<p>CONFUSED...USC or T A&M=Retirement$$$ vs. $possible=Daughter loves USC=Mom wants transfer.</p>
<p>My daughter is attending USC, she is a "Super" student: All the great adjectives some parents have used in this site to describe the "best" students are applicable to her...
When I talk with my daughter I can perceive how satisfied she is with USC; she has a great opinion of the professors and quality of classes taken and the great academic experience at USC is all what she always wanted. It is the first time in her life a school go well with her expectations ...a university that is providing all the challenges she always has craved. It is the perfect university concerning quality of "Academic" learning!</p>
<p>Dilemma: Currently we are paying approximately $40,000 plus books, airplane tickets...related expenses and student loans. This amount is paid from our savings.... I'm afraid we cannot help to pay the whole four years without getting more loans, much less her Master and PHD which she also wants to pursue...</p>
<p>My daughter is receiving several offers from other Universities some which are full ride or which pay most of the university expenses. One of those offers is Texas A&M which it seems to be also a great university. Considering the benefits offered the balance for us to pay would be affordable. </p>
<p>I hate to break my daughter's heart...my husband support my daughter...but I'm in charge of family payments and budget...Still, I'm confused...In one hand my daughter now is closed to complete a semester and she already knows USC is the best place to be it concern me that if I pursue my desire to change her to Texas A&M it would involve to change her to an unknown Academic environment, which we are not too familiar with. However, the financial change could ease my concerns...</p>
<p>Questions:</p>
<p>-Parents:
Please share any similar experiences and how did you handle it...
-Please share your insights or recommendations...
-People from T A&M please describe the Academic environment and quality of their Science department...and university quality.</p>
<p>Usually I resolve all my problems, but this one is confusing me...I'm feeling going back and forward.</p>
<p>All this breaks my heart...respectfully need your advice...Thanks</p>
<p>IMO, no academic experience is worth $40k/year more over a full ride at a very respectable university like Texas A&M…especially if you’re concerned about foregoing your financial goals to pay for it. </p>
<p>Perhaps you can talk to USC’s financial aid office about your dilemma. They may pull through for you. </p>
<p>Don’t mortgage your goals for your daughter’s. She will be able to reach her goals just as easily and much more cheaply if she attends A&M vs. 'SC.</p>
<p>You might want to re-post this in the Parents Forum.</p>
<p>My biggest concern is that you and your husband didn’t come to an agreement about how much you would be able to contribute to your daughter’s education before she began college. How are you going to be able to agree on this now? If paying for her education will mean that you have no retirement money whatsoever, you need to sit your husband down and show him the math. Once you have an agreement on how much you can legitimately spend, then you have to be honest with your daughter about the effect her choice of college has had on the family budget. Perhaps she will be able to suggest other options (more loans for her, more work in the summer or during the school year, transfer to a less expensive college, etc.). Even if your family does decide that it is best for her to stay at USC, I am sure she can find ways to economize so that her expenses are smaller.</p>
<p>I think you should tell your daughter that she will be on her own for grad school. If she is in the sciences, she should not have to pay one cent for grad school. The university should offer her full support with a combination of grants, teaching assistantships and research assistantships. In the humanities, she might expect to have to take on more teaching hours, but she should not plan on pursuing a graduate degree without nearly full support from the university. Law school and medical school she will have to pay for with a combination of work and loans.</p>
<p>Texas A&M is a great university. It has an excellent reputation in the sciences and engineering. The environment is very different from USC and it might not be a good match for your daughter. She should visit and take a look at it.</p>
<p>*My biggest concern is that you and your husband didn’t come to an agreement about how much you would be able to contribute to your daughter’s education before she began college. How are you going to be able to agree on this now? If paying for her education will mean that you have no retirement money whatsoever, you need to sit your husband down and show him the math. Once you have an agreement on how much you can legitimately spend, then you have to be honest with your daughter about the effect her choice of college has had on the family budget. *</p>
<p>I agree with all of what Happymom wrote, but especially the above part. First, you and your H need to accept responsibility that this issue was not properly addressed over a year ago. As you say, you’re in charge of the finances, therefore, your H needs to listen to you instead of having lofty ideas of paying for something that you can’t afford or that will jeopardize your retirement.</p>
<p>When you both talk to your D, you both need to “man up” and say that you neglected to fully consider the financial impact of her going to school at USC. </p>
<p>Yes, your D is a remarkable girl. Yes, there are many of those kids here on CC. But, guess what? They’re doing fabulously at other schools - such as Texas A&M or UT Austin. There isn’t just ONE school where your D can shine and fit. </p>
<p>BTW…are you certain that those fabulous scholarship offers are still valid for a student who is presently at another college? </p>
