<p>My daughter was accepted to Emory University (her dream school), but when the FA came out it suddenly turned into a nightmare. We have to borrow from 401K and loans to send her to school no matter which school she choses, but we will have to pay about 10,000 more for Emory a year. Can anyone who's been through it tell me their experience. Did you take out loans or borrow/withdraw from your 401K to send your kids to college. Is it worth the debt to send your kid to a top 20 University?</p>
<p>What are her other options?</p>
<p>If you need to be taking from your 401K then no, it’s not worth it to pay $40K more for a “top 20” university. </p>
<p>Everyone has their own tolerance for debt. For me, when my son entered college, I decided that my maximum (total debt) was $40K – it ended up that I was able to get both my kids through college borrowing less than that (under $25K). I looked at in terms of how much I could <em>comfortably</em> afford in monthly payments. </p>
<p>But I wouldn’t touch retirement funds. You might opt to leave the money in the 401K but take a PLUS loan – if you have good credit AND you feel you have a healthy reserve in your 401K – plus you are following my rule of going for a maximum payment that is not going to significantly infringe on your lifestyle, but still will have the loan paid off within 10 years or less – then you may decide that you have a greater tolerance for debt than you thought. </p>
<p>But don’t let the perceived prestige of one school blind you to reality.</p>
<p>Plenty of people here will say no. I know of one parent on CC (he says this himself, so I hope he won’t mind borrowing) who did borrow what he refers to as “the cost of a luxury SUV” to send his D to the school she wanted, and considers it worth every penny though, so there are different opinions. I really think this is the kind of thing that’s best discussed with a financial planner, because if you do decide to borrow, you need to understand the ramifications of it for your own fiscal future. I.e. you need to know how many years it will set back your retirement, what the repayment structure will look like, how many years you’ll be paying off loans (and how that will impact your ability to save for other things) and so on. Someone who has a big picture understanding of your assets and finances can help you the most.</p>
<p>What are her other options?</p>
<p>S2’s dream school was going to be more than we wanted to pay after merit came in… upsetting to all but he went to his full ride school and year later is loving it. He was upset but got over it and has adapted well.</p>
<p>We need more facts…</p>
<p>How much will you have to borrow EACH year to pay for Emory? </p>
<p>What schools did she get accepted to and how much will you have to pay (AND borrow from 401k) to send her to EACH school?</p>
<p>which school is her financial safety school? (this is the school that you can more easily afford AND she likes).</p>
<p>How much can you contribute each year out of current income?</p>
<p>Will you consider borrowing some each year (not a lot) with a Plus loan to minimize impact to 401k. Maybe $5k-10k per year.</p>
<p>how much can your daughter contribute each year from a summer job?</p>
<p>Will you let your D borrow $5k per year with a student loan?</p>
<p>Do you have any younger kids to put thru college?</p>
<p>When do you plan on retiring?</p>
<p>Do not, under ANY circumstance, jeopardize your retirement future. NO college is worth that. It sounds like you plan on borrowing a LOT more (total for 4 years) than the price of a luxury SUV. It sounds like you’ll be borrowing $80k or more.</p>
<p>She was accepted to Creighton University, Univerity of Michigan, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, University of Iowa, Case Western Reserve, and a few others. None of these I feel are comparable to Emory. The cost per year between Emory and her 2nd choice is about 10,000 a year.</p>
<p>You also mention that your D will be pre-med!</p>
<p>OMG…a pre-med student does NOT need to go to a top 20 school. That is toooooo much debt for undergrad when someone wants to go to med school. ANY DECENT school can prepare your child for med school. Is UMinn your state flagship? If so, send her THERE. Or, if UMich is your flagship, then send her there. What state are you in?</p>
<p>It is not true that those other schools aren’t as good as Emory. For what you want…prep for med school…those other schools are just as good. Emory would NOT be worth the extra money…not at all. </p>
<p>you need to go to the pre-med forum here on CC and get the info you need. You will find out that no one needs to go to a top 20 school for pre-med…so unnecessary. And, a complete waste of money. </p>
<p>My son is pre-med at our state flagship which is in the top 100…so not super highly ranked…yet, the school boasts an 85% acceptance rate to med school which rivals the top schools. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/</a></p>
<p>Here is a financial calculator that may help you and your daughter compare the various financial aid offers: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Advanced Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>I know that you want to do right by your child, but sometimes spending less money now so that you can have more money later is the right thing to do.</p>
<p>A friend’s D went to Emory at about 40K/yr. They paid for it. Fortunately, she is majoring in Business. Got an offer one year before gradutaing. She was offerred at over 60K/yr job. So this seems to be OK. On ther other hand, if she was majoring in literature, I am not so sure about the outcome.</p>
<p>Your earlier post indicates she has lots of other great options. I think you are making some assumptions about her other options that may not be accurate. I find it hard to believe that there are particular opportunities at Emory that are not available at these other schools. I might be wrong but warn you not to get sucked into ‘brochure’ speak or branding. Most of the other school options are larger, but not all of them, and also, if she is in a school within a school, the experience can be quite distinct and special. Maybe others with intimate experience with these other schools can give you useful information:</p>
