He actually has a teacher mentoring him withh this process.
NJ TEACH grant requires a high need field STEM Spanish oe Special Ed
Teacher loan forgiveness does also
I believe he would qualify for PSLF
Seems thereās a couple of options but yes, the cost is there.
You can be angry but that doesnāt help your son. Most of us parents are limited by finances as well.
If there are no affordable options, he may have to consider a gap year to help save up money to work. Lots of kids are doing that.
Just because you canāt pay for a 4 year college doesnāt mean you are a bad parent. Yes college is crazy expensive but I donāt think thatās changing anytime soon. My son is at a tech school himself.
1 Like
I just didnāt know where to put this so since the issue is here, Iām posting it here. I read this thread every.single.day. And Iāve responded on it several times. Every time I open it again, Iām taken to the first postā¦not the end where I was last. Thatās ridiculous.
McDaniel came through much lower than i thought. There really is no rhyme or reason to this process
4 Likes
McDaniel is a great little school. Flies under the radar screen. Friend of DD is a graduate and loved it there.
5 Likes
There is rhyme and reason - or rather multiple, individual rhymes and reasons based on each institutionās goals, plans, and policies. Yes, it is annoying that things arenāt predictable across the board, but that is just the way it is.
They may as well not even have COA calculatorsā¦not one has gotten it close to the actual aid letter
Iāve been following this thread. I canāt get my daughter with slightly higher stats than @Billb7581 son under 20k either. Weād prefer her not to be super far from NJ for personal reasons, and sheās being flexible on major and other requirements. The problem Iām finding is that she canāt get in to schools that meet full need, and her stats donāt give her enough merit to get under 20 at most schools. Iāll have 2 in college next year. We manage the 12-15k Iāve been paying for kid 1 (they adjust each year), but canāt do that plus 25 to 45 for kid 2. Efc 11k or so.
Under 20k is a tough goal without high stats in the northeast.
I think the correct statement is āUnder 20K is a tough goal in the northeastā.
Even with high stats, prepare to pay around 25K-35K for schools around this area.
3 Likes
Yes, it is what it is. We will have 3 in college for the next 4 years (one in grad school for 3). Even with 2 of them getting high merit, their OOS schools will still cost $30,000+ a year (down from $50,000ish). NJ in state publicās are $30,000. Fingers crossed that we are eligible for a little FA (we werenāt with 2 in at the same time).
Definitely. Even with getting top merit awards, my D21 only has 1 school that came in under 30K for residential (aside from the PASSHE school). We were hoping to keep it around 25K or less and that is proving to be tough.
I should add that Iām not new to this game. My high stats son has a great deal at a meets full need school and Iāve helped others figure everything out. But my daughter has been a challenge, partly because of medical issues. NJ does nothing to help. Our state schools are expensive. Our local cc isnāt great. She was just accepted at Stockton with 7k merit, which is one of her cheaper options so far but it becomes a question of is it worth the savings?
2 Likes
This is the same situation with my son, I doubt he will get anything from TCNJ or Rutgers, his twin will get a little from Rutgers but doesnāt want to go there. If it was a significant savings it would be a different story.
1 Like
@ttb1263 High stats matter. With high stats there are schools that will get you closer to your efc. If @Billb7581 had a kid with top grades, high scores, and football, he might be able to get into a meets full need school with a cost under 20k (the efc was under 10 iirc). Thereās a strategy to picking schools, of course, but a B+ student still has limitations and times are tough in higher ed.
Even 3 years ago there wasnāt much from tcnj and Rutgers is highly major/school dependent. But Rowan was under 20k for us then with merit no financial aid. Iām expecting my daughter to get nothing from Rutgers and rowan offered $3,500.
@beebee3 and @thumper1 said this, but I want to make it absolutely clear: The lack of a secondary education major at any given college does not mean that a student canāt get a secondary teaching job after having gone to college thereāit may just be that a bachelors degree is one step but not the final one toward that job.
The state where I currently live, for example, works this way, and itās not even close to alone: A student who wishes to become a secondary teacher majors in the field in which they plan to teach (so an aspiring language arts teacher would major in English, chemistry would major in chem, math would major in math, social studies in history, and so on). Upon getting their bachelorās degree, they then go into a MAT program (master of arts in teaching, some states itās just a MA), and as part of that they get their teaching certification and two semesters of student teaching over the course of a year and a half (including summers).
Other states, they have bachelors degrees that incorporate teaching certification, sometimes in a program that takes more than four yearsāthose are disappearing, though, because they donāt work as well. Still other states (and it sounds like perhaps New Jersey is among these?) allow teacher certification through either method.
So before you reject any college for not having a secondary education major, make sure that a secondary education major is even necessary at the undergraduate level.
p.s. You mention that he wants to do his masters in educational leadership. I might suggest that thatās a better option for a second masters later in his career, for example if he decides he wants to be a principal.
p.p.s. Can you please tell us what exactly the preferences (note that I didnāt say ārequirementsā) are that you and he have in this? What exactly are the financial limitations? (Knowing his GPA/SAT/rank states, including the SAT breakdown, would be useful for people helping on this.) What is his preferred job after graduation, as precisely as possible? What are the geographic restrictions? And so on. Someone mentioned upthread that the goalposts havenāt been moving, and that may be true, but it doesnāt matter because none of us (except, perhaps, you) really know where the goalposts ever were to begin with.
4 Likes
My oldest went to Rutgers for accounting with no merit, the next TCNJ business no merit, the next was offered $5000 (not sure of major but whatever Rutgers offered for DPT), dd21 has identical stats, ds21 about the same as my oldest.
āSo before you reject any college for not having a secondary education major, make sure that a secondary education major is even necessary at the undergraduate level.ā
This. Make a plan-- and if NJ looks inflexible wrt how soon a young teacher needs to complete a Masters, look at the contiguous states- plenty of teachers live in NJ and teach in PA, NY and CT.
2 Likes
You have more money than us lol.
Ha, no, we paid for one full year each, plus loan interest while in school. My daughter waitressed, my son worked two jobs, both graduated a semester early by taking 18 credits each semester, both are making high monthly loan payments. Fortunately they both got pretty good job offers before graduation and can work remotely (accountant, passed CPA first try, and finance). My third should graduate a year early, started freshman year with 30 credits. It was a gamble, but my husband is in finance and felt there would be better employment opportunities at Rutgers than Montclair state (my daughter couldāve commuted and paid $16,000 total after merit, her loans should be paid off in a few years).
1 Like