<p>This is a timely post as I was just in Barnes and Noble the other day and flipped through a book titled “The New College Reality” by Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder. In her book Ms. Snyder covers the topic of taking out school loans for an expensive school or attending your in-state school (especially with an honors program). If you were to read this book I think it would give you a good basis for helping to make the decision. In our family we were determined to have our kids graduate from college with no student loan debt. Our daughter earned her degree at our in-state school, graduated with honors and got a job right away. In fact, she just bought a house, on her own, this year and has no student loans to hinder her (or us). Our son attends the honors college with a merit scholarship and will also graduate with no debt. He plans on continuing to professional school and will be better able to fund that with no undergraduate debt attached to him. Both kids fit in great at the university and had/are having great experiences. So at least for family this route worked out great. Best wishes to your DD!</p>
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OP, thanks for providing more info. I don’t think it’s essential to have no debt, but that’s pretty much debt, especially with another kid coming along.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s important in a situation like this to be honest with the student, and tell her that you really didn’t understand the financial situation, and that you’re sorry.</p>
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<p>Lots of people here would say that $80,000 in student or parent loan debt is far too much.</p>
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They probably would, but even with a big number like that, you have to look at the whole financial context of the family. After all, people borrow much more than that to buy a house, and sometimes borrow significant amounts for cars. In this case, it does seem like “too much,” but OP should still put a sharp pencil to it.</p>
<p>Saddling the student and the family with that much debt is not responsible. Not to mention what it does to siblings options. </p>
<p>Time to be a parent and say “no”. Go to the least expensive school. For a criminal justice undergrad it really does not matter where the students goes. Save the money for a grad degree when the school really does matter.</p>
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Do you know why? Is it that she wants to go to Penn State in particular for some reason or wanted to go OOS somewhere for something different and to ‘get away’ or did she just want to get away from the home town and/or not commute?</p>
<p>If she mostly wants to ‘get away’, meaning not have parents dropping in, etc., then this can happen anywhere including the home town if the students lives on or near campus and the parents are respectful of their privacy. </p>
<p>If she wants to attend Penn State because of the rah-rah football environment, well, that’s an awful lot of money to pay for attending some football games and being happy one’s college won a football game (tarnished program or not). </p>
<p>A lot of times state colleges really are fine at the in-state cost but are over-priced at the OOS rate. </p>
<p>She needs to keep in mind that she could well change her major away from a Criminal Justice one - lots of students change majors once or twice. Given this, she should make sure wherever she attends affords her flexibility should she change her mind.</p>
<p>One more factor - some state schools, depending on major and depending on whether one switches majors, can take more than 4 years to graduate due to course scheduling and some schools/majors accept more AP credits than others. Make sure you factor that into your calculations because Penn State will be even more expensive if it takes longer than 4 years to graduate (I don’t know if Penn State has a particular issue in this area).</p>
<p>OP - Ideally you would have understood financial burden of Penn State earlier. Know that lots have families have gone down your path. Your thread will help parents of Juniors plan better… set caveats. </p>
<p>At this point, it is unfortunate that your D is set on a school that is unaffordable. You still need to make the fiscally sound decision. $80k is too much debt.</p>
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<p>Not just state schools – late graduation at any school is often due to changing major late, poor schedule planning, not taking full course loads, or failing courses and needing to repeat them or make up the credits.</p>
<p>I am guessing NJ resident. Please be aware that the salary paid to police in NJ is not likely to be matched in other States.</p>
<p>We are hoping that he will go In state to Georgia tech or an OOS school that doesn’t require him to take out a loan but at the end of the day he has to make that call himself. </p>
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<p>I do hope that the debt you allow him to take on is minimal. I think it is entirely appropriate for parents to counsel young people to avoid excessive debt, particularly when there are other options. Down the road, when he has to make decisions such as which car to buy (expensive or affordable?) or which home to buy (expensive or affordable?), he will have been “taught” to comparison shop … that is, to shop with his head and not just his heart. It’s a lesson more people (young and old) should learn.</p>
<p>Wow- read the news about the level of indebtedness for college grads. If my child were getting a degree in engineering, math, computer engineering etc then 140K might be a worthwhile outlay. Criminal Justice ??? Get on the internet and look up those college loan calculators and run the numbers. You would be absolutely crazy to let her go to Penn State for that kind of money for criminal justice ! If she wants to do community college for 2 years and transfer, then it might be more affordable but I would not advise it. If she is destined for success, the college she attends will not make a difference.
