<p>On reading tons of threads on CC , I always find people telling it is not worth taking around $100k-$150k loan after undergraduate studies ..even though how prestigious the college might be. </p>
<p>I am very confused here. I am an International Student so I will be taking in my home country for about $150k. It will amount upto $200k after 4 years. </p>
<p>The thing is I am an Computer Science/Applied Math major and I hope to get a job of around 60k after undergraduate.</p>
<p>By that amount Can't I easily repay the loans in 5-6 years even if I take 30k living expenses during job period per year.</p>
<p>Please someone help me with this confusion. I am an international student so I am having an hard time on how things go in the States. </p>
<p>Where else will costs come up that I will be in huge debt after 4 years??? People who have self-experience on this please also share your advice.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids - I will grateful if you can help me here please</p>
<p>(1) You’re forgetting that you’ll have to pay tax on your earnings, which will reduce your take-home pay significantly.</p>
<p>(2) You’re also not taking into account the interest that will accrue on your debt. Even if you were able to get the principal paid off within 10 to 15 years, it will have accrued significant interest over that time period, so you’ll need additional time to pay that off . . . by which time additional interest will have accrued.</p>
<p>Try running one (or both) of the following two interest calculators to see what you’d be getting into:</p>
<p>[Mapping</a> Your Future](<a href=“Mapping Your Future: Page not found”>Mapping Your Future: Page not found)
[FinAid:</a> The Smart Student Guide to Financial aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>Will you be able to get a $60k/ year job in your home country?</p>
<p>What is the tax rate in your home country?</p>
<p>How does your home country structure loan repayments?</p>
<p>Ashley, the problem is that you are assuming that you will be sponsored immediately by an American company after graduation, and that you will be earning $60K a year. The US is still in financial recovery mode; jobs are not that easy to come by. </p>
<p>Most companies want easy personnel decisions. (This is based on my husband’s experience hiring engineers and computer science majors). If they have an American student with a great resume and internship experience, why would this company go through hurdles, pay sponsorship fees and await immigration status on a candidate? The universities are being deluged by US students who want to study EE, CS, CE, etc. You would be competing with these students for jobs.</p>
<p>My D graduated recently with a degree in electrical engineering but also studied software and was hired as a software engineer/EE. She is working for a large corporation that has a number of US government contracts; the employees that are sought are required to be US citizens. She has a number of international student friends who graduated with her. They haven’t been able to locate US jobs in their SW/CS majors. Many are going back to their home countries and others are trying to get relatives to sponsor their stays in the US so that they can stay in the US longer to search for jobs.</p>
<p>Are you sure you want to borrow that much money for something that is not a sure thing? Loans come with interest and, interest accrues. The loan companies want their money immediately. I don’t even want to get into the living expenses thing, that’s another can of worms!
Were you accepted at any other universities that are less expensive?</p>
<p>@dodgersmom @auntbea @sybbie719 </p>
<p>Thanks a lot for awesome responses. </p>
<p>I like to give some more info here.
Firstly I have a house which the bank has agreed to take as a guarantee to give me a $200k loan. Calculating the interest the maximum it will get will be around $300k. The rate is 11% p.a as the bank gives out money to the college. 200k loan will not be from the beginning itself.</p>
<p>@dodgersmom - Yes I am seriously scared of taxes. As an international citizen assuming I get a job with 70k salary …how much will get reduced in taxes?</p>
<p>@sybbie719 - No, there are very very less chances that back here in my country I will be given more than $40k. Thats also for top students.
Loan repayments for abroad is like 5 year rest period(course duration) and then repayment in 15 years after the rest period.</p>
<p>@auntbea- Thanks for the wonderful insight. Your point actually makes me think twice on spending so much.
Are job prospects for Applied Math or Computer engineers major still very low??
I know us citizen always have an edge but I have also heard of great placement of UIUC, Gatech and UMich in this regard. For Applied Math- NYU placements are good too.
