Hey guys, because of everything going on in the world, I’m having a hard time choosing where I want to spend my next 4 years at college. I have narrowed it down to 3: Clemson, Virginia Tech, and BYU. When applying to colleges, I didn’t want to do too much research into them so if I did get rejected, it didn’t hurt as much. Once I found out the colleges I got accepted into, I started doing my research. I found Clemson to be my dream school as it’s reputation for both academics as well as athletics has been vastly growing. I would be entering in as a Finance major where their business school was just finished and ready for this Fall. I will also be on a pre-dental track where Clemson has been great in helping student in pre-professions. However, I was not offered any scholarships from Clemson and my parents aren’t able to help me pay for college, so that means I’d have to be paying $50k per year to go to my dream school.
Virginia Tech and BYU are my next options. Both are about the same cost at $20k with Virginia Tech being close to home while BYU is out in Utah (but travel doesn’t matter for me). With Virginia Tech, they have not been great with getting back to me regarding questions I have or trying to help my transition into their university. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a great college, but one of my other factors is whether the endless grind I did in high school was worth it. I was ranked very high in my class as well as receiving multiple awards for my work in the classroom as well as in the community, and going to Virginia Tech doesn’t seem worth the grind where I know people with far lower GPA’s and SAT’s as me got in. I’ve maintained a 3.94 unweighted GPA and scored highly on anything tests/essays I needed to submit for a college.
BYU is my mom’s college she went to make in the day. BYU has the 2nd best business school in the country and has been known for pumping out people ready to go to dental school. However, when entering, I’m not immediately a business major, rather, I’m pre business. After my sophomore year, I apply into the business school. If I’m rejected, which 42% are, you’re stuck. I’d have to do internships and job shadow business firms to help allow me to try and get into the business school, but I’d also have to do the same for dental schools, making managing college assignments, job shadowing, and other various things, much more difficult. Virginia Tech and Clemson would have me both entered in as a business major with no additional application needed. Additionally, if I take 2 classes over the summer, I’d be a semester ahead at Clemson.
With everything going on in the world, it’s so hard to choose a college and be happy about it. I just want to choose a college and stick to it and be happy with no regrets wherever I go.
Where do you plan on getting $200,000? The federal student loan is only ~$5500/year.
I think you need to find some affordable schools. What are your stats? Have you looked for merit or need based aid anywhere? Are there any schools you can commute to from home?
Please help us understand your financial situation. Clarify if your parents are willing and able to pay Anything towards your college education? Will they buy your books, Buy stuff you need for your dorm room etc? Are they willing to fill out FAFSA so you can borrow federal loans?
As the student, you can only borrow the federal loan amount each year (and must have parents fill out FAFSA each year to get you qualified for federal loans). Are your parents willing to take out parent loans each year (and will their finances qualify) so that you can later pay back those loans?
Covid presents so many potential pitfalls to your college experience. I highly recommend you still close to home, and find ways to appreciate Virginia Tech.
Your freshman year, you can only take out $5500 in federal student loans. Where will you get the remaining $15,000 to attend Va Tech?
Sorry to say but it doesn’t look like any of these options are affordable. IMO affordability should always be the first priority when choosing a school (followed by fit).
How can you come up with $50k or even $20k a year? The maximum in federal student loans you can take out next year is $5,500. And even if you could get the loans somehow why would you want that much debt when you have dental school in your future?
Same comments and questions as others have brought up. How are you thinking about paying for any of these schools? You can only take out $5500 in loans on your own. If your parents sign with you, it becomes their loans too, on their credit report and they remain responsible for every dime you cannot pay right till they die. Getting out of repaying private loans is very difficult. If they can’t pay for your college today, how can they repay those loans tomorrow and in future years? When you co-sign a loan, you have to be prepared to pay them back as though they are yours.
It doesn’t sound like you have thought this through all the way. You’ve got what they call “champagne tastes on a beer budget”.
