Whether that is "right" depends on your family's financial situation. According to RPI tuition, fees, room & board, books and spending money will be approx. $52K in '09-'10. On top of that freshman must buy the campus computer package at around $2K. So total first year costs will be $54K. If you got a total of $27.5K with $9.5K in loans it will look like this:
$18K in grants, campus job, etc. that doesn't need to be paid back.
$9.5K in student loans (probably some subsidized and some not)
$26.5K from the family income, assets or additional loans
Does the rest come from me? It doesn't say I need anything else..
no other things are mentioned
I did the math and this is what i found out
Total tuition $54,160.00
financial aid $27500.00
_________________________
Total left $24,660
Is this what the parents owe?
I have twins going to college this year and we only make 80,000 a year.
We cant afford this at all....
Am I doing this correct?
cyberbo60 - It's going to be a tough choice. We're in a similar boat. My daughter was offered full tuition scholarships at two schools.......but we know that RPI is a much better school and she wants to be challenged.
I hate to take on massive debt but....we're thinking we might. I also thought maybe we'd withdraw from our IRA. I think, but I'm not sure, that you with can withdraw $10 per year without paying the 10% additional tax...you do, however, need to pay ordinary income tax.
unfortunately this is going to be the tough decision throughout the country for student's of all levels; go to a safe school with money or go to a tough, challenging school and have to pay a lot of money and in many cases go into debt; the bad news on top of this is that i am not sure that anyone can give great advice, but at the end of the day, it is a decision that you and your parents must make together.
Cyberbo, you didn't get any federal grants at all? I didnt get my financial aid package yet, (and I did apply for CSS profile and FAFSA early) but my parents makes less then the total tuition itself. 49,000 a year; so I'm kind of worried cuz if I don't get a good financial aid package, I'm not sure what I should do. Go into large amounts of debt or go to my state college...
If your son is serious about wanting to attend you can contact the financial aid office and ask them to review your package. They were responsive to us last year when we did this. It is very common. Whether they make an adjustment and call it "housing" or "merit" as long as it reduces the total that's what matters. Good luck.
