. so my kids could have the major benefits of Bright Future and the amazing public unis in the state. She may hate UF because it feels too close to home, and I understand, because I went OOS for undergrad for the exact same reason (returned for grad school). But if the money is what it is, you should not be risking your life and future with extreme debt, and she cannot take out any loans other than the federal student loan of $5500.

So you can put your foot down and rest easy knowing that she is getting essentially a public Ivy education and you have not failed her.

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@Gatormama my biggest problem is that like you I went OOS to get out of here, ironically I came back, but still she throws that back in my face. Let’s see what happens Feb 26th and we show her the $$!

Like I said…times are changed. It cost way less to go to a college OOS a generation ago than it does now. Plus the financial impact of Covid in some families needs to be considered. When hard choices need to be made, even college bound students need to pitch in.

You aren’t telling her she can’t go to college. You aren’t telling her she has to commute from home. Many families are facing this as an option because of finances.

She needs to start looking at the glass as half full instead of half empty.

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If my kid was being difficult about what we could afford then cc and/or a gap year would seriously be on the table. I would give her a firm budget (with no loans except the federal student loan) and tell her that she can have her pick of any school that comes in under that number.

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The Parent Plus loans and a student private loan are two different things with different benefits. The interest rate on the private loan may be lower, but the Plus loan has some other benefits. Just make sure you are comparing the same terms (are they forgivable on death of the parent or student? are their different repayment programs?).

Right now many students are in an interest free period for direct loans, but private loans are rarely going to have that.

If your daughter doesn’t want to go to UF, there is USF, Florida international, or many private schools (Rollins, Florida Southern).

18 year olds don’t seem to understand how much a $400 monthly loan payment really impacts post college living. It’s not such fun when they are 24 and trying to repay those loans.

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Why is community college seen as some kind of punishment or last resort? Thank goodness for community colleges, which have enabled many people to go to college who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do so. I went to cc and transferred. I have a valid BA, just like the person who has a BA from Harvard. My degree is why I am in the career I have now. Your daughter is fortunate to go to college, full stop.

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I sympathize with you, I’ve been there done that on holding the budget line. It was not a fun time! We were not going to go into debt for her, and ideally, she wouldn’t go into debt either. I impressed upon her how it wasn’t worth hocking 10 or more years of adult life paying for 32 months on a campus she deemed cool enough.

DD’19 did come around and loves it where she is at (a school 90 miles away that “everybody” goes to and therefore isn’t special).

Good luck, it was a long road for us, but wanted to let you know a happy ending is possible.

DD is now asking about Study Abroad for Spring 2023 so we may or may not have another budget battle ahead. The one she proposed so far was way too expensive.

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What’s your budget ?
Would she be willing to defer for a year in order to go OOS?
Where did she apply?
She can still apply to Temple, it’s a good university with good merit. Its not better than UF but it is Oos, very differenr culture and it might be affordable. Same thing for UNM.
A major issue is this: you take a loan for her first year, then you cannot take it anymore because tour business hasnt rebounded as planned… and she is stuck with a huge loan and no degree.

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My daughter has higher stats and got a large merit award from Temple, it’s still going to cost over $30,000 a year with R/B.

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I would ask very seriously what her goals are in attending a university. Is it an education, opportunities, to improve herself, gain independence (these are all things she would affect) or is it just to live somewhere else and hope it’s what she imagines. All but the last one can be done in state. Spending tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to live somewhere else is a luxury that only your family can decide if you can afford. I’ve said this many times on CC but I consider college a vehicle, not a destination. Just something to consider.

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UNM would be much cheaper than Temple.
USouthern Maine or UMaine should offer tuition reciprocity (?)
An alternative would be to attend a Florida university that participates in the National Student Exchange, spend sophomore year at another university + one semester junior year abroad.

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My advice, if you’re in the travel industry, expect uncertainty. Zoom has already made business travel mostly obsolete. Leisure travel is even more uncertain, because it depends entirely on government restrictions. If she’s in an affordable school, then it’s best to stay there. If, God forbid, someone gets laid-off, your daughter could finish her degree with student loans if she had to. At an OOS school, there’s no backup option, and she would have to transfer and lose credits in the process, making her degree even more expensive.

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@twoinanddone my older S is at USF and miserable. There are no kids on campus, no clubs, nothing to do. He has been at school only one week this semester. He is getting a refund between prepaid, BF and merit, so I don’t care, but he isn’t in a good place so that’s why I am in a quandary.

I question Is money everything? I am so back and forth I think I am the one going crazy.

