Moving home after college to pay off loans?

Parents Forum
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<p>I have 3 daughters. The eldest is a junior at a very rigorous public magnet HS specializing in STEM subjects. She does well there (3.5 GPA in all honors/AP classes) and based on the results of practice tests, I expect her SAT score to be around 1280/1960. She has strong ECs and leadership. She’s a great kid and a very diligent, capable student, but I don’t expect her stats to get her all that much merit aid, although we will certainly try for whatever she can get.</p>

<p>I have read a lot here about how kids in our situation (middle class, earn too much for need-based aid, stats not high enough for big scholarships, not much saved for college due to [various reasons including high medical bills and devastating damage to our home during Hurricane Irene]) should plan on commuting to a local CC for school. But my daughter wants to be an engineer; she’s not planning to major in something impractical or in a horribly low-paid field.</p>

<p>My idea is that she could take out loans as required for a good, relatively economical education (we are instate for Rutgers and TCNJ). Then she would seek out work-study/internships during the school year, work as hard as she can in the summers, and put the money toward school; and then, if need be, move back home after college in order to pay off the remaining debt. We live in a part of NJ that is convenient for commuting to NYC and even Philadelphia as well as elsewhere in NJ. I’m sure this is not her first-choice scenario, but her dad and I would be very happy to have her live here as long as she needs to.</p>

<p>Is there something I’m not seeing that makes this an unworkable plan?</p>

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<p>Since you are a NJ resident and your daughter has strong GPA perhaps this will help with some money. I have given this link to a number of people as not everyone know about it. I’m not sure but I think the first 2 years may need to be done at a community college and the second 2 at a 4 yr college.</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.njstars.net%5DNJSTARS.NET%5B/url”&gt;http://www.njstars.net]NJSTARS.NET[/url</a>]</p>

<p>click on NJ stars II</p>

<p>It sounds like you have to do what will financially work for your family so logistically, it should work fine.</p>

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<p>What you are proposing is workable, and many kids are in the same boat. I looked thru our HS graduation plans books and where kids went away to schools, HS classes from 2007 thru 2012. I knew many more are staying home, and or chose in state publics class of 2012 than previous years, however, when I actually counted up the numbers I was SHOCKED at the differences in the amounts. This is a upper middle NYC suburb, so the no aid full pay students, </p>

<p>Class of 2007, 210 grads, 120 went private/OOS public.</p>

<p>Class 2012- 205 graduates, 45 went private, 1 OOS public and 20 in state public. The remaining are commuting. 98 percent attend college. </p>

<p>HOPEFULLY employment will return to a place better than what is out there today. My D is a Engineer graduate 2012 and is still pounding the pavement looking for work. Everyone of her HS and college friends are all back home bar one girl who is from a fairly well off family who are paying her rent in NYC while she is working part time/looking for a real career job. They are all home because of unemployment/underemployment some with insanely high debt. </p>

<p>I know one young man who left a 4 year school to return to local CC and taking Engineering courses/requirements, already is doing an apprenticeship with a local engineering firm while at home and commuting to classes.
Best of luck.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-16.html#post15557250[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-16.html#post15557250&lt;/a&gt; indicates that there may be a few automatic large merit scholarships at those stats at schools with engineering:</p>

<p>Full ride: Jackson State+, Prairie View A&M
Full tuition: Alabama - Birmingham, Florida A&M, Howard*</p>

<p>+Relatively limited selection of engineering majors.
*Limited money available, awarded automatically first come first served, so apply early if interested.</p>

<p>There may also be lesser automatic merit scholarships at some of the other schools with higher automatic full tuition merit scholarship thresholds. Of course, higher GPA and test scores may open up more possibilities (she may want to try both the SAT and ACT; also make sure that the GPA is 3.5 unweighted, not slightly short like 3.49).</p>

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<p>if need be, move back home after college in order to pay off the remaining debt.</p>

<p>You can’t count on that.</p>

<p>After college, your child might:</p>

<p>1) find a job that isn’t commutable from your home.</p>

<p>2) want to live with a signifcant other.</p>

<p>3) may have become so used to living away from the parents that living under “house rules” causes too much conflict. </p>

<p>4) Your child may not find employment for awhile and you’d have to make the payments. </p>

<p>Also…you’d need to cosign those loans. Those loans will still be outstanding when younger children would need their loans cosigned. At some point, you may no longer qualify. </p>