Can you share some more insights on the job difficulties between US Citizen and Internationals?</p>
<p>
The maximum what - interest or total debt?</p>
<p>I’ve run both calculators, and this is what I came up with: $200,000, paid back over 15 years, at an interest rate of 11%, results in the accumulation of over $209,000 in interest, for a total repayment obligation of $409,000! (Actually, since interest on your loan would start to accrue from the dates the money is disbursed, this interest figure is probably low.) Even using this conservative estimate, in order to get the loan paid off within 15 years, you’d have to make over $27,000/year in loan payments!</p>
<p>BTW, here’s a better link to the FinAid calculator: [FinAid:</a> The Smart Student Guide to Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml][b]FinAid:”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml)</p>
<p>International students cannot have the intention of staying in US and work (other than OPT)</p>
<p>@dodgersmom</p>
<p>300k will be the total debt I would have paid after 5yr rest + 10yr repayment. This figure what the bank gave me.</p>
<p>Yes that was the confusion. Is it very very difficult to pay back $30k loan per year. I mean with a salary of 80k per year … estimating 30k on living costs … I still have a large amount in my hand isnt it? </p>
<p>This is the confusion on Where exactly more costs are spend? People who earn 80k where do they usually spend their money on?</p>
<p>I am the single child of my parents. So no more college tuition if that helps.</p>
<p>@4kidsdad- Ofcourse, if you ask my intention . the real intention and real dream IS and WILL BE to go to grad school. </p>
<p>The problem with that $300,000 figure is that it doesn’t appear to take into account the interest that will accrue before you begin repayment, during the years you are still in school. But, assuming it’s correct, that’s still a massive figure.</p>
<p>Take a look at this wonderful description of debt repayment, posted by @lookingforward [two</a> years ago](<a href=“I have no idea what this financial aid award thing means... - #28 by lookingforward - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>I have no idea what this financial aid award thing means... - #28 by lookingforward - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums). The numbers are different, but the issues remain the same:</p>
<p>[If] you could graduate with 22k debt . . . [t]hat would cost you about $300/mo in repayments, for 10 years. That number seems small. But, if you get, say, a 30k job (picking a low number for professional level work- you could make more or you could end up scrambling to make less,) your take home would be about $1750 (after taxes) minus any extra you end up paying for health insurance. Out of that, you pay for rent, food, transp (maybe car payments and car insurance,) clothes, movies, etc. It sounds easy, in the beginning. It gets harder if you want a romance, the car needs repairs, or you get laid off. Just think about it. We love a success story, but most successes come from careful, “aware” planning.</p>
<p>And you’re looking at a monthly repayment obligation that’s almost ten times that much! If you could live on $2,500/month, you’re looking at combined expenses of $60,000/year!!! To cover that amount, you’d need a salary of about $90,000/year, from the day you graduate. And that’s only if NOTHING goes wrong. For 10 years. Ten years of no surprises? Probably not a realistic expectation.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, forget vacations and forget luxuries like getting married, having kids, or even visiting your family back home. You can’t afford it.</p>
<p>$100,000 debt might be manageable, but $200k? Well, it scares me just to think about it.</p>
<p>Gee, my example was based on much lower college costs (and lower interest.) That kid only had to come up with much, much lower college charges and his parents would kick in about 8. Still, we told him not to be naive about this. PLEASE look at Dodgersmom’s link to the repayment calculator. It is stunning.</p>
<p>Interest does NOT start after the 5 year grace; it usually starts as the money is disbursed or soon after. So even with a 10 year payoff after graduation, it has been accumulating. Using the calculator with a 10 year payoff, after 4 years of college, nothing paid then, (note: this is US loan terms, you have to check yours) you’ll be paying over $2700/month after grad- and interest continues to grow on the unpaid balance. With the 10 year, it is a lower total than 409k, but still huge. </p>
<p>These loans also usually pay the projected interest at first, with only a few dollars against principal. That’s another way they ensure they make money on you. So, at the end of one year, you may have paid $33k, but it hasn’t effectively reduced 33k off your original 200k loan.</p>
