So, you predict it’ll lean towards the 2023 waitlist numbers rather than the 2022?
I have no idea. I don’t work at this university. I was just giving you a possible idea why the numbers were so low two years ago.
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My suggestion - get on the WL (you have) and move on (emotionally). Forget the school.
This way, you don’t give yourself false hope - when you should be making plans at an alternative.
Best case, you’ve moved past, have a roomie at the next, etc. and are so in love with the opportunity in front of you - that even if a WL comes, as often likely happens, you don’t care.
Or if it comes, you can revisit. But then you’ll have to decide, do I want to choose a college where I can’t (initially) study what I want vs. one where I can.
But after you do the form, which you’ve done, put it out of mind. The school has already moved on from you - unless they realize they are short of their goals.
If you hang on the hope for it, you’ll not be giving the proper attention and desire to the school you name as your top choice to attend.
The other thing - lots of cities have lots of companies - and those companies in Seattle, if you decide to apply to work at them one day, hire from UMN and U of Arizona and others too - they are not hiring solely (or likely even mostly) from UW or other area schools. In other words, if you decide to spend your life in Seattle, like the rest of everyone who has moved there in the last 30 years, you’ll have that chance too - no matter where you go to school.
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This is a bit of a different question than usual, but has anyone here successfully paid off a large amount of student loans?? I’m not sure how to feel about them cause I’ve heard a lot of horror stories, but I’ve also heard that with good planning, it’s doable. I’m not too familiar with the whole student loans process.
Student loans up to about 27k (total) can be repaid over 10 years on a college graduate salary. More than that is not wise and can be a real burden, preventing students from taking their dream job after they’ve made it through the whole process& got an offer or even hinder their being hired (because high debt is a liability that makes people at higher risk for bribery, corruption, etc.)
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Well I might be in a tough situation then lol 
If I just re-did the math correctly in my head, then 27k is the maximum amount of US government sponsored debt at a reduced interest rate that a US citizen (or permanent resident) can get when studying in the US. For a student with a pragmatic major that is likely to lead to a good job with just a bachelor’s degree (eg, engineering, computer science, math, or nursing), to me this is about as much debt as would be advisable. I still would not take this on if there was a good alternative without debt. More debt than this may require a parent to cosign, which I would not do unless the parent is willing and able to pay it off themselves.
Of course larger amounts of debt are sometimes needed for some graduate degrees, with an MD being perhaps the most obvious (but probably not relevant to this thread).
I may have forgotten some of this thread, but I thought that @ravk06 was not a US citizen. This might make taking on debt at a US university more risky.
Debt can significantly reduce the options that are available after graduation. For example, one daughter after graduating with her bachelor’s degree took on a “dream job” that she absolutely loved, and that was very relevant for her desired path forward, but that did not pay very well. She could not have taken it if she had graduated with debt.
I do not know how an international student can find someone in the US to loan them money for their education. This seems unlikely to happen.
I used to know someone who got half way through their bachelor’s degree, then discovered that they were not able to borrow enough money to finish. This can be very unfortunate. I would not start any university program unless confident that somehow the money can be found to complete the program.
Many decades ago I did borrow some money (from my parents) to get a master’s degree. However, this was a very moderate amount and repayment did seem realistic (and it all worked out well). There are some cases where borrowing for an education makes sense. I have compared taking on debt to attend university as sort of like using a chainsaw – sometimes it is appropriate and pragmatic, but be careful and make sure that you know what you are doing.
Are you still looking at an acceptance to UBC? Is it affordable? Are any other options affordable without taking on debt?
I still think that UBC is quite a good university. Some of my relatives graduated from there and they generally speak well of the school.
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Which universities wiuld require debt? How much per year?
Any that wouldn’t ?
To clarify, yes, I am a U.S. citizen. My processed FAFSA SAI was 0 (whatever that means). I’m only thinking about this now since there seemed to be a bit of confusion between my parents and me about tuition. It looks like they are not planning to commit as much towards my education as initially thought (or, in my opinion, as much as they should, but that’s a whole other discussion), and the rest of my family seems a little flakey even though they easily could afford it.
