I am in no way posting this to brag about my scholarships or anything like that. I just want to know the logistics of me graduating college possibly debt free. I don’t really have anyone to ask about things like this. So to date, I have won 54k in scholarships. Some of them are just one year things. For my first year of college, I have just about $20,000 paid for. I will only need to pay about $3,000 to cover the rest. This is manageable. however, the next three years, I only have 11,500 paid for and I will need $10,500 a year to cover it. I don’t qualify for any need based aid as I have an EFC of 13,000, but my parents won’t really be able to help me much with the cost of my education. What do yall think would be a smart way to handle it? I am going to be working 2 part time jobs this summer to begin saving up ( paid at minimum wage). Throughout high school I was unable to get a job due to my extracurricular and schoolwork. How bad would taking out federal loans be? Sorry if these questions are stupid. I just don’t have much knowledge on the subject. Is working during college also a smart decision, and will I still be able to focus on my studies while working possibly part time? Thank you all for your input.
No more than 20 hours per week.
What is your major? Are you majoring in something that would work with a co-op?
Usually college kids can’t work more than 12-20 hours per week w/o it affecting school. The higher end usually would mean weekend work. You can also work full time during summers.
BTW…whatever happened with your FAFSA? Did your brother get counted as going to college? or not?
@mom2collegekids I will be starting the pre-Nursing program. That’s what I was thinking…
Oh, and I realized I had actually made a mistake on my FAFSA in my number of siblings. I mistakenly put in one too many, and they corrected that as well as counted my brother not going to college.
$10,500/year is definitely manageable. You’ll be eligible for federal loans ($6,500 sophomore year, and $7,500/year during junior and senior years), and even if you borrowed the full amount those three years, it would not be an unreasonable debt burden.
But chances are good that you wouldn’t need to borrow anywhere near the full amount. You should be able to earn $3,000 each summer, and another $3,000 by working part-time during the school year. (That estimate is based on a school-year work schedule of approx. 15 hours/week.) If you can find a summer job that will allow you to continue working when you’re home over winter and spring breaks, that’s another $1,000 or so.
So, your first year, all you’ll need to spend are your summer earnings, so your $3,000 in school year earnings (plus whatever you’re able to earn over winter & spring breaks) gets stockpiled for sophomore year.
Sophomore year, you’ll have $3,000+ in savings, plus $3,000 in summer earnings, and first semester earnings of $1,500. You’ll borrow the remaining $3,000. And your second semester earnings will get stockpiled for junior year.
Junior year, you’ll have $1,500 in savings, $3,000 in summer earnings, and another $1,500 in first semester earnings. You’ll borrow the remaining $4,500 and, once again, stockpile your second semester earnings for the following year.
Senior year will be identical to junior year, with another $4,500 loan to get you through the year. But, at year’s end, you can use your second semester earnings of $1,500 to pay back part of your loan.
So, worst case scenario, you’ll graduate with $10,500 in outstanding loans. If you can earn more than what I projected here, or if your parents can contribute anything at all, your debt would be even less.
Find out if you’re eligible for work study. Work study jobs are usually easier to fit in around your school schedule, and there are certain tax advantages. And keep your school year costs to a minimum by buying used books whenever possible (preferably an older edition, if your prof says that’s okay), and, if you’re not living at home, choosing the less expensive campus or off-campus housing options.
You can go here to figure out what your payments would be with a debt of $10,500:
Once you’re in clinicals (Jr and Sr years), you will not likely be able to work much, if at all. Clinicals are 8-5 monday thru friday.
@SOSConcern Can you explain the time demands of the BSN program for Jr and Sr years? (She is a RN, and her DD just graduated with her BSN).
Were you awarded any loans in your FA pkg? Did you get any merit from TAMU?
Often, there are merit awards in the BSN program so pay attention to deadlines and criteria. Do your best and stay on top of what’s needed to apply for those add’l awards.
@mom2collegekids I will now be attending Texas State University. I did receive some loans, but I will not be accepting them this year as I have my first year paid for.
If you’ve been offered a subsidized loan your first year **TAKE IT ** and save the money for one of your subsequent years. You may regret it if you don’t.
How does that process work? saving it? @Madison85
@SpicyTaquito once you complete the introductory nursing class, you should be eligible to get your CNA license and work part-time as a CNA while you continue through school. Some employers of CNA’s will provide tuition assistence for coursework leading to RN licensing.
@SpicyTaquito
Would it be possible in your sophomore year to become a Resident Assistant? At least at my daughter’s school these are competitive to get, but you are given free room and board. That would likely be a way to avoid loans your sophomore year 
I would also highly recommend working like a freakin’ dog during the summer, also working over winter break and getting an on campus type job during the year. I know I sound like an old lady (walked up hill to school both ways barefoot in the snow…) but when I was your age, I worked three jobs (kid you not) in the summers. I had a full time 8-4:30 office job, then I worked after that for a doctor evenings, then weekends at a convenience store. My friends teased that when I finally graduated I’d be bored just having one job
It worked though - I graduated in 4 years, debt free and with a little money for a downpayment on my first apartment I bought my first house 2.5 years after I graduated college Another advantage of working so much - I didn’t have much free time to spend money!
Congrats on winning such a great amount of scholarship money, that is an accomplishment of which to be proud!
What you do is take the financial aid, and save/put aside the other money which you would have put in for college. That way, if your cash flow is not working out well, you still have the money for college.
