I actually agree with that.
My friend’s child just applied to LSU about 2 weeks ago and was admitted with a scholarship. She has a good ACT. LSU is her DD’s least expensive option. I looked closely at her preferred degree, and the LSU course offerings look interesting. There are numerous study abroad options.
With all the upheaval in health insurance right now, no one knows how much the costs will go up over 4 years. Your missing this cost isn’t stupid. My kids are covered under an employee plan but I’m concerned about coverage in other states. Some people drive school bus routes in order to get affordable health insurance through my local school district. I know political rants aren’t allowed on CC, but this entire situation is absolutely nuts.
I agree that you should consider the (federal) direct student loans. She can put the insurance issue to rest and work during the school year and summers to help pay them off. Once she graduates and lands a job, she will be able to cover her monthly payment. It’s not that dissimilar to making a car payment. She can always continue to shop for a plan, but she needs to make sure that it meets her school’s requirements or they will reject it.
My kid dreamed of getting away from our state for college. Well, the numbers just didn’t really work for that to happen - he’ll probably be headed to the state next door. I think your daughter would find like minded peers at U of A honors.
My kid applied to colleges as an OOTB homeschooler too but we’re in a metro and know lots of kids who’ve been through the process in the last few years. This process is disappointing for lots of kids and families at all sorts of income levels in all sorts of schooling situations. Many school counselors are serving MANY kids and aren’t super helpful. My son did get into some fancier far flung schools but we cannot justify paying 10-50K more per year to make them happen.
I think taking federal loans are fine. You can take exactly what you need to cover insurance. That said, having debt after graduation can limit options in terms of setting up in a new part of the country, allowing a travel/adventure budget, etc. College is just 4 years. She has her whole life to live somewhere else. Definitely don’t beat yourself up. It’s fine to apply to reaches but it’s also just fine if it doesn’t work out. There are many ways to get a high quality education.
I meant reapplying next year to more affordable schools, or instate schools.
Then the insurance wouldn’t be a problem, until she ages out of CHIP.
Surely there are public universities in Mississippi with liberal students. She wouldn’t have to stay in her hometown.
Neither of her options seem to be particularly affordable, especially because of insurance.
There used to be an option to buy individual health insurance through Blue Cross.
What about living in Berlin, aside from housing shortages, especially in big cities there, how much is that going to cost?
I think the Agnes Scott degree will go further with employers in the US. And college in Europe isn’t always all it is cracked up to be - one of my kids direct enrolled in a European university for a semester while abroad, and she found it laughably less rigorous than her US (not that highly ranked) LAC. I’m sure the quality varies, but I wouldn’t necessay assume the German results would be comparable, especially in the eyes of US employers.
I did have one request for my kid - when she applied to PhD programs, I asked her to most strongly consider those that provide health insurance as part of the PhD student compensation. It was a relief when she picked a program that had it.
For those who do not qualify for ACA subsidies, the monthly price of ACA coverage is high. A student would most likely not qualify as they do not make enough to qualify for the subsidies (I think it is about $20k per year) In states with medicaid expansion, they’d go from CHiPs to medicaid, but Mississippi and Georgia are not expansion states.
To qualify in Georgia, she’d have to be a georgia resident. Remember that ALL insurance is state insurance, and travels with the policy holder only when the insurance company says it does (in network, for ER visits, etc._ A friend’s son just learned that his policy doesn’t cover physical therapy when he is OOS at school; it covered the injury, but not the treatment. OP’s duaghter can move to GA and establish residency, but right now she isn’t a resident so can’t buy a policy. I think Georgia also only has ONE insurance company offering coverage on the marketplace.
Her premium amount has nothing to do with being of ‘child bearing age.’ ObamaCare, which you loved in your original post, requires insurers to cover a lot of things and guess what - those things cost money. I think those under 26 can buy a policy that only covers major medical, but those policies aren’t available everywhere. ACA is affordable when you get subsidies, but be under the income or above the income, you are paying the entire premium.
The parents do not have a group policy so cannot add the children. The children have CHiP, (Child heathcare Plus), so if that ends, it is a qualifying event but then choices are limited. No COBRA (which is usually outrageously expensive), no medicaid.
Some schools are very strict and require you to submit the policy before they allow you to waive buying the policy they offer while others just let you check the box and it is waived. Both of my kids could easily waive the school’s insurance. For one we bought the school’s policy and for the other she only had emergency coverage and did all her other medical apts when she was home.
