Its difficult to say no when your kid works hard and gets accepted into uber selective school of his dream which can provide a great experience and boost his future. Believe me, it breaks a parent’s heart, some crumble and opt for breaking the bank instead because only reason kid is not getting aid is parent’s financial situation. Show some compassion dear critics.
In the case of the two governors, the parents could certainly have taken higher paying jobs and been able to pay OOP. They chose a lifestyle and their kids have to live within that income too. If they don’t want to say no to their kids, they should choose a different job.
It is one thing to borrow $10k extra which the parent knows can be paid back quickly, entirely another to borrow $300k and intend to keep borrowing for more kids with no change in income. The issue could be tamed with limiting the amount of a PLUS loan or limiting the amount the government will guarantee for a private loan.
He currently has the $3,500 scholarship at UNA, a 26 on his ACT Saturday would bump it up to $6,500. Tuition and fees will be a little over $10,000 so the current scholarship and pell grant will almost cover tuition and fees. He is applying for the leadership scholarships, we will just have to wait and see how that turns out. Also, working on essay for honors college application, which would open up some more scholarship opportunities as well as honors housing which is the cheapest on campus. There are also endowed scholarships to apply for, but the application isn’t up for that yet. There is also project OPEN which is for disadvantaged students who have declared a nursing major, the application doesn’t open until February 1st. The award for those selected covers tuition and fees for 9 credit hours Freshman and Sophomore year and 15 hours Junior and Senior year.
There are definitely scholarships available, but only the $3,500 is certain right now.
^
Good luck on the ACT!
BTW…did he take the SAT? If not, why not?
Absolutely not true.
You’re assuming that all of these parents who are taking out these loans have children attending schools that “meet need.” Absolutely not the case, and more likely, not the case in most instances.
Most schools don’t meet need. Most schools gap, particularly state schools, mid/low level private schools and OOS public schools.
There are many families with EFCs that are between 0 and $20k who’ve been given lousy aid pkgs with $30k-60k gaps.
All one has to do is watch threads on College Confidential or in Facebook parents groups. There are plenty of low/modest parents borrowing huge amounts so that their child can go to their “dream school.”
Do you know how many threads we’ve seen in the past where a low/modest income parent takes on huge Plus loans so that their child can go to NYU???
Personally, I know a modest income single mom with 2 kids attending an OOS flagship. The only FA they’re getting are Pell Grants and federal loans. She’s taken out Plus loans for both kids. It makes me sad and physically ill that, so far, she has over $150k in Plus loans and her second child is only a freshman! She will easily end up with over $200k in debt. She is “opting to break the bank” even though her kids aren’t getting aid EVEN THOUGH her EFC is low enough to qualify.
Yes, he has taken the SAT twice, 1170 first time and 1200 last time. His reading was 590 both times but math went from 580 to 610. He took ACT for first time in June after 10th grade and scored 24, another 24, then a 23. Some areas went up while others went down but there has been very little variance in his scores across 3 ACT and 2 SAT so far.
We are not taking out loans for our 4 kids’ education. Being on this forum has made me thankful that where we live in the midwest, college ranking and prestige is not a thing that people and kids care about. It’s not in our culture to try to get into top tier colleges or think about it. Ignorance is bliss here too.
Still - 4 kids and paying out of pocket or doing student subsidized loans really adds up. We are doing everything we can to get kids to focus on GPA, get some Dual enrollment credits cheaply, and we will have last two kids Study and Prep for ACTs. That’s our saving grace there as our flagship gives decent merit and we know exactly what that is. Our one luxury is letting the kids live on campus or away from home. We really think that’s part of the college process, and we won’t force them to go to the local state U in town. BUT - no loans for us. In 8 years from now – all kids will be done and we want to travel!!! safari, european cathedrals, alaska, pyramids. 
@HeartofDixie I hope he gets the needed ACT 25 tomorrow! Has he done any test prep?
In the meantime, have him contact his GC (or look on GC’s webpage on school’s website) to find out about local community scholarships. If none are listed, then have him stop by her office to find out when to apply.
Also, contact local Elks, Moose, and other civic clubs about their scholarship opportunities. Sounds like your son would make a good candidate.
Also, contact UNA and ask if they have any endowed scholarships that might not be listed.
Colleges should be more affordable and every citizen should be treated equally. Same item shouldn’t be priced differently for different buyers. There is no reason to show the door to some but give free ride to others, even illegals and internationals.
This double discrimination against young citizens, first for admission and then for cost is ridiculous. Newborns can’t pick their race, their high school, their town, their family income, their privilege or lack of it or consequences.
Give youth ways to support themselves and ways to pay back for what system spends on them. Equal opportunity education model.
Parents who are already getting taxed highly on their income, why punish them twice for earning well? Why punish young students if parents aren’t helping them?
