I am having a lot of trouble deciding which college I should attend. The two colleges at the top of my list are Ohio State and the University of Toledo. I have been accepted to both colleges and have received financial aid letters from each. Ohio State offered me $23,195 with subsidized and unsubsidized loans and work-study. The University of Toledo offered me $22,996 with subsidized and unsubsidized loans and no work-study. The reason I am not immediately jumping for Ohio State is because I have taken close to 60 credit hours of college courses at University Toledo as a College Credit Plus student. All of these courses I took were online. I asked Ohio State if these credits would transfer and apply to my degree in business and it seems that a good amount of them do. Furthermore, I was accepted at OSU as a pre-business student not being accepted directly into the program.
Some other things I am considering are minimal, like bringing my car on campus. OSU does not allow this for first-year students. I honestly do not think I would need my car which would save me money on insurance. I do plan on working on campus. I have applied for some outside scholarships, but will not know what I get from those until late May. The main deciding point in my college search was whether or not most of my credits will transfer, will I be able to afford the college, and will I have the tools necessary to sustain a good internship and successful job in the future. I do want to take out as little student loans as possible. I have been going back and forth on this and would strongly appreciate an outside opinion. This is the biggest decision I have ever made in my life and could definitely use some help.
Keep in mind you do not get the work study money up front. You need to earn it by applying for a work study position on campus and will receive it for hours worked, just like any other on campus jobs that isn’t part of a work study award. On the other hand, tOSU has lots of on campus student employment opportunities, so your earning potential isn’t necessarily limited to the work study amount if you obtain a non-work study job - or your work study boss has non-work study funds to pay you with.
Have you estimated your net price (ignore work study & loans) for each option?
tOSU provides each student with an ipad and has been pushing professors to lower textbook fees. In general your miscellaneous expenses will be the same (deodorant, night out for pizza, etc.) So when we compared we looked at direct costs - tuition, fees, room, board (the items that are billed by the university each semester).
Do you have health insurance? If not, you’ll need to add the student plan. If you do make sure you follow the procedure to be exempt from that charge.
The amount of scholarship doesn’t matter. What matters is your cost after that scholarship. As for loans, unless you have a co-signer, you can’t borrow more than the standard student loans. You have 60 credits. Depending on how many are accepted for transfer, you might have sophomore or junior standing which can mean that you are allowed to finish faster, and certainly would mean that you would be able to have your loan limit adjusted to the level for students with that specific standing. So take all of that into consideration too.
My out of pocket costs including work-Study and Subsidized/Unsubsidized loans are $2,459 for OSU and $4,699 for University of Toledo.
My out of pocket not including work-study is $5,459 for OSU and $4,699 for University of Toledo.
My out of pocket without loans or work-study is $10,959 for OSU and $11,199 for University of Toledo.
The estimated cost of attendance includes tuition, room/board, books/supplies, transportation expenses, and miscellaneous. My parents do not intend on paying for anything except maybe some miscellaneous expenses. If I attend University of Toledo I plan on bringing my car on campus. I accounted for this in my calculations above. If I do not include the estimated expenses and just include tuition and room/board the cost to attend OSU is $21,574 and $22,434 for University of Toledo. I will note that all of these calculations are per year expenses. Also, I did not include the scholarships I applied for and am waiting for a response on.
“The reason I am not immediately jumping for Ohio State is because I have taken close to 60 credit hours of college courses at University Toledo as a College Credit Plus student. All of these courses I took were online. I asked Ohio State if these credits would transfer and apply to my degree in business and it seems that a good amount of them do. Furthermore, I was accepted at OSU as a pre-business student not being accepted directly into the program.”
I don’t understand this, if most of them will transfer why aren’t you immediately jumping for OSU? Are you worried that this will, in fact, not be the case?
BTW congrats on doing such a good look at the finances, including car insurance! Congrats too on your scholarships!
OSU is very well known for business and just well regarded overall. You’d have so many professional development opportunities there and the alumni network is very strong. I’m not seeing a strong reason for you to choose Toledo since the costs are similar. Is something pulling you towards Toledo that you aren’t mentioning here? I think many kids would love to be in your position where OSU is coming up a bit cheaper than their other state schools…BUT… you should make the right decision for you.
I am not clear on the cost to attend differences- you laid out a lot of numbers that seem amazingly similar between the 2 schools. I don’t know anything about Toledo but I think that’s the issue- Ohio State’s name will take you further and is worth paying a little extra for in the long run. Plus it’s an exciting campus with amazing school spirit. yes, it is big, but it’s not like Toledo is a small school.
My ultimate goal would be to take out as little loans as possible. I definitely do not want to take out any loans other than the subsidized and unsubsidized ones. Do you think I will be able to get by without taking any loans out besides the ones offered to me? OSU offered me $5,500 in loans and University of Toledo $6,500.
I believe that UToledo may have offered you $6,500 because your earned credits are already in their system making sophomore amounts at time of processing available, but tOSU only offered the amount available to freshman. These are federal student loans - not the universities. Freshman get $5,500/yr (portions may or may not be subsidized) Sophomores $6,500, Juniors/Seniors $7,500. Once tOSU transfers your credits into their system you may be offered more in loans. My S did his College Credit Plus program with tOSU, so his initial loan offer from them was for $7,500 even though he was an incoming freshman for scholarships.
The maximum you can borrow is $31,000—No more than $23,000 of this amount may be in subsidized loans over the entire time you are pursuing an undergraduate degree.
Only borrow what you need. You do not have to take the entire amount offered.
@kelsmom might be able to offer you better guidance on loans.
You can reach out to the financial aid offices directly, too. They are there to help you.