<p>“56% of prospective borrowers were awarded the PLUS loans.” </p>
<p>You’re not taking into account that most PLUS borrowers have a better financial situation than OPs. There is NO WAY that 56% of borrowers whose finances are such that they have 0 resources to contribute toward college expenses were approved.</p>
<p>what about the schedule issue? Are you sure you can still graduate Storrs in 4 years if you defer CSE 1102 to the fall of sophomore year? You really want to get this straight from the department before you make this radical switch. </p>
<p>IF you’ve gotten those assurances, then perhaps, it might be worthwhile. Otherwise you are actually losing money by forgoing a year’s salary at the back end and having to pay for a 5th year.</p>
<p>Also, do you get to keep your 6K in grants? If not, it’s also a net minus. Tread carefully.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.park.uconn.edu/parkfaq.html#faq1[/url]”>http://www.park.uconn.edu/parkfaq.html#faq1</a></p>
<p>“All commuter students are eligible to purchase a commuter parking permit. Resident students must have 54 or more completed credits to be eligible to purchase a resident parking permit.”</p>
<p>You can commute and park on campus even as a freshman. That’s a much safer option in my opinion. That gets you into CSE 1102 with your peers on schedule.</p>
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<p>If the Parents blow their credit, the plan is blown anyway. There are no payments on the PLUS loan, so this will not add to their burden. Additionally, they no longer have to provide food for their child who would be on a meal plan. </p>
<p>If the parents get the first PLUS loan, then they are creditworthy now, and the only option is to move forward. They can’t get the PLUS loan now, and then save it in case they stop paying their bills. Their child’'s ability to get a BS in computer science depends on them getting PLUS loans in years 3 and 4, and actually, if the OP goes to Storrs and does well, it’s even less risky because s/he will be at least capable of earning some money working. The CC option is long off the table. </p>
<p>Now we’re working on whether UCONN-Avery Point is advisable. The jury is still out, but it has potential.</p>
<p>OP: Can you answer some really basic information we all need in order to advise you better? </p>
<p>1)What are your stats: SAT scores, GPA, AP/IB course history</p>
<p>2) Have your parents officially been approved for a PLUS loan this year? </p>
<p>3) Do you foresee any possibility that your parents financial situation could lead to them making any late payments in the next 3 years? </p>
<p>Really, to give you advice that fits your situation, we all need this info.</p>
<p>They said they do offer a CSE 1102 In the Summer, and since next year the price might rise, making that course with dorms to be 3000 dollars. So Avery Point tuition 6161 hopefully, and 3000 for the summer course. Back on track for 4yrs Bachelors degree. I save 7000 I guess but excluding gas, I might as well put 1000 in gas in case, and I guess i save 6000. I dont have my Driver’s License yet.</p>
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<p>Storrs or Avery. </p>
<p>Do you get to keep your 6K grant?</p>
<p>OK, I got my own answer. </p>
<p>You take CSE in Storrs over the summer. </p>
<p>If you get to keep your 6K grant and can reduce only loans, if you don’t plan to work over the summer (taking that course over 6 weeks is going to be a LOT of work, so you likely won’t be working during this time), then this become a pretty viable option. You save 2K on tuition, and you save a lot on housing and some on food (I assume that home cooking is cheaper). </p>
<p>How are you going to pay the $3K in the summer? Just to be safe, you’d better figure that one out too before you switch, but it’s likely that will work. </p>
<p>Nice job in digging this all out.</p>
<p>Currently in storrs, one of my counselors are still trying to get me into the CSE 1010 class, happened to be full, no I do not keep 6k grant but tutition is originall 10,000 but i have 895 pell grant and 3000 Governor scholarship, so i have to worry about 7 grand … then gas maybe 1000…I guess the 3000 would be from my parents. Being able to save 6000 is a lot more then I’m capable of making during school and over the summer, so i think its worth a try.</p>
<p>There is a lot of good stuff on this professor’s website including lectures and assignments from 1010 and 1102
<a href=“https://sites.google.com/site/jeffscourses/[/url]”>https://sites.google.com/site/jeffscourses/</a></p>
<p>You might want to start downloading the tools and playing with some stuff in Java. </p>
<p>You can teach yourself some of it before it gets too hard. </p>
<p>Good luck. Sounds like a decent plan. You may actually come out ahead if you can take an extra GenEd in the Spring when you would have taken 1102. Just make sure you made a speadsheet of costs, grants loans and tuition and summer salary and make sure you really come out enough ahead to make it worthwhile.</p>
<p>If you look at the UCONN estimated budget, it seems like your original award included $3794 in student self-help (your own money). </p>
<p>With the lower amount, now your parents can probably still borrow $9400. (Cost of attendance minus what you can borrow). This can partially mitigate the potential that their credit goes bad. Then you can replace the student self-help with your own money. You parents might even be able to still borrow the $12360 since your budget would be for the whole year and you intend to enroll in the summer. </p>
<p>This works out pretty nicely. I’d borrow the max, since 7.9% on the extra 3000 is only about $240.</p>
<p>“I’d borrow the max, since 7.9% on the extra 3000 is only about $240.”</p>
<p>?? Maybe I’m missing something…the accrued interest on a $3000 loan deferred for 54 months ('til 6 months after student graduates) is $1266.</p>
<p>If he doesn’t have a job now and wasn’t assigned work study, watch out for where that 3794 comes from, if not the Plus. Not necessarily a reduction.</p>
<p>Scubasue: You were concerned with minimizing the risk that parents credit will deteriorate. Why wouldn’t you want to mitigate that risk until the OP has enough knowledge to be able to earn some good money. After that happens, the loan amount can be reduced in years 3 and 4. With a solid summer job after year 3, and accumulations from previous year, there may not need to be any PLUS loan for year 4.</p>
<p>Lookingforward: I just took the estimated cost of attendance on
<a href=“http://financialaid.uconn.edu/index.php/Estimated_Cost_of_Attendance[/url]”>http://financialaid.uconn.edu/index.php/Estimated_Cost_of_Attendance</a>
and subtracted what the OP told us.</p>
<p>CRD: huh? What does any of that have to do with the fact that accrued interest on a $3K loan is not $240?</p>
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<p>That’s about one year interest. Instead of having his parents pay the $3000 next summer, borrow it now while they can, and sacrifice the $240 in extra interest. Also save any money the student earns to help reduce the loan in year 4, hopefully down to nothing. Having a little cushion reduces the chance that the parents will miss any payments on anything for 90 days.</p>
<p>I can’t duplicate 240. If you only mean 3k over one year, but they likely won’t pay the full balance in 12 months. Compounds for the life of the loans- and I believe compounds daily (someone can check; I believe it’s what I was told.)</p>
<p>I was thinking just for a year, but you are correct, it’s longer. Still better to borrow than to risk not having. $1266 is not much additional to invest in a multimillion dollar career. (average 90K over 40 years, worst case - 90K is the average software engineering salary in the Occupational Handbook).</p>
<p>Darn i can’t go to avery point because I don’t have a ride</p>
<p>Obviously, total borrowed goes down. So, the general pint becomes, anything he earns that can reduce loan dependency is good.</p>
<p>7000 over a 10 year normal payoff = 3000 interest in the life of the loan. That assumes payments on the Plus are coming in beginning March of first year. If you defer the whole thing to fall after graduation, you have compounded on the whole amount for maybe 3.5 years.</p>
<p>No bus? AND: you can’t go to college there or you can’t visit now? Thought mom worked nearby.</p>
<p>So go back to the original plan, which was pretty good to begin with.</p>