@4sugarplums, please don’t assume that you guys did anything wrong just because the outcome was not what you hoped. If you look through the “results” threads you will see lots of very qualified students getting surprising rejections from schools. There was a thread a few years back by a student who had fantastic stats and was completely shut out. Agnes Scott is a great option. I agree with others who suggest having her take out federal loans.
We were also self insured when our son went to an out of state college and had to get on their insurance plan. It was slightly less than what it was costing us to have him on our plan AND the plan was so much better! We waited to have him get his wisdom teeth pulled until he switched plans because for ours it would have cost about $3500 out of pocket and not even towards his deductible and the school plan only cost us his $250 deductible. Vision and dental are also included which aren’t on our personal plan. My point it - we ended up being very pleased with the better coverage on his plan and now are waiting for my daughter to enroll in HER colleges’ plan this fall before scheduling vision and dental appointments.
@mommdc , liberals in MS are rare. Her options would be MS State (where I don’t think liberals head to school, you know? it’s known as the Cow College) or Ole Miss, which she would never consider as you step on campus head on into a Confederate statue. She would be miserable. I tried to be mindful of that. She’s been miserable here her whole life, well, since she was old enough to know where she lived, so I think she deserves to be finally around people that think more like her. (She organized a March for Our Lives march here last year where the most popular store downtown is a gun store. We had to leave town. So, yes, she deserve to leave and I’m not being to hyperbolic when I say whatever the cost).
Room and board is included in her admissions at Bard Berlin and is quite affordable. The campus is VERY small…270 students.
@twoinanddone , I did and do love ACA for my husband and I. Quite affordable for us in our fifties. I was just quite surprised how unaffordable it became when I priced for the 15 and 17 year old girls. Thank heavens for CHiPS and I mean that. I appreciate it and we don’t abuse it. Very grateful. We do quality for subsidies under the ACA.
@intparent , the school is Bard Berlin so basically an American university in Germany. It looks pretty cool but very small and the degree is vague. Like, very broad. She was accepted into the Humanities, Arts and Social Thoughts. That’s the degree.
A couple of comments. The college process is challenging, unpredictable, and complicated. It’s not you. It’s the process!
I think the first question is whether your daughter is excited about either of her 2 options (I personally think going the Germany route sounds like it would add more complexity and challenge). I know a young woman who is an extremely politically active and vocal progressive who enrolled at Agnes Scott. She was loving her first year there, but tragically her mom died suddenly right at semester’s end and now her father is battling cancer so she returned home on a leave of absence. Just mentioning that because I don’t think your D would find it a traditional Southern culture.
If she isn’t excited about her options, she could look into doing a gap year in the US or abroad. Obviously, she would have to find something that would be a financial net positive, not negative. But that would give her time to apply to a broader swath of schools and navigate the health insurance quagmire.
A third option is to look at schools that are still accepting applications and what financial aid she might qualify for there or schools that open up slots later in the spring.
Finally, if you and your husband are both self-employed, is that a small business that you run or it something that might allow you the luxury of moving? If you’re not wedded to where you live, moving could open up additional in-state options for education, especially after a gap year.
Oh, and definitely call Agnes Scott and ask them for any advice or help with this problem.
Did you explore what the student body is like at Bard Berlin? I don’t know that program- but I know a couple of other programs in Europe and they appeal to kids of enormous family wealth-- either expats or Americans or some combination-- and the kids leave town every weekend to ski, to eat in “happening” restaurants in Marbella, or to use grandmama’s empty summer cottage (with 12 bedrooms) South of London.
Just make sure you aren’t facilitating a situation where she’s at a suitcase school, thousands of miles from home, without the financial resources to do what her classmates are doing.
I did a semester abroad during college and was lucky enough to 'fall in" with a crowd with modest tastes and budgets. We volunteered as ushers which got us free admissions to concerts and theater; we became “models” at a local hair design school for free haircuts, someone got an “under the table” job at a restaurant (we couldn’t get work permits) which got us free food after closing. It was a pile of fun, but if I’d been hanging around kids who were spending hundreds of dollars a week on amusements it might have less fun. And European “campuses” don’t have the tradition of the free movie nights and poetry slams that colleges in the US do, so there is less college-provided recreation.
Agree with the suggestion to call Agnes Scott. This likely isn’t the first time they’ve heard this situation and they might be able to help.
Does she speak and write German at all? Does she want to go to Germany in the first place, independently of financial considerations?
