So, I’m currently a sophomore at the University of Redlands. I really love the school and I think I have extremely benefitted from smaller class sizes and personal interaction with my professors from going to a private school. The school itself is relatively expensive, I take around 7k in loans a year, and my parents/scholarships handle the rest. I am extremely grateful that I have parents with the financial means to support me in going to this school.
Despite being a commuter at a residential school, I don’t feel very out of place. It has sucked not being able to go to clubs and stuff because the timing tends to revolve around everyone living on campus, but other than that I’m really happy at the school.
However, even though my parents did monthly payments on my tuition my freshman year, this year my mom took out a deferred Parent Plus loan in order to pay for my tuition. I’m now extremely stressed out because she expects me to pay for it once I get out of school, and I only went to this school because they had told me that they’d pay for the price past what I get in my own Fafsa loans.
Should I look into transferring to Cal State Fullerton or Cal Poly Pomona? My parents would be able to pay the full balance of the tuitions for both but I’m not sure I’d be comfortable going to a state school that has so many people and such huge class sizes. I honestly love Redlands and if money wasn’t an object I’d definitely stay. I feel like I’m getting so many opportunities here and like they do so much to support me.
I am a Psychology major with a tentative Computer Science minor/double major. Staying at Redlands would probably put me in around 50k of debt at graduation, as my parents are not going to take out another loan (we had financial issues this year which kept them from being able to pay for the tuition this year but we are fine now) and will pay for the next 2 years as previously.
I am currently 28k in debt (including my parent’s loan) and my parents have been making payments on my loans since theirs is deferred until I graduate. Do you all think I should potentially be unhappy at a state school in order to not accumulate more debt?
I hate the fact that money has to be a deciding factor with school. To be honest, I gave up my dream school in order to avoid debt but am miserable where I am. So honestly if you are happy I would stay. $50,000 is not that much in debt considering the average is about $30,000. Computer science is a great major and class size definitely helps determine academic success. But my best advice would be to see if you can try the public school for a semester and if you hate it transfer back to your current school. You could actually love your cheaper option. Personally it didn’t work out for me
@newuser321 I definitely agree that CS is a great major. I love it so far. It feels really fulfilling to me to be able to solve problems with logical explanations. I’m leaning towards staying at my current school because CPP and CSUF both don’t seem like very good options for me. They’re both very impacted and it doesn’t seem like the vast majority are able to graduate in 4 years (as both say 62% graduate in SIX years) and I’d much rather spend more to graduate earlier and be in the job field sooner. If I transferred I doubt I’d be able to navigate the system well enough to graduate in time. I think the money I make by being in the field sooner will easily make up for the debt that I will accrue in doing so, especially since my parents are kind enough to let me live with them afterwards expense free to pay of the loans in (hopefully) 2-3 years and then I’ll be free by 25.
@philbegas Psych major with a tentative Compsci minor/double major.
If it’s a tentative double major and you think you can handle 2 majors, I’d stay at the same school and double major in comp sci. I think that will increase your salary/career prospects a lot.
If you think you will work in CS and the major is going well, then it might be okay to take the risk of more debt than just your federal loans. But if you want to work in psych, honestly, you will have a hard time paying those loans back. So I’d say it depends on your career goals. Sometimes students in CS can get decent paying summer internships or part time jobs, too – enough to even start paying down a bit of your debt if it is close enough to home to commute.
The money is a real issue. You can’t start life saddled with a huge debt. Be practical. You will make freinds and have new experiences at a new college, and you need to be realistic.
@Lindagaf I don’t care about making friends/experiences. I’m at college to get an education. I’m mostly worried about not graduating on time if I transfer, since most people who go to either school take 5-6 years to graduate, and I’m on track to graduate 2 more years here.
@intparent I’ve only taken an intro CS class so I’m not entirely sure, but I like it so far. But if I transfer to another school to do Psych I’m sure I’ll get delayed on graduating because of how badly impacted the CSUs are here. Do you think it’s worth it to just suck it up and do 2 more years at the school I’m at?
Also @intparent the only loans I am taking are federal loans. My mom took a Parent Plus loan but they plan on paying out of pocket for the next 2 years. The loans under my name are only 12k so far.
@intparent Yes, they would want me to at least help. I talked to my mom about it the other day and she said that she’d take care of it if she had to (presuming if I can’t get a high paying job in CS). But obviously I want to help her out since she let me go to such an expensive school.
If I went to grad school for psych I’d do cognitive science (which is CS+psych)
If your parents take PLUS loans to pay for college that they can’t/won’t repay, it’s unaffordable. Go to Cal State. You could save money by withdrawing from Redlands now and canceling the 2nd half of this year’s loans. Then you’ll have 2-1/2 years at Cal State.
@austinmshauri They only took the one. My mom is planning on paying out of pocket for the next 2 years like she did my freshman year. If I transfer to Cal State I won’t be able to graduate in 2 and a half years, I’d probably end up graduating in like 4 because of how impacted they are, that’s my main worry. I don’t think I can withdraw now since I already started classes?
Check the college calendar for withdrawal dates. If classes just started, you may still have time.
Your parents said they’d pay the net cost, and maybe they intended to, but you’re just staring your 2nd year and already they can’t. They may hope to be able to pay for the next 2 years, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be able to afford it. If they can’t, you’ll be looking at much more than $50k in loans. If you plan to be unhappy at a state school, you probably will be.
@philbegas My current schedule is Intro to Programming, 2 psych classes and a media visual culture class for an elective. I don’t have my next semester planned yet as I just began this one.
@austinmshauri I will look into it. It’s not that they can’t, it’s just that the loan is deferred so they can’t do payments on it yet. They’ve been doing payments on my student loans instead since I already have them serviced through nelnet.
My issue with State schools is that the only 3 I could go to (University of California: Riverside, Cal Poly Pomona, and Cal State Fullerton) are all extremely impacted for Psych and Computer Science. CSUF is impacted in every single major. So if I transfer to one of those I have a risk of not being able to graduate on time or get any of the classes I wanted to get. Is the risk of losing potentially 2 years of income worth it? If my parents weren’t able to pay next year I would drop out. I wouldn’t take on more loans to stay. I’d probably drop out and take a gap year and work to start paying off at least the interest on my current loans.
