Looking for solid advice on paying for college...

Paying for College
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<p>My son will be attending Cal Poly Pomona in the Fall. It is required for him to live in the dorms since we are outside of the local service area. Costs are approx. $5500 (tuition/fees), $1500 (books), $9800 (room & board)= $16,800 (not counting misc. expenses that he would incur). He will not qualify for financial aid (our EFC is $29,000 a yr) but we cannot afford to pay for all/most of his college. We can probably pay for his books, misc expenses and maybe some of his housing...let's say $3000 a year tops. His financial aid award says he can do a Stafford loan of $5500. That should cover his tuition. He will be an engineering major and I think he can probably get a part time job, but I'm not sure how much he will be able to make. I doubt it will be much, but it will probably be something. </p>

<p>My husband and I do not want to take out PLUS loans (we have 3 younger children at home and it isn't realistic for us to pile up that much debt). </p>

<p>What is reasonable in this situation? We haven't had any luck in the way of scholarships...I look all the time and have him apply to the ones he qualifies for... but his grades are average (3.55 gpa), test scores average, (ACT 28), he isn't a minority, low income, or anything like that. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts.</p>

<p>Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!</p>

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<p>*Costs are approx. </p>

<p>$5500 (tuition/fees),
$1500 (books), </p>

<h2>$9800 (room & board)</h2>

<p>= $16,800 </p>

<p>(not counting misc. expenses that he would incur).*</p>

<p>I would estimate that he’d probably need about $1500 minimum for personal expenses, etc.</p>

<p>So, it sounds like the total would be about: $18,300 per year.</p>

<p>Hmmmm…well, it sounds like you’re all stuck. </p>

<p>I’m curious. How did you think his college costs were going to get paid for when the application process started? </p>

<p>Did your son apply to any financial safety schools - such as a school he can commute to?</p>

<p>He can only borrow $5500, you can add $3000…that makes $8500. It’s unrealistic to think he can earn anywhere close to the $10,000 that he still needs. </p>

<p>How much could he reasonably save with a summer job? $1200? $1500? (I don’t know what he’s having to pay for now? gas? insurance? )</p>

<p>Can he get a summer job?</p>

<p>He might be able to work part-time during the school year, but that money will be needed for expenses during the school year. Will he have a car on campus?</p>

<p>Can a parent take a part-time job, a second job, or work more hours to bring in more money? You say you have more kids, so this problem will repeat itself shortly.</p>

<p>Where else did he get accepted to?</p>

3

<p>

<a href=“our%20EFC%20is%20$29,000%20a%20yr”>quote</a>

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<p>These three things just don’t go together. I’m afraid you need to tell your son that you don’t feel you can afford to send him to college, to rescind his acceptance of the offer by the deadline tomorrow, and have him either work and save for future ed or attend a local community college and live at home, or attend a university and live at home.</p>

<p>There just isn’t any way to finance it otherwise, and it is completely unrealistic to expect a student to earn sufficient revenue during the school year to close a $10,000 gap.</p>

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<p>Even if he goes to community college for two years, he may have significant problems funding the remaining years if you continue to have an EFC > $20K and yet only have the ability to support $3K a year towards his college, unless a state university is near enough that he could live at home and commute all four (or, for engineering, more likely five) years.</p>

<p>Did he apply to any local public universities? Is he interested in ROTC? Is your income consumed by extraordinary medical expense, eldercare expenses, or expenses to care for a disabled spouse or child that might provide a rationale for a special circumstances adjustment? (It seems unlikely that it would be this big, but possibly.) Could he appeal the on-campus living requirement and look for housing near campus where he could earn his room and board by providing live-in night coverage for a disabled or frail elderly person?</p>

<p>I don’t know anything about your financial circumstances, but unless this is a short term issue for you, it might be kinder to tell all of your kids up-front that while you earn too much to qualify for financial aid, you’re simply not able to provide any significant support for their college expenses. It is pretty devastating when a student learns that senior year in high school.</p>

5

<p>“Is your income consumed by extraordinary medical expense, eldercare expenses, or expenses to care for a disabled spouse or child that might provide a rationale for a special circumstances adjustment?”</p>

<p>They have four kids, and live in Calif (one of the expensive parts?) . I’m hazarding that its housing. minivan, and general expenses thats driving that. We have a smaller EFC, hence smaller income, and 3k seems easy to me, but once DD is gone we are empty nesters, and are used to frugal living.</p>

6

<p>Aka, this is a problem many familes face. It looks to me like you cannot afford to send your son to that school. These are some possible solutions"</p>

<p>1) Do the numbers and see if you can borrow the money through Plus so that your payment comes to about $1200 a year. By balancing the loan payments/tuition payments, you may be able to leverage enough to get by</p>

<p>2) Call the financial aid office and find out if there are any private loans your son can take.</p>

<p>3) Your son should start looking for jobs and work at least two jobs over the summer and save every cent he can. He should also be first in line to get a job at the college to meet his expenses. He visit fin aid regularly and look for jobs constantly. He should also scrimp, borrow his books, apply for RA positions, anything to bring down the cost. Perhaps take summer courses which are usually cheaper, and take off a semester working and try to finish in 3-3 1/2 years.
You’ll have to do this 3 more times too. Unless your other kids choose cheaper schools. State schools do not tend to meet full need. </p>