Cupcake-- nice in theory but how exactly does a college like Swarthmore maintain the qualities that make it desirable (small classes, gorgeous campus, highly rated professors) without charging a high tuition to families with high incomes? Charge everyone 10K a year, and have students live in hovels which get cleaned once a year? Don’t shovel the snow unless it’s a foot high (very rare in that part of Philly) and only mow the lawn before move-in day?
Have you actually looked at a college or university budget to understand where the money goes? Where is the money going to come from??
Your post is so divorced from reality it makes my head hurt.
Get a degree online from U Phoenix if you don’t want to pay for a private college.
@cupcakemuffins Even in so called “equal opportunity” public K12 education, nothing is equal. Our family has moved across the country multiple times since our oldest was in K. Schools vary widely from state to state and even within single school districts. Throw in private schools and homeschools, nothing about k12 education is “equal.”
In addition to that very real lack of equality in opportunity and education, most of the universities discussed on CC are private. The govt should absolutely have zero control over what those schools decide to charge. No one, not a single student regardless of their abilities, has a “right” to attend a private university.
Fwiw, our family is similar to @bgbg4us’s. Our kids either attend on merit, live at home and commute to a local U, or attend a CC (our Dd who took this approach had to move across the state for the only program in our state but bc it was very cheap CC tuition, paying for housing was affordable.) By the time our youngest graduates from college, we will have had non-stop college kids from 2007-2032. (Our 5th child is currently a college sophomore and 3 more are still at home.) We do not have college funds for our kids, but we also refuse to take out loans. Our kids have tiny college budgets, way below our EFC so their options are extremely limited. So far all of our older kids have managed to attend for the degree that they have wanted to pursue on our very tiny budget per child without having had to take out student loans.
And, so far, those scholarship/local/CC schools have not negatively impacted their careers or grad school goals. Our current high school Jr refuses to consider any school other than the local commuter school. She watched the college app stress of her next 2 older siblings and their lives on campus, and she insists that is not what she wants. No biggie to us. If that is the approach she wants to take, go for it. Her future will be absolutely fine. Zero stress for her right now over test scores or ECs or planning for college, She is loving high school with absolutely no outside pressures or concerns.
What has always confused me is how financial institutions could even give some of the loans I have seen and heard about on CC. With mounting debt that reach over 6 figures in some cases (even for some with lower incomes), how can someone still get approved for a loan?
“This double discrimination against young citizens, first for admission and then for cost is ridiculous. Newborns can’t pick their race, their high school, their town, their family income, their privilege or lack of it or consequences.”
Newborns cant pick their IQ either. Should we eliminate the ability of colleges (or employers) to select on the grounds of ability?
I think the biggest culprit is the Parent Plus loan. A parent could be earning virtually nothing, receive welfare and be living in Section 8 housing, but as long as credit is ok, that parent could borrow hundreds of thousands on Parent Plus.
The story I told above is about a single mom who works fast food. Very modest income. Right now, she has two in college. #3 is a couple years younger. #1 is a junior and #2 is a freshman. At this point, no Plus payments are due. None of her kids got any merit and the only FA they received was Pell, WS and Stafford loans. The OOS public costs about $30k AFTER fed aid.
The mom “thinks” her kids are going to pay back these plus loans as well as their Stafford loans. Each child will have about $170k of debt upon graduation. The older son’s career goal, journalist, will likely be unbelievably modest paying upon graduation. Very likely, those Plus loans will go in arrears quickly. That suggests to me that #2 child’s education will get disrupted because mom’s Plus loans will then be in arrears. #3 child will likely be totally screwed.
I can only guess that the feds made qualifying for Plus easy (no income req’ts, no ratios, no FICO score) because there was pressure not to exclude low/modest income families from getting these loans. So short-sighted. I can’t imagine how many modest/low income parents are burdened with these loans.
The only time I’m glad to be old! The good old days when I was able to pay the entire 4 year tab by waitressing summers, working at the Gap during school and taking federal loans.
If it’s $60K/year and half are on aid and half paying, make it $30K/year loan for all instead of making one half pay for other half.
This isn’t about admission but about payment. Lower IQ aren’t getting into Harvard or working at NASA in current system either. Use public colleges and special programs.
Setting up a new system would need proper research by qualified people. This is not a simple enough matter for us random Internet forum posters to solve.
Why do you say the taxpayers are paying for this? Student loans are not dischargeable, so they have to be paid in full by the borrower.
They aren’t dischargeable in MOST cases, but there have been a few judges recently who have discharges large Plus loans.
And not being able to discharge the loans doesn’t mean they are being repaid. There is a large amount of loans that haven’t been repaid and won’t be. The borrowers may ruin their credit scores and be unable to buy a house or get a credit card, but that doesn’t mean the government as lender has been repaid. Taxpayers are paying.