Figuring out how to pay for college for a HS junior

Paying for College
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<p>Mom2collegekids, what I was thinking is this: Say it will cost 13K for classes and books (that’s just an arbitrary number). Since our income is over 70K, we’ll be expected to pay all of that. I was thinking, then, if junior gets, say, 5K worth of Regents Scholarships, then we’d be on the hook for 8K. Then, if junior got this 6K scholarship through dad’s work, we’d be on the hook for 2K. So, is that correct thinking? That’s why UCSD looks doable if junior can get merit and outside scholarships.</p>

<p>For a UC to cost you about $14k per year (fees (aka tuition) and books), your child would have to commute (which would mean incurring parking and transportation costs as well) and some eating on campus. </p>

<p>Right now, it’s hard to estimate how much a UC is going to cost since the state keeps playing games with fees (aka tuition). </p>

<p>can your child commute to UCSD? If so, then yes it might be doable…if ALSO those scholarships are for all 4 years…and not just for one year only. I don’t know if Regents for UCSD is that high or not. Some UCs Regents are only for $1k each year. Will your H’s job give your son $6k scholarships every year? That’s a lot. My H’s company will only give our kids $2500 per year. </p>

<p>However, if your child cannot commute to a UC, then you need to add another $12k+ for room and board.</p>

<p>Your child will probably need another $2500+ for personal expenses and transportation.</p>

<p>* We will definitely keep receipts for our home repairs as well as the medical bills. *</p>

<p>Do you have really high medical bills that aren’t covered by insurance? I don’t think schools care about normal repairs for homes.</p>

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<p>My recommendations for schools with very generous financial aid:</p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke (Your son has a chance, and should apply to as many of these as fit his other criteria) These schools will count everything in their cost of attendance-books, 3 or 4 flights home to CA, and personal expenses, so the amount of aid really covers everything except your EFC.</p>

<p>Excellent merit aid/NMF scholarships: Alabama, Texas A and M, Arizona, Oklahoma.
USC has a combination of National Merit half-tuition scholarships, plus fairly generous financial aid</p>

<p>UCs that give 5-6,000 for Regents Scholarship in addition to financial aid: UCLA, UCSB, Davis. Berkeley gives only 1,000 if there isn’t financial need.</p>

<p>I don’t know what your son’s intended major is but UCSD has excellent merit aid for engineering students, called the Jacobs schools scholars program. I believe 40 incoming freshman each year are given full scholarships. This money is donated by Qualcomm founder and former UCSD professor Irwin Jacobs.</p>

<p>If you need to cover just 5,000 per year, your son could get a Stafford loan.</p>

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<p>Ugh. You’re right, mom2collegekids, dad’s work scholarship is a one time deal. I keep forgetting about that. Are most scholarships a one time, one year deal or is there a wide variance?</p>

<p>We need to look into UCSD’s regents scholarships. Yes, junior can commute and live at home if he went to UCSD. It’s within 1/2 hour of us.</p>

<p>50isthenew40, do the Ivies really consider travel and personal expenses in their costs? Wow! We need to take a deeper look at these schools and see what they are all about. Junior is very excited to visit Princeton and Penn. I could do without cold weather but I am a weather wimp and he is not.</p>

<p>So far, junior has not been interested in engineering but has stuck with physics, math, statistics, and music but a friend of ours, a structural engineer, keeps trying to interest him in it, so it just might be something he’d like to explore. Perhaps taking an engineering class at the local CC or at UCSD in his senior year might be something he’ll want to do.</p>

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<p>*dad’s work scholarship is a one time deal. I keep forgetting about that. Are most scholarships a one time, one year deal or is there a wide variance?</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>Most private scholarships are one time deals.</p>

<p>50isthenew40, do the Ivies really consider travel and personal expenses in their costs? Wow!</p>

<p>Yes and no.</p>

<p>On one hand, an amount is included in COA. However, these schools will require students to contribute a “summer earnings” amount and “work study”. The amounts could be $1500-2000 for summer earnings and $2000-2500 for work-study…so about $4000 per year that the student is contributing towards costs. Those amounts are often the amounts that are “personal expenses” and travel and sometimes, books. I don’t think schools really want to be paying for your toothpaste and deodorant, pizza with friends, plane travel, and books. </p>

