<p>I'm a high school senior from Cincinnati and I got into the University of Cincinnati with about $18,000 in aid, when tuition is only about $10,000, so I have a full ride to say the least. But, I also got into my dream school the University of Southern California and was offered $55000 in aid and my projected cost of attendance is $67000, so I'd only pay about $7000 a year to go to USC. I'm going to major in neuroscience with the goal of being a neurosurgeon in the future, and I just have no idea which school to choose. Any ideas? Help deciding would be appreciated! :D</p>
<p>Whoops, I meant $62000 of projected cost</p>
<p>go to our dream school</p>
<p>Ask your parents if they will pay for USC. If they will then I would probably go there. But EITHER school will prepare you for a med school. There is no bad decision here.</p>
<p>What is the composition of your package at each university? I think it is important to figure the total cost to you and your family, which I feel includes loans and work/study. Your USC package of $55,000 most likely includes a $5,500 Stafford and $2,500 in work/study. So:</p>
<p>USC COA: $62,000
Gift aid: $47,000 ($55,000-$5,500 Stafford-$2,500 w/s)
Cost to you and your family: $15,000 freshman year. Your loan and work/study components will go up marginally in subsequent years, so over 4 years that would be ~$65,000 ($27,000 of which will be Stafford loans).</p>
<p>For comparison, what is the total cost to you and your family for University of Cincinnati?</p>
<p>Here’s my USC info:
Estimated Federal Pell Grant (Spring 2014) $302<br>
Estimated Federal Pell Grant (Fall 2013) $303<br>
Federal Work-Study (Fall 2013) $1,250<br>
Federal Work-Study (Spring 2014) $1,250<br>
University Grant (Spring 2014) $23,055<br>
University Grant (Fall 2013) $23,404<br>
Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loan (Fall 2013) $1,750<br>
Federal Direct Subsidized Stafford Loan (Spring 2014) $1,750<br>
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan (Fall 2013) $1,000<br>
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan (Spring 2014) $1,000<br>
Total Financial Aid $55,064 </p>
<p>At University of Cincinnati, the awards are all scholarships and grants. I didn’t take into account the Stafford loans for UC because they’re unneccessary.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your choices - as Erin’s Dad says, there is no bad decision.
Are you saying that at USC you will decline the Stafford and your family is able (and willing) to pay $12,436 ($62,000-$47,064 in gift aid less the $2,500 in w/s) freshman year and approximately $60,000 out of pocket overall? Though that is a bargain price for USC, it is significantly more than $0 at Cincinnati, so it is worth considering Cincinnati. At least for a few moments ;)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>What is your out of pocket cost for each school? For UCin, it appears to be zero. For USC, it is the $5500 in loans, because you will have to pay them back, plus whatever the gap is going to be between your actual cost and the grants. How will you and your family come up with the gap? Is that going to be a huge problem? Being from a PELL eligible family can mean that finances are very tight. Are you and your parents going to be able to come up with the needed amounts without too much of strain? This is something only you can answer with some discussion with your parents. If they are on board, and you can see this is doable, that Mom isn’t going to go without things she really needs or go get a second job working over 40 hours, then you have to decide whether you want to take the chance of having about $30K in loans when you graduate. That’s about $350 a month in loan payments right there. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that costs go up each year, and schools expect students to pay more on their own each year. So if you and your family are up against the wall financially to make USC work this first year, it may not get better. Also, when you graduate, finding a job that makes you self sufficient and able to pay for that loan is going to be a challenge. </p>
<p>So discuss this with your parents and see how doable USC is, and how much stress it will put on your family and you, financially, and decide if it is something manageable. Good luck and congrats on two great offers.</p>
<p>To alamemom, I meant that they were unneccessary for UC; if I accepted the Federal loans it’d add about $11000 to my $18000 in scholarships and grants, which isn’t neccessary because I’m already above tuition. </p>
<p>To cptofthehouse, that’s what we’re currently discussing. My Dad and I feel that the amount of money I’d pay back in loans plus what my parents would pay out of pocket would be worth going to a school like USC, which would give me multiple opportunities I might not find at UC. Plus, if I end up not liking USC, I can always come back here for grad school. It’s harder the other way around. But the comfort of a full ride locally is extremely tempting.</p>
<p>If your family is on board and willing to do what is needed to make it work, and you know that they are in the position to do so, go right on ahead. Some parents are so overeager to give their kids what they want that they sometimes put themselves in financial jeopardy. That’s something one might want to sniff out. I don’t mean that it’s going to be tight, but actual disaster.</p>
<p>That’s the hard part, is the out of pocket payment of 732 a month plus loan payments worth going to a top tier school versus a full ride at an okay school? They aren’t sure and neither am I. I’m really leaning towards USC though, LA scenery sounds like heaven compared to Cincinnati haha. How does federal work study work? Would my salary go straight to paying my tuition? And can I get a regular part time job AND do work study?</p>
<p>Well, one of my friends from Ohio chose USC over The OSU and she is loving it. The airfare cost is not negligible though. There was the orientation trip, then one parent flew with her to drop her off the start of school. Next, no matter how much you say you’re cool with not coming home until Christmas, once fall break is past, you really get lonesome at Thanksgiving… That’s when airfares are sky high too. She ended up coming home for Thanksgiving and both parents have visited her at least once. Other than that she loves the weather and the school.</p>
<p>othmanadil513</p>
<p>I can tell about work in general and work study at our public university. </p>
<p>You have to find work for work study. Some positions will be available for all students who were awarded work study, probably at some special website. Students apply, submit resume, have interviews. Some get their first choice jobs, some don’t.</p>
<p>The WS schedule will be around your classes but it will be also convenient for your employer. No weekends, for example, only weekdays between 8 and 5.
