<p>OP- if it were my kid, I would encourage him to keep an open mind about those loans.</p>
<p>A frugal kid with plans to study engineering should view loans as an investment in his own human capital. Nobody knows what the economy will look like in four years, but a modest amount of loans to bridge the gap to make attendance affordable at his first choice school sounds like a good bet to me.</p>
<p>We discovered that many of the local merit scholarships were merit wrapped in need. Our kids applied for many, got a couple, but only one was really “worth it” from a financial perspective. An award of $250 from the local Realtors is very nice, and certainly helps buy books for first semester, but since it wasn’t recurring and involved both the time to apply, have an interview, appear at the annual lunch meeting, write thank you’s to all the trustees, etc. it wasn’t a very good investment of time. </p>
<p>I’d say keep filling out those applications for all the local scholarships, but assume that your son will need to borrow to plug the gap.</p>