<p>As I begin my second year in my BFA, I'm finding myself more and more terrified of the mounting debt. After this year, I will be about $65,000-$70,000 in debt.</p>
<p>How do you all deal with the debt in such insecure times and with such an insecure field of study?</p>
<p>I'm just worried and looking for some words of wisdom from the best place I can think to get it.</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>Good heavens - You are right to be terrified of such a large debt. It is quite ridiculous to even consider taking on so much debt even for a more secure field of study. $70k after just 2 years? How on earth are you planning to make the payments on that? $70k at 8% paid over 10 years would be $850 a month every month for 10 years. And you will have that debt half way through?</p>
<p>I don’t wan to pry into your personal situation and so if you don’t want to answer these questions, please don’t. I’m just trying to understand your situation better. </p>
<p>According to a post on the Theater Majors forum as to the sticker price at these theater programs, Hartt costs $37,814 per year for tuition, room and board. Is that correct? </p>
<p>Were you a need based financial need applicant? If so, did you qualify for any aid? Did you get any grants as part of that aid? Any merit talent scholarships? If you owe close to $70,000 for two years, that is almost as much as this school costs for two years with no scholarships or aid. </p>
<p>So, if you got aid, you did not get much or else you did not qualify for aid. If you did not qualify for need based aid, your family is of an income level that should be able to afford SOME of the college expense. </p>
<p>The way your post reads (correct me if I am wrong) is that you are shouldering the entire expense of your college education and your parents are not funding any or hardly any of it. You owe almost what it costs to attend. Have your parents said they will not pay for college? In such a situation, I cannot see a student taking on the entire loan burden and making the choice to go under those circumstances for any college major for that matter. </p>
<p>So, I cannot fully understand the entire situation. If you did not get any aid, it leads me to believe your parents may be in an income category to help you go to college but are not choosing to pay or take out loans themselves and you are paying for your entire education. If that is the case, I’m not sure the wisdom in funding the entire cost with student loans. Actually, student loans do not go as high as yours seem to be. To my knowledge (and my kids are on financial aid), the student loans are Stafford and Perkins and they have a limit. The other loans we have are Parent Plus Loans in our name (frankly, we are paying the ones in the students’ names as well eventually). So, I don’t get how the amount you gave is all in your name.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to be so unclear.</p>
<p>The big chunk of the loans are in my mother’s name, but I will be the one paying for them and the only reason she qualified for the loans was because she’s married to my rather well-off stepfather (who refuses to pay for any of it because I’m not his kid)</p>
<p>The reason I attended in the first place was because it was my top choice and because my mother had faith in me.</p>
<p>I regret that I will most likely have to leave after this semester, but no decisions are final yet (aside from me completing this semester)</p>
<p>There is really no new information today than there was when you enrolled. What was the plan that your mom thought was feasible for you to attend college? Did she expect for you to pay $140,000 in loans yourself? I find that hard to imagine a parent going along with that. </p>
<p>As far as qualifying for financial aid, it usually goes by your own parents’ income, not a stepparent. So, are you saying you did not qualify for any aid? What was your mom’s plan to fund college? Do you have a father in your life? </p>
<p>I think you need to meet with your parents to discuss a feasible plan. This should have happened before you entered. The fact is that many of the loans are in your mom’s name I assume. Perhaps she can help. </p>
<p>Talk to someone in the financial aid office as well. If a parent can afford to pay but refuses, there is not much that a financial aid office is going to do. :But your stepdad is not your dad and so I’m not sure how that is relevant. By the same token, I don’t know if your mom works or if your stepdad supports her and the family and if it is the latter, she ought to have a say in whether to help fund college. Who supported you up through age 18?</p>
<p>Perhaps you can work something out with your family. Again, this issue was one to really straighten out prior to college. Perhaps you can be responsible for the student loans and your mom for the parent loans. Does your mom expect you to be able to pay back $140,000? She may have faith in you (most moms do!) but realistically, most young folk cannot come up with that money even in a stable field of work. </p>
<p>Seek counsel from your parents and from your college to come up with a plan. You may have to take some time off, earn some money and to become legally independent to qualify for need based loans. Right now, your parents’ income is taken into account for financial aid.</p>
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Not true for FAFSA (I don’t know about profile, if this is a profile school). For FAFSA the income/assets of the spouse of the custodial parent are reported and treated the same as those of a natural parent.</p>
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If you are going to have to leave after this semester then why do this semester? (assuming it is not too late to withdraw without paying for it). That is a lot more needless debt.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, thank you for clarifying about stepparent income. So, what this seems like is that the mom and stepdad may be be to afford to pay for college but are choosing not to and a college is not going to help a kid out in that situation. </p>
<p>Ace of spades…I am a little confused. I looked back on a prior poat of yours from March of 2008 when you posted excitedly (and deservedly) that you got into Hartt with “a bountiful scholarship.” Now, everyone defines “bountiful” differently, of course. But is the cost to attend Hartt the amount I quote above? If so, the amount you owe is close to the full cost of attendance. Who paid the difference (though small) or was the difference your scholarship? Because it is not a lot it seems and thus my confusion with the “bountiful scholarship” post. Perhaps you can clarify. I don’t want to force you to answer what you do not care to answer but you posed this dilemma here and so it is hard to fully help without fully understanding it all.</p>
<p>In another post of yours from back when you were getting accepted to college, you wrote:</p>
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</p>