I don’t want my D to be miserable, she is more emotional…my S is a Strong kid and power through tough times.

@erd1020 how many public universities are there in FL where your daughter can use Bright Futures? USF is not the only school. If that isn’t her cup of tea, then look at the many other options.

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All of them and the private schools, but it’s not so cut and dry. Florida is a very diverse state. So all things are not equal. Some states have many universities that are comparable. Florida may have many schools but most were local colleges that became universities in the 60’s. They aren’t in college towns. They don’t offer the majors she wants. Some are commuter schools. Some are too rural or too urban or too something. They aren’t academically challenging. Only UF and FSU for public are true Full Universities and UM for private. Others are small. She wants D1, Big Conference, Rah Rah campus. Academically challenging, with good career potential. Leaving three choices instate. She only applied to UF - we are waiting to hear on Friday.

My daughter will graduate in the top 5% of her class of 600, she worked hard, did get merit OOS.

I am just trying to see what is out there. Please don’t judge me. I am just asking about loans. There is so much on the news about student loans these days it’s confusing.
I just don’t understand why it there is so much controversy. Am I missing something?

BF can also be used at private schools in Florida, so Eckerd, Rollins, UMiami.

Just picking an OOS school isn’t going to make it more active than Florida universities. I’m surprised to hear USF doesn’t have students on campus or any activities. Most schools have SOMETHING going on, including D1 sports.

D#2 went to a private Florida school (and used BF and the resident grant, merit, and other scholarships). That campus still has a lot of activity, including a watch party (remote and a few in person) for the Mars landing, internships, live lectures, a few sports.

At the time she went, BF was about 1/2 what it is now, and I still thought it was a good deal (although if she’d found an OOS school at the same price that would have been fine). D#1 went OOS because she didn’t have BF and Wyoming was financially a better deal than the FL schools would have been.

They attended a big FL high school and very few of their classmates went OOS. Those who did go OOS were mostly athletes or kids who had ROTC scholarships. I don’t remember anyone going to Georgia Tech because it was just too expensive compared to BF/FPP at a Florida school. Over the years, a few did go to Alabama or Mississippi State, and a friend of my daughter’s attended UNC.

Because there are enough students who have excessive college loans that it’s an issue repaying them.

If your daughter is only taking the $5500-$7500 a year Direct Loan, that is very different than you parents co-signing large loans for her.

As I said above, if you can’t afford to pay for a more costly college, you might want to think twice why you think you will be happy paying off loans you take out for your kid to attend a college.

We actually asked our kids to take the Direct Loans. It helped us with cash flow while they were in college. We paid those loans off as a an undergrad graduation gift to them both.

We flatly refused to take out a home equity loan, co-sign a loan with them, or take out any additional loans in our names as parents.

We did not have that issue to deal with. In the Thumper family, both parents worked full time. My entire paycheck went to pay college costs and nothing else for seven years. I worked one year after our youngest graduated and then retired. If we had had large college loans, I would have had to keep working and that wasn’t in MY plan.

Think about your future as a parent financially? Will you be able to make those additional loan payments? What if you lose your job, or one parent can’t work for some reason or another. Stuff happens.

Just keep your own future in the picture too.

And I agree with others…the likelihood of you finding a sure thing 10% no risk investment is about zero.

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@twoinanddone USF has very few live classes. The dorms are very restrictive. Many students decided to stay at home and commute. The fall was fun bc of the Buccaneers, but my son is bored. With online classes he has been in Tally, Gainesville or home more than Tampa. He is transferring. Not impressed.

I live in the northeast, the vast majority of colleges here are almost all online, right now at university of Delaware they got about half the on campus students in dorms (singles, last semester only 1200 out if about 10,000 were on campus). The vast majority of classes are online (this in my daughter’s 3rd semester with all virtual classes, many asynchronous). This is the same all over the region, every college my kids applied to have no in person tours, can’t enter the buildings. My daughter’s sorority is rushing through zoom. Parents are losing their minds paying $50,000 a year for online classes, limited dining, limited gym access, no social activities. My daughter has friends at other universities, same thing. Heck, everyone is threatening to transfer their kids to southern schools! Loans are horrible (we have them, no choice) compound interest isn’t your friend. Fortunately my kids chose majors that have good paying careers, and my graduates can afford the high monthly payments.

Federal student loans are simple interest, not compound. When the loans go into repayment status, the interest that has accrued from the deferred period is compounded once, but then it goes back to simple interest.

Another reason to compare private loans and federal loans carefully before deciding which is right for you.

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