<p>Hi guys! I was accepted into Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. I absolutely love this school, but the price tag? Not so much. However, I received my Financial Aid package and was fortunate enough to secure about a half-ride to this school. Unfortunately…a half-ride means that I still am expected to pay close to $29,000 out of pocket. My father made around $48,000 a year until he recently lost his job, and my mother is disabled and is unable to work. My father has been having a difficult time staying employed due to the economy and our income is rarely stable. I work to help contribute to my family’s bills and any sort of savings my parents had have been depleted to avoid things such as home foreclosure. The morning after I received my FA package I submitted an appeal through SJU’s form. I’ve also been trying to contact my FA adviser to meet and further explain my situation (still waiting for a call back). </p>
<p>With this being said, I have a few questions.
- I know I will still have to take out student loans. If I am going to school to be a Computer Science major, is there a recommended amount of loans I should consider taking out?<br>
- My appeal form said that I must report any change in my situation to their office. If my father finds a job and my appeal is already complete, can the school revoke the additional aid they may decide to give me?</p>
<p>I also have a back up plan to go to a Penn State branch campus if the loan amounts I will have to take out are ridiculous with intentions to transfer to another school two years later. </p>
<p>Any help is much appreciated!</p>
<p>What you get is not what counts. It’s what you have to pay,and loans and work study are not what you “get”. Given your parents’ situation, they should not be taking out loans even if they should qualify, not even co signing because that really is the same as taking out loans. So in terms of student loans, all you can take is $5500 freshman year. Maybe, if a parent gets declined for PLUS, you can take out about $4-5K more. Turn down is based on have payments outstanding beyond 90 days on a credit report. </p>
<p>You can appeal for dislocated worker status due to your father being unemployed. Look on web site for any forms for this and the process/ grounds or call fin aid and ask. Ask how this works if your father finds a job, what happens. Many schools do not give professional judgement for dislocated worker status until the parent has been out of a job for a stipulated time period and will look at what severance, unemployment and other income has been coming in the door during that time. How each school handles this is individual as that is how professional judgement works. </p>
<p>You said you got a package totalling about $29K leaving you about the same. What is in that package? If the direct loans and work study are already in there you have little leeway in terms of borrowing or working during the school year since that’s already being used towards your need. Even if not, we are talking about a max of about $14 K that I can come up with, off the top of my head by working during the school year and borrowing Direct Loan with supplement from Dad’s denial If you get full PELL that woud be about another $5500 this year, but do remember this is an annual thing for the next three years. If Dad gets a job, you lose the PELL most likely. And you may not even get PELL or full Pell for all I know with what your family financials may be.</p>
<p>So, the Penn State Branch looks like the best way to go for you Your family is having financial issues, and you don’t want to add to them. It’s not a one time thing here.</p>
<p>YOU can only borrow the $5500 that is already in your loan pkg. YOUR parents would have to borrow or co-sign the rest. NOT likely going to happen since they dont earn enough to qualify.</p>
<p>Go to an affordable school. </p>
<p>You should not borrow more than $30k total for undergrad.</p>
<p>Or you can do what I did…</p>
<p>Join the National Guard and use NJ’s State Tuition Waiver’s waiver to walk out of Rutgers U. - NB with a BS Computer Science and exactly $0 of educational debt.</p>
<p>Have you considered commuting to a state school like West Chester or Kutztown (or any other that may be in your area)? Are you within commuting distance of Temple? Penn State is the worst one for scholarships. Since you got into St. Joe’s, you may be eligible for some merit money from Temple or one of the schools in the Pennsylvania system. If you didn’t already apply to any of these schools, maybe you could consider a year off where you worked and saved? You can apply again next year when they’re doling out merit money. Your SAT’s and high school transcript will be recent enough.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like your parents will be able to help you much when you graduate in terms of helping you buy interview suits, electronics, setting you up in an apartment, etc. so my recommendation is to take as close to zero loans as you possibly can or you’ll really be restricted upon graduation to finding a job within commuting distance of your parents’ home.</p>
<p>My husband interviews and hires for his IT department. He recently had a HS student interview him two weeks ago regarding my husband’s job and the company he works for for a career project at school.</p>
<p>My husband is a graduate of a state school in PA. He told the young man that his company does not care where or what college you graduated from. They want to hire people with experience. His company hires grads with 2-3 yrs of experience starting at $98,000 a yr. Managment positions at his company go upwards starting at $160,000 to upper ends.</p>
<p>We live an semi-affluent neighborhood. Almost all making upwards of at least $150,000 - $300,000+. Most of us are ALL state school graduates. ( Millersville, Bloomsburg, West Chester, and then the more expensive of the state influenced schools like Temple, Penn State, etc.). Scattered with some OOP staters. No Ivies…if there are any, nobody cares or even knows about it.
My brother is a graduate of UPitt. He makes short of $1,000,000. He chose computer science and didn’t go to the Ivy league school he was accepted to. This was a big deal to our parents and family. Still very successful without the Ivy degree. </p>
<p>Save yourself tons of money and go to the least costly way to get a degree! Your experience will only matter after your first job. I can’t even imagine taking out loans with your parents’ income. It just sets one up for major anxiety and stress.</p>
<p>We try to get our own children to understand this, too. We are having a bit of difficulty with our first understanding this. We have the perfect example of successful people in our neighborhood to show her what we mean. We as parents have discussed this amongst ourselves. We are finding that the kids today feel entitled to better schools or name brands b/c they feel we have a better income or do very well in school to have us afford better schools. So, not true. It’s wasteful!</p>