Would you really feel comfortable attending dental school while carrying $200,000 in debt from undergrad? Would your parents even be willing to cosign those loans, because the other posters were correct: the maximum you can borrow is $5,500 freshman year, and it doesn’t go up by much after that. How would you feel if something happened to you and your parents were on the hook for that $200K? How would that affect their lives?
These internships and job shadowing… have you looked into how much they pay, if anything?
You’re talking about summer classes… how much do they cost? How would you pay for room and board away from home? Transportation? Wouldn’t it better to work and save money during that time, so you can contribute something to your education, or at least have spending money?
I am not sure what your options are at this point, but I would find a more affordable way to get to the career you want.
You can’t afford Clemson. That’s a HUGE con. I’d let it go personally. Going to a “dream school” will be a nightmare when you get the bill. The “dream” should be getting an education that allows you a career.
BYU and VA Tech are similar in affordable price. Start here. Both good schools.
BYU means you need to reapply to get into the business school. I’m assuming that you WANT business if you don’t get into dental school or change your mind about it.
It’s a gamble but only you know where you’d land on the scale.
You say:
"With Virginia Tech, they have not been great with getting back to me regarding questions I have or trying to help my transition into their university. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a great college, but one of my other factors is whether the endless grind I did in high school was worth it. I was ranked very high in my class as well as receiving multiple awards for my work in the classroom as well as in the community, and going to Virginia Tech doesn’t seem worth the grind where I know people with far lower GPA’s and SAT’s as me got in. I’ve maintained a 3.94 unweighted GPA and scored highly on anything tests/essays I needed to submit for a college.
Va Tech is similar.
I need to shake you! This is NOT a contest with your peers. It’s your future with you as the star player.
Look at your comments:
“not great at getting back to me”–No, you have to keep going and do the research until you find that person whose job it is to answer those questions.
“I know it’s a great college”-- self explanatory.
"whether the endless grind I did in high school was worth it. "-- Yes, it was worth it. You will be that much farther ahead and have an easier time because of the work you’ve already put in. Learning how to work is important.
It has never been a contest between you and your classmates.
You are only one of thousands who would be in “dream schools” if finances weren’t part of the equation. I can guarantee that you wont be the smartest person in the class. Believe me. Your classmates will have been accepted to schools not even in your realm.
Hey guys, as many of you are asking, yes my parents are co-signing. But I’ve always been a person to get things done, on time, and to the best of my abilities where I don’t settle for something being wrong or not done. With that being said, I never want to miss a payment for college, and I’d always be working on getting it paid off, rather then putting pressure on my parents who are struggling to find jobs during this time.
“my parents aren’t able to help me pay for college,”
“I’d have to be paying $50k per year to go to my dream school.”
Is this just for tuition, or is $50k the total cost of everything?
Where do you intend to get this much money? You cannot borrow it. No one will lend you this much for a bachelor’s degree. Even if you can get your parents to co-sign a loan for you, this is way, way, way too much debt. This is completely unaffordable.
This dream is going to turn into a nightmare very quickly.
“my parents aren’t able to help me pay for college”
Even your other two schools do not look affordable to me.
One daughter had a friend with a very similar situation. She was very close to the top student in her class. However she had a rather unfortunate financial situation. She could not afford to attend any of the universities that she was accepted to. She instead went to community college for two years, and aced everything. She picked a good community college that was close enough so that she could live with her dad the whole time. She then was offered a very good merit scholarship to attend an in-state public university that is close to home for the last two years. She will be graduating a year from now with a very practical and marketable degree and very little debt. I ran into her a few months ago (pre-covid) at a store near here and I am very sure that her dad is very proud of her. I know I would be.
If your parents cannot contribute anything for your education, you might need to take a path that is similar to this particular friend of a daughter.
You can only borrow $5.5k first year (increasing slightly later years) and realistically earn a few thousand per year in summer work and part time school year work.
So $20k for VT or BYU is too expensive, and $50k for Clemson is too expensive by an even greater amount.
If your parents are job hunting due to unemployment, they may not qualify for a loan, unless they have significant unencumbered assets.
