What would you do in my situation (UNC or UVA)?

Paying for College
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<p>Because my $20k loan will go up to $29k by 2016, and the Stafford and Perkins loans are $5k and $2.5k and one of them is subsidized with a lower interest rate than the private loan (6% I believe), so that will add up to less than $40k by 2016.</p>

<p>Law school will be $150k+ more in loans in all probability, and then there will be the added pressure to do well too. </p>

<p>I suppose my yearly salary would have to be around $50k/year considering I wouldn’t be paying for living expenses if I live with my mother.</p>

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<p>You do realize that righ now law school is ~70k a year (tuition, living expenses, health insurance, books, etc). Tuition alone is creeping toward 50K (it will probably be very easily be 50 in the next 2 to 3 years). Who knows what it will be bby the time you are ready to attend? </p>

<p>There are some schools (Penn specifically comes to mind that requires you to be credit worthy as part of the admissions process). There are very few schools that give much in the way of scholarships (Darrow and Mich, Hamilton at Columbia, Levy at Penn, UVA) but the first in line is loans.</p>

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<p>sybbie, it’d be nice if I could get into a Columbia or NYU because then I could cut room and board expenses, but I think law school is a risk for just about anyone, not just low-income students who are about $30k in debt from undergrad loans.</p>

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<p>Because his low income parents don’t determine his own life outcome. What the hell is the education for, anyway?</p>

<p>If you can get a $160k-$200k (OOS rates) education for $45,000, and it’s a serious degree from a serious school, that’s a bargain that really can’t be passed up. The education goes with the student, not his lower income parents.</p>

<p>It seems to me that the low-income student would be thinking like a future full-pay parent in this case. If that education is real, it’s a screaming bargain at $45k. He’ll be paying full freight for his kids.</p>

<p>If that education isn’t worth $45k, then why are we wasting our time on College Confidential? Lots of folks pay the whole thing. Seriously, sometimes you need to just grab the deal and say thanks.</p>

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<p>If you can get that same education for free, then how is it a bargain to pay $45,000 (and probably a little more, since the package might not grow along with the cost of attendance). This student is in a situation where they have a full-ride to a great university (UNC). Sure, there are valid reasons why s/he might decide to go to UVA even if UVA doesn’t offer a full-ride, but it’s hardly a financial bargain to reject a package made up entirely of gift aid for one that (might) include loans. $45,000 might be a bargain in some contexts, but nothing beats $0.</p>

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<p>While I am a big fan of the $0 cost concept, and generally horrified by the amounts of debt many students take on (including this poster) I do see Mister K’s point if we’re talking about rigor and reputation of program. UVA is home to one of the top 10 law programs in the U.S. As such, I am thinking that access to faculty and opportunity for connection might be slightly higher at UVA (if used/sought out) than UNC – which might be worth another $10 k in loans…</p>

<p>Let’s face it – this poster has ALREADY made his/her bed and created future pressure conditions and a future of sacrifice. Folding now doesn’t make sense – he or she needs the best degree at the most rigorous school with the best connections now just to auger a decent job to paydown the ill-conceived debt.</p>

<p>However, I will say to the poster that as pal of mine with a six-figure law school debt presently works at a law firm nearby and earns nowhere near what she expected; has not progressed the way she expected; and recently commented to me that it should be “illegal” to issue student loans of this scope to uninformed kids. She also thinks they should dramatically reduce the number of law spots nationwide (an opinion shared by her local bar association) because there is a total “glut” on the market.</p>

<p>She has two kids and had no undergrad debt when she went to law school. Yet her student loan payments (over 25 years) are more than her monthly mortgage payments. I have no idea how she’ll send her OWN kids to school.</p>

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Kmcom, I’m wondering where you got this idea? Using one set of rankings, UVA is ranked #25 with a student faculty ratio of 16:1, UNC ranked #30 with a student faculty ratio of 14:1 (lower than UVA). I see absolutely NO reason to pay $45k for the same thing avialable for free.</p>

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<p>Why don’t you call up UVA and see if they can give you information about what your financial aid offer will look like. Then report back.</p>

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<p>They’ve never had to pay it off, so they don’t get it.</p>

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<p>I don’t disagree, and I’d go for free as well. In fact, I love UNC. But it’s a screaming bargain in either case.</p>

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<p>Erin’s Dad – I was referring to the law faculty as prefaced by the foregoing sentence, where there appears to be a much wider gap between the schools.</p>

