Paying For College

Paying for College
41

Then I see only two options- take a loan and attend the school you are currently scheduled to go to or attend CC and commute. Maybe a third option to work and save then attend school. But that would necessitate postponing school. Somehow, I think that would not be in your best interest.

So your parents are not able or willing to contribute anything? They are not poverty level but middle class at $70,000 yearly income. I get that it’s tough with 4 kids but if I’m understanding this correctly, they are not going to be helping you or your twin so that means they have a $70,000 income with just them and two kids and that isn’t poor.

42

What about the money they spend now each month to feed you? Could they contribute that?

43

^ That’s a great idea.

44

You’ve got $16000 in loans, Pell grant, Bright futures. That is enough to cover tuition and housing at FSU. A meal plan is not required and you can work and pay for meals, books, etc. as you earn money. No question it will be tough.

If you want to go to FSU this fall, you need to take the loan. If you don’t want to take the loans, then you need to go to a Community college, which would be covered by your pell and bright futures. You could also delay going until spring and earn enough in the fall to not take the loans.

No one wants to take the loans but many students do. It is up to you if you want to go to school now, with loans, or wait. You must start using bright futures within 2 years of your high school graduation so don’t wait too long. Can you ask a high school counselor what others in your position have done? Is there a good community college near your home? Can you go to Santa Fe community college near FSU, with cheaper tuition and some shared housing? Your pell grantand bright futures might be enough for Santa Fe without taking the loans. Would you have gotten a bigger scholarship at FAMU? If so, apply for a spring admit, take your pell,bright futures and hussle on over to FAMU.

45

@twoinanddone, Santa Fe College is actually near UF in Gainesville and they offer 4-year degrees, in addition to associate’s degrees.

Excellent advice!!! The OP stats (valedictorian of my class with a 4.2 cumulative weighted GPA and a 3.93 unweighted GPA; ACT was a 28) might qualify him/her for a full ride at FAMU and since FAMU shares the same engineering program with FSU, it will be win-win situation for the OP. FAMU-FSU might not offer an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, so the OP might consider a Mechanical Engineering degree instead (MS/PhD only, according to their website). If my interpretation is correct, it is not clear how the OP could have achieved a BS in Biomedical Engineering at FSU.

http://www.eng.fsu.edu/cbe/department/

46

What are the total costs on your bill?

The college’s direct costs seem to be about $17k (post 22). You can’t attend unless you accept the student loans because you won’t have enough to pay the direct costs. You said you owe $3k now. When you accept the loans, half will be applied now and half in the spring. So you may be able to cover direct costs with your package, but you still need money for books and living expenses once you get there. And somebody has to pay to get you there and back.

The only reliable ways to get extra money (beyond grants from the college, and state/federal grants and loans) are for parents to pay and/or students to get a job. Don’t enroll with vague ideas of next year’s summer job (that you don’t have yet) making up any shortfall. If you don’t have the money, ask if you can defer for a year and get a job now or attend a cc for 2 years and transfer. I wouldn’t advise not taking the meal plan. If you can’t afford to eat, you can’t afford to attend.

47

You need to evaluate whether it’s better to postpone college now- to work and save, or to take the loans and then (presumably) at a higher salary, pay off the loans after you graduate.

It’s easy to demonize the people who borrow- but that’s why they borrow. A kid who has worked his way up from waiter to shift supervisor at a restaurant can stay at the restaurant- get more hours, live at home, save every penny. And then maybe after two years of this, he can swing college loan free. But it’s tight.

You’ve got to see the years you AREN’T in college as the opportunity cost you are paying. If you are looking at a better paying job once you have a degree- which is true in most (not all) cases, then do the math. Your fear of loans may well be justified if you know a lot of people struggling with educational debt, but I’m not sure you have a realistic play to start college unless you borrow some money.

There is no financial aid fairy. If your package doesn’t work for you, set out some realistic options and folks here can help you evaluate them.

