@blossom - Happy New Year! I am going to tell my son to apply to the the Pitt branch campuses because it does appear that the tuition is less than the main campus. I just hope it’s not too late for him to get merit scholarships there. The other colleges suggested to me are more expensive based on the NPC - Elizabethtown $26,760, Messiah $30,830,Geneva $24,600, PItt Bradford is 23,243 and I will check the other branch campuses. I don’t know if anyone feels the same way as I do but this whole college search is stressful.
Forget about your FAFSA EFC. It’s too high for federally funded grants.
How much CAN you pay annually for yoir kiddo to attend college without taking out private or HELOC loans?
There have been so many different numbers bantered around here…I’m confused.
Will you be funding your son’s college education solely with loans you take out…
Fwiw - mentioned earlier re: Pitt, doing coop extends the time you would need to cover living costs - just bear in mind costs of off campus living at Pitt can be around 450-800/mo depending on how nice they are. Summer sublets go lower - around $300-400 for rent. Coop program is well established and easy to get for CS, making good money to pay for the next semester - with low rent and then graduating with 1+ yrs of actual work experience on the resume in their field - gives them a great leg up on competition.
@thumper1 Sad to say we can probably only pay about 20K total from our savings. We will have to co-sign for my son.
And will probably help pay toward the interest while he is in college. We will have to either take out a Parent Plus loan or find out about Private loans. With my oldest son, we took out a Parent Plus and paid it off using a Home Equity loan. I really don’t know how else to do it. Hopefully when he graduates and becomes an engineer he will get a good job and will be able to pay back the loans. From what I understand, taking out loans seems to be the norm. I am not alone
Taking out loans is NOT the norm. Many students attend colleges close to home, and commute to save money. I wish I could find the reference… but the %age of students going to college and commuting from home is actually high.
If you “paid off”the parent Plus loan with your HELOC…you did NOT pay the loan off…at all. You just took out a different loan. You still HAVE a loan…just with a different vendor.
You need to be certain you will be a qualified cosigner for Loans if you go the private loan route.
So…you have $5000 a year…and your kiddo has $5500 in a Direct Loan. That’s $10,500. Is there anywhere your son can commute to where he could study for,the first two years…thus saving you a huge amount of money…and then transfer to a four year to get his bachelors?
@MYOS1634 this should clarify it. Sounds like the parent has $5000 per year to contribute, that changes some of the suggestions folks are making…as this parent would need to take out $20,000 plus per year in loans.
I.e. your parent contribution without parent loans is about $5,000 per year.
A realistic maximum student contribution is probably a $5,500 federal direct loan plus $3,000-$5,000 in part time and summer work earnings (but going to the maximum means no room for error or bad financial luck). So that means that the net price limit without parent loans is probably $13,500 to $15,500.
Over 70% of students from 4 year colleges graduate with at least some debt. How can you say it is not the norm?
Probably depends on whether one means student loans that do not need a cosigner or parent loans / parent-cosigned student loans.
OP originally said $10-$15k. Now $20k and we know she still has other loans. Sounds like a very bad, not well thought out plan.
Almost everyone that I have spoken to has taken out loans for their children or have children who took out their own loans. We are in the middle - not rich enough to pay for college and not poor enough to qualify for financial aid.
Living in Pennsylvania is also a disadvantage for college affordability (and hence a higher amount of loans needed to afford college), since the in-state publics (including CSHE and PASSHE as well as community colleges) tend to be more expensive with worse financial aid than other states’ publics for their in-state students.
If you use https://www.collegedata.com/cs/search/college/college_search_tmpl.jhtml to search for public schools with average student debt > $35,000, many Pennsylvania publics show up.
@Collegefrazzled Most truly “poor enough” kids would not be going to Pitt either, believe me. And those schools that will meet need are super selective. So most poor kids end up working part time, living at home, and commuting to something nearby. So don’t lament about not being poor enough, your kid has far more options than many, he just seems to be reluctant to give up his dream.
My kids will have the federal loans only. We are not taking out loans, I will not co-sign for them, and I would never saddle my kids w/ debt that will affect their lives for years to come. Most of the parents I know, that share this kind of information, aren’t co-signing for loans either.
Perhaps someone here could go into more financial detail on how the co-op would offset the costs at Pitt? and w/ the OP’s contributions, what kind of loans they would need? I am not familiar enough w/ them, as DS has not done one; he is looking at summer internships.
