<p>I want to, but I don’t think I can do anything about the payment plan until I’m able to pay the $95 startup fee and the $75 late fee, and I don’t think I can do that right now. We just moved and also had a few unexpected bills, so everything is really messy right now. That’s what sucks about being relatively poor; you never have any kind of safety net. Everything’s paycheck to paycheck. I wish more than anything I were able to just pay the semester payment as a lump sum. I’m still waiting for my mom to call.</p>
<p>Call the Bursar, the fin aid office, call around to see if someone can help you with this. The problem with late payments is that with late fees, as you are finding out, it snow balls, plus you owe the earlier amount as well as the new. Get some handle on this as soon as you can.</p>
<p>I’m sorry. Hugs to you. It is so much easier to be able to pay the whole thing at once, I agree. </p>
<p>There are other possibiities like having your mother apply for a PLUS parent loan. If she gets it, the whole thing can be paid but the thing is, if you and your mother are not disciplined about paying the loan, it can be an even bigger problem. If she is denied, (and it’s all done in the privacy of your home right away on the computer), you can get another $4K in loans on top of the $2K and that would mean $3K in total more for this term, which might make a difference. Discuss this with the aid officer as well. </p>
<p>Be aware that getting loans can be a quick fix but paying them back can truly be nasty, nasty thing. A lot of people ruined due to loans they take out and can’t pay You are getting just a taste of how things are ramped up in costs and amounts due when you don’t pay on schedule. It’s worse with loans.</p>
<p>CALL. THE. FA. OFFICE.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse My mom has enough financial worries as it is; I could never encourage her to take out a loan for me. And trust me, I know. I held off on the extra loans for as long as possible, but at this point it’s basically unavoidable. I really don’t want to take out the 2k, but as long as I work hard to make sure I won’t have to take out unsubsidized loans again, I don’t think it’ll be too bad. </p>
<p>And my mom called the FA office earlier; she couldn’t do it until later in the day, near the office’s closing time, and she didn’t have my information on hand (it’s complicated), but apparently the person she talked to seemed understanding and willing to help, so maybe something can be done. She’s going to talk more on Monday, and we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed. </p>
<p>We were surprised at how early the tuition pay system started too. For us it started June 1st… a month before the invoice came from the school. There was one little passage on the school website mentioning the payment plan as an option with a link but no mention of when the dates started. For us, it wasn’t a problem but I’m sorry to hear it’s thrown such a wrench in your plans… including the higher amount!</p>
<p>Find out what the FA says but I wanted to throw out there that if worse comes to worse, you could ask to defer a year. Many schools allow this. You wouldn’t lose your acceptance and you could spend the year working to raise the money for Fall of 2015. However, sometimes this requires a deposit and I couldn’t say how much that would be. Taking a gap year might help too though you’d need to re-apply. I know, these aren’t favorite solutions but just something to keep in mind if you don’t get good news from the FA office.</p>
<p>As for jobs, have you considered babysitting? Babysitters male and female can make quite a bit of money in our area. I know how rough it can be for teens to get jobs right now.</p>
<p>@turtletime I considered a gap year a while back (not for financial reasons), around mid May, but the deferment deadline had passed and they told me I’d have to reapply…so I guess it’s a strict deadline. Thanks for the suggestions! </p>
<p>I have considered babysitting, but I have little to no experience with children, and most people (understandably) want babysitters with references and experience</p>
<p>my school wouldn’t budge and was being rather unhelpful, so it looks like i’ll likely be taking a gap year. </p>
<p>Before you throw in the towel, use your social media accounts to alert everyone you know of your predicament. State how much you need and why. Then ask for the help. Offer to cut lawns, clean garages, wash cars, walk dogs have a garage sale. Anything you can do to earn some money. Let your friends know how desperate you are. Yes, it’s embarrassing to admit that you need financial help, but people who care about you and your plight may offer to help you. </p>
<p>On a different thread, did you also say that you were admitted to your 2nd choice school (and you were having a hard time choosing between the two schools), but that the second school would result in $10,000 less debt? Can you contact your second choice and tell them your original choice is now not affordable due to unpredictable family finances and can you change your mind and now accept this school?</p>
<p>Yeah, I did. A while after that I emailed the other school about getting my spot back, but sending that email, strangely enough, made me realize I wanted to go to the more expensive school, so I emailed again basically saying never mind and that I should stick with my decision. So, I really can’t call them again. I don’t think any school would want someone to come running back to their school just because they screwed up and it’s cheaper, you know? </p>