Or shifts 3 hours minimum. So some jobs you will not be able even to consider because of conflicts with your schedule.</p>
<p>Since you are freshman it will take some time to find job, so you’ll most likely not start working the first week of school. The later you find job the more hours you have to work per week to earn $1250 (12 or 15 hours per week instead of 10, for example). Or you can always earn less than $1250, it happens all the time.</p>
<p>If you want to be a neurosurgeon you need to go to medical school, right?
To be accepted to medical school you have to have a very high GPA, it’s really very competitive.
The more you work, the more difficult it is to maintain a high GPA, you just don’t have enough time to sleep and study.</p>
<p>If you drop work study ( it’s allowed ) to keep your GPA high you need to find additional $ 2500 per year.</p>
<p>And don’t forget about cost of plane tickets, cost of shipping (you cannot take all your stuff on the plane), storage cost to keep your stuff during summer etc. It will be several thousands extra per year.</p>
<p>Also, the amount of loans will increase each year. $ 5500 is only for freshmen.</p>
<p>And your salary will not go directly to your tuition. It will go to your bank account as direct deposit or mailed as a check to your address. Taxes will be withheld.</p>
<p>If you want to have decent grades (not very high GPA, just decent grades) don’t do work-study and regular job at the same time. People who try to handle it have very hard time keeping up with classes. Sometimes they just drop off or become part time students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info Ya Ya. So I’m guessing you suggest that I should go to the University of Cincinnati?</p>
<p>The way it works usually is that USC will likely bill you directly 1/2 the tuition/fees, room and board, health insurance premium unless you have it and give them the policy information. Against that amount, they will likely credit you your deposits for enrollment and room unless there were separate fees billed for that,and half of all of the grants and loans you are taking out. That leaves you what you owe by a certain date. If you don’t pay it or get on a monthly payment plan, there will be a late fee. Usually the monthly plans will ask for some fee as well, and you then have to pay by the month. These plans usually start in June, so start researching them. When you join in the fall , you often have to pay catch up amounts.</p>
<p>Your work study awards will not show up. All a work study award does is give you access to the Work Study jobs on campus. YOU have to find a job that fits your schedule. You then have to work the job. You get a pay check just like most other jobs and often will be working side by side with non work study kids. The difference is that you usually won’t need to pay social security on WS proceeds (or so it used to be) and the amounts are not considered for financial aid purposes the following year. So that money you won’t get until you earn it, maybe not even for a few weeks afterwards, depending on the check issuance schedule of the university. You can do what you please with the money—deposit it to your university account to bring down those costs, or pocket it and use it for your discretionary spending costs That money is not going to be there for your books and other start up costs, so remember, you will need some up front money to get to college, get the supplies you need, your books, etc. If your parents plan to come with you, those are additional costs as they will likely have to buy plane tickets to LA and find a place to stay around there, maybe rent a car. </p>
<p>Unless you are very careful and frugal, it can get very expensive going away to school with costs not covered in those estimates. We accompanied our son to college when they first would go their, and even though we were lucky in some cases to have friends who hosted us, it still was a major expenditure. For one son, it meant flying there, and because we did not send a whole lot of stuff via mail, we bought some things locally, and my credit card was on fire that weekend! Plus eating out and seeing the sights around our son’s new place of living. Parents want to do that. And you’ll want to take advantage of some of that too. It can add up very quickly.</p>
<p>Also for UCLA, off campus housing is not cheap, not at all, whereas at a school located in a city like Cinci, there would be more inexpensive options after freshman year when a lot of kids move off campus…</p>
<p>I really am not suggesting what you should do, as I don’t know the intricacies of your family finances. That’s something you need to discuss with your parents and ask them to be upfront with you because it could be a big problem if you go to USC and they have to tell you half way through that they can’t make it work. You can’t count on being able to borrow the money then, and it would cost you just as much to go to Cinci, then as your offer is likely only good as a freshman. I see a lot of kids here who come back to local schools, commuting and scraping by when they had a nice scholarship offer for the same school freshman year but chose to go elsewhere and transferred back home. Sometimes, the parents did go bust. They gave it their best try, but the money did not materialize and then they got turned down for loans. You, yourself, are limited in what you can take out in loans–you need your parents to cosign and their credit record will come under scrutiny when they do this. So a big question is where they and you are going to find that money you will be owing USC. </p>