Glad you are going to a state school. What you need to be sure to do is have all your pre-requisites done on time and meeting the grade point average required (some programs have a higher GPA for sciences for example). Also sometimes/many times, specific programs have an interview and ‘competition’ for a seat in junior clinicals. You want to make sure you are a great candidate to continue on with their program.
I was at a private college (back when the cost difference wasn’t as great) and the admitted students - all but a few made it through school and on time because it was a private school and the students were academically strong (aptitude and work ethic). The state I grew up in didn’t have enough room in their clinical programs, so a typical program would admit 400 as a freshman and only 90 could continue as sophomore nursing students, so that is why I went to the private college.
DD was at the largest nursing program in our state, and was in a ‘nursing scholars’ program, so as long as she met the GPA on the first two year courses, she had a seat in clinicals. There were about 100+ nursing scholars. We know some kids with strong GPAs that switched to nursing and had to wait a semester to get in the program because the nursing scholars students took up a lot of seats. DD finished on time (in our state, there are 5 semesters after sophomore year, and many do the summer term between junior and senior year - that was how she completed). DD did have some AP credits, did some CLEP, and took summer courses. I made sure she was well ahead so that if there was a ‘hiccup’ she could have everything done. DD did have to repeat microbiology, but she took the higher level course and I encouraged her not to withdraw; her re-take she earned a B.
DD had a job Sunday morning (babysitting at a church nursery) which actually paid pretty well and was close to campus. The first two years she also had scholarship in band and was involved with marching and private lesson on instrument. Junior and senior clinical terms, one wants to focus on the nursing school demands - and essentially one needs to work with their schedule. During the last term, DD had ‘precepting’ and she worked with the nursing person’s schedule - so she was on a 12 hour schedule and had to complete a certain number of hours with this nursing mentor at work. DD was able to keep the Sunday morning job because time wise it didn’t interfere with anything. I would recommend finding something like that - maybe at a coffee shop where you can work the Sunday morning shift and earn some spending money for incidentals.
Summers I had a job at home town hospital - either at the hospital switchboard or as a nursing assistant (I took the nursing assistant certification course from community college while in HS). The summer before my senior year, I worked in the city where I was in nursing school as a nursing assistant. I continued some weekend work into senior year, but it was wearing me down so the hospital allowed me to be on a leave of absence - they wanted to have me come in as a FT graduate nurse/RN when I finished school that academic year.
82% of DD’s classmates had jobs already lined up at graduation, and the rest I am pretty sure were getting jobs shortly after graduation. DD’s last term was such that she needed to complete before applying. She has application in where she most likely will have a job offer, and is taking the national exam May 31.
Be sure to dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s.
It is imperative to keep excellent personal behavior. DD’s school had a strong policy about tattoos - they really affect professionalism and can be very career limiting. Renewing a nursing license, one has to answer questions about alcohol and drug use, DUI, etc. One just wants to keep within all the rules/regs because the nursing license is necessary for continuing career. During nursing school, they screen on this stuff too, in part due to the cost to train RNs/BSNs, and the school wants to maintain excellent professional standards.
Not only be aware of social media, but do not put yourself with people that will harm your reputation. I have a friend whose family was in military housing; the HS student was in a car with friends that had dope on them, and the family lost their base housing due to the son’s arrest with these friends.
Can PM me with any questions.
When you set aside your subsidized loan money to use in a later year, you don’t have to include it as an asset for FAFSA.
Also keep in mind that scholarship money that exceeds tuition/fees/books is taxable income. You may want to ask some of your outside scholarship payors to wait until January of 2017 to disburse the money to reduce your taxable income for 2016.
Also consider declaring up to $4000 additional in scholarships as taxable in 2016 so that your parents can get up to $2500 in free money (for you) - the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
See IRS Publication 970.
What @Madison85 is suggesting is that you get the subsidized Federal Loan because no interest will accrue until you are out of school. The subsidized loans you take freshman year can reduce the amount of unsubsidized loans you end up taking in later years. Do not take out “early” unsubsidized loans: There is no advantage to taking those before you need them because the interest does accrue. Similarly, if the school is offering any free money (grants) take them while you can. Save the extra scholarship money in your account - you can even have it refunded for living expenses if you move off campus, etc.
Publication 970 is very useful. Also, TurboTax software does a great job with all the different situations students with scholarships can have. You can also use this program to figure out any tax credits you are eligible for by funding your own education, or if your parents do contribute some, they may claim those credits on their tax bill. (If your parents get the tax savings for your educational expenses, you can’t claim credit again on your own return.) You can even load up the 2015 version of TurboTax (for last April’s taxes) and create “dummy returns” for you and your parents to help predict your situation next year. That way you’ll have time to figure out what you need to know before the time comes.
SpicyTaquito, what is the secret to winning scholarship? You’re very impressive and I like your username!
@Excellent1 The key is definitely to be patient. I have applied to so many scholarships (i only started this past fall of my senior year) and I was beginning to feel hopeless after a little. I advanced to finalist stages in several full-ride scholarships, but never made it past that round. My biggest tip would be to apply to as many as possible. When applying for scholarships, you will find that you can tweak one essay you’ve written that can be used for dozens of scholarships. I also encourage you to apply for any scholarships particular to your state. and Thank you so much!
Thank you for your prompt reply. I just sent you a PM. Are they any books that you recommend for this?
@NJRoadie Thank you so much for all of your advice! I will definitely be looking into the RA thing
@Madison85 @AroundHere so are yall saying that it won’t be likely for me to be offered a subsidized loan in subsequent years?