<p>Another idea: can you appeal the commuting rule and save money by having him live at home? That can possibly cut some costs too.</p>

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<p>What Calif publics do you live close enough to commute to? </p>

<p>Your son will likely have to go to a community college for a year or two and then apply to the nearest Cal State/UC.</p>

<p>During that time, he should save as much as he can, you should save as much as you can, and then when it’s time for him to do his last 2 years of college, you’ll be in a better position.</p>

<p>He might even need to take out the unsubs for the first two years, and save the money to add to the last two years.</p>

<p>*it might be kinder to tell all of your kids up-front that while you earn too much to qualify for financial aid, you’re simply not able to provide any significant support for their college expenses. It is pretty devastating when a student learns that senior year in high school. *</p>

<p>1) Do the numbers and see if you can borrow the money through Plus so that your payment comes to about $1200 a year. By balancing the loan payments/tuition payments, you may be able to leverage enough to get by</p>

<p>The problem with that is that they would have to do this every year for 4 years. And, then repeat for 3 other children. That doesn’t sound like a good precedence to set. They could easily end up with over $100k in Plus loans.</p>

<p>Hopefully, other parents and students who could be in a similar situation for next year will read this thread and take note that they need to make these financial determinations much earlier. It’s very hard for a student who has likely been telling everyone that he’s going to X University to learn that it isn’t financially do-able.</p>

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<p>Totally agree with mom2collegekids. I seen her preach this many many times. When deciding which college to apply to, there should be a detail financial plan for each college on the list.</p>

<p>akadavidsmom,
Sorry that this is such a difficult situation.</p>

<p>My son works after school as a tutor and on weekends as a soccer coach. He also already lined up a summer job. But we don’t expect him to earn/save more than $3000/$4000 max when he starts college in the fall. It will be difficult if not impossible for your son to earn $10,000 in a year while going to college full time.</p>

<p>As others pointed out, other options seem to be more loans or community college.</p>

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<p>This is our first child and our first experience with college. Neither my husband nor I attended college but I have been researching endlessly to try to make sure our son could get into a good college and be able to attend. The poster who mentioned living in CA and the expenses of having a family here, is correct. Some of the pre-tax deductions my husband was having taken out of his check changed this year (insurance, etc) and it pushed his income way up and I wasn’t aware of how this would affect our son’s FAFSA until it was too late. The “extra” money that should be coming home on his check is basically getting taxed now, so it’s really not even doing us any good. Our other 3 children are: 1 yr, 3 yrs, and 10 yrs, so our next won’t start college for 8 years. </p>

<p>I don’t understand all the in’s and out’s of financial aid, etc and I wanted my son to do his best to get into a university and figured we’d work out a way to keep him there. We never promised to pay anything towards his college and he is fully aware of that. We have committed to doing whatever we can (my husband works 2 jobs) to help him stay there. </p>

<p>CPP is actually one of the cheapest schools here in So. Cal, it’s basically the housing that is the huge expense. I figure if we can get him through one year there it will get easier because we will know what to expect, etc. Plus we are paying some debt off this year that will free up some cash for us.</p>

<p>Thank you to the parents who have been helpful. Seems like some people get a bit snarky here and I’m not sure why. I am just honestly looking at different financial options for us and for him and wondering if I’m missing anything. Thanks guys.</p>

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<p>akadavidsmom congrats to your son on his admission to CPP, and good luck with making the finances work - he’ll get an excellent education at bargain prices. However, the prices might not seem such a bargain if it means you have to take out loans and severely change your lifestyle to support him. </p>

<p>Here are a couple of small ways to save money:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>have him buy the absolute cheapest meal plan possible and live in a triple. That saves you $1000. He can buy food at a grocery store to augment his meals; if CPP is anything like CP-SLO, the food on campus is overpriced and not that good anyway. You can pay for room & board on the installment plan.</p></li>
<li><p>Have him buy his books used or borrow them from his dorm-mates. Resell the ones he won’t need on half.com.</p></li>
<li><p>He’ll most likely save a lot of money by moving off campus as soon as possible. You mainly need to get through the first year. Next year could be $3000 or so less in room & board.</p></li>
<li><p>If he’s in engineering, he’ll need to budget for lab kits - approx $100/quarter.</p></li>
<li><p>No car on campus.</p></li>
<li><p>Have him apply for work study when he gets there; even though he wasn’t awarded any financial aid, he might still be able to find a job.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck on the scholarships he’s applied for - if a couple of them come through that will certainly help. There are many that weigh community service more heavily than GPA.</p>

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<p>If he defers for a year, he can use that $, add in your $3K and use that for his first year of room/board. Remember that expenses usually go up after the first year. </p>

<p>Americorps might be an option. The military (or Reserves) might be another. </p>

