Yes, but the OP said her family was trying to come up with $15k per year, so that’s $60k over four years. Although the rates are reasonable, the OP is thinking of graduate school, so they’ll be incurring more debt upon graduation.
Yeah, the cough up the cash number is the issue.
To me, $60K is the absolute upper limit of what anyone should borrow for undergrad – assuming one gets a degree in a field that virtually guarantees a high-paying job upon graduation. You don’t borrow that much money to get a degree in comparative literature, for example. Even then, you need the discipline of a saint to pay it back quickly. So my upper limit may not be someone else’s upper limit.
FWIW: Between undergraduate school, graduate school and medical school, my sister’s partner went $300k into debt. Because her debt-to-income ratio is too high, banks won’t give her a car loan, mortgage on a house, or even give her a business loan to open a practice. As a result, my sister has refused to marry her partner, as she doesn’t want to become liable for the all that debt. Eighteen year olds really don’t understand the financial consequences of going into that much debt when they are making decisions about which college or graduate school to attend.
I’m a firm believer that kids should graduate college without having to worry about paying back loans. It gives them much more freedom in their 20’s. As the OP has been offered a free ride at another college, they should seriously consider that a viable option.
I’d assumed that Harvard was offering parent loans similar to Princeton’s, but if all they’re offering are PLUS loans, then Princeton’s FA is better in this regard. We’ve been paying less than 2% interest on a Princeton parent loan. Can somebody confirm that Harvard doesn’t offer their own institutional parent loan?
Here’s a link to Princeton’s parent loan program https://finance.princeton.edu/how-to/tuition-student-billing-l/loan-options/princeton-parent-loan-pro/
Of course this doesn’t help the OP, but I think it’s important to point out this difference in FA programs.
Thank you all for your advice. I really do appreciate it.
I will be filing another appeal. According to this article, only 34% of Harvard students are in debt when they graduate, and owe an average amount of about $10,000. Why should I have to take out $10,000 in loans in my first year?
This is obviously an extremely difficult decision to make. I was admitted EA to Harvard, and unfortunately did not apply to any ‘highly ranked’ schools that offer merit scholarships. If the financial aid office agrees to replace part of the loan with more grant money, I will go. If it doesn’t agree, I’ll still go. I’ll try to live at home and find a well-paying job my first year out of college.
I plan on majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Neurobiology. I’m not too worried about finding a job.
While this is obviously not the decision most of you think I should make, I personally feel that I cannot go wrong with saying ‘yes’ to Harvard. It’s been my dream school for years, and I couldn’t imagine turning it down.
Thank you for sharing your personal experiences and offering your advice. Thanks, @scholarme for doing the math. I feel more like an accountant and less like a high school student these days.
Any more thoughts?
Are you taking into account the 3K or so that you can earn from on-campus employment?
Yes, I am. I’ve received some outside scholarships that will cover my work-study and summer work contribution. I hope to find an additional job on campus during the school year to help my parents with their parent contribution.
Is it possible to earn about $5,000 a year through work-study without destroying your GPA/limiting extracurricular involvement?
"Is it possible to earn about $5,000 a year through work-study without destroying your GPA/limiting extracurricular involvement? "
It’s possible. D worked evenings in the library and was able to study at the same time. She also had a weekend job at a shop in Cambridge. That said, you might want to wait to get acclimated to the academic workload before taking on too much work.
^^ Good point.
As part of every financial aid package, Harvard includes money the student must earn over the course of the year, which includes a TERM TIME JOB and SUMMER EMPLOYMENT. And it’s kind of confusing for incoming students and their parents. The money that Harvard allots to a student’s term time job and summer employment must be paid upfront to Harvard as tuition. Then, over the course of the year, the student works and earns that money back from Harvard. Not sure if the OP has included that amount in their loan calculation, or needs to increase the loan amount their family will need every year.
The best way to calculate what you will owe Harvard is add the billable costs pf tuition/room/board which for the 2015-2016 year is $60,659. Then subtract the Harvard SCHOLARSHIP grant money from that total. The balance, divided by 2, is what you owe the school each semester. But that amount assumes (1) the student is covered by their parents health care and waives the Harvard Student Health Insurance Plan: http://hushp.harvard.edu/waiver-eligibility-application and (2) the student/parent has additional money that they can use for the cost of books/personal expenses for at least the first semester.
@gibby My scholarships will pay what I owe through work-study and summer work directly to Harvard. That, at least, is not an issue.
^^ Is that from outside scholarships? If so, I was under the impression that you must have renewable outside scholarships every year to do that. Otherwise, your outside scholarship is credited to your freshman year and cannot be used in subsequent years. See: https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/types-aid/outside-awards
@jalebigirl - if you concentrate in CS, you will likely be able to obtain summer internships that will pay well in excess of your expected summer student contribution - in which case you could effectively use your excess summer earnings to reduce the amount of the parent loan.
It’s not necessarily a zero sum game though, as you must report your summer earnings to Harvard and those earnings could end up affecting your financial aid package for the following year. Whether or not that is a valid concern is a question for the financial aid office, not me.
Yes, these are outside renewable scholarships. They’ll cover my work study and summer work requirements (about $4600) for freshman year, and I can also use the money to buy a laptop.
If you have outside scholarship, then you could still work and reduce the loan amount or out of pocket of your patents?
@scholarme That’s the plan.
I can help them out with the money they will have to pay out of pocket. I’ll also use whatever I earn for textbooks, dues for ECs, etc.
@BldrDad I hope so! Harvard does ask students to contribute 5% of their assets to their tuition, so they will reevaluate my financial aid package based on my earnings (which will probably be meager to begin with)
@jalebigirl , I just want to add that I think it’s very cool that you are so aware and concerned about not placing a financial burden on your parents.
Speaking as a parent, I know my kids were aware and very grateful for whatever assistance we were able to provide. It was something that I felt honored to be able to do for them.
Does anyone know how a student goes about finding the term time job at Harvard?