I sure as hell don’t feel lucky with my stats, getting rejected from seven schools all of which were private and would have given me better financial aid than the ones I am left with now. The again they were sub 15% acceptance rate schools
@prezbucky Thank you I am definitely planning on working through summers, not sure if it’s better option to work or study though
In my experience, if the home is worth X, the mortgage and any other owed is Y, you can pull out part of that profit. But. If you take too much and selling value drops, you could be on the hook for more than the home’s value. And what youve often done is rewrite the mortgage term. So the ten years left, eg, to pay off is now reset back to 20. Different choices avail, but one needs to be cautious, not just opportunistic.
A home equity loan can be a little different, a loan cap based on that profit, but paying back now. Not sure any of us would know any regulations in HI.
Sigh…mom apparently has secret savings somewhere…don’t ask me…not much only around $30k…said something about borrowing money from my uncle since he doesn’t have kids to pass on inheritance to…
I couldn’t sleep until 5AM because of finances. This is a lot of stress for a seventeen year old who has to filed taxes for the first time this month and has no idea how money works (another reason why declaring independence isn’t an option lol)
I suspect once your parents do the real math, you won’t have any choice of school outside of HI unless you all (family) make an actual plan (gap year, regroup, apply). The present situation does not indicate past financial planning (otherwise there would be college savings) so basing a plan on some precarious and unlikely apparent fantasy of funding isn’t going to end well. The parents can barely afford room and board and a flight to a lower 48 school on even borrowed money for two kids (because that is probably close to 30K).
How old is your sole earning parent? How well funded is retirement? Is the mortgage completely paid off?
Funding college is like oxygen on the plane, put on your own mask before helping the kids. I expect your parents already know this.
And yes I’ll admit I’ve been drilled with the “you gotta go to a prestigious college to get a good job mindset”. And so has my mom. I can’t imagine going to a not top 50 school.
OP, read post 155 again closely. You really would be better off taking a gap year. You will most likely not enjoy your time at Rochester. What will happen if your parents cannot get enough loans to fund your studies or pay those loans on time? You will have to transfer to an affordable school without any merit. These are serious issues, sit down and think about the possibilities.
@Sybylla dad is 62. Putting off retirement until 70s (bless him)
OP, your stats are excellent; it sounds like you just applied to a bunch of lottery schools that reject the vast majority of those who apply. You can get an outstanding education without going to a prestigious, tippy-top school. What YOU do over your college years is going to impact your success much more than the school you attend will. My daughter, whose stats are a bit lower than yours, got full tuition plus an additional fellowship from the University of Alabama. Now, I know that probably isn’t prestigious enough for you or your mom, but she got a great education, has a good job waiting for her when she graduates next month, and has no debt. Fortunately she and we didn’t care about prestige. Some of the less prestigious schools have opportunities that will be available to a top-stats student such as yourself that you would not have at a more prestigious school, simply because the competition for them would be much greater. If you have to have prestige, get it at the grad school level, where it really counts.
And (I know this is hard for your age) how much is left on the mortgage?. 62 really should mean there is no mortgage.
University of Hawaii-Manoa has a late application deadline of May 1st. I strongly suggest that you and your sister apply there as backup, so you have a college that you can actually afford to attend. There is nothing wrong with the University of Hawaii. You can always go to graduate school at Berkeley or elsewhere, and in graduate school, it is possible for a student to take on more debt (though still not advisable, depending on what you are studying).
@sybylla we bought our house exactly six years ago. It costed 750,000 but we owe more than that because of interest from mortgage. My dad pays 4,000 or so on it every month.
Dad said he makes 11,000 per month and has 7000 worth of bills. Not including money that goes to non-regular expenses
Can the OP clarify…
Is it mom and step-dad that are saying that they’ll refinance the house? I would be very concerned about that.
^
Regarding #161: It’s because you had no low reaches, matches, or safeties.
