<p>MyheartsinOhio: Have you looked into becoming an RA? Most positions cover room and board, or a large portion of it. Becoming an RA would reduce your loans considerably. :)</p>
<p>
Wow, do I DISAGREE with this vehemently. The choice might be one of loans or not going to the exact school I want to go to, but not as stated above. There are a variety of choices that are available, which might be to work and go part-time at a local or one of the lower-tuition state schools.</p>
<p>When I graduated HS, my parents shook my hand and paid for my Greyhound bus ticket from Tampa to Atlanta. I got ZERO other support. I did not graduate in 4 years, I worked my butt off, I cobbled together several small scholarships, etc. (And just to be honest, I <em>did</em> graduate with a very small loan - $1000 - to pay back.)</p>
<p>And you always have the choice to take a full-time job and go to school evenings and nights, which is how I financed the first year of my grad school before I finally snagged a fellowship.</p>
<p>Sorry for the vehemence, but our kids today are used to getting what they want, and if they want to go to Harvard and can't afford it, well, life's a failure unless the kids/parents take out $200 Grand in loans.</p>
<p>Unbelievable...</p>
<p>"Sorry for the vehemence, but our kids today are used to getting what they want, and if they want to go to Harvard and can't afford it, well, life's a failure unless the kids/parents take out $200 Grand in loans."</p>
<p>It is unbelievable. I think that our society is also being sold higher ed "at all costs". When I was in undergrad school I never heard of "parent/plus loans". My parents said that college was expensive, but still affordable. I did not have loans for undergraduate school, but had loans for grad school. The same is true for my H.</p>
<p>And I hate to say it, but in most of the US in normal work and life situations, nobody ever heard of many of the "name schools" we throw around on CC and think we need to pay big bucks for. But because they're high on a list somewhere, they become worth the big debt.....? In most of later life, saying that you went to <fill-in-the-name-here> college will be met with a blank stare instead of the <omg-you-must-be-smart> gaze the you think you'll get.</omg-you-must-be-smart></fill-in-the-name-here></p>
<p>When my best friend and I went to our 20th year HS graduation, we thought we would impress everyone with our jobs (I was working for the Supreme Court and he was a very high ranking mucky-muck in one of the Federal agencies). Nobody was impressed, nobody knew what we were talking about, AND nobody cared a whit. Early into the night, we both just started saying, "We work for the government..." :)</p>
<p>"Sorry for the vehemence, but our kids today are used to getting what they want, and if they want to go to Harvard and can't afford it, well, life's a failure unless the kids/parents take out $200 Grand in loans."</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with expecting everything to be handed to you. The kids I'm thinking of have had nothing of that experience, to be sure. In fact, I've been describing exactly the opposite situation. If you look at the example that I posted, I was referring to an education at a NY State school for a NY state resident, and speaking to how unfortunate it is that even that tuition bill is out of reach for many today. My posts have nothing to do with Harvard or some other private school that costs as much per year as a downpayment on a house. I was solely describing how going to your local state university can leave a student with a tremendous amount of student loan debt, even if that student is working part time while attending school and living as cheaply as possible. Sure, working full time and going to school part time is a possibility, but as an 18 year old with a high school degree, those full time jobs aren't going to pay you enough to make tuition, so that student will end up with loans anyway. </p>
<p>I'm sorry if you have become so accustomed to reading posts by high schoolers who feel entitled on this board, but this is not that situation at all. The reality is that if Mom and Dad are unable or unwilling to help with college costs, and if they make "too much money" (which is an absolute joke in the NY metropolitan area), the student gets screwed, pure and simple. That student either sucks it up and takes out loans greater than their annual starting salary will likely be, or that student doesn't go to college. If paying for your own education and taking out loans to do so is indicative of a sense of entitlement, I can't imagine what you think of the kids driving their new Saabs up to Bennington for their freshman year of school.</p>
<p>Digi, I put myself through college single-handed via working, scholarships, grants, loans. This was at UC, not one of the high falutin' privates which pretty much existed on the other side of the moon (except for Cal Tech) on my map. Cost of attendance for UC is such today that I don't think that many students could attend "on their own" without taking on debt loads I would regard as imprudent...and I'm less risk averse than many.</p>
<p>sallyawp:
Thanks! What you describe is the reality for kids we know. And paying for state college piecemeal by credit hour, so you can supposedly work your way through, will most likely end up costing more than if you went full time and took out loans. What job can you get with a high school diploma that will even support you, much less pay enough extra to save for tuition? So far, the best paying job my senior son has found for the summer is a $10/hr. job for which he needs to invest in a new wardrobe, and drive over an hour on toll roads. Unfortunately, he doesn't own a car and insurance in our state would cost him about $2000 per year--another snafu in the work-your-way-through plan for a middle class kid.</p>