<p>Too risky.</p>

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<p>To put some hard numbers down, have you figured out what you can contribute to her education? Let’s call this the family contribution = FC.</p>

<p>Many colleges’ financial aid calculations assume that a student can contribute $8,500 per year = $5,500 Stafford loan + $3,000 work earnings. If you and she do not want to depend on both the Stafford loan and the assumed work earnings, you can use a smaller number. Let’s call this the student contribution = SC.</p>

<p>Figure out your FC + SC = NPL = net price limit, then try to find schools with the desired kind of engineering where the net price after financial aid and scholarships is less than NPL. You can also look at it in four year terms, so that you can assess the cost of the community college -> state university route.</p>

<p>But beware that many students (particularly in high-credit-unit majors like many engineering majors) end up taking an extra semester or two, so it may be a good idea to try to find schools whose net prices leave a bit of breathing room under the NPL.</p>

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<p>Lakemom, thank you very much! I hadn’t heard of NJ STARS.</p>

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<p>Samiamy, many thanks for the info and good wishes.</p>

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<p>UCBalumnus, that’s great info, thank you! I had actually looked through that thread but not spotted some of those schools. I appreciate, too, the detailed info about the FC.</p>

<p>We haven’t done our taxes yet this year and will know more when they’re done.</p>

<p>I was thinking about trying to get a low-paying night/weekend job to bring in a bit of extra money… but wondering if that could actually hurt us when it comes time to fill out the FAFSA.</p>

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<p>So… mom2collegekids, you’re saying CC is our only option? Or is even CC an option, from your point of view?</p>

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<p>If you are going to apply for financial aid, try the net price calculators at the various universities to see what their financial aid estimates are (compare the resulting net price after financial aid grants (not loans) to your NPL as calculated above), rather than flying blind about what you actually can or cannot afford.</p>

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<p>Yes, I will do that, ucbalumnus- I’ve actually attempted to do so but needed info that I won’t have till after the taxes are done.</p>

<p>By the way, my d and I have also talked about the possibility of her joining the Peace Corps/Americorps after graduation. She is an excellent French student and wants to continue her language studies. I think a very motivated, adventurous, independent, French-speaking kid with an engineering degree could do very well in the Peace Corps, and I believe they offer some student loan help. Any thoughts on this idea?</p>

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<p>Have her look to see what kind of work the Peace Corps is doing in poor countries where French may be spoken (probably mostly former French colonies) that needs engineers of the kind she is planning to study to become.</p>

<p>Other charitable organizations doing work in poor countries may also have need for engineers (e.g. civil engineers designing clean water infrastructure, electrical engineers designing reliable electric generation and transmission infrastructure, etc.). Also, engineers not working in specifically charitable organizations may come up with innovations that provide people in poor countries with low cost means to improve their lives (e.g. mobile phones, hand crank battery charging for flashlights, radios, and other electric devices, $9 durable cardboard bicycle, water filter in a straw, etc.).</p>

<p>On the other hand, that is all pretty far into the future. The first step is to figure out how she can study engineering without going into too much debt.</p>

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<p>So… mom2collegekids, you’re saying CC is our only option? Or is even CC an option, from your point of view?</p>

<p>lol…uh, no. </p>

<p>The choices aren’t “take out big loans” or “don’t go to college.” </p>

<p>You have to strategize but you shouldn’t create a strategy that depends on your D living at home or even going into the PC after grad. At this point, you don’t know what her life is going to be like when she graduates. You don’t even know what major she actually will graduate with. </p>

<p>How much can you contribute each year to her education?</p>

<p>Will your D practice for the ACT and SAT to get the best scores? (have her take both)</p>

<p>Find colleges that will give her a large merit scholarship for her stats. Then, when you add in a Stafford loan, your contribution, and summer earnings, she’d have her costs covered.</p>

<p>What colleges are close to your home that she could commute to? </p>

<p>So, options could be:</p>

<p>1) Find a school that would give her enough merit.</p>

<p>2) Commute to a local university.</p>

<p>3) Commute to a local univ for two years and then transfer elsewhere.</p>

<p>4) Commute to a CC and then transfer elsewhere. </p>

<p>(the last two suggestions might require larger loans, but since the borrowing would only be for two years, it would be for half the debt.)</p>

