<p>
If you get finaid at some universities, they make a budget for the semester - which INCLUDES the cost of flights, food, etc., and your finaid covers that. My DD spent 5 months in Chile and it cost us exactly the same amount it would have cost at the home school. For students who don’t have financial need, it can actually save money, since students just pay the study-abroad fees directly (and some of the abroad programs are cheaper than home universities.)</p>
<p>That was wonderful anxiousmom. Was that a private or public school?
I know a friends son went to Greece at UConn and she said it didn’t cost him anymore, but that was a few years ago.
When my son first went to Drew, they didn’t let him use his award, but by junior year, they changed that practice. By that time, he wasn’t interested, too busy with his thesis and other things. We didn’t check on that when he first went, it wouldn’t have changed his mind, but it taught me to read all the fine print.</p>
<p>Financial safety and academic safety are usually related and that’s where I could see regret coming from.</p>
<p>My daughter is happy at her financial and academic safety and is giddy over the fact that (barring disaster) she will graduate debt-free. She can fly home when she feels the urge, and in general do whatever she wants as far as major and study and/or travel abroad. It took so much pressure off of her to not worry about whether she would get renwable scholarships or need to work summers. And though she went to what was an academic safety for admissions purposes, her curriculum is challenging.</p>
<p>If your student thinks he/she might want to do a semester overseas, read the study abroad pages on the schools’ websites. Rules vary!!</p>
<p>S1 maintains FA and scholarship if he attends a study abroad program sponsored by his school. However, he is looking at a highly regarded program that’s not sponsored. Trouble? Not necessarily. The program is a lot cheaper than the school-sponsored options. His major department has ultimate control over whether they will grant credit for the program; he has already talked to them and they confirm they WILL accept the credits. We will save about 35% for the quarter, including taking plane fares and add’l expenses into account. Potential drawback: we will get less FA for the quarter S1 is gone (which is also S2’s first semester in college) since his LOA and expenses are considered discretionary. However, we figure the cost savings on S1’s program will offset the lost FA. </p>
<p>Be warned, though – many schools will not grant credit for study abroad unless you pay tuition through the home school.</p>
<p>Ah, the stomach twisting time of October to April 1! In truth, you can’t compare prices until April 1 when your kid gets the acceptance notices and the “packages” that list scholarships, grants, loans etc. You really can’t. Fin Aid officers play their cards very close to their chest during the winter. It’s not until March/April that they know how bad they do or do not want your particular kid. </p>
<p>There’s also that overbid aspect. When I take a dog to the vet, his staff always gives me an estimate that includes everything. So, when I dropped the dog off for a tooth extraction, I signed a paper saying that I would be responsible for up to $1500. Ouch! But then when I pick up the pooch in the afternoon and it was just $395 . . . well I feel like I got off lucky! I can’t pay fast enough! Colleges do some of this too!</p>
<p>So, the thing to do right now is to encourage kiddo to do the best possible application to an assortment of schools. Meanwhile, master the FAFSA and PROFILE. The first year I did the FAFSA, I had to amend it eight times. It’s a learning experience for sure. Get your FAFSA pin numbers now and start gathering numbers. Get the FAFSA filed early in January (use estimated numbers if you have too but don’t wait til April to do the Fafsa!).<br>
Then wait, wait and wait. Once the admissions offers come in, THEN you can talk about whether to go to the financial safety.
