@noname87 the total cost of attendance for in-state students is $22,000. My school gave me $10,000 in grants but then offered me $6,000 in loans to take out. In Addito on to that I owe $2,800 for housing for 1st semester. Your estimates sound very accurate.
My four year plan is to have some type of job on campus during the school year (maybe even two jobs) and then during the summer I plan to gain research experience in my field. Most sunmet research experiences that I am planning on applying for pay a range of $4,000-$6,000 stipend for 8-10 weeks of research. I’ll still be applying for scholarships, which I have found a lot of four college undergrads. I have also found scholarships that are worth a LOT of money that are specifically targeted towards the visually impaired collage student. Looking for grants is also part of my plan.
You need to look at the whole picture though. You need to determine the whole COA (or a close approximation), and how much of that remains for you to pay (and your resources to pay it). It is great to plan to get a job, but if you havent determined the whole cost then you don’t know if it is possible for you to do without a loan.
Are you at a school with an unusually high in-state tuition? Or were the grants and aid (or scholarships or whatever) just that small?
@austinmshauri , my financial aid package just shows me the small grant my college gave me the federal pell grant, I received, the small scholarship my school gave me for being in-state, and the rest are loans my school is offering me.
If tuition + fees + room + board is $22k/year and you got $10k/year (school grant + Pell), your net cost is $12k/year for the direct costs. Once you subtract the $6k loans, the cost is $6k/year. The direct costs have to be paid up front. It sounds like the $2800 is the balance for the fall. You’ll have to pay that amount again in January.
You’ll also need ~$3k/year for travel, books, and personal expenses. That means this college will cost $9-10k/year out-of-pocket. How much can your parents pay?
I assumed that the OP’s school was one that had an unusually high in-state cost, otherwise it seemed strange that OP could get federal grants (pell?) and scholarships and still need to come up with $10k purely for the rest of the year’s tuition and fees.
(Basing that on the information in post #4 where OP confirms that they will owe 10k after grants/aid, but not accounting for room/board/books/etc yet)
I’m also wondering where the money was supposed to come from originally, if this school is now unaffordable. Was OP’s FA package that far off the mark of their EFC?
I do not want to have to take out loans if I don’t have to. I don’t think it is a very good choice to owe a school/bank a large sum of money that I do not have at the moment. I do not want to finance the bulk of my education by borrowing other people’s money that’s just going to collect more and more interest over time, resulting in it taking more tone for me to pay it off.
Its already been asked, but what was your EFC? Did your FA offer not come close to your EFC?
How did you originally plan to pay for school?
If you believe you can get $4-6k each summer then you will still be short $6-8k each year, minus whatever you can earn during the school year. If you wont take the loan then you should consider withdrawing before school starts because its late in the game to be trying to get grants and scholarships now (unless you want to move forward with the loan).
My parents cannot pay for any of my college. Partly because of their jobs, and also because I have a twin brother who will also be statying college and two younger siblings that will be going in the future.
This will be tough since your parents will not be helping you.
Are you saying that your parents will be helping your twin brother with college expenses and will be saving for college for your younger siblings but cannot help you at all? That is very weird family dynamics.
If your parents contribute 0 and you do not borrow then you may need to do CC and live at home then transfer into your state university.