<p>It’s rarely a scenario like that (where someone passes up a full tuition offer to go somewhere where they can barely make ends meet). The ones that really get to me are the ones where the student is, in the first year, exhausting their federal aid and relying on the Parent Plus loan or private borrowing to fill a huge gap. Those are the students who are likely to hit a wall in subsequent years because they might not really be able to qualify for those loans later on and departmental scholarships or new jobs rarely come in time to fully cover a huge gap like that. The sad cases are the ones that have to drop out and go somewhere else after having borrowed a crazy amount for a year or two – those are the ones who feel terrible paying back those student loans because they didn’t even get to stay at that school and get a degree from it. To use a cliche, they have NYU debt and a degree from their local state university.</p>
<p>Your daughter’s situation isn’t reckless at all in my view. She might not have a concrete plan for all four years but she at least has realistic options going forward. To me, that’s very different than the person who is attending a school where they’re basically hoping for a lottery win to be able to return for sophomore year.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on the alternative. If a student has enough for 1 year without having to borrow but the alternative is to not start college, I think I’d recommend starting college. If that same year would require big borrowing, then no, I don’t think he should start with no plan but to keep borrowing every year. </p>
<p>I’m really cheap. I don’t think student loans should be as easy to get as they are and I really think the 15 minute required video before a student can borrow should be a complete course in the government loan program, showing students all the rules of borrowing, how much payments will be, what the government can do to recover a defaulted loan, how interest can grow. I’m hoping my kids don’t need to take loans, but it is a possibility. Even so, I don’t think students need to have all the money locked in before starting school. All the money for THAT year, yes, but not for 4 years. </p>
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The sad cases are the ones that have to drop out and go somewhere else after having borrowed a crazy amount for a year or two – those are the ones who feel terrible paying back those student loans because they didn’t even get to stay at that school and get a degree from it. To use a cliche, they have NYU debt and a degree from their local state university.</p>
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<p>Yes, these have to be the worst scenarios! Imagine that you’re having to pay back 60k+ in student loans for a NYU-like school - that you justified at the time because “it will be so worth it!” - but you had to leave after the first year or two! </p>
<p>As for the comment regarding choices of a free tuition award or a totally doubtful situation. It’s not always that extreme. There are just too many starry-eyed decisions being made - largely influenced by lunch-table-peer-pressure or parents’ peer pressure. Passing up “less risky” routes for very pricey ones that will only work if “the stars align perfectly for four years,” is scary. What family can go 4 years without several pricey hiccups?</p>