Good luck!</p>
<p>
It’s just that a safety is used when the desired outcome isn’t available. When you’re admitted to a school you like better but can’t afford, as a “last resort” you must attend the less expensive school (or not attend at all). I think it’s hard to regret a decision that was made for you; you just have to (sadly) live with it.</p>
<p>^Well, some students fall in love with a school that is actually an academic match or safety for them–or in some lucky cases, a financial safety. RobD’s D has UAlabama as her first choice, IIRC, though she also has reasonable stats for top schools.</p>
<p>Well, I regret that my S DIDN’T go to his financial safety, if that helps.</p>
<p>He’s a senior now. He’s/we’re happy with his school and the education he’s receiving, but we have six younger kids and it has been a huge sacrifice for us.</p>
<p>As someone who ended up at the ultimate financial safety at community college for two years, I recognize two really important points here. (among many others)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Having more than one financial safety, if possible, is crucial. For me my ONLY option was the one community college, even though there were others in the area. Not having a choice made it a very bitter pill to swallow, I was so disappointed. It would have been much easier if I at least could have picked the school so I didn’t feel trapped someplace that wasn’t even where I really wanted to be.</p></li>
<li><p>"Financial safety and academic safety are usually related and that’s where I could see regret coming from. "</p></li>
</ol>
<p>That is crucial, too. When I transferred my first choice/match school was a top 20 university (albeit my state flagship), and I could not come up with any financial safeties that weren’t tier 3 and 4 schools. While I did like some of those schools I was deeply concerned that the academics would be too far below my level for me to be happy. I could not have handled that. Safety schools still have to be a “fit!”</p>
<p>My financial safety was my academic safety, of course…and I do “regret” it, almost daily.</p>
<p>But hey, I’m not the one paying for it - so can I really “regret” a decision that wasn’t mine to make? </p>
<p>I am in a much better situation than most, graduating debt free and not having to worry about finances at all, so no matter what I should feel very lucky…</p>
<p>I guess if I regret anything, I regret not thinking more broadly about other schools that may have been affordable but more academically challenging. Some women’s colleges come to mind (I didn’t apply to any and I do regret that deeply now)…I probably could have gotten a better scholarship than say, Yale would have given me (haha), but also a more challenging education/better environmental fit than a state school.</p>
<p>Sometimes the grass looks greener but isn’t. My daughter’s know a young woman that went to a women’s college because basically, it was a good school, and it gave her a great FA package. She did not have a problem with the academics but the atmosphere and just being around women all the time just wasn’t for her. She ended up transfering to her large state university where she had a few more options with majors and found a nice group of friends and a challenging environment. She had to pay a little more, but not too much. She said to them she just didn’t fit and making it fit because on paper it was a better deal, wasn’t fair to her or the school.
Maybe it would have been a better fit for you, but graduating debt free is a BIG deal today and you will never regret that.</p>
<p>I am not a believer of graduating debt free is the only way to go. Undergraduate degree will stay with you for the rest of your life. It could potentially open many doors for some people. It is not a car or shirt you could be changed every few years. I would go for the best education I could afford because it would be the best investment anyone could make.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree with that - somewhat - as long as the debt is small. I don’t like this mentality of “I want to go where I want to go, and therefore I’ll borrow as much as it takes to go there.” (Which is what I often hear on CC and elsewhere.) </p>
<p>Some people are borrowing $15k or more per year for undergrad. That total $60k debt will result in a monthly payment of about $700 per month for 10 LONG years. That’s about $8500 a year out of person’s annual income.</p>
<p>Large students loans for undergrad can result in 10 long years of absolutely crushing debt during the years (ages 23-33) when a person is supposed to be “moving on” with his life - buying a home, marrying, starting a family. Simply having such debt might limit one’s ability to even marry; many people would not want to “marry into” that kind of debt. And, imagine, if a person marries someone with similar school debt? </p>
<p>A married couple, who has combined monthly student loans of $1500 or more, is going to have some serious money issues unless they are making a huge amount of money (unlikely for people under the age of 33). </p>
<p>Big student loans for med school and similar can be somewhat justifiable because of the earning potential to repay such loans. Although my sister who borrowed $60k for grad school (she’s a therapist), will say that repayment was crushing because it took awhile for her to really be making the “big bucks”.</p>
<p>However, most newly minted BS grads aren’t pulling in the salaries to repay big student loans while also paying for his own living expenses. Many parents who are co-signing for such loans may find themselves with 20-somethings living with them for a long time, because those kids can’t afford to pay rent and pay their student loans.</p>
<p>Agreed with both oldfort and mom2collegekids: Debt of >10k a year (per person, e.g. student/parent) is really unmanageable post-college, especially for the student. But I also believe firmly in the importance of “fit,” and a state flagship just isn’t a “fit” for many students. Sure, honors makes a school smaller, but the community is not truly the same “feel”–you’re still going to sporting events with tens of thousands of students, and when you walk across campus, you’re not going to recognize 3/4 of the faces. Honors, IMO, is best for the student who wants some small classes, but also some larger lecture classes; who wants contact with professors, but also the broader social environment of a large school.</p>
