<p>Even with health insurance, in our case, depending on the policy, your deductible on a surgery like this can vary to between $3,000 and $5,000 out of pocket, unplanned for expense. So you need to have either some savings or a credit card with decent limits for emergencies, both of which are harder to obtain if you're in debt up to your eyeballs.</p>
<p>DH and I had a combined student loan amount of slightly over whst the OP is talking about. We were in our late 30s before we got our first house. We got no help from family. Took eight years, between day care and rent, to save enough for a down payment. We will have ten years without student loan payments before DS1 heads off to college. That much debt changes your options for jobs, family, and all those other wonderful things you want to do when you grow up. I would never wish that kind of burden on my kids.</p>
<p>Mercymom-</p>
<p>Your appendicitis story is really a splash of cold water.
I'm worrying in advance about son graduating college and going off my health coverage. He doesn't have any idea that being insurance-less is such a major financial risk. I'll cover him with catastrophic coverage at least.....until he can find something else. </p>
<p>Hope your appendix less student is fine now!</p>
<p>(spoken quietly from the back of the room)</p>
<p>If I had only one dear daughter of college age yet was in my late 50's - 60's...
no wait! I've got a last kid who's going off to college and we;re in our late 50's and exactly 60...</p>
<p>but if it were only ONE CHILD and had 2 healthy parents... </p>
<p>I'd WORK AN EXTRA FIVE YEARS than anticipated long ago. Maybe retirement is overrated. Does it have to start at 60 or 65, when we have life expectancies into the 80's now...</p>
<p>That's really what I'd do. And what we're going to do: work for longer than we had thought when we started out this journey from our 20's. Who could have foreseen what's happened to college costs? Only one daughter?...if they can work, I think I'd be asking them why not work longer for her.</p>
<p>So sue me.</p>
<p>I did ask her if she'd promise to take care of them (house them) in their old age and that wasn't picked up. SOmetimes I just don't get it. Families differ, that's all I know.</p>
<p>And that's pretty much what Bryn Mawr assumes.</p>
<p>newchick, I feel for you because my D has a very similar situation--older parents, middle class, unrealistic aid offer, choice between BMC and a fine public school. She's pretty much given up on Bryn Mawr and we expect she'll do well anyway. Wishing you the best.</p>
<p>Or marry a rich man and then you'll have no debt. That's what my sib did and went to her dream college</p>
<p>Debt is scary, but keep in mind your college education is an investment that is going to last you THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. The returns you will see from your investment over your lifetime will be much greater than the current investment Bryn Mawr is asking of you...</p>
<p>However, I'm wondering how/why you've been gapped this much in your financial aid award. You should definitely contact the aid office at BMC and plead your case. Are you aware of how BMC calculates need/EFC? This might clue you in on why your package seems to be so spartan.</p>
<p>She wasn't gapped. Her EFC relates quite closely to her family's income.</p>
<p>"Debt is scary, but keep in mind your college education is an investment that is going to last you THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. The returns you will see from your investment over your lifetime will be much greater than the current investment Bryn Mawr is asking of you...'</p>
<p>So...$60k-$100k in debt for an anthropology/humanities major. $697-$1,161 a month required in debt repayment for the first 10 years post-B.A. At 8% of gross income, income required needs to average $104,000-$174,000 a year, starting the year after graduation. You're an AdOfficer, how would YOU do it?</p>
<p>(I am, sincerely, hoping to learn something.)</p>
<p>Dear OP, it's the lack of savings that has pinched your family - and the lack of foresight that no EFC can correct. AdOffficer is correct in saying that your education is a precious investment; however, you need the initial capital to buy into it.</p>
<p>Several posters seem to believe that you must have missed some essential part of the story, but I understand fully. If my husband and I had not saved from the day our daughter was born, we wouldn't be able to contribute enough either. Our EFC exceeded the cost of a private college even though we can pay for only a tiny part of it through our yearly earnings. Especially if you live in an expensive part of the country, finances can be tight despite a seemingly generous salary. Your parents may have failed you in not saving for your college education, but there's nothing you can do about it now.</p>
<p>The kind of debt you are talking about is not worth it. It really will crush you. As I see you, you have three choices: 1. Let go of your Bryn Mawr dream and attend St. Mary's. Embrace your school. 2. Enroll at Bryn Mawr for a year and hope that they come up with better aid once you're there, knowing that you may have to transfer if they don't 3. Enroll at St. Mary's, get excellent grades, and transfer to Bryn Mawr for your final two years so you can have at least half of the BMC experience and all of the degree.</p>
<p>In any case, four years at Bryn Mawr doesn't seem to be in the cards.</p>
<p>We had Stafford and Perkins Loans (as they are now called) fro UG to the tune of about $15K between the two if us. We got hammered with loans for DH's grad school, which he called "a mortgage on my brain." They were taken on willingly, and it was certainly worth it, but the day-to-day reality is that significant loan debt causes one to make lifestyle decisions down the road that one didn't anticipate at age 18.</p>
<p>Take what I say with a grain of salt. DS1 & 2 will be taking out Staffords and working, so they will have a stake in this adventure. I'm thankful we bought our house nine years ago before prices went through the roof (which we just had to replace :( -- couldn't postpone it any longer...). We've been counting on our equity to help fund college.</p>
<p>The amount of debt that students contemplate scares the fertilizer out of me (Monty Python). A poster on a similar thread brought up this scenario: would you marry someone with $50,000 or more in college debt? It's one thing to start married life penniless (nowhere to go but up); quite another to start out very far down the hole (years before you reach ground level). </p>
