I am going to take the MPP major with a grain of salt because in March…this same student was going to major in engineering.
I still will likely major in engineering. What’s wrong with wanting to weigh multiple options? Especially because not everyone who enters college as an engineering major sticks with that major…Any high school student who plans to major in engineering but does not consider any other majors is being overconfident, in my opinion.
There is nothing wrong with switching majors…as many students do so.
HOWEVER, you started this thread asking about a very specific major (not engineering) and what debt would be reasonable for that major.
Since you really don’t know what your college major will be, perhaps choosing an affordable college with the least amount of debt would be a good choice. Oh…and one with a big variety of majors.
You don’t have to make up your mind bout a college major…now.
Even if you major in engn, 27.5k (the fed student loan max) can leave you hurting. Period. Do not take private loans.
Now, can we get away from the insistence poli sci and PP would definitely lead to low paying jobs. It’s uninformed, at a time when OP is trying to weigh. Some flat out don’t know that.
You could, if that’s your only choice, take on the federal loans, but your goal should be to attend a college that will offer you maximum need-based and/or merit aid. That means working really hard on your test scores and getting, if possible 1400+ (especially 1450+).
What colleges are you thinking of?
Have you run the NPC on each of them?
DO NOT make your parents take on loans for you.
Merit aid is a strong possibility because I have a 99/100 weighted GPA (my school doesn’t use a 4.0 scale) and a 1570 SAT. I am only considering in-state schools, schools with lots of merit aid, and 100% need met schools. I have run NPCs and most, but not all, of the 100% need met schools would be too expensive for me. However, I am aware that the NPCs aren’t always accurate, and that colleges meet each others’ offers, so I am applying to those schools anyway.
Unfortunately, not having my parents take out loans is probably not an option. They have 30K in a 529 plan and for the remaining total cost of college, they will take out loans for half and I will take out loans for half.
With these scores, you can absolutely avoid taking on loans, and certainly limit them to the federal limit.
Some colleges with good financial aid include your instate choices, but also UMichigan; colleges with good merit aid are more numerous and include McDermott or AES at UTD, USC-Columbia Honors (top honors college, excellent scholarships). American has full tuition scholarships for its honors students and is excellent for poli sci.
Run the NPC on Dickinson, Middlebury, Hamilton, Macalester. Those are very good for Poli Sci, meet full need, and Dickinson offers merit aid.
If they’re not within budget, cross them out.
Applying to unaffordable colleges is a waste of time.
Top “meet need” colleges may meet universities they consider peers, but if peers would be unaffordable too, they won’t change their offer; they also won’t match merit aid nor will they match a “non peer”.
So, your annual budget is
8K 529 plan (I assume your parents will add 2K between now and college)
5.5K loan
? = Parents’ contribution from current income
? = your job’s savings (if you work about 8 hours a week during the year, and 25+ hours a week during the summer, you should be able to add $5,000 to your budget if you start now and continue till Fall 2018; if you keep that income below $6,000 you’re not deducted financial aid)
===> does that look realistic?
Assuming you earn 6K and your parents contribute 10K, your total budget would be 30K.
If you earn 4K and your parents contribute only 6K (or $500 a month) your total budget is 23.5K. That’s what you need to work with.
Do not make your parents take loans for you. Don’t do that to them.
Your job from now on is going to be finding lots of scholarships for your stats. You’re lucky and must have worked very hard, because they’re excellent, so you should have lots of possibilities for private-loan-free college.
My parents’ plan is to have 30K in the 529 plan by the time I start college. I don’t know where you’re getting 8K from.
Regarding “parents contribution from current income”, my parents said that they would contribute the money in the 529 plan, and take out loans for the rest that they would contribute. There was no mention of other contributions. Should I ask them to clarify?
Wouldn’t financial aid that is not federal aid still be subtracted even if income is below $6000? I thought that rule only applied to federal aid. I will probably not receive any federal aid (if I go to somewhere expensive, it will be a CSS profile school). And anyway, I’m not including that in my calculations because I figure that income from jobs will just cancel out the tuition increase each year (at the expensive private universities, that is, because a tuition increase of 1.5K per year is an average of almost 4K per year anyway). And the fact that expected student contribution increases each year.
Why should I not consider schools whose NPC is not within budget? Plenty of people have found NPCs to be inaccurate. My guidance counselor said that they generally have a margin of error of plus or minus 5K.
The way I see it, I have 30/4 = 7.5K per year from parents, and then maybe 5K per year from a job (if I ignore tuition increases and the fact that I’m not working this summer—interning/volunteering instead). So that makes 12.5K per year for no loans, and 19K per year for no private loans (averaging the amount of federal loans available per year).
And that’s if I do decide to major in something “easier” like political science where I’ll still have time to work through college (may not be the case if I decide to major in engineering which I am also considering, although admittedly not relevant to this thread’s topic). It’s also assuming that I won’t have to do any unpaid internships during the summers instead of working, which may be necessary if I major in something like political science.
Also, American does not appear to have any full tuition scholarships.
Am I missing anything?
My kids were poli sci majors and have MPA degrees.
You should no take out private loans for undergrad (or grad school). If you borrow up to the max in federal direct loans you should be ok, but you shouldn’t take on any more than that.
Keep in mind that grad school for an MPA/MPP is also costly.
I would suggest that you look at your in-state public options, and/or schools where you could get good merit aid (unless your parents income is low enough so that a full-need school would meet your budget).
Npc 's are pretty accurate for meet need schools. For schools whose NPC is basic or doesn’t include merit yes they can be inaccurate.
You mention a possible 5K discrepency but is your budget within 5k of affordability?
If they are, look at Penn M&T.
American does have full tuition scholarships (look at honors /scholars and ‘merit scholarships’ ).
Parents who contribute tend to use savings (529) and current income. Typically the 529 has already been filled throughout the years. In your case it sounds like your 529 is where your parents are depositing their current contribution and don’t think they can contribute or don’t count on contributing from their income directly to the college in addition to your 529?
I used the $500/month because it’d be a reasonable expectation - some students count much more especially when they’re aiming for expensive colleges.
5k from work earnings are from this summer and next summer plus a few hours during the week in the spring senior year. Work study in college is being cut from federal budget but it’s reasonable to work 8-10 hours off campus if you find something m as a freshman and to make $1,250-1,500 per semester to cover books and incidentals.
With this budget you ought to target big merit schools, start working on them this summer especially USC Columbia Honors whose application is long and due early. Same thing for NCSU.
NPCs are known not to be accurate for specific situations, self-employed parents, divorces, etc. I wouldn’t generalize that they are so inaccurate that you might hit some magic paydirt, can “plan” with that in mind. No, the wise start from a position of caution.
It is difficult for many kids to even earn 3k over summer. And harder to count on an outside job during college. You have to find the job, compete with locals to get hired, get to the workplace, etc. They may want you during hours you have class. You don’t get the sort of scheduling flexibility work/study offers (eg, during exams.)
If you’re talking about a 60k college, you have roughly 13k covered ($7500 from the 529+ $5500 freshman fed stu loan.) That’s what you know. If you do earn that 6k between now and starting college, fine, you have 19k. But how do you continue to earn that 6k, for following years? Right now, it’s risky to assume.
You run the NPCs and see how they “gap you.” So, what are they gapping you? What is the “family contribution?” What amount makes them “too expensive?” Is this a small amount your parents can borrow and manage to pay back or something exorbitant that spells doom? Give us an example.
And you look for merit.
Deal with the knowns first.