Pitt or Alabama?

Applying to College
21

Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti, is an affordable option (if UM doesn’t pan out) and is probably 10 - 15 minutes from Ann Arbor. It is a fairly good University for Pre-Med and the Tuition/Fees is about $10K/yr. EMU is an easy commute from Ann Arbor, so why is it not under consideration?

The question the OP needs to address is: how serious are you about going to med school? IMHO, asking your cash-strapped parents to co-signed exorbitant amount of loans for undergraduate is pretty shortsighted, if your long-term goal is to become a physician.

What about Michigan State? I friend of mine daughter, who lives in Ann Arbor with an income of around $50K, goes to Michigan State. Could you get enough merit with your stats to make it affordable?

22

You are listing your options as:

  1. Schools you can’t afford (NYU, etc)
  2. Not going to college

Yes, you can go into tremendous amounts of debt (70% of Americans are in debt but that doesn’t make it right!) but trust me, having that much student loan debt will be a HUGE millstone around your neck in the future.

There are colleges out there that you CAN afford, and there are community colleges. Be smart about it! An NYU education is not a need!

23

OP, I think you need to make a spreadsheet with the information you received on this thread, and the information available on each school from collegeboard.com and see what the gap is between what resources you have and what you need.

Becoming a physician and ultimately being well off is a fine dream. Attending NYU is not a realistic dream. You are setting yourself up.

Sit down with your parents and see what they can do for you. Unless you go local (Michigan commuter school) , you don’t have good options. Trust your parents to know their own finances and see what they can do, if anything, to help you close the gap. If they are as strapped as you make it sounds, you must find other affordable options.

It is getting late in the season, and you really need to get your application into affordable options.

24

My school won’t allow anyone to send in applications after December 1st, I have to go to one of the three schools. Which is fine, I worked my butt off for four years to go to a top 100 school. I want to go off and live on campus and have the time of my life, not go to a crappy cc or tiny four-year college. I know that I’m going to graduate with debt, I’m not trying to graduate debt free. I appreciate everyone’s help, but no one is answering my original question: Pitt or Alabama?

Alabama Pros:
20K scholarship with possible 10K in addition
Admission to the Honors College
Possible admission to the Blount Scholars Program

Alabama Cons:
Far
Heavy Greek life
Not in a big city
Too hot?

Pitt Pros:
Closer to home
Better program
Like the campus a lot more
In a city
Guaranteed internship program

Pitt Cons:
No merit aid
Don’t qualify for honors college (but I could transfer in after freshman year)

25

So you have $20,000 from your parents, and $5500 in a Federal loan. That’s enough for your first year of Alabama or the first semester at Pitt. Go to either. Have the time of your life. Then get a job and save up for more semesters of college. Good luck to you.

26

Man. I wish we had CC managing the national budget.

I think, OP, that you are getting a lot of pushback because your dreams are simply larger than your budget. Even if your parents were willing to co-sign for massive debt, they would be unwise and you would be unreasonable for asking them to do it. The advice to make a spreadsheet is very good rather than simple pro:con lists.

Bottom line for Alabama, your best case scenario financially, in rough numbers:

Total cost of tuition, room, board, transportation (flying 3 times a year): $187,772
Financial aid from UA: -$80,000
Parental Contribution: $-20,000
Student Loans: ~22,000
Net result: $65,000 shortfall.

In other words, your best choice is unaffordable. Even if your parents were willing to take on that debt, they should not.

UA offers generous credit for AP’s so you might be able to finish in 3 years which would tread against the “time of your life” ideal but would lessen the blow financially. Cost of $140,829 - 60K aid - 20K parents - 15.5K loans = deficit of about $50,000 for 3 years. If you did work study and worked in the summers maybe you could whittle $10K off of that leaving your parents liable for $40,000.

You don’t mention your parents income (which is fine). Perhaps they make enough that they could cut back on spending and loan you the money personally e.g. 20K gift, 40K loan. That would make UA in three years barely affordable.

You might not like it, but money will make the choice for you. NYU is an impossibility. Even if you went there your lifestyle would not lend itself to the time of your life. And winters in Pittsburgh vs Alabama? Unfortunately you have crafted a dilemma for yourself with your college choices. Sounds like Michigan or Michigan State would be the most likely choices. I understand the urge to move on - but that is what graduate school and work are for. At this point in life, you need to be willing to go where reality takes you until you can create your own options.