<p>What OP's parents did or didn't do is immaterial this month, when she has to make a choice. I like the recommendation of other posters that she start at St. Mary's and transfer - you'll have a Bryn Mawr degree and half the debt. If you really want to save money, is there any possibility of attending a c.c. or local college, living at home and then transferring? I would ask Bryn Mawr about that possibility. I seem to remember reading that some women's colleges look very favorably on c.c. transfers. </p>
<p>No matter where you decide to enroll, you should be able to get a good night's sleep. I'm one of those people who couldn't with that kind of debt ruling my future choices.</p>
<p>Just to add: I borrowed under the National Direct Student Loan (renamed from National Defense program of long ago) and S. has Stafford loans. There's what I consider 'reasonable' debt and then there's 'ruinous' debt. It's all in how you feel about debt, but I find it hard to believe that most 17 or 18 year olds have the experience or certain knowledge of the future to make truly informed decisions.</p>
<p>It's a little late now but I wish you had a choice between the "split-level" and the "mansion." Someplace you could love that would love you back.</p>
<p>I read the new posts and then went back and read the OP again. I need to change what I wrote. Somehow I had thought that I had read that the parents would be helping to pay the OP's loans and my answer was predicated on that...I see now that this is not the case.</p>
<p>$50K is my gut-level cut-off for the level of student loans. I'm at ease with $20K and $30K causes only moderate discomfort. $60K is in the red zone and $100K is beyond crush depth. </p>
<p>Yeah, given all that, I'd advise going to St. Mary's and then maybe trying to transfer to BMC.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how some of you are calculating these repayment amounts...borrowing $60k at 8.0% <em>unsubsidized</em>, not going into repayment until 2012, over 15 years, amounts to $573.00/month. At 4% (consolidated rate), the payments should be around $443.00/month. Check out <a href="http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/fr_rcalc.htm%5B/url%5D">http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/fr_rcalc.htm</a> for an accurate calculator. </p>
<p>I incurred over $25k in debt from my undergraduate experience, another $45k from graduate school. The payments for my undergraduate loans amounted to $215/month over 15 years. Grad loans are running me about $450/mo, with about $3k in undergrad loans rolled in there, but I'm paying them off over 10 years and $170/month is going to a private loan at 8.0% (I know, bad rate...). </p>
<p>I made paying off my undergrad loans a priority. I made sacrifices: I bought a used car, I lived with roommates after college, I did not splurge as much as I would have liked on vacations, etc..,. I used all my tax returns, monetary gifts from people, etc..., to pay down my loans. I DID NOT GET A CREDIT CARD. I had to put off graduate school for 5 years, but in terms of the doors that my attending the school that was right for me opened - not only in terms of preparation for graduate school, but also for my career - the investment was worth it. No one can take away my four years of college or my degree or what I experienced there. I look back on my college years and am happy, as I was every day for the four years I was there. Indeed, I was aggressive in paying off my loans, despite never making over $40k/year and living in VERY expensive cities. But in 5 years, by often sending extra payments or doubling up on my payments, I paid off over $20k in student loans. And no, I do not have a trust fund ;).</p>
<p>Also, federal loans and many private loans are offered with graduated repayment options or with income-dependent options. You may pay a bit more initially in interest, but as you make more and more money, it becomes easier to pay the loan down. This is what I am doing with my grad school loans. Also, many private companies have 30 year repayment options, making very large debts (like $60k-$100k) very manageable. Initially, that $400/month payment seems high for the sociology major only making $35-$40/year. However, after 5-6 years, when you're making $50k-$60k/year, that amount isn't too hard to swallow. I've also consolidate all my loans, which cut my interest rate IN HALF!</p>
<p>Making the commitment to take on very large amounts of debt for college is a tough call. It isn't the best choice for everyone. If a student really wants to graduate with no debt, buy a brand new car when the graduate, live alone in a city, and take vacations, then borrowing a lot is probably not the best move. But if you are willing to delay that gratification for 5-6 years out of school - when you'll probably be making over $50k/year - it can be worth it. If you aren't willing to make sacrificies, then obviously don't borrow a large amount.</p>
<p>"I'm not sure how some of you are calculating these repayment amounts...borrowing $60k at 8.0% <em>unsubsidized</em>, not going into repayment until 2012, over 15 years, amounts to $573.00/month. At 4% (consolidated rate), the payments should be around $443.00/month. Check out <a href="http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/fr_rcalc.htm%5B/url%5D">http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/fr_rcalc.htm</a> for an accurate calculator. "</p>
<p>I just used your calculator, and it came out (at 7.0%) EXACTLY the same as mine - $696/month for $60k over 10 years. So, yes, your calculator is accurate. ;)</p>
<p>If you use the graduated repayment schedule, you would pay $350/month for the first four years, and over $1,000 a month for the next 6 years. At 8% of gross income, your income at that point ("However, after 5-6 years, when you're making $50k-$60k/year, that amount isn't too hard to swallow") would have to be about $140k.</p>
<p>Go to St. Mary's. Do NOT take out huge loans to go to Bryn Mawr. My S is going to a private school only because we will be paying our EFC, and his loans will be less than $15,000. $20,000 is the max any kid should take our for undergrad years. DD has a friend at St. Mary's who really loves it.</p>
<p>$30K should be the MAXIMUM that you take out to go to Bryn Mawr. Call their financial aid office and tell them that $30K is your limit.</p>
<p>So, as I understand ADOFFICER's tale, it is a dire cautionary warning. He took out $25k in loans as an undergraduate (not an overwhelming amount) and, although he scrimped and saved, he still couldn't pay them off, even having taken off five years to work before graduate school. Then went to graduate school, added another $45k to the $5k still outstanding, leaving him $50k in the hole after grad school, and after 5 years on top of that in the workforece.</p>
<p>The OP, in contrast, is thinking about $60k-$100k the first time around.</p>