<p>And…travel estimates are not often that generous for COA. </p>

<p>For instance…look at UPenn…</p>

<p>Cost of Attendance…</p>

<p>tuition and fees: $40,514
Room and board: $11,430
Books and supplies: $1,120
Estimated personal expenses: $2,186
Transportation expense: $550</p>

<p>First, you’ll notice that the amount for travel is only $550. That’s two one-way tickets (one for Fall, one for winter, and maybe shuttle costs for each trip). Very little would even be left for public transportation during the school year. And, that obviously doesn’t include an estimate for trips home for Christmas or Spring Break. </p>

<p>Then, notice the total amount for “personal expenses,” travel, and books…about $3800. See how close that is the $4,000 I mentioned above that is student earnings from summer job and work study? </p>

<p>So, yes, those amounts are included in COA, but in reality, your child will likely be paying for them. And, if you want to see your child at Christmas and other times, that will likely be on you.</p>

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<p>One thing about engineering–it’s a pretty rigid program and if you don’t start in it your 1st year, you may take longer than 4 years to graduate, IF you can get into engineering after freshman year. Also, if you start in engineering and then decide to go into something else, some of your coursework may not transfer (but it’s generally easier to transfer out of than into engineering).</p>

<p>When I was a college student in the dark ages, several of my private merit scholarships did renew, to my surprise and delight. Several of my S’s USC scholarships were also renewed, but it can vary depending on the terms OF EACH scholarship, meeting conditions, etc.</p>

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<p>sbjd…can you afford to pay your family contribution to Princeton (per their calculator)? </p>

<p>From what I’m reading, there are a lot of things that your family needs to come to some agreement on.</p>

<ol>
<li>The religious aspect of the school.</li>
<li>What dad is willing/able to pay.</li>
<li>Where “Junior” wants to go.</li>
<li>Overall costs for family and “Junior”.</li>
</ol>

<p>Honestly where does Junior stand on all of these things?</p>

<p>Here are my suggestions…</p>

<p>1.if you have significant financial constraints, that info needs to be conveyed CLEARLY to Junior. You may find he “alters” his school choices if he finds that some of his dream schools MIGHT be out of reach financially.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If certain religious affiliation is important, that needs to be conveyed to Junior. If you will not allow him to attend, or he doesn’t want to attend a college without this religious component, again…the list will change.</p></li>
<li><p>Remind Junior that MANY if not MOST college students change majors more than once while they are in college. Junior (or you) may think he is going to be a certain major NOW but truthfully, we’ve known solid engineering majors who became humanities majors in college.</p></li>
<li><p>If there is going to be a financial LIMIT on what you can spend, let Junior KNOW that before he applies so that he can have a broad list of choices…and so that if the money isn’t forthcoming, he won’t be disappointed if you have to say no to Princeton or some other college because of funds.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Give Junior all the information HE needs to make the college application decisions and remember HE is going to college, not you. I put the college application selection choice in my KID’S hands…with some input from the parents BEFORE they even began looking.</p>

<p>Your kid has a lot to offer. He’ll get accepted to a college and he’ll go. Don’t close your mind to good programs that you may have never heard of. Seriously…look at the McNair Scholarship at U of South Carolina. It’s a fabulous award for all four years for OOS students. Not need based, but does have a very challenging application process that is well worth it if your kid is chosen.</p>

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<p>Your income is under $100K, so I would look schools with excellent FA policies (reaches for everyone, but worth a shot):</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.finaid.cornell.edu/welcome.cfm[/url]”>https://www.finaid.cornell.edu/welcome.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

</p>

<p>There are several schools with similar policies, so I suggest looking for them.</p>

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<p>How many college credits will Junior have when he starts college? Will he have an AA or an AS degree? Maybe you will only need to fund two years.</p>

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<p>If Junior “transfers” to a four year school after completing his AA, you need to check the schools’ policies on awarding institutional aid. Some of the BEST schools do not award need based institutional aid to transfer students.</p>

<p>FYI…Princeton does not ACCEPT transfer students.</p>

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<p>oops…</p>

<p>IIn post 64, accidentally wrote:</p>

<p><a href=“one%20for%20Fall,%20one%20for%20winter,%20and%20maybe%20shuttle%20costs%20for%20each%20trip”>I</a>.*</p>