Where do the German grandparents live? Could she, at a pinch, live with them?
If she had to pick a concrete major European style, what would it be?
Does she have full complement of APs, European diploma style?
(You can pm me if you like).
@pittsburghscribe , thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply.
I don’t think she is particularly over the moon at either option. She REALLY wanted Oberlin, Holyoke or Sarah Lawrence. She was waitlisted at the latter two along with Reed. I think she’s just been so stunned and sad at how it played out it’s been hard to get excited about any of it. But she’s coming around, I think, making pros and cons list. She is a ray of light and has a light about her so she is finding her way back. I think her biggest thing was she wanted out of the south and so hard to get excited about GA. Even if Atlanta is a whole other “state” unto itself. We’ve had the discussion about it’s alot of $ to pay if she isn’t excited about either. But she’s ready for college and can’t stomach the thought of being here another year, working full time at the local deli.
Gap year has been discussed. She sent an app to Mayor Pete’s campaign to intern. To our state and national ACLU. Nothing. We looked into Americorps but nothing came of that. In order to BE somewhere else, she would have to have someone to stay with and we don’t have that. Grand European Travel isn’t in our budget, sadly. And I’m seriously not so sure her outcome would be much different for the schools she wanted to attend. Perhaps if we did ED to one but we have to have aid so that’s probably not an option, either.
I had her apply to two in the past couple of weeks still open (New College of U of A). Don’t know if we will hear from either before deposit due on the other two. Plus, you know, still the south thing…she only applied to them for $ reasons, not because she cared a fig about them, which is sad.
Husband is a German master carpenter but at 50+ plus cant just up and start over somewhere new with no sources. I mean, we would be starting from complete scratch and zero. He works 7 days a week. I work six, for home doing is book work and stuff and the other time I’m the local Uhaul lady. The biggest factor is I have elderly parents and I am not comfortable leaving them as I am pretty much it for my divorced dad at 76.
And I have been in touch with AS just this morning. They gave her a great scholarship and seem to really want her so we shall see. I hate asking for more.
@blossom and @Tigerle Bard Berlin seems to be quite American in nature. There are 60 countries represented in the very small student body but English speaking and American seeming, college wise. I follow them on IG and they have poetry slam nights and this week are having puppies on campus for stress, (exam week?) that kind of thing. We like the looks of it though I do wonder about that vague major translating to work here. And since it is so small there won’t be things like D and D groups like at AS (which she plays here at home) and that kind of stuff. I’m sure that’s on her con list. But, on the other hand, IT’S BERLIN!!
She had a little German during her middle school years at home before switching to Swedish and Welsh (!). Can you tell I let my girls pick their own language/curriculum??
The German grands (plus an aunt and uncle) are 5 hours away but I’m guessing alot less by rail. She’s only met them once but it is nice knowing they are there if she needs a break or a sense of “home” since she would only be able to come home at xmas.
I’m not sure I understand your AP question, @Tigerle, as we were homeschooled and have none of that. MS requires NOTHING of homeschoolers so we did no grades, no tests, weren’t allowed to do classes at our local public school.
YOU do, but if you daughter applies for her own policy in Georgia, she most likely will not qualify for subsidies. You and your husband have an individual policy(ies) and most likely can’t add someone to it, and the group policies rules don’t apply.
I think your choices are to buy the Agnes Scott policy or don’t go to school there (or in Georgia). If your daughter would have gone to one of the Seven Sisters, the same issue would have applied. Some very generous schools do provide an insurance supplement, but most schools do not (because it is paying that amount to an outside provider, actual money out of its own pockets). The insurance premium is also a taxable item, along with room and board, so remember that when comparing costs.
You live in Mississippi, so that’s the state that going to give your child, its resident, the most benefits. If she attends Ole Miss or Miss State, her insurance will work (until she ages out)
@blossom , no idea about the specifics of the Bard student body, but compared to other metropolises of the world, Berlin is still super cheap and some students will have applied because they want to explore the edgier bits of the city. She will be able to have a social life, but maybe not so much within the Bard bubble.
@twoinanddone , would you explain this to me, please? “The insurance premium is also a taxable item, along with room and board, so remember that when comparing costs.”
I would also consider the loan while you research options for future years. I would then consider throwing a little bit at the loans, as you can, right away. Even $29 to $30 a month starting immediately would help decrease the principal on subsidized loans or keep up with interest on non subsidized.