<p>I am not sure the conversation that you had with your parents to attend the BFA school that cost more than the BA and how that would be handled. Did your mom want you to fund the entire cost yourself and did she feel that was a realistic option for a young person? A decision was made to go to a more expensive school but I am not sure what the plan was to fund it. Perhaps your mom really will help pay the loans that are in her name (she’ll be obligated to if you can’t anyway). You say your mom “had faith in you” and that sort of implies she had faith and is willing to help pay for college or what do you mean by “having faith?” She may believe in you but how is that related to the funding of your education. I can see someone saying “my mom had faith in me and was willing to pay for a degree in MT” but I’m not sure I get the point you were making that you went to Hartt because your mom had faith in you. If she was not going to pay anything toward college, you could go where you wanted as she wasn’t involved really. So, I’m not sure I am fully understanding what the family decided and if your mom thought you could afford to pay it all yourself. Again, this situation TODAY is not different than it was when your family chose to send you to Hartt. </p>
<p>One idea is to transfer to the BA schools that funded you 75% even though I realize you prefer a BFA program. Many who do a BA are very successful in this field and you would have a more manageable debt load as well. You can supplement with more training when you are in NYC eventually by taking some classes.</p>
<p>You’re very right soozievt, I should go back to the BA schools even if its not what I wanted</p>
<p>My scholarship is $5,000 a year which I thought was rather large at the time until I actually got to school and realized it was one of the smallest in my class.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to talk this through with my mother and she what she has to say. My mother and money are a combination that never ends well for anyone, and who was supposed to be paying for my school is a huge family (and very intricate) problem. </p>
<p>It’s been bounced around for years between the divorce and I guess I just now realized my mother is, in a way, using me as bait for my weathly great grandmother (on my fathers side). I guess she figures if my grandmother sees me in trouble and has the money she’ll want to help. It’s such a complicated family problem thats just been worsened by the divorce and it probably doesn’t make any sense but thats just how it is.</p>
<p>It’s just weird and I’m just scared.</p>
<p>It sounds like there is more to this in your family. I would have a frank discussion with your mom. Ask her if she truly is expecting you to fund all four years of college yourself which is going to be impossible. Tell her that is your understanding and you fear you cannot remain in school and shoulder that kind of debt all alone. Ask her what her intentions are. She signed for the loans. Does she plan to pay, hopes your dad will pay, hopes your stepdad will pay, hopes your wealthy great grandma will pay or just what. And if your great grandma is well to do and if you are close at all, perhaps you can approach her. But you need to work this out now with your family as it sounds as if your understanding is that YOU have to pay for it all but I am unclear if that is your mom’s understanding when she sent you off to Hartt. I find it hard to imagine she expected you to pay for it all. Again, not sure what “mom had faith in me” means unless she had faith you would make it and was willing to fund it. If you will receive no family assistance in funding your education, then faith in you is nice emotionally but is unrelated to paying the bill. Please have a heart to heart with your mom now about how you are paying for Hartt (sorry for the pun).</p>
<p>How much of the debt is in your name?</p>
<p>I believe that the lifetime limit allowed on a Stafford Loan for an undergraduate dependent student is $31,000. The lifetime maximum for Perkins Loans for an undergrad is $27,500. Therefore, after four years of college, if this student took out the maximum amount of Stafford and Perkins loans, he would owe $58,500 total (before interest). He can’t be responsible for the $140,000 in loans that he mentions. The loans that are not Stafford or Perkins ones are ones in his mother’s name. I have no idea her plan to pay those but he needs to find out because honestly, he is not legally responsible for those.</p>
<p>That was my thought too Soozie. Not to be harsh to mom, but those loans are her problem.</p>
<p>Have to admit I was thinking the same. I very much believe in my kids as well but I would have so strongly discouraged them from anything even approaching this sort of debt. But it does sound like the OP needs to seriously think of what her next step will be. I really feel for you my dear. It sounds like you were not given very good guidance in the past but are very sensibly beginning to realize you are in a bad situation. I wish you the best of luck in figuring this all out.</p>
<p>AceofSpades, I don’t have a solution for you but I want to say how sorry I am that you have been put in this situation as a result of divorce and parents being unwilling to act like adults. Divorce is crap and kids get the worst of it…if the parents agree to act in the best interests of the child it is as good as it can be. I’m sorry your parents are failing you in this.</p>
<p>I know when I was a kid you could live on your own for a year and become independent which meant that your financial status was totally based on your income, not your parents/stepparents. You might want to look into that as it might improve your financial aid situation. Not sure what it entails but it might help.</p>
<p>I do agree with everyone else though, there comes a time when the debt just isn’t worth any kind of degree!</p>
<p>Just chiming in here to say that I admire ace for trying to take this situation in hand before it spirals way out of control. Some kids would just ignore it and hope things would turn out OK, but the OP is obviously intelligent and realistic. The bottom line is that you are accruing way, way too much debt. It’s not worth it. You don’t have to have a BFA in order to be successful. </p>
<p>Also, ace, I am truly sorry that you even have to worry about this.</p>
<p>AceofSpaces, I agree 100% with Skwidjymom. I’m sorry you’re caught in the middle. You don’t deserve to be used as a pawn between your mom and paternal grandmother. I applaud you for taking control of this situation right now and not waiting until you’ve graduated. Also, agree that those loans in your mom’s name are her responsibility. Good luck in your future endeavors. We’re rooting for you.</p>
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This is not possible - the rules have changed. A student aged under 24 is a dependent for financial aid unless they meet very specific criteria (are married, have a dependent of their own, are a veteran etc etc). My 22 year old son had lived on his own for 3 years and was totally self sufficient - he was still considered a dependent when he returned to college.</p>
<p>Ace, a few posters are reminding you that loans your mom took out in her name are HER responsibility. The lending institution isn’t interested in any verbal agreement you may have made with her about payment, they’ll send the bills to her. If she’s in a good financial spot after remarrying then great, she can manage. Worry most about what’s in your name, and talk to the FA people at school. That might sound a little underhanded but geez you need a little something.</p>