The past is not prologue. You cannot predict death or an injury that renders you paralyzed or otherwise unable to work. Unless you carry life and disability insurance, your parents would be stuck with a bill they have no way of paying. Don’t do that to them. If you can’t avoid college debt, you at least need to minimize it. That means crossing Clemson off the list. It means working a paying job over the summers.
It isn’t what you want to hear, but we’d be doing you a disservice if we didn’t tell you to think it over.
If your parents are struggling to find jobs, there is no guarantee that they will be allowed to co-sign. And even if they could this year, they might not be allowed to for future years, meaning you would have to leave the school and go elsewhere.
So your parents will cosign but struggling to find jobs during this time. Hmm… So you are aware that they might not be able to cosign then… Correct? Even if so they might not be able to next year and why would you put them in that situation? I am sorry if this wasn’t planned out before.
Not sure where your finding out about the schools B school rank but not seeing it.
Also dentistry and businesses school are like very opposite. Maybe going to a community College and get some basics out of the way till you further decide might be warranted.
How is having your unemployed parents cosign $200,000 of loans for undergrad so you can go to a dream school not putting pressure on them? That’s not you getting things done. That’s letting somebody else foot the bill for something you want but can’t afford.
You doing it yourself would look more like what many of us did. Look locally for a school that you can pay for with the federal student loan, work earnings, and Pell (if you’re eligible). It may be 2 years at a cc followed by 2 commuting to a 4 year school. You may have to work at least part-time the entire year to afford school. It’s disappointing, but better than asking unemployed parents to co-sign crippling loans.
There is a very real risk of getting part way through, with a huge debt already piled up, and finding that you are not able to borrow enough money to finish. Having the college debt without the college degree is a very bad outcome.
Your parents are struggling to find work right now. So no. You can’t let them cosign anything with you. Yes, they want to help you out that way, but your job as a responsible child is to not let them do something that foolish.
You have two workable options:
Start at a commuting-distance community college and then transfer.
Take a gap year and apply to a new list of places that are truly affordable given your family’s situation.
You have a GPA of 3.94 and you report that you have good test scores. If those test scores truly are good, there are fine, solid colleges and universities that will be happy to admit you with generous automatic merit-based aid. Go to the financial aid forum. Ask the experts there for help with finding the aid that you need. There is at least one place out there for you.
Don’t do this to your parents. None of your schools are affordable if both are unemployed and struggling to find a job.
(For reference, it takes 10 years for a college graduate with a typical job to repay the 27K federal loan. That’s 1/3rd to 1/4th what you’d need to borrow just for college. Do the math for how old you’d be before you can even start dental school… yes, you never would because at that point you’d have to take on debt for your kids’ college.)
Your best option is likely to take a gap year. Fortunately, LOTS of seniors will do the same due to Covid19 so it won’t be “weird”.
Taking a gap year preserves your “freshman status” so you can reap the maximum amount in scholarships. You must not take any college course after graduation though.
Sounds like you’d a strong student, with a high GPA. What are your test scores?
Depending on the answer, we’ll be able to suggest strong schools for you to apply to that also provide good financial aid.
Assuming you’re instate for VTech, you’re lucky because the state has lots of fantastic choices.
What’s your parents’ income? Do you have any “hook”?
Are you deadly into the LDS shtick? ? You visited BYU? It looks like a bargain, but I doubt in any real world does it have the second best business school in the USA. It probably has the very best LDS business school though.
What are your stats?
Clarify your actual current finances, both your parents are unemployed? Have you got a FAFSA EFC? Siblings? A home?
What is the FA award like at Vtech?
I may have missed this- how have you not had to deposit somewhere by now? Virginia Tech and Clemson are peer schools and if you are instate for Virginia Tech, VT seems like the best choice ( plus as others have said , you have limits as to what loans you can even get). You may even need to go to a Virginia community college first to afford any of your more expensive options. By the way, there are plenty of very strong students that were denied or waitlisted at Virginia Tech this year. Good luck.