A Rock and a Hard Place

Paying for College
1

<p>Alright, I’m currently a freshman engineering undergraduate that is attending Northwestern University. </p>

<p>Issue: I have had the pleasure of finding out today that my dead beat father will no longer contribute any funds towards my tuition costs (parents are very recently divorced). Northwestern ultimately factored his salary into my school-based award amount, even though he is technically a non-custodial parent by FAFSA’s terms (most private schools do this). This pretty much leaves me in a bind - the need-based reward given by NU is not enough now. Assuming that my father will pay the minimum amount enforced by the divorce agreement (which is entirely unlikely), I’m left with a 68.84k deficit at the end of four years.</p>

<p>Question: What are my options for covering this deficit? I’ve perused about some options, but I’m not entirely sure as of yet. I plan on going to the financial aid office this following week, but I am also posting this on CC in the hope that even more advice can be given.</p>

<p>Options: Here are some of the options I am considering - any feedback would be extremely helpful:</p>

<p>-ROTC Scholarship (I am definitely not of the active duty military mindset, even though I ultimately plan on working for some government military research command after graduation. This would probably be a last resort.)</p>

<p>-Co-op + Loans (I was planning on doing co-op anyway, but I’m not exactly sure how much I can expect to get from doing this. The amount I make from co-op would influence the amount I take in student loans. This is my real hope right now, but I don’t think it’s plausible.)</p>

<p>-Loans (68.84k in loans seems to be too unwieldy - so this probably won’t happen.)</p>

<p>-ASEE SMART Scholarship (Very promising considering my current career goals. The likelihood of getting this makes it severely unrealistic, however - even though I am, by all means, talented academically.)</p>

<p>-Matriculate somewhere else (Not going to happen. I went to NU for a reason.)</p>

<p>Is there anything that I’m missing?</p>

2

<p>Not to make light of your situation, DC, but you sure are an Engineer! You don’t know if your father will contribute to your education or how much you can make as a co-op, but you can calculate your debt at the end of 4 years to within $10! :)</p>

<p>The first thing I would do if I were you is to review my assumptions in coming up with that amount. Do you qualify for Work Study and did you take those numbers into consideration? How about Summer jobs? I’ve heard that if you can live at home while you co-op you can save some money, but otherwise it’s pretty much a wash. On the down side, don’t forget to consider tuition inflation when you estimate your costs for the next 3 years.</p>

<p>Once you get a number with and without your father’s contribution, compare them both to the numbers you get on this calculator: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Student Loan Advisor - Undergraduate Students](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/sloanadvisor.cgi]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/sloanadvisor.cgi). It says that a newly graduated engineer can make about 56K/yr and if they dedicate 15% of their income to paying their student debt they can pay off a debt of 57K in 10 years. At 70K you would be closer to 18%/yr which is rough but probably doable. I would also seriously consider a cheaper school (or ROTC, but only if I could honestly see myself in the armed forces.)</p>