My EFC is $46K?!?!

mom2collegekids
Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:53:09 +0000

Parents have to do what they have to do…it’s a personal decision. We decided that we didn’t want our kids taking out any undergrad loans (which would all be unsub) for a few reasons…

1) One is going to med school and the other may go to law school - loans will be needed for those.

2) If they took out loans for undergrad, they could run out of borrowing power for professional school.

3) If they took out unsub loans for undergrad, by the time they began paying them back (after professional school), the accumulated interest would be high.

But, they do have some “skin in the game.” They both have merit scholarships that can only be kept if they maintain their GPAs. They knew from the beginning that if they lost those scholarships, we would not pay to make them up. They also know that because they got great scholarships, we will help them with professional school. So far…straight A’s from both kids. They also both have part-time jobs, so we don’t provide an allowance or anything like that.

However, I totally understand parents insisting on some student loans - especially if otherwise the parents have to pay out a lot of money. Without some “skin in the game,” some kids would take the whole thing too lightly and just waste their parents’ money!