27

@nyuhopeful44 You say your parents have saved 20k thus far, so they’re not able help at all with their ongoing income?

28

Will they send a transcript after 12/1? If so, then you can still apply to colleges that do not require other support (recommendations, etc.) from your high school. At least some of the full ride scholarship schools listed in reply #17 just require the application, transcript, and test scores.

29

@TheBurbs my parents make probably around 150K a year combined, and they will help me with some of my bills, probably between 2 and 5K a year, as long as my sister stays out of the hospital (she has depression).
@ucbalumnus they won’t send out any transcripts or recommendations after the 1st

30

to your question, Pitt or Alabama? I vote for Alabama. Pitt may provide better program, but is it worth the difference of 80K (or more) for the duration for college? in particular you want pre-med. Note that the 80K is in addition to what you would have to borrow.

But what everyone is telling you that neither Bama nor Pitt is affordable, NYU should totally be out of consideration. But then is it your life and your future…If your parents are going to agree to borrow for you and willing to take the risk, it is your decision. I suggest you sit down with your parents to calculate how much THEY will need to borrow and how long it take to repay.
Best of luck

31

Seems like your only financially feasable options are to start at an open admission community college, or go to work for a gap year and reapply to a more financially feasable list of colleges. If you tell your high school that these are your only options, will they make an exception for you to apply to an automatic full ride college?

32

I am going against the grain here. The question was Alabama or Pitt. Go with Alabama. It’s a good school and saves you a ton of money. You can work around the Greek system and the heat. Work hard over the summers, and maybe get a part-time job during school. Your parents will have to borrow some money - the Parents Plus Loan is one of the many options. Is this a perfect situation? No way. It’s really up to your parents because they are the ones who have to borrow the money. But if they are willing to do it and see a reasonable way to pay that back, then personally, I don’t think the extreme of not going to college is your option. If you get really stuck, then you can potentially transfer in your junior year to finish up college at a less expensive school.

33

can a school legally refuse to send out transcript after December 1st? What about kids who need a transcript for a scholarship ?

34

@3mamagirls thanks for the advice!
@annamom we use parchment for transcript requests, and the counselors have to approve each place they go to. To lessen their workload (my hs is HUGE) they only apply requests for scholarships after the first, and we are encouraged to finish all college apps over Thanksgiving break

35

Between Pitt full pay and Alabama with 80K scholarship: Alabama. But, listen to what people on this thread are trying to tell you.

36

Well, you can say that you are applying for the scholarships at the colleges listed in reply #17, since you realized that your three colleges are unaffordable.

It seems like your high school is giving your counselors unneeded busywork by putting them in the transcript request process.

37

@nyuhopeful44 If the college is not affordable on the budget you’re stating, will your parents be willing to give a little extra help?

38

@TheBurbs they’ll probably be able to give me a couple grand a year. I think I also have some savings bonds, and I’ll get some money from my graduation party

39

How many AP’s have you taken? With a very tight budget I would recommend trying to accelerate your undergrad to 3 years as some one above suggested. Bama is pretty AP and CLEP friendly so explore your options as this may be the easiest way to cut your college costs by 25%. Good luck.

40

I am starting to wonder if the OP has a grasp on the financial implications of the decision being made. “Savings bonds” and “money from graduation party” are not going to cover the delta OP is looking at.

Here is some advice, take it for what it is worth.

Right now, the most important thing feels like getting in and going to your dream school - debt be damned.

However, I can honestly tell you that it will eventually be a burden - one that forces you to make employment and family decisions based on the need to pay that tuition debt. It hangs around a LONG time (think 30 years) especially with higher degrees as a possibility.

At this stage in the game, you should really know how much your parents are willing to borrow/pay to help you. And you should be making decisions with a little more eye towards the future that it sounds like here.

I am SURE you feel you deserve to go where you want to go. This is the time in life when many kids are forced to grow up fast and realize that life does not always work out like that. We all have financial constraints. What matters is how you deal with them and what you do wherever you go.

Best of luck.