<p>Hmmm. Just because your number one choice is affordable and inexpensive, doesn’t (for me) make it a safety (although I can see that can be thought of this way). Maybe “safety” is an attitude issue.</p>
<p>I’ve given this issue a great deal of thought and have come to the conclusion that it is student/family specific. I’m a parent, and yes, I did regret going to my financial safety. In hindsight the compromises I made in going to a school that didn’t “fit” probably weren’t worth the dollars I saved. At least that is how I feel now, looking back. At the time, the idea of avoiding additional loans was my primary concern. I was paying my own way, back in the dark ages when that was possible.</p>
<p>I have 2 D’s, one of whom is very academically oriented. For her, the best possible school we can afford, where she can have a strong academic peer group, is of utmost importance. She is more than willing to take on whatever loans it takes to make that happen. And, she is the kind of kid who will be very frugal and pay back those loans quickly. </p>
<p>My other D. is less interested in taking out loans. She is more price conscious because she sees the advantages of starting out her adult life loan free. Partly because she will want money to spend on a car, or a nicer apartment, or new clothes. She will want to start her real “grown up” life faster. For her, the financial safety will be the obvious choice, not a sacrifice. </p>
<p>So, two kids, same family, two very different outlooks. And the beauty of it is that both kids are completely right. They are making the decisions that will work for them.</p>
<p>I have never understood why there is a compromise with a financial safety. A financial safety is a school that is affordable, that the student will fit and thrive at academically and emotionally. I have never seen the finances and academics as being mutually exclusive. Perhaps it’s because I’m in the midwest where there are excellent colleges that are significantly less expensive than in the east coast. The same can be said for the south and to a certain extent the west. The only compromise might be if you wanted to keep your child close to home and you are in the expensive NE corridor, but it’s not a huge price to pay to send your student out of the region to a quality school if the child is dead set on being around a small number of high achievers in a smaller environment. The concept that the cost associates to quality can be tenuous especially if you take it to the level of the academic major.</p>
<p>D1 was offered a full ride at a second tier LAC. As we weren’t eligible for FA a full merit scholarship was very attractive. The reason they offered the scholarship was to attract students like D1 who normally wouldn’t have attend. For D1 to go to the financial safety, it would have meant to settle for academic safety.</p>
<p>Agree about trying to avoid debt if at all possible. My husband is a CPA and he has lots of clients who are struggling under large amounts of college debt. These are people well into their 30’s - not just right out of school. Even his physician clients often struggle. He has one client right now where both spouses are physicians and both had loans for medical school and they are barely scraping by. This is why my husband is adamant that son will not graduate with debt. It can set the stage for years of a reduced standard of living. </p>
<p>There is a difference, IMHO, in having to acquire debt to even go to college vs. acquiring debt to go to a very expensive school, especially when there are other good alternatives.</p>
<p>In an perfect world, every child would go to their ‘perfect fit’ school without having to take on debt or subjecting their families to financial hardship. But that’s not reality. IMHO, the next best alternative is to find a financial safety and make it work. Large state universities have a myriad of opportunities to find the right group of friends and the right academic fit. A lot of it comes down to student motivation. We have also been concerned that if son went to State U, where the average GPA and SAT scores are way below his, that he wouldn’t be challenged or fit in but we have had several really good counselors (both private and at the school) point out that a motivated student can get a stellar education at most any school if they put a little effort into it. Maybe it won’t be handed to them on a silver platter but it’s still available. Many professors will take a motivated student under their wings and make sure they are challenged. Most State U have honors programs which allow a small school experience within a large university setting.</p>
<p>Although I’m all for education first, career development second, at the end of the day, all adults need to be able to support themselves throughout their adult life. In reality, this is what most people go to college for - the ability to have a career that will lead to a decent standard of living. In some respects, a student taking on a lot of unnecessary debt may be, at least temporarily, defeating that purpose.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the whole ‘debt as a way of life’ has become the norm for many Americans. It is shocking how many people (both college educated and not) depend on credit cards and loans to cover what they think they ‘deserve’ to have, even when they don’t have the cash to buy it. Sure, they can make the payments (today) but it becomes a very slippery slope when you get into an economy where people are being laid-off left and right. Those who have little debt and high savings can weather the storm. Those who leveraged themselves to the limit are now struggling mightily. </p>
<p>Since my husband sees this kind of thing daily with his clients, he has been adamant through out our marriage that we don’t take on debt (outside of our house). After the economical crisis of the last 18 months, I really appreciate the wisdom in this.</p>