Hurry and apply to Alabama! Scholarship deadline is Dec 15…send scores and transcript. You’ll get free tuition.
Your brother has already consigned for too much debt. At some point, he’ll be denied.
You’re considering too much debt as an undergrad.
If your brother consigned outside loans for your siblings, how are they paying those off now? Are they deferred? It worries me that you have the example of a brother helping them get loans, but not the example of them paying them off
We usually say the 27k total amount of the Direct loans is the max. But I can tell you my girls struggle with that. Full price on the 10 year payoff is around 300/mo. Life after college needs rent money, utilities, a car/insurance/repairs, and some left for fun.
Many of us do help our kids with loan payments, a bit here and there or sometimes more. It doesn’t sound like your parents can.
How much total debt are you thinking about? Inagree…take the $27,000 in federally funded loans in YOUR name only. Do not have anyone cosign loans with you. That means YOU can’t afford the debt, and are hoping someone else will share the burden of getting these loans.
Correct, once each sibling finishes undergrad they no longer get counted on your FAFSA as in college and your EFC increases. Roughly, with 4 in undergrad your FAFSA EFC is $5000, with 3 in college it’s $7500, with 2 it’s $10,000 and with 1 it’s $20,000.
You really should consider applying to Alabama today!
Figure out what your starting salary is likely to be, after taxes, amortize the total loan payments at actual interest rates over 5-years, and see how much is left over for living expenses. Why 5-years in my arbitrary rule of thumb? At some point, you may want to buy a house/condo, which requires a down-payment, or have kids, or go back to school for a MBA.
You mentioned UTD is within commuting distance. The safest bet in your position might just be to live at home and commute. The most manageable debt for any student is whatever is the smallest debt.
PVAMU with ABET accredited ME seems like a better safety than Liberty for your purposes.
No one has a crystal ball regarding their starting salary out of college. Sure…that is a decent thing if you have a guaranteed job…but honestly…who knows THAT as an incoming freshman!
Keep your debt to the federally funded limit. Don’t ask others to cosign loans.
You can apply to 4 more schools for free:
https://www.nacacfairs.org/globalassets/college-fair–homepage/ncf-documents/applicationfeewaiver.pdf
Apply to UTD, Tech, UA-H, and perhaps Rice?
PVAMU is a better safety than Liberty for ME.
But finding a school with similar costs and better overall level should be possible.
@mom2collegekids @Madison85
My parents and brother have no support for me to go to an OOS public school . And Alabama
UA Scholar
With that big of a gap for Tuition , I’m not confident I could afford that school without assistance.
@lookingforward well I only I’m looking for money for freshman year. And I would pay him back the following summer by working. That’s traditionally how the rest of my siblings have done it.
I’m trying to figure that out. Because on Average Mechanical engineers make a salary of about 65k starting and with the Aggie Network supporting me, I feel confident that I can get a job paying at least 55 k out of college. No other school on my list have that except for Texas Tech.
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Ps. I’m simply curious so how much debt is manageable for an undergraduate in addition to the given 27000 ** so I know what kind of award I need for my first year of college. ** all of my schools have a particular plan in mind for me to attempt to afford them.
Texas A&M - find enough money to afford freshman year, compete for scholarships in the College of Engineering by getting admitted directly to my major with.a 3.5 gpa, and if I fail transfer to another school like UTD or Prairie View and finish up my education at a reduced cost at the same time frame.
Let’s suppose you make $55k/year starting out, which after taxes and health insurance premiums is $35k/year. Let’s suppose you need at least $20k/year for living expenses. Then, you could pay $15k/year toward student loans or $75k over 5-years. Less the $27k and that leaves $48k. That’s back of the envelope and doesn’t include interest. Some of this depends on you. If you plan to live in a HCOL area, after graduation, your living expenses might be higher. If you’re willing to live with roommates, after college, it might be lower. You really need to make out a budget. Just because you might be able to afford $X amount of debt, doesn’t mean you should take on that amount of debt. Less debt might mean the flexibility to take a lower paying, but less stressful job, or to get a house/condo sooner, to travel, or save for retirement earlier and perhaps retire earlier. Everything in life is a tradeoff.
Using $20,000 is a tight budget even in a low cost area.
Monthly
$1,000 Rent
$100 Utilities (this may be low)
$100 cell phone (could cut here if not on contract)
$50 Internet
$100 auto insurance
$250 food
$150 gas
$21,000/year expenses
Presumptions:
- No consumer debt including car note
- no cable/satellite TV
- No eating out, alcohol, extraneous entertainment
- not spending on furniture, etc. to set up a house.
I think living on $20k is a budget with a roommate. Without, you will scrimp more than you want to after starving your way through college.
1° the issue is that, as a transfer, you no longer qualify for full tuition/full rides.
2° “how much debt is manageable for an undergraduate in addition to the given 27000” = ideally, NONE. That’s the limit of how much you can reasonably hope to pay back in 10 years with a regular college graduate salary.
For a ME, I’d think you could borrow a bit more, say, 4-5k more freshman year, then adjust to 3-4k if you win scholarships.
3° the above estimates are wrong, alas.
Where I live, you can rent a 1bdr for $500/month.
That’s nice…but this student is looking for high paying mechanical engineering jobs. The higher the pay…most likely e higher the cost to live there (not always true… but often is).
In our living area, you can’t get a studio for $1000 a month.
DS lives in a far less expensive real estate area. His rent for a one bedroom in a nice neighborhood with off stree parking is in the mid $600s.
DD lives in a one bedroom where there are TONS of one bedroom apartments. $950 a month.
Neither includes utilities.
In many areas, $600-800 cover a room in an apt with roommates. In high cost of living areas, you need 1,200 a month for that (NYC, Silicon Valley/SoCal) and 1,500-2,000 for a studio. Boston, Chicago, NOVA also have cost challenges where rent is high, so studios and 1BR would be around $1,000-1,200/mo. Utilities vary: heating costs in NE and the Midwest, A/C in the South.
Also, compound interest is a killer: if you borrow 27K, you pay back 31K - and that’s for the gov’t-backed loans, with lower interest rates. If you borrow 12K more over 4 years through your brother, you’ll pay back 15K or so. THat’s 46K to pay back, and really the upper limit for a ME major.
A financial safety school is one you know you can afford. Some schools with automatic full tuition scholarships might work if you can pay the remaining costs with student loan, work earnings, parent support.
I’m sure the OP can figure out where the jobs are for their field, where they would like to live after graduation, and lookup the COL for those areas.
@MYOS1634 OP isn’t a transfer. He’s a HS Senior. Granted he has a very short timeline to apply for four year scholarships like Bama and has missed many deadlines without a gap year.
^ I know that NOW op 's not a transfer. But his/her idea is that, if TAMU proved too expensive after a year, s/he could transfer to one of the schools currently offering excellent merit aid and up to a full ride (PVAMU). I want to make sure s/he understands the traps in this plan: if op decides to attend TAMU and can’t afford it after a year, as a transfer s/he won’t have the scholarship s/he has now as a freshman.
Op : if you borrow 4K through your brother, work part-time now, and full time in the summer, can you pay for TAMU?
What’s your EFC? With 3 in college, a meet need school (such as Rice) could be a good choice and may cost you less out of pocket than tamu. Run the NPC on Rice.