<p>I think you could still call the school and say you changed your mind again; you have nothing to lose and everthing to gain if you would be happier going to your second choice than staying home for a year. Why not give it a shot?</p>
<p>I would feel really bad doing that. I asked my school about deferring my admission, and I’m waiting to hear back. </p>
<p>The 500 by July 1st / 1000 by August 1st is not the issue. The issue is paying the next 500, and the next 500 and so on.</p>
<p>As for “looking for a job”, most colleges will help you find an on-campus work study job. You aren’t supposed to just be on the job market yourself, though many students don’t get that and do look on their own. Think about it - if you work on campus and they know that you are a student, and you need to take time off to study or work more hours, they’ll be much more amenable to you than a random employer.</p>
<p>And as for July 1st, that is clearly outlined pretty much everywhere. Everything in the summer is prepping for you to be there the first day of classes.</p>
<p>And as for “struggles” and “unpredictable” - if it is due to medical costs or other clearly documentable reasons, you should talk to your college’s financial aid office ASAP. If somebody has a gambling problem or has to have ten new pairs of shoes per month, well, maybe that college isn’t the right one for you at this time. But something like medical costs that can be proven might change your FA picture.</p>
<p>IMHO, the more you talk to the college and ask them to help you figure things out, and tell them your exact situation (like if your mom’s job changed or there are medical costs), the more chance you will have to successfully start school in September.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Actually, that is the issue, because the monthly payment is fine. What’s not fine is paying double the monthly payment + $100 in service fees on August 1st. The monthly payment is not going to be that much a month. And even if it were, that’s obviously way different than $1100 at one time. </p>
<p>I wasn’t talking about anything relating to a job on-campus. I meant right now, and yeah, I would be doing work study.</p>
<p>Well, it wasn’t really outlined everywhere for me. The only reason I knew about it is because I went on the payment section of my school website. Unless you went searching for it, you’re not gonna find it because they didn’t send the invoice in the mail until a few days ago, after the first payment date. </p>
<p>It wasn’t anything like that. We moved and as a result my mom had to give up almost $2000 at once, which is not a normal thing, so she couldn’t catch up with my school costs. I’m asking them if they can defer my admission.</p>
<p>This thread and several others I’ve seen recently should serve as a warning to those who have allocated their funds for college to the last penny. You can’t go through life with a dime and a piece of lint in your pocket. There will inevitably be unexpected circumstances that require money–whether it’s a payment plan that starts earlier than anticipated, a health insurance cost that was overlooked, a car repair, a job that falls through, etc. Everyone, students included, has to operate with a reserve (whether it’s actual cash or a relative or friend willing to make a short-term loan). Otherwise people like OP will be just be lurching from one crisis to another, with the risk of having to defer or leave school altogether. So when the determination is made about whether a particular school is “affordable”, coming up with the costs by searching the couch cushions is NOT the way to go. Always provide for an emergency fund when making these calculations. If you can only afford a school by scraping together every last cent, you can’t afford it at all, and need to find a cheaper alternative.</p>
<p>
Words of wisdom!</p>
<p>and that’s why I suggested OP go back and ask her 2nd choice college (which is cheaper) about reconsideration (over a gap year at 1st choice college).</p>
<p>@MommaJ I get what you’re saying, but what am I supposed to do? Take control of my mother’s money? If I had gotten a job this could’ve been avoided. That’s what was supposed to happen. I’ve never had a job and I just graduated from high school, but I’ve done everything I could so far to get a job. No one’s biting. I have no one but my mother. Honestly, I’m somewhat insulted by your saying I “can’t go through life with a dime and a piece of lint in my pocket” because it’s something I have so, so little control over at this point. You think I don’t know that? You think growing up barely scraping by is fun? You think I’m enjoying asking my dream school to defer my admission at the last minute, hoping they’ll say yes? Yeah, I’m just loving the fact this school, which meets 100% of need, is barely affordable right now. This is almost as good as it gets. </p>
<p>I’m not “searching my couch cushions”, nor am I running around asking for handouts; I’m handling the situation as best as I can. When I planned to go to this school, it appeared affordable. The monthly payment seemed perfectly reasonable. I was going to get a job to make it even better. My mom wasn’t planning on moving and coughing up almost 2k right before my first tuition payment was due. We weren’t “scraping together every last cent” when I committed. </p>
