I think when a teen lives in a household where “maybe” and “we’ll see” can turn into “yes,” it’s very, very difficult to be mature enough to say, "I’m not hearing a clear yes, so I’m going to take control of this situation and say “no.” It’s only been a few weeks since this young woman learned how high her family EFC is and that colleges don’t care about the debt the family carries. It’s a tough situation to wrap your mind around. However, time is growing short.
Notify ASU that you won’t be attending. It will likely mean losing the deposit, which is unfortunate, but sometimes it’s better to cut your losses.
Apply to the Univ. of Arizona/Tucson and PIMA (the local cc) immediately.
Make sure your guidance counselor sends your transcripts and whatever other paperwork the colleges require.
Add both colleges to your FAFSA so your federal student loan can be sent to whichever one you decide to attend.
Ask your parents how much they can contribute per year and get a number – One thousand? Two thousand? None?
Get a job – any job – and start saving as much as you can. You’ll need books, transportation expenses, and spending money.
Spend some time on the college websites of both PIMA and the Univ. of Arizona to see what they have to offer. Find something to love about both schools.
I wish you a lot of luck. I know it’s a difficult situation, but you do seem to have some affordable choices. Please keep us updated on how things are working out.
When you mom says they will figure it out, she is likely thinking loans. Since they are tapped out with their own financial problems, I suspect that you will be the one that they expect to pay them back. You are looking at 120K in loans at 7% plus interest (assuming parent plus loans),. These loans start charging interest from day 1! Each loan will grow by 2K+ each year while you are in school. Yow will owe 130K+ on the day you graduate. !30K @ 7% for 10 years is $1500+ per month or 18,000 per year. And that is a low ball estimate. Look at your parents, they make a decent income (many would say a great income) but they are struggling. What do you think it will be like for you with a much lower income? So when your parent outline their plan, you need to have your own plan about repayment and how it will impact your life. Debt at this level will impact all aspect of your life. It will have to be factor into decisions about marriage, family planning, grad school, home ownership, …
My suggestion is visit your community school. See if you can sit in a few classes and see what you think. Walk around the campus and talk with the students and get their impressions. Talk to the transfer advisor and get hard facts about what sort of transfer agreements they have.
Our flagship ship has strong transfer agreements with the state community college system. It has housing with a transfer community to aid the transition. It has a support system to help the students transferring in. CC does not mean the end of the world. It is just one of the doors open to you. Maybe in two year your parents finances will improve or you will find a job and more options will be available.
@twoinanddone My trip to PR is for family reasons, not for a retreat. My Gradnmother needs help, and I’m going to help her. She paid, because I couldn’t afford to go anyways. And I have done ANY job. I’ve set up targets at the local range for shooters at competitions. I’ve picked up others people’s trash,weeds, and painted in AZ’s 100+ heat and babysitted for other people’s children. So I have had jobs. Small jobs, but they were something. So it’s not that I think I’m too good for a job.
I called Pima and asked about placement tests ( I know you have to register and be admitted first, but I was already practicing for the tests at school), and I can take them at any campus. I have a classmate who is enrolled and takes classes now, so I’ll ask her for any advice and how to work around!
Lovenetc…your plan to take the placement tests at Pima sounds like a good one. I remember not being able to get a decent paying job as a teen…I worked on a farm which I actually liked but paid extremely poorly. I think some of us are responding so strongly because we know what it’s like to have to say no to our kids and we also know how awful it is to have loans, or even worse, apply for and be denied loans as a parent. I have taught at a community college. We had a lot of students that deserved a great education (and many that sort of didn’t). They definitely got some of my best teaching…I was proud of my work and their work at CC. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.
I’m a little harsh because I had parents just like yours. They didn’t mind debt and dragged me to a college to sign up for it. I didn’t understand anything about money or paying bills or planning ahead because they never did and never taught me. Ironically, I’ve worked in consumer finance for 30+ years now and have seen many families like our borrowing their way through life, and many families in even worse financial shape. They made too much for me to qualify for any financial aid, but not enough to pay for tuition, rent, food.
Not through any planning on anyone’s part, it ended up that I worked all summer to pay my tuition (which was about $1000) and then my father would send me money for rent. $125 due the first of every month. And every month I was calling him, begging him to send a check. Every month, like it was a big surprise that rent was due on the first. I worked all through school typing at $2.20/hr, and that was my money to live on. Yep, about $30/week. If my grandfather sent me $10, I was in heaven. While my friends were at spring break in Texas and Florida or skiing, I was typing. While they got to go home for the summer, I was typing and filing. I really only survived my senior year because I had a very nice roommate whose generous mother would bring us care packages of mac and cheese, toilet paper, cookies, paper towels, soup.