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<p>OmgMom, I feel your pain. We had a similar situation six years ago in which my son was accepted to his dream school but he didn’t get the expected financial aid and the cost would be astronomical. He passed on that and went to a school that we could afford, a (gasp) state university. It worked out great! He is graduating in a month with two graduate degrees and many accolades. He has a great job lined up. If we maxed out of borrowing for undergrad, he may not have been able to attend grad school. Med school would cost even more.</p>
<p>The main point I want to make to you is that he was HAPPY at a different school. Dreams change - Emory isn’t the only route to happiness. What if your daughter doesn’t get accepted to med school, or what if she changes her mind altogether?</p>
<p>The other opinion I want to offer is that nothing short of an emergency would make me withdraw funds from my 401K. I’m so glad we didn’t go into a lot of unnecessary debt. Things happen. People can lose their jobs (that happened to me), the new grad might not find a job immediately, parents can be divorced, the family breadwinner could die (unfortunately, that also happened to me). My kids applied to lots of academic scholarships and got some substantial ones, which helps. We borrowed the maximum Stafford loans. Then we found some very low interest loans available to students in our state. You can borrow for college, but you can’t borrow for retirement.</p>
<p>Good luck to you. I wish I could tell you how counterproductive my initial guilt was. Try to be as resilient as you hope your child will be someday.</p>
<p>We were just mentioning on another thread that the conventional wisdom is that you can make a big school smaller (honors college, involvement in your major department or an EC) but you can’t make a small school bigger (not that Emory is small.) </p>
<p>Here’s an exercise to make you feel better about sending your D to a state school for pre-med: look at your local hospitals physician directory & see the doctors did their undergrad work.</p>
<p>The Honors programs at Minn, Mich, Iowa or other major flagship U’s will certainly give her at least as good an education as Emory. Those who intend to go to medical school can attend their flagship U and have just as good a chance of getting into their state medical school as going elsewhere. The schools listed will offer opportunities equal to or better than Emory in the sciences- good for getting into grad school if she changes her medical school plans.</p>
<p>Two things. Do NOT sacrifice your retirement funds- you can never recoup those losses whereas loans can be repaid. Second- Emory isn’t that great in comparison to some of the alternatives mentioned in posts. Not worth spending the money on. Not sure where you got the idea Emory trumps all of those schools. Remember public U’s have the Honors programs and are known for sciences. “Top 20” depends on the field. Check on various fields your D may be interested in and you will find different top 20 ones- think of math, chemistry, physics, biology… see where Emory fits in those categories for grad schools (yes, it does filter down, especially in upper level courses).</p>
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OP mentioned <em>borrowing</em> from her 401k, not withdrawing from it.</p>
<p>The upside is you are paying yourself the interest rather than a bank.</p>
<p>The downside is, you might be able to able to earn a higher return than the interest rate. And the biggie is that if you lose your job, the balance becomes instantly due, and if you can’t pay it it becomes a distribution, with taxes and penalties due.</p>
<p>You have to be pretty confident about your job.</p>
<p>OP - I have been in your shoes. S got in to multiple top-30 $50K+ schools, none of which offered a nickel in money. So I pulled them off the table - I was not willing to let him take on that kind of debt, or myself either.</p>
<p>He got over it, picked from his other choices, and loves it there. He has no regrets.</p>
<p>My kid is another one who had to let go of her first choice school in order to attend one that was less expensive. She absolutely has fallen in love with the school she attends.</p>
<p>For some degrees, the name of the school might matter due to reputation or prestige. In my daughter’s case, it’s passing licensing exams. Her school is probably considered third tier, but most grads pass the exams on their first attempt, and all of the ones who have passed received at least one job offer, and most more.</p>
<p>Look at the other schools’ records for acceptance into medical schools. Her GPA and score on the MCAT will count more than the undergrad school she attends. </p>
<p>It’s a terrible disappointment, but it’s part of becoming an adult, unfortunately, to deal with limitations.</p>
<p>Those downsides are why I think that a parent is better off with a PLUS loan than from the 401K, even if the interest rate is higher. The bottom line is that the risk is lower - if the parent becomes disabled or loses their job, their 401K funds will be intact and the PLUS loan repayment terms can be adjusted to meet the situation. </p>
<p>I don’t like the idea of borrowing from retirement funds except for an absolute emergency.</p>
<p>My husband went to Emory and while he’ll admit he got a great education he hated it. He is southern and many of the students from the NE turned it into a hyper competitive atmosphere. I thought that was long ago however I have known 3 recent students that Emory was their dream school and transfered out their first year because of what they perceived as priveledge kids who felt entitled (Before you flame me I’m not saying that but 3 recent students did). From the other list of schools that you listed I assume you may be from the midwest as these kids were so it might be a head’s up.
Creighton is awesome at educating students for medical school as well as the other schools listed. I know that their aid is very generous.
To sum it up what if you empty the bank and borrow against your retirement, child doesn’t like Emory and it’s too late for the additional scholarships incoming freshman receive?</p>
<p>Forgot to say that one of the students transferred to the University of MN, Twin Cities and loved it. She is now in medical school.</p>
<p>Remind your d, that the DREAM is the CAREER as a physician…not the undergrad…which NO ONE will care about.</p>
<p>I’ve told this story several times. My son’s orthopedic surgeon went to a low-ranked Florida public. He did very well there and on his MCAT. He went to Duke medical school and the Mayo Clinic for his residency. No one gives a rat’s patootie where he went for undergrad.</p>