Well, if OP, does take the loans and the parents don’t pay, payments could be just under $3000/month (assuming a ten year period.) Say OP thinks fist job will pay (let’s choose an enticing number for CS, not too high or low,) 120k, or net 6-7k/month. Not pretty, if that sweet job is in the Silicon Valley, that cost of living. And what if the starter job pays half that? In contrast, if OP kept it to the fed loan max (using 27k,) the payments are closer to 300/mo.
“(let’s choose an enticing number for CS, not too high or low,) 120k, or net 6-7k/month”
That actually probably is too high. Microsoft, Google, and FB all start out right around 105k base salary. You can jack that up with competing offers, of course.
Not to mention that, of course, most cs graduates make much less. CMU among others release graduation entry salary data. There are many students who start out at 50 or 60k as software engineers.
Most of the high paying salaries are at big companies in high cost of living areas. A huge base salary from MS, Google, or FB in the SF Bay Area translates to 70-80k elsewhere.
So your parents want to delay paying for whatever reason. What will change in four years? At that point will they be any more willing to pay?
My fear is that right now your parents appear to be doing very well financially. What happens if they lose their jobs or their company (if self employed) goes under? It happens. Will they still be in the position to pay off these loans.
We don’t know all the details. It is possible that their money is tied up in assets that are generating their income. In this case, they could be protecting their income stream. In that case, I feel the loans should be in their name.
There is no reason to have the loans in the student’s name. If the parents (wrongly) think that Google or ?? is going to pay off those huge loans if they’re in the kid’s name, they need to be shown that those companies do not do this…they don’t NEED to do this in order to get great employees.
The oarents first said they would pay for th student to attend college.
More recent,y,they asked for the student to cosign huge loans.
What’s next? It’s very possible that they will change to “we aren’t paying” when the time comes to repay those huge loans.
This student is a CA resident. If the family really needs to save money and improve cash flow…the student should take a gap year, and apply to UCs or CSUs (like,Cal Ploly SLO) where a degree in CS would be far less expensive than at Caltech.
The situation has been resolved. I will take out the federal maximum in loans (I’m totally fine with that) and they have been approved for a home equity loan for house renovations. Thanks for everyone who gave me advice on how to talk to them.
This sounds like they consider house renovations to be as important, even more important than their child’s college education. What’s wrong with deferring the new kitchen for four years?
I’m glad you stood your ground and are taking on less debt.
That’s not really fair, @OspreyCV22. What if it is a leaky roof and/or other issues that only get more costly if not attended to now or soon? Don’t make disparaging comments that are entirely speculative in nature.
However, I am also glad for the reasonable outcome.
Given the resolution of the issue and the near unanimity of advice in the thread, might as well close it.