Wide Net Choices

Paying for College
21

<p>You need to sit with your daughter and use a bottoms up approach. You need to first and foremost come up with a couple of safety schools that meet the following criteria:</p>

<p>Student will have a good chance of being admitted through EA/Rolling admissions
They offer what your child wats to study
If they are among the only school that your daughter is admitted to, sh will be happy to attend
the school is a fiancially feasible option for your family.</p>

<p>This may even mean adding a couple of community colleges to the list where she can commute as there are no money trees in the back yard and there are no money fairies that are going to magically make the money appear. This wil give you a chance to perhaps save some money for the last 2 years.</p>

<p>This may be the hardest list to complie becaue it means telling your daughter straight-no chaser, how much your are willing to pay or borrow to send her to school. I understand how easily kids can get caught up in the “going away to college experience” and feel like they want to do college like they do on TV, but the reality is that the amjority of student s in the country commute to sschool becaue they go where their money can take them. It is going to hurt her even more to get accepted to a school only to have to turn it down because they money cannot work.</p>

22

<p>At JMU she could apply for scholarships and see what happens. <a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/scholarships/prospectstudents.shtml[/url]”>http://www.jmu.edu/scholarships/prospectstudents.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>She might like the environment more than VTech… smaller school… </p>

<p>If she has not visited, she should try to schedule visit once school is back in session: [James</a> Madison University - Visit Campus](<a href=“http://www.jmu.edu/admissions/visit/index.shtml]James”>Visit JMU - JMU)</p>

<p>Adding CC’s to the list (most have guaranteed articulation agreements with VA schools), and other safety schools (academic, financial, with her major, and that she would like to attend) to the list is the hardest part of the process. Sybbie719’s advice above is spot on.</p>

<p>:-)</p>

23

<p>*@mom2kids, oct will be her 3rd time taking SAT. they say don’t take more than 3. plus, she is applying EA to all her schools, Nov 1 and Nov 15. GA tech is Oct 15, yikes!!! *</p>

<p>“They” don’t say that anymore…especially when you’re not applying to ivy/elites. The rest of schools don’t care if you take the SAT 10 times…they just want the higher score. </p>

<p>forget about GT. It won’t be affordable. The school costs more than $40k per year OOS. You’d be lucky to get $15k in aid total…including loans.</p>

24

<p>*You need to sit with your daughter and use a bottoms up approach. You need to first and foremost come up with a couple of safety schools that meet the following criteria:</p>

<p>Student will have a good chance of being admitted through EA/Rolling admissions</p>

<p>They offer what your child wants to study</p>

<p>If they are among the only schools that your daughter is admitted to, she will be happy to attend the school is a fiancially feasible option for your family.</p>

<p>This may even mean adding a couple of community colleges to the list where she can commute as there are no money trees in the back yard and** there are no money fairies that are going to magically make the money appear…**
**
This may be the hardest list to compile because it means telling your daughter straight-no chaser, how much your are willing to pay or borrow to send her to school.** </p>

<p>* </p>

<p>Show your D these ^^^ words from Sybbie. She’s exactly right.</p>

<p>*
I understand how easily kids can get caught up in the “going away to college experience” and feel like they want to do college like they do on TV, but the reality is that the majority of students in the country commute to sschool because they go where their money can take them.</p>

<p>It is going to hurt her even more to get accepted to a school only to have to turn it down because they money cannot work.
*</p>

<p>Yes, the majority of kids in the US commute to their local state or CC because that’s what’s affordable. </p>

<p>Since your D attends a private school, she likely is going to hear a lot of lunch table talk about kids going away to this school or that school. That’s going to happen if many of the students are from rather affluent families. My kids went to Catholic K-12. I don’t think any of their HS grads went to a CC. A few commuted to the local state school, but most did go away to school…with parents paying…but again, the student body is rather affluent. </p>

<p>The hard truth is that going away to school is a luxury. Most families cannot afford to pay for tuition AND room and board. You’ve seen how hard it is to pay for your child’s private high school…when you think about adding room and board the costs can sometimes double. </p>

<p>Financial aid is NOT adequate in this country. There are a few schools that give great aid and meet need, but they’re the hardest to get accepted to (ivies/elites/topLACs). </p>

<p>The overwhelming number of schools expect FAMILIES to pay for most of their kids’ educations.</p>

25

<p>Giving the kids a budget for school selection during their Junior year is the one thing that worked for us. I had one high B student and another A plus student so with different matriculation expectations. But it was the same budget and they had the ability to make their own decisions based on their stats and money available. DS applied out of state and in state and once financial aid awards came he realized he could not afford out of state and is happy at UNC. DD cast a wide net at 100% need met schools and came up with several great options within budget. But she did have our flagship as an academic and financial safety. </p>

<p>Give her a budget and allow her to make some decisions. We were also clear that we would not co-sign loans.</p>

26

<p>@Bob. Thanks for your suggestions. Will research them tonight.</p>

<p>@sybbie719. Thank you. I will share your thoughts with her tonight.</p>

<p>@KMT, yes, I will keep pushing these schools. As a matter of fact, I will push a tour for the month of August. I think she needs to be on the campus. She is scared of VA Tech and scared there is not alot of diversity at JMU.</p>

<p>@mom2kids. thanks for your great info. I didn’t know about the “new” rule, LOL. During college admissions night they said to stop at 3. I have let her know, to study!! <em>gasp</em> during the summer to raise her score to more a desirable range. I have taken GA Tech off of the list.</p>

<p>@GTalum. Your B student, do you mind sharing how they did? You can PM too if you don’t want to share in public. I understand. </p>

<p>Thanks everyone.</p>

27

<p>Yes, Fordham does offer nice merit aid. The problem is that Fordham also costs a lot of money. I happen to think a $20K is a nice hunk of change, a great scholarship and anyone who gets such an award should be congratulated for a job well done. But off of a $60K tab, it’s still a problem if you are not able to pay the rest.</p>

<p>What is your EFC?</p>

28

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<p>Since Fordham is a toss up, lol. I will leave it off of the list. What I want to pay and my EFC will be totally different. I can pay $6,000. The max student loans of college debt I think is healthy is $20,000 - total, avg $5000/yr. Anything more than that. Then no way.</p>