<p>This discussion reminds me of the one my dad had with me when we were buying our first home. He told us that that the mortgage payment shouldn't be any greater than one week's household income. My husband and I laughed and showed him a local real estate book! We bought the cheapest house we could find, and our housing costs were greater than 1/3 of our income. Just like that housing rule of thumb is often impractical for our generation, the "working your way through college" rule can sometimes be impractical and comes from a different era. My dad, who was a factory worker (my mom was a homemaker), could still afford to send me to a private liberal arts college because the tuition was proprotionally a much smaller chunk of his annual income than my son's tuition would be of my husband's white collar income if my son were to attend the same college I did. That college, by the way, despite not being an Ivy, costs the same as one.</p>
<p>sally, thedad, gfg, You all hit it on the head. Dig is right too, in that there is a sense of entitlement for some students. However, costs have spiraled out of control. My H was able to work his way through grad school, with some reasonable loans. Today it would be near impossible duplicate. State school prices are unaffordable. Our flagship state school is Rutgers. The cost of attendance instate is just shocking! I copied and pasted from Rutger's website b/c it is unbelievable to me! Instate tuition for someone living oncampus at our state school is now 31,000 (38,600 oos)! Can you believe this! 31,000 for instate COA!</p>
<p>NJ Residents $24,500 - living with parents $15,966 - living with parents</p>
<p>$31,000 - on-campus </p>
<p>$35,300 - off-campus $26,763 - off-campus</p>
<p>Out of State $32,100 - living with parents $21,106 - living with parents</p>
<p>$38,600 - on-campus </p>
<p>$42,900 - off-campus $31,363 - off campus</p>
<p>Actually, I just found costs of attendance in another area of the website. I was unable to copy and paste it, but it put costs in 2005 at around 18,200 (instate) last year. I don't know which figures are accurate. Lets say 18,200 last year was accurate for instate, it is still higher than instate in NY. It is so expensive for a state school, esp. for instate students.</p>
<p>I agree with sallyawp that for some students the choice is between going to college with loans or not going at all. That was the case for my husband. Neither of his parents went to college and could not afford to send any of their five children. In fact, they didn't think it was important. When he graduated from hs, it was a choice of going to college with a combination of work and loans, or simply not going and entering the work force. Either way, he was completely on his own. He went, but it was difficult and the loans were a burden. With the skyrocketing tuitions, it is probably much worse for students in this situation today.</p>
<p>Northeastmom. I checked the Rutgers website and found $18,135 tuition,fees, room and board -( which does not include personal expenses, transportation, books, etc.) So total COA must be about $21,000 a year. Ouch, that IS high :( , but not as high as you gave above. Your figures must be for grad school???</p>
<p>Still that is HIGH!!! In Colorado, tuition at Adams State is approx $990 per semester for an in-state student. And tuition at the flagship University of Colorado is about $2600 per semester. Of course R&B needs to be added. These numbers also reflect a grant given to all HS grad who stay in state.</p>
<p>I'm glad I moved away from NJ.</p>
<p>EewDub works out to around $18k in-state including all costs. The number of in-state applicants is flat or falling (many low-income folks can no longer afford it); they've cut off automatic admits among community college transfers; and replaced them both with high-income OOS folks.</p>
<p>digmedia, Yes you were smart! :) Believe me, if I could have, I would have considered a move to either NC or Va.</p>
<p>anxiousmom, Yes, I edited my post to post the other set of #s that I found. I am assuming the first set is for grad school. I tried to go back to find what I copied, but could not find it right away, and I was not about to waste time on trying to pull it back up. My guess is grad school costs of some sort. Still undergrad is so expensive for instate, and the second set of #s I posted was for 2005, not even for this school year. Tuition is just too high.</p>
<p>Several states are trying to fix this cost issue.</p>
<p>Wyo and Nevada basically charge no tuition to instate students who average over a 3.6 and a reduced tuition schedule for those around a 3.2. </p>
<p>In addition, about 15 western states have a Western Undergraduate Exchange program (WUE) where students from participating states can go to out of state schools for 1.5x the instate rate. This program has opened the doors to about 10 schools for my sons to look at. Several schools have withdrawn from the program, like U of Washington and Univ of Colorado, as they try to survive on high out of state tuition but there are still some great deals there.</p>
<p>I think a few states in the mid-west do this as well with good neighbor programs.</p>
<p>At least there is a recognition that the costs are getting out of hand.</p>
<p>New Jersey has the STARS program. You would be eligible if you graduate in the top 20% of your hs class. You are given free tuition at your local community college for 2 years. Honestly, at my son's hs, the top 20% of students would not be looking at most public schools in NJ (College of NJ is the exception). This program is great for the right student, and the right family. It is not for everyone, and I don't think that anyone from the hs my son attends has taken advantage of this offer. I think that graduates from some high schools take advantage of the offer more than graduates from other high schools. A 3.3 form our hs, for example, would not place one anywhere near the top 20% to be able to make use of the offer, yet such a student might be admitted to Rutgers, or other very good colleges. It is far from a great program, IMO.</p>