I’ve gotten into several colleges so far that I want to go to, including an instate one which is much less expensive than the others. My parents have said that they will pay for the instate school but that’s all. They said that if I go to another school that I will have to take out loans and pay the difference. The other schools I am looking at are also state schools but ranked slightly higher. What should I do?
You can only take out 5500 your first year and bit more each year. Is that enough when you add in your parents contribution?
The only other loans require a co-signer.
@privatebanker they would pay for almost all of it, and that would probably be enough but I probably would wait until the second semester of my senior year and have them pay for the preceding semesters. I’m not sure exactly how it works though.
What do you mean by this??
Go to your affordable option!
Need more information. Need actual COA for each school, intended major, whether or not you were admitted into any honors college, career goals & whether you anticipate attending grad school.
It depends on the exact schools too.
You wouldn’t be able to wait until the second semester of senior year to pay $20-$30K. You can only qualify by yourself for a small loan each year.
Costs are real, and schools expect a giant check each semester or a monthly payment. You have no collateral that banks are interested in and the government is only going to guarantee a small amount of your loans ($5700 per year rising to $7000 more or less.) So unless you have earned a lot during the summer or a certain elderly relative has developed a cough you need a budget for this. Note that books are crazy expensive, if out of state is out of driving range then your travel costs could be substantial each year, and costs do rise. Also note that in some small towns there are way more college kids than jobs, so the notion that you can just pick up 30 hours per week waiting tables may not be realistic. Be sure to investigate with the school before making employment assumptions.
The best thing would be to have a talk with your parents about what dollar amount they’ll pay for and how you’ll pay for the rest. Talk to the financial aid people at your top couple schools and see what the costs really are, the employment options, etc. Every year kids transfer away from schools that they can’t afford and it’s often easy to see in retrospect that their eyes were bigger than their savings from the beginning. Avoid heartache and establish a budget.
Please answer the questions in #5as well as your parents’ stated budget and, if possible, what schools you’re talking about.
If the schools are academically more selective and rigorous than the state school, it may be worth it. But if the academics at the state school are better, it would be very difficult to justify attending any of them over the state school. Please list all the schools in consideration as well as what you plan on majoring in? Also, what are your preferences, top choices?
Go to the affordable option! Don’t start your life out with loans when you don’t have to!!!
Slightly higher rankings are not worth it.
If you want to go somewhere different, do a study abroad or something for a change of pace. Maybe do a internship or a coop in a different state.