<p>Meant to write…one way for Fall, one way for SPRING, and…</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>No, you didn’t hear wrong. UCSB has a huge party scene. This does not mean that every single student there is a huge partier, especially within the CCS. Have you visited? I’d suggest talking to students within the CCS, and students within the student faith-based community you affiliate with to fiind out if the school would work for your son. </p>

<p>I’d also suggest making up a list of the “must haves” features, the “nice but can live without” features, and the deal-killers. Given your financial constraints and junior’s attractiveness as an applicant (STEM interests, advanced coursework, high stats, URM), I think he should be casting his application net far and wide to maximize his chances of getting good aid. That means coming up with a list of schools that may award enough aid, AND that are at least barely acceptable. </p>

<p>If he likes the city of Pittsburgh, I’d reiterate U Pitt. There’s cross-registration with CMU.</p>

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<p>SlitheyTove, perhaps we need to take a drive and visit UCSB this summer. Do parents always visit colleges with their kids? I wouldn’t mind him going alone or with a friend.</p>

<p>I like the idea of making up lists as you suggest, SlitheyTove. This should help us a great deal. I’ve used College Board Matchmaker to come up with the schools, putting in various stats. Junior’s been reading the book, <em>Choosing the Right College</em> to get to know some schools a little better. He has been clear about some colleges (no on U of Chicago; no to Stanford; no to Caltech)-I’m not sure his reasoning is sound but it is what it is.</p>

<p>Thumper1, we will check out Univ. of South Carolina. As junior’s guidance counselor (for that’s really what I am), I’m out of my league when it comes to schools in the south and east. All I’ve known is Arizona and So. Cal. SlitheyTove, we will check out U Pitt. I feel like he’s cast his net wide but it’s true, we haven’t looked south beyond Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>Thumper1, junior is aware of the financial situation; he knows we continue to ask him to pay for more and more of his costs including clothing. We’re not poor and we support our kids’ interest if we can; money is just tight and the list of things waiting to be funded (roof, a medical bill, baseball fees, some of the plane ticket, etc) isn’t slowing down.</p>

<p>I think we can afford to pay what Princeton’s EFC says. Also, I am willing to bet if junior gets into a college like Princeton, and he feels it’s the right school, our extended family might be willing to help if they are in a position to do so at the time. If he chose a college that they didn’t like, well, that’s a different story…</p>

<p>We don’t at all have a requirement that junior goes to a Christian college. Junior liked the idea several years ago but it is not a requirement; he knows there are greater opportunities to mix with many different kinds of folks at a secular college and that’s what he and we want. We do want to see junior plugged into a good church and have good accountability with a solid Christian support group on campus. </p>

<p>Junior has a hard time making decisions. He is interested in a lot of things. He’s intense and energetic and can’t say no to opporunties that come his way, but he needs to be able to narrow his focus and fingure out what’s important to him even if he doesn’t know what his major will be. His main interests are sort of cyclical-they may fade but they come back. The only thing he’s given up in the past several years is bowling (ironically, it’s the sport he has some scholarship money in). My job is to help him focus and assure him it’s ok to make decisions, even if they don’t turn out as well as expected. The good thing about college admissions is that there will surely be some rejections and after the financial aid offers come in, there will be further whittling.</p>

<p>I think junior’s got around 50 units of CC and is slated to take 12 more in his senior year, if he sticks with his plan, and possibly taking 4 units at UCSD if we decide to deplete the 529. He’s been very part time since age 12, taking 1 or 2 classes a semester. This semester, he’s not taking any at the CC because it conflicted with baseball.</p>

<p>He could become a fully matriculated CC student after he graduates high school (or before) and try to transfer to UCSD but that’s not the current plan. He’s always taken under 12 units a semester as concurrently enrolled student so he could enter college full time as a freshman to compete for freshman scholarships. </p>

<p>Susgeek, we will check out Cornell. </p>

<p>Thank-you, again, for all the ideas.</p>

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</p>

<p>Maybe this worked for some folks…when we did it for DS in 2003, we put in his criteria and it gave us a list of 500 colleges. We KNEW we needed to narrow it down more than that…so we changed one field…said we wanted a college where the school web could be accessed from any computer. College Board Matchmaker gave us ZERO schools.</p>

