<p>Hello everyone! I hope I can get some good advice from people who have seen a lot in the college world, as my heart has been rising and sinking for the past few months.</p>
<p>Here is my story:
Last year I applied and was accepted to Mills College in Oakland. I fell in love after attending a preview day and didn't think I was going to get in so I waited way too long to apply for financial aid. I then deferred for a year because I had no idea how I was going to cover the rest of my tuition in addition to my financial aid package of $15,500. I was hoping this time around that after submitting my financial aid documents on time (before March 2nd), that my award package would be much bigger because I would be getting more than "leftover aid". I was wrong and ended up getting the same package but after appealing for more aid I was able to bump it up another $5k.
I am still left with an additional $20,000 to come up with and my parents are finally open to co-signing a loan for me but things are more complicated than we originally anticipated because my dad is retired an in order for him to co-sign, he needs to have a verifiable income and he is going to need to convert his IRAs into annuities and so forth.
I am still considered a dependent student because I will be turning 23 next week.
My family's EFC is nearly $70k because my dad owns rental properties and he looks really good on paper. Too bad FAFSA doesn't have a soul.
I am also currently paying back some past loans right now and after I graduate from Mills we are scared that I am going to be overwhelmed with loans to pay back, even after consolidation.</p>
<p>So I'm looking at a few different options.
I've already asked Mills if they can extend my deferral to two years and they cannot. Luckily I wasn't surprised by this. If I do go this year it will either be through a loan or if my parents decide to dip into retirement funds (which may end up being more sustainable in the long-run due to interest and all that jazz).</p>
<p>I am also slightly terrified that I won't get accepted again because I will be competing against a different pool of applicants. I did ask Mills if I'd need to re-submit my transcripts or letters of recommendation and they told me that they hang on to everything.</p>
<p>If I don't go to school this year I will have to re-apply next year, and I also would apply to a few women's colleges on the East Coast (Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke) in order to see who would accept me and give me a sparkling financial aid package.
Honestly, I think that Mills has the highest acceptance rate of transfers out of the four and I doubt I'd get into any of those schools. But that's what I said about Mills and look what happened!</p>
<p>If I do re-apply and get accepted to Mills next year and I am an independent student, should I expect an amazing financial aid package? I'd hate to wait another year to go to school, only to get a small financial aid package and still have to take out loans. The nice thing about going to school this fall will be that I will still be living at home and I don't have to worry about rent. My parents don't want to stay in NorCal for too much longer and want me to finish school quickly.</p>
<p>And if you're wondering if I am considering other schools, the answer is no. I have been at a public university and I went to community college in SF for three years to get my GEs out of the way. After meeting so many happy alumnae from different women's colleges and meeting so many happy Mills alumnae, I know that a women's liberal arts college is exactly what I want and need.</p>
<p>Mills does not guarantee to meet full need. So I don’t think you can reasonably expect that, if you reapply as an independent student, your financial aid package will be “amazing.” It might be more, but it could also be the same or even less . . . the fact that Mills does not guarantee to meet full need means that it can do whatever it wants. One student might have 80% of her need met . . . and another student might have only 20% met.</p>
<p>The fact that you have a place to live now, with your parents, and would lose that in the future is HUGE. It’s not just a matter of that being an extra “expense” . . . it will be an extra expense that you will have no way to pay for! There’s a limit to how much you can borrow, even with your parents cosigning for you.</p>
<p>There is no question in my mind that if you attend Mills, you will spend the rest of your life paying for it. Whether or not it’s worth that to you is, well, up to you.</p>
<p>The one thing you can and should do before you decide is take a look at some other schools. Mills, Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Bryn Mawr are not the only women’s colleges in the country. Look at ALL of them. Every single one - no matter where it’s located. For each school, consider the following: (1) does the school guarantee to meet full need (including for transfer students) and (2) does the school have an admissions policy that favors older applicants? Some of the women’s colleges actively encourage older candidates to apply . . . including candidates quite a bit older than you who already have families of their own.</p>