You have decisions to make. You can go to PR to help your grandmother. You can work. You can go into debt. You just can’t do it all. You can blame congress for not setting up funding for you to go to college, but it won’t help. You have some cheaper options like living at home and commuting to an affordable school. You can defer and work for a year to save.
Most likely you won’t be giving up your dream of Barrett Honors if you go to Pima, only postponing it for a while. You could join the honors program at Pima which would give you a excellent chance of transferring to Barrett. In the meantime I have read here on CC that it is possible to take out student federal loans (not Parent Plus) in the amounts that you can reasonably expect to pay off after graduation for the first two years you attend Pima and bank the money to help you get through the last two years at ASU Barrett. Here’s a link which discusses how this works http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1870394-are-federal-loans-use-it-or-lose-it-for-the-year-they-are-offered.html . Once you transfer to Barrett you will most likely qualify for their transfer scholarship which would be an additional $1,000 to $4,000 per year.
@Lovenetc did you get into U of A? Barrett isn’t any better than UA honors college and you would only have to pay around 11k since you can commute. Besides, Tucson is nicer than Phoenix imo
If not, I would suggest going to Pima. Of course it’s up to you, but honestly going to ASU for 4 years instead of Pima/transfer to whatever school isn’t worth the amount of debt it will put you in.
If you decide to go to Pima, I may be going there next year as well:D
Also I read some of your other replies and I want to say there’s no shame in going to community college and it won’t diminish all the hard work you’ve done. Plenty of my classmates are amazing, hardworking individuals and they went to Pima for cost issues. My mom also went to community college for 2 years and she has a PharmD and a great job now.
@Lovenetc , I was curious to know what a “Health Sciences” major at ASU consists of so I just checked out the pre-professional degree program requirements and possible careers (if medical school is not possible). That degree is not worth major debt. It is not focused enough for a lucrative career by itself, nor broad enough to be considered a liberal arts education. It is only a way to get prerequisites for medical school. If a student does not get into medical school, there is debt without a specific career focus. Community college would be more practical than that degree, especially when money is an issue.
@Lovenetc That is terrific news. I looked on the info page and it says the following:
“Commitment award: Resident and nonresident participants receive financial assistance to support their commitment to the program throughout the four years. This includes a scholarship to cover unmet tuition costs and a monthly living stipend.”
Your next step, and I would do this without delay, is to bring to them your documentation regarding your current financial aid package and see what they would cover. Clarify how they determine “unmet tuition costs” (if it’s based on your EFC, then it may not change your situation). If the monthly living stipend covers room and board then you are substantially closer to your goal. And do move forward with the ACT remediation test, because every little bit helps.
Really, call them TODAY to get more information. May 1 is right around the corner.
Congratulations @Lovenetc ! That seems like a great opportunity. The wording is what worries me - “up to” is what you need to clarify. Like @mamaedefamilia said, call TODAY and get a firm answer.
The deadline to commit is very soon. Have you thought about how you’re going to pay the enrollment deposit?
@whitespace Fortunately, I was able to pay the $300 deposit from a paid internship I am comeleting at school. At the end of this semester I will receive another $475 sp thay will go into my savings
Hey everyone! I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated about the Next Generation Service Corps stuff, so here is one email I recieved about the finanical aid prospect. This is what they said:
"As each student’s financial package gets individually evaluated by the Office of Scholarship Services, they have requested to do so once our cohort is complete, which will occur in June. While the award may not be visible in your account, by accepting your position in our cohort, you are guaranteed to receive our financial commitment up to full tuition and a $2500 grant stipend.
Calculating your award: Thanks to the generous support of ASU, our funding for our commitment award comes from the same pool of funding for scholarships and university gift aid. As such, if you are receiving New American University merit scholarships and grants from the university, those will impact your PSA commitment award, as they are not stackable. Our maximum award comes out to about $12,500 for in-state students (~$10,000 for tuition and $2,500 grant stipend). As I look at your financial aid package, it looks like you is getting $2614 in scholarships and gift aid from the university, so the difference ($9886) would be about how much your PSA commitment award is worth."
I poked around a little on the program and found that it just started last fall so they have one year of experience. It said they expected 100 in the non-ROTC section of the program, but gave no information on how many students applied.
It looks like a good deal for the OP if she gets accepted, with her tuition covered plus a stipend for living expenses. It is also a lot of work, so might cut into working hours.
@twoinanddone Very true. My Mom and Dad are worried that I’ll be overwhelmed ( I did A LOT in high school) but I reassured them that this program will get me out of the financial rut and that I wouldn’t have signed up for it if I didn’t think I could handle it. I was actually genuinely interested in it because of my experience in a community development project that me and my classmates worked for three years and recently heard it was approved!!! But the financial resources are also a bonus