<p>Just for yucks…after DS got accepted, we plugged in all the correct answers for the school to which he matriculated…it did NOT come up as a match on Collegeboard Matchmaker.</p>

<p>We didn’t bother with it at ALL for DD…we got great suggestions right here…word of mouth…and she matriculated and graduated from a college suggested by someone here.</p>

<p>You might want to check out Santa Clara University. Your son might get some decent merit aid there. It has an excellent engineering program.</p>

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<p>Seriously, Thumper1? I guess another good idea isn’t as good as it seems! :slight_smile:
One thing I used Matchmaker for was to see the average indebtedness of students at the end of 4 years. Not all colleges report it but I think it’s helpful. And perhaps we won’t find colleges that way but the colleges we do find (like the 4 selective colleges that had stats majors and substance-free dorms as well as symphonies), we can further investigate.</p>

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<p>Please remember, there are probably SEVERAL good choices that your kiddo would be happy at and thrive in–debt is certainly one consideration but the statistics can be misleading, depending on how it’s calculated and whether it includes kids who dropped/transferred out before they got their degree, how long the kids take to get degrees, and other factors.</p>

<p>It can be useful to speak with parents whose kids attend the schools your kid is considering as well–we found them more candid than the official school reps.</p>

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<p>HImom, yes, we have been advised to talk with students at schools rather than school reps. Junior should find out a lot more about what the schools are really like. </p>

<p>You’re right-statistics can be misleading. I was just thinking that general trends are still helpful; you know, like knowing that the average debt after graduating from CMU is a lot higher than the average debt after graduating from Caltech. This seems to indicate which schools truly try to make it somewhat more affordable.</p>

<p>One more question: It looks like we will have to take a home equity loan to pay for the roof because taxes won’t cover it-it is all rotten. For those schools that count home equity, would this bring down the equity or do they only count the first mortgage in the equation?</p>

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<p>OP–just a few thoughts about CalTech & CMU, since you mentioned those schools:</p>

<p>We did visit CalTech & S applied there but D was very turned off by the very sexist and disrepectful grafitti she saw there in the dorms & relieved he didn’t get in or attend there. I have heard mixed things about their merit aid; a friend of a friend’s S got VERY generous package & attended there at least partly because of it, while have heard other packages weren’t so great. I was very disappointed that the housing seemed quite worn and not well maintained (in poorest condition of all the many campuses we visited–public & private). S didn’t seem to care.</p>

<p>We have a friend whose son went to CMU. One thing he was very unhappy about was not being able to change majors once he started there. He was pretty much locked in to the major he declared on his app at age 17 or 18. He also could NOT take any courses at our in-state flagship U that would count toward CMU nor would his CMU coursework count toward flagship U if he transferred (never understood why but thought that was very odd). For some reason, he didn’t find out he was missing a course until the week before he was scheduled to graduate and they WOULD NOT let him participate in the ceremony so all his relatives had to pay huge penalties to cancel the flights at the last minute. (At some other campuses including USC, you can walk with your classmates & participate in the graduation ceremony, even if you need another class or semester to graduate.) His folks were NOT happy with their FAid office either, but I never got details. The student appears to have been happy enough at CMU because he stayed on after he graduated to take a few more courses, I believe.</p>

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<p>HiMom,</p>

<p>I had heard about such things on the campus of Caltech. We have a friend who got his PhD there and he warned us about this. He was grateful for his education there but could not recommend the school for younger students.</p>

<p>I just wanted to ask my question again: If we take out a home equity loan, will that be subtracted from our equity?</p>

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<p>Just thought I’d update and say that we won’t have to take out an equity loan for the roof-yeah! We got a very good bid ($4300!!) for our roof and our tax return will come within about $800-900 of that cost, so we might just put the rest on a credit card or borrow from my father (or son!). Now, the bathroom shower has fallen apart but at least we have another bathroom to use, so we’re not fixing that right now!</p>

<p>Also, interestingly, when dh did the taxes, we realized he actually made less last year than the year before, so it’s not a given that our income will go over 80K this year, so we will continue to look closely at schools where 80K seems to be sort of a “next level”.</p>