You have $70,000 in gift aid and you need to cover $10,000 yourself?
$5500 Direct Loan, and get yourself a job now. See above post for who is hiring.
Look at the dorm options. Pick the cheapest dorm and food plan you can get at this school. Rent or buy used books online. Do the best you can to reduce transportation and personal expenses which are part of that $80,000 cost of attendance.
What are the billable costs to the college…tuition, fees, room and board. Those are what you need to pay to the college. Does your $70,000 in gift aid cover this…and add the $5500 loan to that! Betting you really have those costs covered.
@collegehunter123 your instate public options wont involve expensive travel.
A work study job is better because they are flexible when you have exams coming up. An off campus employer expects you to be there when you are scheduled, no matter your other obligations.
You can possibly get another job on campus or tutor someone.
My D was offered a job in the bio lab for a few hours a week. You don’t want to work more than 10-15 hrs a week though, especially if you need to maintain a high GPA for med school.
Yes, add up your tuition, fees, room and board costs.
Subtract the grant aid from that. That is what you need to pay the school over two semesters.
Then if you need money for supplies, personal expenses, travel you can pay that with a loan, summer job and work study earnings.
Also apply for some local scholarships. Ask your high school guidance counselor for a list. Our deadlines were at the end of March.
You might only get a few thousand dollars and they might be one year awards only, but can help with books and supplies before you get your work study job.
Before OP spends time and effort applying for local scholarships, OP should make sure that institutional grant money won’t be decreased on a dollar-for-dollar basis with each outside scholarship awarded (this would not be unusual).
that package is great. I think it is doable you could even make that 7k in one summer with 1-2 jobs. just consider it also try cash jobs - babysitting, tutoring, etc. (babysitting ive made up to $20/hr)
As others have said, colleges usually pad the COA with a books, travel, misc expenses amount of several thousand $s. You can probably spend much less than that. Some of those costs are for things you’re paying for now like toothpaste and takeout pizza.
One other factor though is health insurance—if they require the college plan or you need it, make sure you understand the costs and whether FA will help.
But I agree with others that the amount of debt you’re talking about is quite reasonable and not something I’d worry too much about.
Well…add the $5500 Direct Loan and money from a job…and even those schools would be covered.
If this OOS school is unaffordable with a net cost of $5000 (I’m adding the $5500 Direct Loan to the $70,000 of free money), then maybe this student needs to take a gap year and apply to places where they could get a full ride merit award.
Or is there an instate public to which this student can commute?
Re: Dartmouth and Haverford…are those Direct billable costs with the cheapest meal plan and housing?
@BelknapPoint yes. Everyone pays the same for housing and meal full plans are mandatory for most students. From their website:
Tuition and Fees 2019-20
Tuition $56,200
Student Activity Fee $498
Room$9,790
Board$6,980
Total $73,468
So…if this student got $70,000 in free money…and then takes out the $5500 federally funded student loan…he is all set to attend a $74,000 total cost college…right?
I think he is looking at what the college adds on in expenses, such as books, getting there and home …, I would guess they have a free ride minus college expenses, I do not think any school hits 80k in tuition, fees and room and board, I know some hit over 70, he has a great aid package and will be able to make it work once he better understands how the bills are paid, it seem he is doing all of this himself without parent help or understanding. Good luck.
I wonder if you “cost” your parents ANYTHING now? That’s one thing I sometimes forget about when looking at cost of attendance for my kid. They can maybe think about what they are spending on you now…even if just your share of the food, or maybe the car insurance? They can take that money and contribute it toy our costs. How much can they agree to contribute?
Another comment: Ten thousand a year…I imagine that ANY school, even community college, and living at home, when you add in books, supplies, fees, food, and personal expenses (which cost of attendance includes) is going to be at least $10,000. per year. Basically you will need to $10,000 to live on no matter what you do, so why not spend it on going to this presumably great school?
Most parents (including on these forums) seem to act like it costs $0 for a high school or college student to live at home with parents, so they do not account for that when comparing costs between commute-to-local-college versus live-at-college, or whether sending a college student to live at college frees some money that would otherwise be spent on the student’s food, utilities, and commuting costs. Many parents may not have a good idea of what these costs are, because they are distributed across various household budget categories, rather than a category of “living expenses of student”. California public universities mostly seem to estimate “room and board” for students living with parents as around $5-7k, plus another $1-2k commuting costs, for what it is worth.
Because of this, from the student’s point of view, living at home and commuting to college may cost only tuition and books (because the parents are subsidizing food, utilities, and commuting by presenting it as $0 to the student), while the difference for living at the college is the full cost of room and board, rather than the difference between that and the true cost of food, utilities, and commuting costs at home.
also try cash jobs - babysitting, tutoring, etc. (babysitting ive made up to $20/hr)