Totally agree that STUDENTS graduate with debt…and I included th $5500 freshman Direct Loan in the amount available to this kid. That is STUDENT debt.
The OP will need to take an additional $20,000 per year in either Plus loans or private loans or HELOC…that’s not student loans.
It would mean that this kid would,have $80,000 in parent assumed loans (either taken out by them or co-signed) AND the $27,000 in federally funded student loans. Total over $100,000.
Most kids do NOT graduate with that level of college debt. Sorry…they don’t.
And really $80,000 of this is parent debt.
If Pitt Bradford is $23,500 and minus the $7,500 scholarship, that leaves $16,000.
If you pay $5,000 and S pays $8,500 with student loan and summer earnings, you might have to borrow around $2,500.
If your MAGI is $160,000 or less for married filing jointly, you might qualify for the AOTC tax credit of up to $2,500.
That might reduce what you have to borrow in the following year. Or you could pay the Parent Plus loan off with it.
Ship might have a traditional dorm option which might be cheaper than suite-style. With the scholarship right now Ship is about $21,000.
Minus $8,500 student contribution and $5,000 from parents, that leaves $7,500 for you to borrow.
I would reach out to Ship to see if there are any other scholarships he could get through honors or engineering.
Is the $19,000 at York based on merit or need based aid?
At Pitt main the tuition and fees for engineering is about $20,000 per year. S can take $7,500 loan in junior and senior year, and with summer work earnings that would be $10,500.
Maybe you can help pay for living expenses with the $5,000 contribution, and if S does two COOPs he might be able to cover that himself.
That would leave about $10,000 to borrow for you.
@thumper1 no need to say sorry, but when you stated that “Taking out loans is NOT the norm” it needed to be clarified. You did not originally say “Taking out 80K in loans is NOT the norm”
@Portercat I was responding to the OP who was talking bout oarents taking out loans. But I guess I should have been clearer in my response. So apologies.
I will say it more clearly here…
Many many students go to college closer to home so their PARENTS do not have to take out large college loans.
@mommdc good summary of the current options.
I still ask…is there an option whereby this student could do his general education requirements while commenting from home…to save money…and then finishing his bachelors at a four year college.
If his parents really can contribute $10,000 in loans per year in addition to the $5000 they are chipping in per year…and the $5500 Direct Loan the student can take…and some earnings from the student…these are affordable with just a stretch.
http://www.ship.edu/Honors/Prospective/Application/
Did your son do the honors application?
@mommdc - No, what concerns me about this is the class difficulty with Honors classes. If he doesn’t maintain the required GPA he could risk losing his scholarships. Engineering is a tough major to begin with. Also college classes are not as easy as high school classes.
Ship’s Honors classes are geared to students who score 1100-1200 on the SAT. Remember that your son’s stats would be in the top 1-2% of all students and that non honors classes are geared toward students who scored below 1000. He’ll likely find the honors classes easier than his AP classes. (Ship grants AP credit for 3’s - that gives you a good idea of the freshman class difficulty. They even grant credit for 3’s in AP Psych, APES, and AP Human Geography.)
Also, Honors students tend to do better in their Honors classes because the classes are geared toward their skills and aptitudes, which keeps them stimulated.
So, your budget is $5,000. With the federal loans and savings from his job, his total budget is likely 13-14K.
You can’t afford either Ship or Pitt Main.
Pitt Bradford, would be 23K minus 7.500 in automatic scholarship = 15.5K.
Pitt Johnstown would be 14-15K.
YSU and UToledo would be about 14K too.
They’re close to affordable.
The average college debt in the US is about 30K, which is the amount of the federal loans. Most parents don’t take on loans for their kids to attend college.
(In most states other than PA, the “directional” state universities cost much less - about 6K a year in FL, 6K in MD, free tuition in NYS or if earning more than 110K tuition is 6K a year, 12K also in Michigan…)
It’s worth it to explore what honors at Ship would entail.
Are there certain classes he must take (like an honors core), and how do they compare?
I would think the honors classes would mostly comprise humanities classes.
I’d expect that he would take Calc, physics and chem as regular classes.
With a 1360 SAT he is at the top of the score range at Ship.
Also make sure he applies to local scholarships, they might help with books and help reduce any loans you have to take, even if they are only for the first year.