Then look up the average salary for criminal justice, history, psychology degrees ! And they are a Dime a dozen! Advise your daughter to study a math or science or health related career and if she still wants to do something in criminal justice after 4 years of college, no problem. She can walk into it without a degree in criminal justice !!</p>
<p>Do not take out $80,000 in loans for an undergrad degree in anything!</p>
<p>Kelsmom - I agree with you, that’s why we won’t co-sign any loans. The colleges that he was thinking about were going to cost him a couple of thousand a year either in loans or a part-time job. I had both a full time job and ended up with $10,000 in student loans by the time I was done(it took me 10 years to pay it off) and that was a long time ago. So on the one hand I don’t think that’s too much for him to handle however I really don’t want him to have any loans at all. Luckily he’s a smart kid and seems to be coming around to the idea that those schools probably aren’t worth the extra money.:)</p>
<p>bethievt: I totally agree with you! It is an undergrad degree and even at $80,000 that is way too much!!! Who knows what the economy will look like in 4 years and why would you want that debt hanging around your neck! I have friends who graduated with a teaching degree who are still paying off their loans and they have been working for over 10 years.</p>
<p>Feismom - My son is planning on looking at engineering and I wouldn’t take out $80,000.</p>
<p>I don’t think any degree is worth that loan cost… Plus it’s the parent who is taking out the loan not the kid so even if they ended up with a great job paying $60,000 a year it doesn’t mean they are going to help mom & dad pay off that $80,000…</p>
<p>Carly, there are other public schools in NC with Criminal Justice majors.
East Carolina University
UNC-Wilmington
UNC-Charlotte
Western Carolina University
Appalachian State University</p>
<p>Packmom, </p>
<p>My D was accepted to UNC Charlotte but it was at the bottom of her list and it seemed like a commuter school to her. We visited the campus which I thought was very nice and football will be starting there Fall 2013. It is also a distance away as we live in the northeast. I’m not familiar with the other schools you mentioned but will look into those. Thanks for the information.</p>
<p>Our State Flagship sometimes allow OOS to pay in-state tuition in lieu of scholarship. Otherwise, how long do you have to live in Pennsylvania to qualify for in-state? Don’t go into debt. We were in the same situation 4 years ago ($31/yr difference between State Flagship and private first choice). We swallowed hard, made the sacrifice, and went first choice because it was a much better school and he would be able to graduate w/o debt.</p>
<p>I believe you have to live in PA for at least a year before you can be considered for residency but there is a long list of requirements (and if your parents claim you on their taxes, then the parents have to prove PA residency).</p>
<p>[Residency</a> Appeal - Office of the Bursar](<a href=“http://www.bursar.psu.edu/appeal.cfm]Residency”>Residency Review | Office of the Bursar)</p>
<p>If it is a family hardship to pay the amount, then you need to sit down with your DD and explain that the school is not affordable. We set a limit for our kids and when the acceptances arrived, they just threw out anything over what was affordable to us. A couple of surprises in there in terms of some merit money so it isn’t crazy to apply to some school where the sticker price is too high. The Penn State merit award is a nice sweetner, I’m sure, but if the total is still over the top, then you can’t do it. </p>
<p>We are doing $36K a year with DS throwing in about $6K with his summer job money and savings. We have about $12K that I go through palaptions each month when the scheduled amount becomes due. We are on a very strict budget as a result of our childrens’ college expenses and we do have loans as well so we’ll be paying until we are in our 70s before our youngest is paid up, based on the schedule we have set up. And that isn’t even including the top cost colleges. It is so very expensive.</p>