<p>What I’m suggesting is that there may be another path to the woman’s college of your dreams . . . one that involves working and saving money first, and attending later. I’m not saying that this is your only option . . . but it might be one of them.</p>
<p>I’d strongly suggest using that first list, though - it’s amazing . . . it even has the Net Price Calculator for each school that’s listed! That will be a huge time saver for you. (And, yes, you want to run that calculator for every school . . . so you know what your options are!) Once you have some idea of what your costs might be, go to the school websites and start exploring.</p>
<p>You can also cross-check this list against the [Princeton</a> Review](<a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/schoolsearch.aspx]Princeton”>College Search | The Princeton Review) school finder, which will give you instant access to each school’s financial aid rating and the average percentage of need met, as well as other data, including course offerings, difficulty of admission and “quality of life.”</p>
<p>Dodgersmom has given you some incredibly good directed advice. The fact of the matter is that schools that do not guarantee to meet 100% of need and do not usually do so, are not likely to do so for you. As a transfer student,you would be in even a more challenging position to get full need met because even those schools that guarantee to meet all need, often do not extend that policy to transfers. Having more need by becoming independent does not translate into getting more aid in most cases.</p>
<p>Having your parents compromise their retirement accounts is NOT the way to go. THere are things in life more important than going to a college you like. By cosigning any loans, that will go on your Dad’s credit report, can affect him adversely for many years to come and if anything should happen to you, he’s still on the hook for his loans. Very bad idea and harmful to your parents who are not getting any younger. Better to find a local college and commute.</p>
<p>I know a 23 just turned 24 year old Francis Perkins student at Mt. Holyoke who works full time, making no less than 30,000 a year, just bought her own two family house, and Mt. Holyoke has given her incredible financial aid. She’s paying much less than she could, given her job and that she only has herself to need money for, no kid, etc. The Ada Comstock program at Smith is also very good for older students.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the responses so far. I want to point out that I am considering particular schools for their location (I’m from the bay area and don’t want to leave just yet), and their culture. I am also working at Whole Foods and if I do leave, I am going to need to transfer my job to a store nearby the school.</p>
<p>My major at Mills will be English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and some of the other schools only offer English.</p>
<p>So many students get stuck on a particular program of study and rule out schools because they don’t have a particular thing. I could see that being a problem if you wanted to be a nursing or engineering major, but with a creative writing minor - don’t worry about it. Many schools have classes in creative writing without a formal minor; other schools are close to colleges and universities with a creative writing emphasis and you can take classes there. And most of them will have some sort of club or student org where you can hook with other writers and improve your creative writing. The important part is affordability.</p>
<p>Thank you, juillet. At this point we are going to look into the Parent PLUS loan (since it is a federal loan) because my dad was reading an article on MSN about Income-Based Payment and if he finds out that 1) he doesn’t have to compromise his retirement and 2) he doesn’t have to be on the hook after I graduate if I can’t pay it back, then we’re going to be in business for August. If it doesn’t work out, I’m going to apply to the other schools next year. If anyone knows about the PLUS loan, that would be great. I’m going to search other threads for discussions about it.</p>
<p>This is absolutely not true. A PLUS loan is a parent loan. He will be the one responsible for repaying the loan whether or not you ever graduate. If you want to be on the hook for this debt, then her should be considering co-signing for you to take out the loan.</p>
<p>At this point it is going to be very difficult for my dad to be approved for co-signing a private loan without having to compromise his retirement. We also want to only stick to using federal loans due to the level of flexibility that comes with the pay back terms after graduation.
Unless there is a way my dad can qualify for loan forgiveness for the PLUS loan after I graduate because he is retired and will only be getting Social Security checks as a source of income, I don’t think we’re going to do the PLUS loan since it’s going to be in his name. With all of this said, does anyone know of any other federal loans that are out there for dependent students? I’ve already been awarded an unsubsidized Stafford loan and I don’t qualify for anything else because of my parent’s EFC. I’m trying to exhaust every option until August 1st when tuition is due before I decline everything and wait to re-apply next year.</p>