48

I’m stuck :frowning:

49

You are only stuck if you stick yourself. Do the math, take the loans, live frugally to minimize your debt, keep your eye on the end goal.

Or defer college for a year to save more money. Possibly look at some more affordable colleges during your year. you know more about financial aid than you did a year ago.

You always have choices.

50

I know none of you know me personally, and I know that what I’m about to say is going to sound untrue, but I’ll say it anyway:

I am the type of person who likes to have a plan. Especially financially. I will only commit to something that I know will be a good choice. I am also a realistic thinker. I an a very logical thinker. I only do things if they make sense.

And although it is tough for me to acknowledge, I don’t think going to FSU makes sense for me. At least that’s how I am feeling right now at this time.

Even though I do not know you all personally, I’m still going to be truthful. I went wayyyyyy too fast in making this college decision. I applied to 6 schools, only got accepted to 2 of them, and chosee FSU. I’ll bemail honest: I had no idea about financial aid. My guidance counselor did nothe help me at all in the college application process. My school didn’t even send the correct transcripts to my prospective colleges; so I stressed out from January-April 1st to handle all of that. Everyone told me “You’ll be fine. If you stay in Florida you can get all your school payed for”.

I didn’t believe them so I kept looking (and am still looking) for scholarships. But all I can find are the stupid ones where you sign up to make an account on a scholarship website and then are “automatically entered” to win $1,000/$5,000/$10,000 in scholarships. Bologna! I never got any of those scholarships. But that doesn’t mean I will stop looking for and applying for more. I’ll keep looking and applying.

I underestimated my college costs. Drastically. Yes, I knew college would cost money, but I didn’t know that it would cost this much money, especially me being an in-state student.

I am a very driven snd determined person. If i have to wofk two/three jobs to pay for college I will. I will do whatever I have to do to avoid taking out loans and borrowing money from sources in amounts that I cannot come up with to pay.

The other issue that I have with going to my college and taking out loans to do it is that I am not entirely sure I want to study engineeting. I am also interested in biology or medical sciences. I don’t want go to college on loans if I’m not sure what I want to study and focus my time and money that’s not mine on.

That’s why I’m now considering a gap year. I can work and find some way to earn career exposures in a field I am interested in to see if it is right for me and if I sure I want to spend 4years plus graduate school pursuing it.

51

OP- I don’t know you but you sound like an exceptionally mature young person.

Stop applying for the small bore scholarships. Stop looking and stop applying. That is not how most kids in America pay for school, and they are exceptionally unproductive if you really need serious money.

Take a deep breathe.

It sounds like there will be some challenges paying for FSU. Why not set up a phone conversation with a financial aid officer at FSU before you make any decisions. Walk him or her through your financial picture (have your financial aid information in front of you when you set up this call- your family income, savings, etc.). See if there is an element you have missed or if there is some discretion in their financial decisionmaking that THEY have missed. If you can’t bridge the gap between the money you need and the resources you have- then deferring college to work for a year is a great plan.

Do you live within commuting distance of a state university campus???

52

You are close to having the expenses at a 4-year college paid for if you take the loans. If you attend community college and transfer you’d have a more difficult time paying because you won’t get the scholarships as a transfer.

What you’re looking for – someone else to cover the costs through scholarships – doesn’t exist. In most cases there’s a student contribution. And I think it’s unrealistic to think you can raise enough by working to cover what it would cost without loans. You have to work with the resources you have now.

I think you’re giving up too easily. It’s easy to say this won’t work and just drop it. Sit down with your parents, run the numbers, and discuss your options. You don’t have anything to lose except the few hours it takes you to review your choices.

53

A gap year may work well for you. You can look for what other schools may give you better financial packages, or what stats (test scores, etc) you might achieve in order to get better offers.

Keep in mind that students are already applying now for Fall of 2017. Don’t put your research and decisions off too long again. Schools usually have more money to give out earlier in the application cycle.