And applying to only 7 colleges was risky too, kids with reach-heavy lists often apply to 12-15 simply because they can’t count on any of their reaches and still need safeties and matches. I realize applying is costly but you cut on the number of reaches, once you’re done with your safety and match applications (some of them EA and rolling to hear back early.)
BTW I agree that with your stats, UH* is a bit of a waste if you can attend another university. For engineering, UAH would be better, the NACAC list would probably offer better choices, and you’d have more choices if you took a gap year. Also, applying to only 7 schools with sub-15% acceptance rates is…a surefire way to get shut out. Anything below 20% is to be considered “reach for everyone”. For your stats, reasonable reaches would have had acceptance rates in the 20-25% range, matches 25-40%, and safeties above 40%. You’d have needed 2 safeties (that you like and can afford, hence, selected after running NPC’s), 3-5 matches, and then would come the reaches.
No, for an MBA you don’t need research 
! So, that’s good. Your sister will, though (for stats). For an MBA, you’ll need 2-5 years of meaningful work experience.
Did you list the 7 colleges anywhere on this thread?
Did you only apply to national universities in the top 20?
- UH classes are targeted for students in the 18-24 ACT range, and the university is serviceable for kids with scores in the 25-29 range but isn't really equiped for the needs of kids who score 30+. There are very few of them (95% students score in the 15-29 range). If that's the only place a kid with a 30+ can go get a degree, well, that's it, but Hawaian high-stats kids are relatively rare and therefore are prized provided they put together a good application list.
How I wish this conversation were taking place 4 months ago.
Oh I should’ve mentioned earlier
I got rejected from Harvard, Columbia, UPenn, Stanford (deferred then rejected) Tufts, USC, John’s Hopkins. So essentially, I got accepted to my top three most expensive options.
Mother griped about me not applying to more Ivy leagues haha. Dad was complaining about cost of application fees for sister and I. Ten schools times two kids equals $2k in application fees including sending tests scores
And yes, high stat students from Hawaii are rare (public ed sucks here), most high stat students come from the three big private schools (one of which is obama’s alma mater fun fact haha). Most Ivy League and their equals accept from these schools. They are feeders from Hawaii for the top schools. Ex. Good friend of mine goes to punahou (the Obama ala mater), got accepted to Princeton after being rejected from five ivies, Stanford, and John’s Hopkins.
Yes I do really think UH’s classes would not be fit for me…
IMO, a huge part of being successful is flexibility of mind. If you have new information that contradicts a previously held belief, then you should update this belief. Being able to find new solutions to whatever gets thrown your way is a skill. There isn’t a single way to do anything, and focusing on only one option is basically choosing to be a ponderous thinker.
@lookingforward: Actually some of this conversation did happen in OP’s other thread where they were warned about applying to too many reaches, especially UCB that was and is unaffordable.
OP neglected to take this advice.
What??
If your family took out a mortgage and it included both principal and interest in the payment, your balance would be LESS than the amount originally taken out.
If your parents have over $750,000 in mortgage loan debt…I honestly can’t see how they would even entertain the idea of taking out additional loans.
Borrowing money from an uncle is still borrowing that has to be paid back (and borrowing from a family member has its own pitfalls). jus because he doesn’t have kids s no reason to expect him to finance your education.
UR is $39K per year per your own post. Your parents can pay $15K per year (say $22K with your mom’s extra money) without borrowing. That leaves you $17K per year short (and you travel costs are going to be higher even if you just go home for winter break). So say $18K per year.
Not sure if you have included textbooks. Also, is your family health insurance coverage in another state sufficient? If not, colleges require you to purchase their policies (cost varies, but for argument say $2K per year). And the cost goes up every year, too.
So you are still somewhere between $18-20K per year short (and rising every year) for your least expensive option. And your sister is still pushing for a more expensive option.
And you want an MBA – not a funded type of grad school.
I will say – we see kids all the time that want to go to college OOS but can’t afford it. You fall in that camp, honestly. I’m sorry you are losing sleep over it, and that your parents didn’t step in on this earlier to clarify the financial picture.
I’d step back and look at UHawaii again.