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<p>You have plenty of options besides take out loans or “commute”. Head over to the school’s known for merit aid and the "where did your 3.3-3.6 kid get in–even the 3.0-3.3 thread has 100’s of options for schools that offer merit aid for students like your D. I would suggest you sit down this weekend and get a solid handle on how much you can pay out of pocket, if any. Give your D a working number and then cast the proverbial wide net-meaning, apply to a lot of schools to find the best merit aid. Often out of state private schools will give you more merit aid to attract out of state students. Find schools that have good programs for what she wants to major in and where her stats come in where she is in the top 1/4 of kids applying. You can find this information on the College Boards (SAT) website or by searching for the Common Data Set for the school.</p>

<p>You can also investigate schools that meet need. There is a list of about 60 or so schools that publicize that they meet need but there are 100+ other schools on that list that meet need or come very close to meeting need. That can save you 1000’s every year.</p>

<p>I caution you about the CC route because transfer students just are not eligible for as much merit as students that start out as freshmen. In our own experience, going to a CC would cost our kids several thousand more every year vs what they will end up paying at the private schools they will attend.</p>

<p>If she hasn’t already, get her signed up for the next SAT and I would also suggest she take the ACT if she is a strong STEM student. The ACT has a more well rounded approach and tests more subject areas and often for STEM students, they score much higher on that test because of both the math and science portions. Take both tests this spring because without those numbers, you can’t judge what she may get in merit.</p>

<p>Now we will hear from the nay-sayers that this can’t possibly be true but there are 50+ pages on the merit thread that say otherwise :D.</p>

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<p>I caution you about the CC route because transfer students just are not eligible for as much merit as students that start out as freshmen. In our own experience, going to a CC would cost our kids several thousand more every year vs what they will end up paying at the private schools they will attend.</p>

<p>This is very true. The CC to Univ transfer route usually only works well for those who either can’t get enough merit as an incoming frosh to go directly to a Univ…or for low income students who live in states where state and fed aid will cover most/all of the costs once the student transfers to the instate Univ (such as those lowish income kids who go from a Calif CC to a UC)</p>

<p>If your child has the stats for large merit than try to go that route. Years ago, a friend of mine thought she was “saving money” by having her high stats kids go to a CC first. She had no idea that they could have gotten huge merit scholarships as incoming frosh at the colleges that her kids eventually transferred into. Transferring in as juniors got them nothing, and they paid full freight. If the kids had gone all four years instead of only two, the total actual cost to the parents would have been about the same or less.</p>

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<p>You’d be surprised at the number of kids who move home after college to get on their feet. Some parents disagree with this but are paying rents somewhere else, etc to make it look like these kids are on their own. Some go to grad school to delay the loans - bad idea if grad school won’t help with job placement. Some move back after several years of being on their own. Some land wonderful jobs right out of school and are truly independent! The point is - be flexible to the idea of her moving home if need be.</p>

<p>There are many great colleges in you area that she can get merit money at. Try to find one of those. Don’t get in to far over your or her head in debt but go for the 4 year over CC if you can manage. Commuting to a 4 year, at first, seems like a sound option. </p>

<p>Have her apply to many schools and do a spreadsheet of options. It’s good that you are thinking about this now.</p>

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<p>Re: Peace Corps service and education loans
D3 just accepted a Peace Corps position. There is the possibility of not having to repay a portion of any Perkins loans that the student has taken out. With 4 years of service, 70% of Perkins loans can be dismissed. As far as the Peace Corps and other federal loans, payments can be deferred during Peace Corps service. Those loans are not forgiven/dismissed.</p>

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<p>Back in the dark ages when I graduated from college, almost everyone moved home for a while. It’s certainly not a new trend. That “while” was often a year or less and if they didn’t move home, they rented places with several roommates to keep costs low. As long as they are working full time, why not. Also, back then VERY few kids had jobs by the time they graduated. Most didn’t really even start looking until they got home after graduation. We told our kids we would prefer if they took a month off after graduation to recharge and relax. So far they are gainfully employed with no real issues…:D.</p>

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<p>Of the colleges ucbalumnus mentioned, prairie view, Howard, Florida A & M, and Jackson State are historically black. Not sure about Alabama Birmingham. </p>

<p>OP, I don’t think you mentioned your daughter’s race, but no matter what it is, make sure this is something your kid would consider. Also check out the graduation rates at these schools.</p>