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<p>^ Oh. I didn’t read closely enough. I was thrown because we’ve been talking about the cost for the undergrad education. If the OP does follow through on law school plans s/he can apply to any school. UVA may make sense there (and costs may not differ much). In this case UNC makes much more sense if UVA’s FA offer is not as good.</p>

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<p>UVa gave me a gracious financial aid package. ($49k in grants, no loans)
If I get $6-7k back for my tuition refund, I’ll put it all to my smaller loans from my first school so that I’ll only have the $20k loan left to pay off.</p>

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<p>*I suppose my yearly salary would have to be around $50k/year considering I wouldn’t be paying for living expenses if I live with my mother. *</p>

<p>By the time you’re out of law school, you’ll be at an age that you probably won’t want to be living with mom…and…you have no idea if your job will be near your mom’s home. </p>

<p>*$45k isn’t really a lot of money. </p>

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I can never understand how low income people can think like this. Why is it that students from low income families have these wild-haired idea that debt like this isn’t a big deal? </p>

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<p>Because his low income parents don’t determine his own life outcome. What the hell is the education for, anyway?</p>

<p>If you can get a $160k-$200k (OOS rates) education for $45,000, and it’s a serious degree from a serious school, that’s a bargain that really can’t be passed up. The education goes with the student, not his lower income parents.

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<p>first of all, we don’t know what the quality of his first 2 years at his first school was worth nearly $30k in debt (I doubt it). </p>

<p>secondly, it’s one thing to be paying $45k for 4 years of school (about 11k per year) and having $45k in debt as a young grad…especially if the person’s likely profession won’t pay very well…or…major law school debt is in the future.</p>

<p>This student could have gone to a CC for the first 2 years and had no debt…then transfer to UNC or UVA and graduate with little to no debt. When there’s a better way, take it.</p>

<p>My point stands…I don’t understand why kids from low income families think that $45k debt (or more!) is no big deal.</p>

<p>with law school in the future, this student could end up with $200k in debt.</p>

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<p>“first of all, we don’t know what the quality of his first 2 years at his first school was worth nearly $30k in debt (I doubt it).” </p>

<p>I know, but I can’t keep dwelling on a mistake I made when I was a naive 18 year old.
If I can get rid of the two smaller loans by the time I go to law school, then I’ll be looking at the law school loans and ~$30k from that one big loan. If I don’t go to law school and pay off the two smaller loans, then I’ll be looking at ~$26k from the big loan. </p>

<p>Hopefully I can get into a great law school, do well, and get a job that pays enough to make the undergrad loans look like pennies.</p>

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<p>congrats on:</p>

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<p>What is the balance you need to pay out of pocket for each school?</p>

<p>Have you decided where to go?</p>

<p>And… excuse my ignorance… just trying to learn here - what is a “tuition refund”?</p>

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<p>I have a strong preference toward UVa so I’m going to UVa. I probably would have still chosen UVa even if they had given me a small amount of loans. </p>

<p>Tuition refund might not be the correct term because I think that involves a student withdrawing and getting a portion of what he paid for tuition back, but I’m referring to the refund a student gets when his financial aid covers more than the cost of attendance. It will probably cost about $43k to attend UVa out of state (tuition, room & board, books, travel), so I think I can expect around a $5-6k refund.</p>

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<p>I would not count that chicken before it hatches. As the cost of attendance is actually $48,988 + travel.</p>

<p>[Tuition</a> & Fees, Facts at a Glance, University of Virginia](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/Facts/Glance_Tuition.html]Tuition”>http://www.virginia.edu/Facts/Glance_Tuition.html)</p>

<p>Pull apart your financial aid package. </p>

<p>See what part is “free money”. See what part of your aid package is employment or work study (back that part out because it is money that you will have to earn).</p>

<p>Go to their website and see how much money you will have to pay in fees and health insurance (which can really add up). If your mom is low income, you probably may not have adequate health insurance and the school will require you to get their plan in order to attend school. This part may not be part of your financial aid package and you may have to take out loans to make it happen.</p>

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<p>^The OP will have a refund if they received in excess of $49k grants because the SCHOOL tuition, room and meals will total $45,614, leaving the difference to fund books, living expenses, travel etc. So what the OP meant was the fin aid refund, wherein the school deducts the hard fees and returns any excess amount intended to cover incidentals in the COA.</p>

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<p>Reminder to OP - you’ll have to pay taxes on the portion of these grants that exceed tuition, so factor that into your budgeting.</p>