<p>What else can I do? OBVIOUSLY it would be nice to have a reserve, and obviously that’s something everyone needs, and I wish I could go through life with extra money, but sorry I don’t and have never had that luxury. That’s why I want to go to school so badly, so my future doesn’t depend on someone else’s finances and so that I can take care of myself. Now, I’m going to be a year behind on that. Poor people don’t enjoy being poor; they don’t like not having money in times of emergency. You’re almost acting as if it’s a choice. Thanks for pointing out the obvious.</p>
<p>Why would a school that knows they’re not my first choice take me back and give almost $60,000 at the last minute just because my other plans fell through? </p>
<p>It’s harsh but true. I lived nickel to nickel while in college. I’d work all summer and pay my tuition with what I had saved. My parents were paying my rent, but every month I had to call and beg for it, like it was a surprise that it was due on the 1st of the month. I was blessed with a roommate whose mother would visit once a month with a ‘care package’ that always included mac and cheese and toilet paper. About twice a year my grandfather would send me $20 and it was like I’d won the lottery.</p>
<p>Today it would be much much harder to live like that. I didn’t pay for cable or a cell phone, and sometimes I didn’t even pay for a phone (gasp!). I didn’t have a car or insurance payments, and I didn’t have to pay for health care or insurance. I don’t even know if I HAD health insurance when I was in college and if it had been required I don’t know how I would have paid for it. MommaJ is just warning those who haven’t had to live on a budget that there are no resources to get extra money when you are living in a dorm, and there will be extra expenses that you just don’t even think about. A professor will require some project and the supplies will cost $15. You’ll drop a calculator and have to replace it. Somehow one boot gets lost and it’s snowing. You’ll get sick and need tissues and OTC meds that cost a $13.56, and you need to wash 3 extra loads of laundry and THAT costs another $10. </p>
<p>I think you are doing the right thing by asking for more time. You need to find a job and save up. You need a nest egg, and it would be best if you didn’t have to pay $200/mo on a payment plan because your family just can’t always swing that.</p>
<p>I actually don’t think school #2 should be ruled out. It was a big deal to you to turn them down (twice) but they are used to it. They’d understand that you just can’t afford the other school. It really does happen more than you think. Schools sometimes have to be the one stringing the applicant along, deferred at ED, waitlisted after RD…and then they accept the student in the summer. Schools do understand that sometimes changes have to be made in the summer, and sometimes it’s financial and sometimes that means a student is going to her second choice. It’s a business, and they still want you.</p>
<p>I also get what you’re saying, but it’s not like we live nickel to nickel. We’re not that poor. A huge, unexpected expense just threw us off track. The monthly payment would’ve been low enough that my mom could send me money regularly. Plus, I’d be doing work study, and I could get another job. It’s not like I’d have nothing. </p>
<p>I don’t feel like this is the end of the world, anyway. Even before any of this happened, even way before I even got into and decided on this school, I was considering a gap year for non-financial reasons, for a really long time. I kept going back and forth on it, but now I don’t have a choice, and I actually don’t feel that bad about it. There are LOTS of things I’d like to do and take care of before I go off to school. I’ve always thought a gap year would be good for me because I’m a perfectionist, type-A sort of person who stressed my way through high school. I also think working would be good for me since I have zero experience doing so. I want more than anything to be able to pay tuition as a lump sum at the beginning of the semester, and by taking a year off, I’m making that possible. If they actually let me defer, I’d feel so much better because I’d be able to work without worrying about college applications and I’d start school on the right foot instead of stressing about each payment ahead. </p>
<p>And, for the last time, when I committed to this school, we WERE NOT counting on scraping together every last cent to make it work. It’s not like I was planning on using money that wasn’t there. I didn’t think it would be THIS hard to find a part-time job for the summer; I’m betting the fact I’m not looking for a completely temporary job (especially this late) will change things. </p>
<p>I appreciate the suggestion, but I’m really surprised I’m being encouraged to call a school I turned down out because I can’t afford what I thought I could. I know I’m not a ~professional, but that seems really…unprofessional? People who wanted to be there made that decision; then, the school then went to the wait list, a lucky few were let off, and more people who really wanted to be there were told they couldn’t be. I made my decision…it seems a little unfair to just waltz in and expect all those resources to still be available for me. I mean their endowment is huge, but I don’t know…it just doesn’t feel right. I know a couple of people going there, and they already got room assignments and everything…it just seems so LATE. </p>
<p>A couple days ago I asked about reapplying as a freshman this fall (and if I would be likely to get in again) and the person said that I would have to wait a year before applying again…but it will have been a year by this fall. Do you think she didn’t understand that I was taking a year off or something?</p>