College financial planner advised do not apply ED. Thoughts?

Parentof2014grad
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 17:42:57 +0000

@Empireapple I’ll second what @noname87 has said and add a few comments.
Be thankful you are having this very very common realization/disappointment now instead of a year from now. You have plenty of time to grieve what you can’t do regarding college, and move on to the many great things you can!
We were also in a similar situation. Smart hard working kid who, in our eyes, deserved everything; but our idea of what we could pay didn’t match up with the realities of how college costs and funding work in our situation. So we did a lot of research here on CC and elsewhere. Both our kids are now at private universities in other states halfway across the country with large merit scholarships. We are paying the same as if they had gone to our local state universities with the merit scholarships they were offered there.
As far as opportunities:
Kid 1 is at a research university ranked around 100 USNews. She will graduate in four years with a bachelors and a masters. She has had three great internships so far (is a junior now), and it’s looking like she will graduate with great opportunities in her field. She knows her professors, lives in a big city, has friends from all over the world (literally), enjoys small classes, has opportunities galore–more than she can take advantage of, even a beautiful view from her dorm room window. And no loans!
Kid 2 is a freshman at an LAC ranked around 100 USNews. She has had great (I mean I’ve been really impressed) advising so far, great challenging classes, knows her professors, didn’t have trouble getting the classes she wants at registration for second semester, has realized she can graduate with a major and minor in three years, and/or study abroad a semester or even two, or double major, no problem. She has friends, clubs, a cute college town. No loans!
And no second mortgages for us. Yay!
We can’t pay full price for a big name school, but we certainly have found we can afford a great college experience. We know many kids who have had great experiences at our local state universities as well. You can still give your kid options, and great ones.