<p>Google for how interest works. And how to budget for taxes and monthly expenses, on a 60k annual salary. And what sort of visa and proofs are needed for a US employer to hire you, rather than a citizen. At 60k, you take home about $3600/month, before your own needs- you really going to come up with 2700 toward loans? As a CS or math major, you must be able to run these numbers and vet them. Read your documentation, then read it again. </p>
<p>I know many international students do take big loans for big name schools- but since you are asking up front, we are advising you,up front, NOT to think this is easy. </p>
<p>I’ll bite. In my opinion, that is an extremely high amount of debt for undergrad school. You have put your house up as collateral. If, for some reason, you can’t repay that loan, you also run the risk of looking that house to the bank. </p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I cannot advocate $200,000 in debt for an undergrad degree for anyone, not anyone!</p>
<p>And, just to be clear, there are alternatives. Specifically, I’m thinking of the [Automatic/Guaranteed</a> Full Tuition/Full Ride merit scholarships](<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums), some of which are available to international students, and which could reduce your costs by more than half. In other words, if your grade point average (GPA) and ACT or SAT test scores are good enough, you can get an education in the U.S. for much less money - these scholarships are guaranteed for first-year students with qualifying GPAs and test scores. (Please note that these are limited to first-year students only. If you start college somewhere else, you lose eligibility for this type of scholarship.)</p>
<p>Yes, the application deadlines for these schools have probably already passed (for most of them, anyway), but that doesn’t mean you can’t contact the schools directly and ask them to make an exception. Who knows? They might say yes! And, if they don’t, you get a job for a year, submit the college applications as soon as they become available this coming August . . . and a year later, you’re on your way to an affordable U.S. education.</p>
<p>In other words, it can be done . . . just not quite the way you’d imagined.</p>
<p>For specifics about the rules governing CPT (working in the US while you are in college) and OPT (working in the US after graduation) see <a href=“http://www.ice.gov/sevis/practical-training/”>http://www.ice.gov/sevis/practical-training/</a></p>
<p>For information about where international students with your major at your university found jobs for CPT and OPT, contact the career center and the international students office at that university. Someone in those offices might also know if students like you are ever able to find sponsors for an H1B (work) visa after their OPT runs out.</p>
<p>You do need to know that while some international students do eventually find sponsors for an H1B, most don’t. Even in those who graduate with good grades and recommendations in majors like the ones you are asking about. To be perfectly honest, it is stupid to take on the kind of debt you are considering. You have better options. If you have to, take a gap year, and reapply to more affordable places, or complete your undergrad in your home country and come here for grad school.</p>
<p>My son shared a house in college with 2 international students, both who got STEM type degrees, neither could find jobs. It’s presumptuous to assume you will get a job, as it may well not happen. </p>
<p>It is ruinous to take out that level of loan. Especially with the level of uncertainly of securing H1B visa job with no masters even.</p>
<p>Most families in the U.S. cannot pay that amount for college. Mostly it is only very wealthy families. If families in the U.S. pay that total amount they usually get much of the money from family savings. Then they pay more out of current parental income, finally they take out just some reasonable amount of loan. The only people who actually borrow massive amounts are people who have something wrong with them mentally or emotionally or they are letting an 18 yo run things. It isn’t very many people of the entire college crowd who has parents that foolish/ignorant.</p>
<p>Also the rate of repayment you anticipate can be highly unlikely because of very high cost of living in some areas. Try to find people who have actually done something like that successfully. Ask on Quora where they live and what it costs.</p>
<p>Oh my…</p>
<p>many Comp Sci jobs are NOT available to int’ls because there is a concern that proprietary info will be compromised.</p>
<p>You cannot expect to earn much at all after graduation…certainly not as much as domestic grads.</p>
<p>The amounts of debt that you’re talking about are just mind-boggling. Your life would be ruined. </p>
<p>Also, at this point, you have no real idea of what you’ll graduate in. Many/most eng’g and comp sci majors change their majors.</p>
<p>Anyway, you’re going to need at least $30k per year to pay for your living expenses. </p>
<p>Arent your parents going to pay anything?</p>
<p>where else did you apply that is more affordable?</p>
<p>If you have a house you can get a loan on, why not just sell the house? It would be cheaper–no interest!</p>