<p>This is a longshot for a kid in today’s economy but sometimes there are jobs (real jobs, not work-study) on campus that offer some sort of tuition benefit. You’ll have to investigate because some colleges don’t give tuition benefit right away. </p>

<p>If room & board is the problem, do you know of anyone who lives near the school? Perhaps you can pay a relative some $ each month for your son to live there.</p>

<p>Is there something you can sell like a 2nd car? Could you hold a huge garage sale to drum up some $? Could you cancel cable, disconnect your landline, compare prices on your insurance policies, cancel any magazine subscriptions? If you don’t work outside the home, could you look to babysit one or two children in your home? (I knew one lady who only cared for children after school and oversaw their homework.) </p>

<p>The truth is that, realistically, you need to figure out how to squeeze $10K/ year for your son to go to school. If you could pay the room/board, his loan could pay the tuition, his summer job could cover books and a work-study could cover spending $. </p>

<p>If deferring for a year will give your family a running start to do that, then that might be the best option but $10K is probably the ballpark of what he will need.</p>

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<p>As a follow up:</p>

<p>He was accepted to: San Diego State, Cal Poly Pomona, and University of the Pacific. He has been offered acceptance to UCR and UCM. He wouldn’t have to live on campus at UCR, but with their high tuition costs, it would work out to be about the same as CPP in the end. He will be majoring in Mechanical Engineering…</p>

<p>I am looking into the ROTC info for him. I don’t really understand how that works either, but I can research it. For the Air Force ROTC, he would need to gain 20 lbs to qualify…ha ha. Minimum weight for 6 feet tall is 140 and he only weighs 120. Yikes.</p>

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<p>Is he interested in ROTC? Remember that it can mean his going to war. It has to be something he is willing to do. I do know someone who enlisted and is now in college-- but it’s something the young man wanted to do.</p>

<p>Honestly, and I don’t mean any disrespect here and I’m not trying to pry, but is there any way you guys could find a way to get him $10K a year after this year? If you paid off that debt and saved $3K for him this year, is there a way to make it work after that? I’m just thinking (hoping) that if your EFC was $29K, there might be a way to come up with a third of that.</p>

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<p>The deadlines for ROTC scholarship applications have long passed for Fall 2010. My experience is that military service is a calling. If you do it to pay for school at a minimum you will be miserable. The most likely scenario is you drop ROTC and have to pay back the money or enlist. </p>

<p>ROTC is not an option for Fall 2010.</p>

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<p>As a family, you need to sit and figure out the finances. To pay…you need a combination of savings (do you have some that can be tapped for college costs?), current income (can some of your current income be diverted to college expenses?) and future income (can you take some loans to help with these costs?). Both parents and the student need to answer these questions. </p>

<p>Another thing that helped us with “cash flow” was using a monthly payment plan which is how we allocated current earnings portion. This may be something you want to consider as well.</p>

<p>College finances can be complicated, but regardless…you need a plan for paying the bills for all four years. So…sit down and see if you can work this out as a family.</p>

<p>If the finances don’t work…consider financial options that will.</p>

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<p>This is just a madcap thought, but you said your son is interested in mechanical engineering.
Do cruise ships take engineering assistance in maintenance? I know in terms of entertainment (my son is a musician) that it is a good way to make money in the summer because you’re trapped on a cruise ship with room and board covered and DON’T NEED SPENDING MONEY, so my understanding is that the kids can just sock it away.
Over the apx. four months avail for work after the first year, that might translate to a nicely accumulated nest egg toward offsetting college expenses.</p>

<p>It might also dovetail nicely with his interests/strengths. Cruise ships are ostensibly more fun than petrochemical plants ;)</p>

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<p>UCR commuting should be cheaper than Cal Poly. </p>

<p>It may not seem like much of a savings, but in this case, every little savings helps.</p>

<p>The fees for UCR are $11,655. books should cost about the same as Cal Poly.</p>

<p>Remember, you don’t pay the whole $11,655 at one time. It’s paid over 3 quarters. That would give your son and your family time to earn what it takes to get that paid when each quarter is due.</p>

<p>Can your son work a summer job or two? Can he work part-time during the school year? Commuting to UCR would allow him to keep his summer job and reduce his hours to part-time during the school year.</p>

<p>If your son is coming in with AP credits, he might get his standing increased to sophomore. If so, he could ask that his Stafford loans get increased for quarters #2 & #3. </p>

<p>You could also try applying for a Plus loan in your name only. If you’re declined, then your son can borrow $4k more.</p>

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<p>OP - I am all about keeping undergrad costs down. If he can commute to a good school with his major of study that is your best option. Not being sure of the drive time/ practicality of that, the thing that jumped out at me was the fact that your next oldest child is 10 years old. Looking over all the excellent cost cutting advice you’ve already gotten, you need to find a long term plan that leaves you in no worse shape by the time your firstborn graduates and the second child is at this same point. </p>

<p>When subsequent children enter high school you should make choices that maximize scholarship opportunities. Your kids will need high GPA’s and strong test scores to get merit aid, be cautious about how many honors/AP classes you let them sign up for if they are planning to attend a state school.</p>

<p>Good luck to you and your son!</p>