<p>Your parents are not flush with money, as I can see from your PELL eligibility but that does not necessarily mean they have not been careful with it and they can’t afford your college bill. But it does mean that they are on a tighter budget and the options might be more limited. You need to find out how they expect to come up with this money. You don’t want Mom scrubbing port a johns as a second job and your dad peddling his kidney, you know. Or emptying their pension funds to give their DD what she wants. That’s where responsible decision making comes into play. You need to get the information as to WHERE and HOW they are going to get the money, and whether that sits well with you.</p>
<p>Just a couple of comments on the comments.</p>
<p>With regard to transportation, my child chose USC (3300 miles away from home). She did stay for Thanksgiving and had dinner at the home of one of her suitemates. USC has a lot of international students who never heard of Thanksgiving and/or don’t celebrate it so there are lots of students on campus over that weekend. That said, campus does empty out over spring break.</p>
<p>Housing. Off campus housing is actually not more expensive than the dorms, my child just recently signed the lease with her roomates for an apartment for next year in an extremely nice buiding. It works out about the same or slightly less depending on how willing you are to cook for yourself vs. buying meals. </p>
<p>Work study is good for spending money (you’ll need it, there are a lot of social and wealthy students who like to go out), and it is not difficult to find a job; there is a job fair specifically for work study in the fall. The premed curriculum is difficult however, and you will need plenty of time to study. </p>
<p>As to the scenery…the USC campus is stunningly beautiful. Just be aware that it is not that close to the beach (students do bike to Santa Monica but it’s about 15 miles each way) or shopping (like UCLA). </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision. My child loves USC.</p>
<p>Snowdog, did you have to undergo a credit check to get that apartment for your student? My friend just did for hers. Not a lot of cheap, dumpy, safe student digs available like there would be in cities like Cinci, Buffalo, Pittsburgh,…you get what I mean. Some friends of ours could not even get an apartment for their kids in the NYU area as they could not get by the credit checks of the off campus nicer apartments. </p>
<p>At some schools, if you can swallow the first year dorm/meal plan costs of about $10-15K, the next year can bring considerable financial relief if there is an active student ghetto with cheap but relatively safe apartments around. With grocery shopping options nearby, you live like the poor students of days of yore. Ramen and pasta, eggs and a bit o’ chicken with some day old veggies. I don’t know how possible that is to do at USC. My best friend’s DD is there, and it sounds beautiful, swank and expensive. The nearby independent building where she is living is not cheap, though very, very nice, and the parents had to show their stuff (credit report , notarized applications) for their DD to get a space there. </p>
<p>I’m still not saying not to do it. If I were in that situation as a parent, I would try like a demon to get the numbers to work. But I also overextended myself and our family with our first one. But we are of a high enough income to recover, somewhat and have some fat. When a family is right at the edge already, something like too expensive of a college can put them over. Also taking out loans that have to be paid for ten years after graduation is really tough. We often don’t think about this enough. The parents, that is, not the student. I think the Stafford amounts are something that the OP should consider taking. She’s young and can scrape a few years to pay them off as many will be doing. But the parents…we are getting old and tired, and if we are poor as well, 10 years of hefty loan payments is a tough sentence to bear.</p>
<p>othmanadil513 </p>
<p>It depends on your dream.
Is your dream to go to USC or to go to a medical school and become a neurosurgeon? </p>
<p>If it’s medical school, for me the University of Cincinnati is much better choice than USC. You’ll be able to go through your bachelor degree without debt. And remember, you’ll need a lot of money after that, and both you and your parent will get enough loans for medical school. It will be really nice to get these medical school loans without previous debt.</p>
<p>Also, if you don’t have to work because you have to, you’ll have better opportunities to get high GPA and be flexible with your summers. For example, at our university students can work as research assistants on campus during summer, but it’s not the best paid job if you have financial obligations. People with financial obligations chose to wait tables because they make more money in tips.</p>
<p>When you go to medical school, what really matters is not the name of university but your GPA and MCAT. Plus all kind of recommendations and what you did on campus for your future medical career. If you had to work, your activities for future medical career can be very limited. These activities are usually paid, so it’s job too, just not enough money.</p>
<p>You can go to your dream school for graduate education. No problem.:)</p>
<p>To be honest, my dream is to go to medical school and become a neurosurgeon. I thought that the chance to go to USC would be phenomenal and catapult me to USC medical school or even a school like Stanford or Berkely. But like you said, there’ll be no financial burden on me if I stay in Cincinnati for undergrad. I just don’t want this to feel like a wasted opportunity if I don’t choose USC.</p>