<p>Yes, you can speak to USC about your D’s situation, but I’m concerned that you’re bargaining power is now over. They have your child; they’ve already gotten to include her stats in their 2009 incoming freshmen class. At this point, it’s not a huge deal if she transfers. Was she given any kind of scholarship from USC? USC can be quite generous with scholarhips to incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you. Your D will do well no matter what well-ranked school she goes to :)</p>
<p>.“… I’m afraid we cannot help to pay the whole four years without getting more loans, much less her Master and PHD which she also wants to pursue…”</p>
<p>Why not expect her to pay for her own graduate school? Many programs have fellowships, and many people work their way through grad school.</p>
<p>Your daughter also can work and take out loans to help pay for USC.</p>
<p>Given how bad the economy now is and the bleak outlook for a rapid recovery, it also seems reasonable to me to ask her to transfer to a cheaper school. While yes, she will be disappointed, sometimes finances change and we have to take cheaper options. That’s the way life is…</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you, “UCBChem…;”, “Happymom”, “Mom2Collegekids,” “Northstarmom” & "mdcissp"you have been kind in sharing your valuable perspective. </p>
<p>I’m so grateful for your responses, all of you have contributed with a great analysis of the situation and provided valuable ideas and new issues. I think I couldn’t receive better answers!</p>
<p>We are still evaluating and debating to keep “super” D, where she feels comfortable, at USC, which she considers as one of the most highly regarded university.</p>
<p>We are still considering Texas A&M and Denison because their financial offers are very suitable to our financial concerns and I understand these are good universities. I will take in consideration your concern about the difference of environments; we will discard other full rides offers of other universities considering our “D” will not be happy attending ; we will only consider the options of keeping her at USC, the offers of Texas A&M and Denison University; our daughter is applying to other scholarships…and we will follow some of your suggestions. </p>
<p>Believe me it is a very tough decision! I know my daughter well and when she says that the quality of learning of USC is what she was expecting all her life it makes my decision of transferring her to another university the cruelest thing I would have done in my life…well our family needs to discuss these issues further. </p>
<p>Your ideas, recommendations, and analysis have been exceptional and covered my concerns. Thanks again!</p>
<p>"BTW…are you certain that those fabulous scholarship offers are still valid for a student who is presently at another college? "</p>
<p>This is an important question to learn the answer to. In addition, if your D continues at USC after this semester and transfers, she probably will be considered a transfer student, and many schools don’t offer merit aid to transfer students. Some don’t even offer need-based aid to transfer students.</p>
<p>I’m confused as to how your daughter is getting excellent financial offers from other schools if she’s not actively applying for a transfer. Are these the offers she had as a prospective freshman? If so, they may not be available to her now. There is a lot more merit aid available to freshman than to transfer students.</p>
<p>Normally I would advocate for the less expensive option, especially when you’re looking at a high caliber school like Texas A&M. However, unless your financial situation has changed since your daughter chose USC, I do not think it is right to uproot her in the middle of the game from a school where she’s comfortable, and I’d think long and hard before I did that. If finances have changed, then by all means explain the circumstances to your daughter and explain to her exactly how much you can contribute. She’ll see the writing on the wall if you truly can’t afford to send her to USC. As for grad school, tell her she’s on her own. I don’t think you should bankrupt your retirement for undergrad, let alone grad school. Good luck in your decision - this is really a tough one. However, if your daughter is as super as you say, I’m sure she will thrive in whatever environment she lands.</p>
<p>YOUR story breaks MY heart. Why did you let her enroll in a college that you could not afford?</p>
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<p>Too much histrionics, made to guilt you into a decision. Sure, USC is a wonderful college experience, but there are many out there just as good.</p>
<p>re: PhD. Tell her that she’ll have to earn a full ride somewhere for the doctorate.</p>
<p>To be most helpful, we need to understand your situation.</p>
<p>What year is your DD at USC? Did she received grant aid from them? Is there any change in your financial situation that would allow them to re-evaluate the award and increase it?</p>
<p>How is she getting offers from other schools? Is she currently applying for transfers? It does not make sense to me in November that she is getting transfer offers for fall 2010, transfer apps are due in late spring. What are you looking at now? Are you going back and reviewing her other offers as a freshman? If so, those schools may not offer the same award as a transfer.</p>
<p>Grad school should be on her dime; if she goes right from UG to PhD it should be funded, many masters are partially funded.</p>
<p>PS: One of my DDs had to turn down USC for a state school based on money, so I feel your pain.</p>
<p>Repeating what others have said: The merit scholarships offered to your daughter when she applied as a senior in high school may no longer be available should she decide to transfer. Scholarships offered to incoming freshmen would not normally be given to a student who declined the award, attended another school, and then decided to transfer in. You should contact Texas A & M and Denison with this question before considering a transfer.</p>
<p>You should not take loans to send your DD to USC. If possible talk to her and at least inform her that this won’t be the case for graduate school for MS/Phd.</p>
<p>Also talk to DD to take up some internship during the semester or some job to fund her food. That actually cut your expenses by $4000 for the year.</p>