Well, the problem is that I don’t know. Most of my family has avoided that conversation and keeps putting it off, making me very sceptical. However I’m anticipating almost every school would require me to take out some degree of loans.
This can be tough. It is their money.
Don’t forget about other expenses such as room and board, books, laptop, and travel. Health insurance might or might not also be needed, depending largely on whether you are otherwise covered in the location where you attend university.
Do you have acceptances that are affordable based on the amount that your parents have already agreed to spend, either with no debt, or with only the $27,000 total debt over a full four years?
It might be better to have this problem now than to have it when you are two years into a four year program.
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No, I don’t have any options where that is the case with solely my parents’ support alone, and I hate to say it, but not even close. I’ve been anticipating the majority of support from my grandparents since I’m their only grandchild on both sides. I’ll just have to wait and see I guess.
That changes things… if your SAI really is zero your budget is full Pell + 5.5k loan.
(Anything else comes from your parents’income&savings.)
You should have excellent FA at Holy Cross and Oberlin (the big difference is one being more conservative and one being more liberal - totally different student bodies but both topnotch academically.) They meet full need so your FA should make education there nearly free including Room&Board.
What did your grandparents offer?
Note that you by yourself can only borrow the 5.5k in federal loans.
It’s not though. My SAI really is 0. On my FAFSA form summary it says 0 and that I’m eligible for max Pell grants etc. Holy cross gave a 20k a year scholarship and Oberlin is giving 33k. My COA at both of those schools is still 55k+ a year. What do I do? My parents won’t even be able to pay for 1 year…
Some folks on CC are more anti-loan than I am, but here’s my perspective: borrow as little as you can, but some is okay. I wouldn’t be concerned with anyone taking the $27K max of federal subsidized loans for undergrad - they set the limit relatively low so it should be manageable. I also wouldn’t be overly concerned about borrowing for grad school (if/when you get there), with the amount depending on likely outcomes. I took the then-max of subsidized loans for undergrad, plus more for grad school. My total borrowed was roughly equal to my first year’s salary - that seems reasonable to me. But don’t try to borrow $300K to get a job that pays $60K…
Holy Cross and Oberlin require the CSS Profile. Don’t they? Were those forms submitted to the schools?
Are your parents divorced? Do they own a business? Do you own real estate other than your primary residence.
Do you have significant home equity in your primary residence? I’m not sure how HC and Oberlin treat home equity.
What about significant assets? It’s possible your family income was low enough that assets didn’t need to be reported on the FAFSA (@kelsmom is that still a thing). But the Profile asks for everything.
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Yes we submitted the CSS for both schools. My parents are not divorced, and we don’t own any businesses or real estate. My parents still owe a lot of money on our mortgage too.
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In fact we still have a double mortgage from the last home we owned before we moved.
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(Edited bc I saw your reply posted as I was writing)
Did you fill out the CSS right? A zero in the wrong coluln could have made the difference.
It may be because of the difference between FAFSA and CSS but still 0 v 55k seems odd and more likely the result of a mistake.
You might want to email the FA dept at HC and Oberlin, like this:
Dear Mr/Ms…,
My name is … … and I was admitted to (HC) on March xx.
My SAI is 0 (zero), I qualify for full Pell, and the NPC when I ran it for (HC) indicated I would have to pay $… I received a letter with a $…,000 scholarship, for which I am immensely grateful. However it makes the college completely out of reach financially for my family and I’m wondering if perhaps I made a mistake when completing the financial aid forms? Or is this award not the full award?
Thank you for helping me understand the situation.
Sincerely,
… …
(Join your FAFSA summary).
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Yes, the CSS was filled out correctly (at least to my knowledge). We put down the correct AGI on it. I don’t even know what that is, but our AGI was around 26k (sounds low) on the 1040 or something like that, and I put that on the CSS. All other values were taken straight from the 1040, so unless those values were wrong, then I’m not sure.