Aug Consumer Report cover story “I Kind of Ruined My Life by Going to College” - “Lives on Hold” 11 pages about student loans; 42 million people owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. The Oct Consumer Report has two pages of “lives on hold” follow up, after CR received well over 1,000 varied and thoughtful responses. Can see more www.ConsumerReports.org/studentdebt
Absolutely need to make sure earnings will be high enough to pay off any student loans - and pay it off ASAP, and honestly, students need to be really conscious of how heavy the debt and interest will accrue to make the debt even more. The cases shown does give the loan amount and the current debt.
Interesting article on College Carnivals/Parties thrown by the schools. 30 years ago we had a spring carnival at SRU…but the cost has changed significantly.
At least the lack of funding is being discussed(at some level)…
The PA Governor is wanting a discussion. Ranking 49 out of 50 in affordability seems to have hit a nerve…finally.
On a personal note, I had sent my daughter an email(hoping she would check her school email during the day) yesterday with the COA for the PASSHE schools. After she came home she actually sat down and asked some logical questions about affordability, opportunity and athletics. Honestly, I am not particularly excited about the PASSHE schools(I am a Slippery Rock grad) these days…but at our income level(we are just over the amount to get aid) and her stats(24 ACT)…these might just be the only 4 year schools that fall on our affordability spectrum.
A 24 act is not bad at all. She has lots of choices between PA, OH, NYS, MD.
(has she looked at Mount St Mary’s? They’re div 2 I think)
If she has $0 EFC she should get a Pell grant of about $5800 and PA grant of about $4000, so about $10k.
The PASSHE schools cost about S20 k living on campus.
PSU branches are about $14k for tuition and fees, not sure if all have housing.
Some private schools might come in at $15-20k with merit/need based aid.
Kids from here might go to St Francis U, St Vincent, Juniata, Allegheny, Lycoming.
But the $4000 state grant is nothing to sneeze at.
If she started at a PSU branch she could commute to, she could cover it with Pell, PA grant and your contribution.
She could take the subsidized loans the first two years and save them, then hopefully have enough to go to PSU main, living off campus the last two years. It’s plenty big.
This year PSU main over enrolled and they offered students free tuition at a branch for one year and then transfer to main for last 3 years. So if she is interested in PSU I would definitely apply.
IUP Cooks honors program is also worth looking at. They have their own residence hall, and tuition, room and board was about $17k in honors when we looked at it in 2014. They also give merit scholarships.
Some of the Pitt branches also offer scholarships which are easier to get than at main.
Geneva is pretty generous as well.
@mommdc Yes, there are a number of smaller private PA schools whose NPCs show a net cost the same or lower than the PASSHE schools. However, my daughter is so far stubbornly refusing to consider small schools. I’m insisting that she focus on PA rather than OOS schools because of PHEAA grants. So far she has applied to West Chester and is considering applying to Temple, though the latter is probably unaffordable. The Pitt branch campuses (especially Greensburg) would be very affordable, but again they are “too small”. She’s rather not go to college at all than commute, so the nearest PSU branch campus is also not a realistic possibility. Commuting would also mean buying another car, with the added expense of insurance, gas, and maintenance/repairs, so I doubt that it would be any more cost-effective than staying in a dorm. I’m quite aware of her unrealistic and entitled mentality. When I talk with her about the realities of paying back student loans, she says she’ll just marry someone rich! It drives me crazy, but it’s hard for me to counteract. However, a friend who just started college at a large OOS directional is unhappy there and already talking about transferring to a small school in PA. Since my daughter will listen to friends (as opposed to Mom), maybe there’s hope for a more reasonable mindset in the coming months.
@kidzncatz Focus your daughter on the internal metrics of size. For example, West Chester is not a residential school. Only 35% of students live on campus and less than 50% graduate on time and 33% never graduate at all. So yes its larger on paper but is it really larger if friends you made freshman year arent on campus or one out three you meet ultimately leave the school?
Yes, hopefully. A lot of kids want far away and/or OOS. And then come back closer to home.
@CP2020 Good point. I’ve already thought a lot about retention and graduation rates. Time to begin a discussion with my daughter about these issues. Until my teens started looking at large state schools, I more or less assumed kids who started college graduated in 4 years or less, as most of us did at Bucknell (back in the dark ages).
Hi MYOS1634 - She will be going on official visits to Canisius, Niagara, John Carroll, Gannon Bloomsburg, Shippensburg and perhaps St. Bonaventure. She has seen all of them with the exception of St. Bonaventure. After regular walking/tour visits…she seems to like Canisius and John Carroll. Canisius can provide assistance/scholarship for swimming, John Carroll is a DIII and can not. I am concerned that both will be a bit too expensive.
https://www.collegeswimming.com/team/474/
If you are looking at Gannon, visit St Francis too.
I am with you bester1 (only 22 ACT, retaking this weekend after a summer of studying). We are right there - and need to have that same discussion with my D. We are also hoping to possibly find some southern schools that might over merit for low test scores with a higher GPA, or OOS deals for PA students.
@Portercat - Please let me know how that goes with the southern schools. My D is taking the ACT on Saturday as well. She studied a couple of times but she thinks she can pull a 26 or higher…we will see.
@mommdc - Thank you for the suggestion.
@bester1 I think you mentioned WVU in a previous post. Do you know about their merit offerings for OOS students with similar stats?
@portercat - we looked at WVU. She really liked it. I am a little concerned about that large of a learning environment but maybe I should not be. She could likely be on the swim team but it would take a few years of very, very hard work to make an impact.