Edit to add: I see people warn students from taking any classes during gap year. Something about it can make you no longer a “first year student” when you go to apply to a college (and first year students are the ones that get all the $, not transfers). Someone else can explain it more if you need.

54

@austinmshauri , he doesn’t have a scholarship to lose. He has a Pell grant which will follow him to any school, Bright Futures which can be used at any school in Florida, and an FSU need based grant. Another school might not give him the grant, but being a freshman or a senior should not change that grant and it might be available if he transfers to FSU in the future. Right now he has $10,655 in ‘free’ money at FSU. Tuition is about $6500. FSU doesn’t require freshmen to live in a dorm or have a meal plan, so if OP thinks he can live cheaper, he should do that.

This student doesn’t want to take the loans. He could defer until Jan and earn money in the fall and not have to take the loan in the spring for housing and meals. I didn’t want my kids to take loans either and they don’t want to take loans. However, reality hit and they do have to take the loans. Life goes on. They only take the federal loans and we still have hope of paying them back quickly.

I’d suggest a community college, either the one near FSU or one near his home (sorry I confused it with Santa Fe, but there is a community college at FSU where the students share the same dorms/apts with FSU students; we had a number of students from our high school go to the FSU comm college and to Santa Fe), take the core classes, and transfer when he is ready financially and when he’s sure what he wants to major in. BF and Pell would cover community college tuition and probably the living expenses, even without the $1800 from FSU.

There might be some local scholarships available to this student, but he probably missed them for this year. Many of the service clubs (Elks, Rotary, Amer. Legion) offer some, some for students from certain counties, some from local businesses for talent (photography, art, business) were available in our area. There are quite a few available for students whose parents are in the military. Publix grocery stores have scholarships for employees. But it is July 27 and unlikely that anything will help for this fall.

55

If you delay stating college to work minimum wage jobs and save money in order to avoid loans, you can have what’s called an opportunity cost. You could be trading a career salary for minimum wage-type earnings for each year you delay.

56

In a perfect world, you would not need loans to pay for your college education, but that is not your family’s financial reality. Borrowing crazy high amounts and private loans to pay for a pricy private is a bad idea, but taking out the federal student loans and attending a good public which has otherwise met your financial need is what many other students are faced with.

Some of the $5500 that you are permitted to borrow for freshman year is subsidized so that no interest will accrue while you are a full time student. The remaining loans accrue interest, but rates are pretty low. If you borrow the full amount of federal loans that you can get yourself for all 4 years($5500, yr 1, $6500 yr2, $7500 yrs 2&3) you would borrow a total of $27k plus Some interest. ( u are not required to borrow the full amount if you don’t need it). The payment would be roughly $300 per month for 10 years, starting after graduation, a manageable amount for most graduates, not fun, but doable. You might find after freshman yeast, that if you can get a decent part time job during the school year and some decent summer earnings, you may be able to borrow less.

57

Take the loans and get started on your dreams for the future. Just live very frugally and do work study and summer jobs. Also, major in something that you could actually get a job in once you graduate. If you are thinking of grad school, postpone that to get a job and save money. Then apply to grad school. Just don’t major in something that has weak economic/job security. Because then you will have problems paying your own way through life with all your bills plus saving for grad school.

58

OP, I read some of your other posts and it really looked like you were very unrealistic in the schools that you applied to- Ivies and very, very selective colleges. I know that you were thinking that if you got in, everything would be covered financially and that’s why you did it. But it was very risky and unfortunately it did not work out. But you still have very good options so stay on track. I don’t think that either CC or taking a gap year would be good for your morale. Go in state to one of your public schools.

59

And it is not the case that everything is paid for at the elite schools. The Ivies usually expect the student to contribute something (and include the pell grant in the aid applied to cost of attendance. Many of those students have to take a student loan to pay that contribution.

60

^ Yes, true. But the Ivies and some very few selective schools do a great job of covering cost. Plus, they often have other resources to help low income students cover incidentals- transportation, coats, outside meals.