Your parents, if they qualify, would have to co-sign that loan. That is your only chance. You need to let go of that top choice school. I’m sorry. It happened to a lot of good kids this year, so you aren’t alone.
UD and Salisbury appear affordable. With your $5,500 subsidized loan and working your butt off over the summer and part time during the school year, it is doable.
No one will sign 45K private loans for you. The sentence “I just need to take out a loan” indicates you don’t understand what that entails.
With a $600 EFC your parents can’t cosign that much.
You have to deposit at UDel tomorrow. Be aware that UDel doesn’t “meet need” so even though you don’t want to live at home, whether you wan to or not isn’t part of their formula to calculate your aid.
Run the NPC on UDel to have an idea. I gave it a try and for an EFC 600, your net cost is likely to be around $5,000, which should be covered by a federal loan.
It’s not 45K in private loans, it’s 45K in student loans. I can totally pay that back.
You can’t pay 45K back because NOBODY is going to lend you that amount of money. Nobody.
Freshman year you can only take out $5,500 in direct student loans, and a total of $27K over the 4 undergrad years. Someone would have to cosign for the rest of the loans (e.g., private loans) or your parents take out parent plus loans. Either way doesn’t make sense. Go to an affordable choice.
OP, 45k exceeds the amount you can take out in loans. The fed stu loan is 5500 and if your family EFC is 600, no way they qualify to cosign the only other option, a private loan.
PLUS, just how do you expect to pay that back? You dont understand the financial savvy here and that 45k is unaffordable. Would you need another loan for 2nd year? If so, with that kind of first year debt, you wouldn’t qualify.
Time to face the music. You can’t afford an expensive option.
Did you get accepted to Drexel?
You might have to rethink your options. If you can’t afford the places you got into, the only option you have is community college for your first 2 years. There’s nothing wrong with that. After that, you can transfer to a local in-state university.
Another option is a gap year.
Yet another option is the NACAC list of colleges that miscalculated yield.
But UDel instate is likely your best choice. There deposit can be anywhere from $100 to $300. Can you afford that?
@Nomak54 “for those a little familiar with Delaware, I asked to be transferred out of the SEED program”
Why would you do that?? That program is designed for low income students to get a college education. It’s designed for your situation. You can be in that for 6 semesters, with NO tuition costs. Can you stay in it so you can at least start at DelTech?
https://www.dtcc.edu/admissions-financial-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/types-aid/seed
I think UD at this point is a distant reach if you want to be enrolled in the fall. I’d be calling the SEED folks and asking to take back that transfer request so you can get something under your belt at DelTech and demonstrate the ability to deliver a decent GPA at the college level.
The idea that you are going to go somewhere for 2 years and then transfer into Annapolis or West Point, 2 extremely rigorous academic schools that are more selective than anything else on your list - that is beyond any reach. That cannot be your backup plan.
Do the service academy’s even take transfers?
No. Everyone starts on the ground level.
Yes I got into Drexel, but American feels more better for political science
The SA’s don’t take transfers, which is why I said re-apply.
I didn’t want to do the SEED program because it’s more or less just going to community college, which I don’t want.
Unless you have super high stats, with an EFC of $600 your options are probably commuting to a local university, starting at a community college, or taking a gap year. If your parents aren’t saying what they’ll pay it’s likely because they can’t pay anything.
Is the $45k for one year or all 4 years? What options do you have that you can pay with the yearly ~$5500 federal student loan? If the SEED program is it then I’d contact them and ask to get back in it.
Not as such, although students with post-high-school college course work can apply as frosh if they are otherwise eligible, unlike at many other colleges where students with post-high-school college course work (or more than a small amount defined by the college) are not eligible to apply as frosh.
https://www.usna.edu/Admissions/Apply/FAQ.php#panel8Doyouaccepttransferstudents
https://westpoint.edu/admissions/frequently-asked-questions
You need to attend an affordable college. $45,000 is not within your means. So move on. You can’t take that loan in any way without a co-signer, and you don’t have one. If you take $45,000 in loans for even two years, that’s $90,000 which is an insane amount of loan money for two years of college.
Move on to what is affordable.
What makes you think you would get accepted at any of the service academies.
@ChoatieMom any opinions?
What exactly do you want to study? Can you start at a community college…which is affordable…and then go from there.
They are not just STUDENT loans if someone has to co-sign. The co-signer is stuck just as you are as I explained upthread. When you co-sign a loan, you absolutely should be prepared to repay it if something happens to the other person on the loan. And when the other person is A teenager… it’s insanity to be sure that person can pay it back. That’s why you need a co-signer for more than $5500.
If your own parents will not sign, and I think they are wise not to do do, who is?
It’s time to bite the bullet and look at your realistic choices. What you can afford.
@Nomak54 “I didn’t want to do the SEED program because it’s more or less just going to community college, which I don’t want.”
It’s what you can afford.
You didn’t answer the earlier request re schools, costs, and available funds so I am assuming the SEED/DelTech is the only option available other than a gap year. I realize that after working to get your GPA up that seems like a let down but you can’t afford the alternatives. The state is providing one with free tuition to get you started. Your other option is to work for the next year and save as much money as possible and reapply to schools then. I know a couple who went through SEED - started at DelTech, went to Widener and UD to finish up in nursing and med tech positions that were covered through the Delaware tuition program that covers those fields (and teaching) if you stay in state and work at specific locations. One works at Christiana now, one’s an EMT. Would they have preferred to go to a private college, sure. But they did what they could afford and they got into the workplace with a degree and no debt.
My cousins, many years ago, could not afford to go directly to UDe from highschool. They went to a local CC for two years, working part time and summers. One transferred to a PA school, the other to UDE. Actually, yet another to U Wilmington. All doing very well now. One with a MBA from Villanova.
One often will find the direct paths blocked. Money has a lot to do with that. We look for a way around the problem. It appears that the SEED program would be one well you could truly excell, soar, and get to where you want to go. I see opportunity in it.
I don’t see anything good in a $45k on your head as a teenager, churning out interest and growing and you’ll need more each year. It’s insanity to take on that kind of debt yourself. Of course no family member or friend will co-sign. Your parents are acting wisely.
You know exactly what to do.
Choose a school that’s $45,000 cheaper.