Parent Plus Loan denied, was relying on it for remainder of my tuition--

Paying for College
81

OP, I understand you applied ED and perhaps withdrew all other applications before you got decisions. BUT, just in case you did get an acceptance or two prior to withdrawing, perhaps you can contact those colleges and (1) see if the acceptances can be reinstated, and (2) if you are eligible for a financial aid package that is affordable.

I know a family whose kid changed his mind about his college around this time a few summers ago…and THREE of his other acceptances were happy to have him back. Family was a full pay family, though, so that possibly had something to do with it.

Doesn’t hurt to ask, though, if this is your situation.

Edit to add: OP, I really enjoyed reading your posts. You have a nice writing style and express yourself so beautifully. I honestly believe that you can and will be successful at any college. I can see why NYU wanted you, and I fully understand what it is about NYU that attracts you as well (the stimulation/inspiration of the city, the stimulation of other high-achieving writers/colleagues, etc.) In contrast to what others are saying, I think it is precisely BECAUSE you have chosen a difficult and artistic field that having the NYU name on your resume would be very helpful to a writing career.

HOWEVER, as others have noted, you cannot afford this right now. You will be operating in a world of stress and worry. Such things stifle the spirit; you could find your creativity and freedom to express bottled up and consumed by figuring out how to get by day to day. Listen to the advice you are getting here. I GET THE ALLURE OF NYU FOR YOU. But not at this point in your life. Just not doable.

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@123jove I am glad you posted here so we can have a current cautionary tale. Here is what I adived another student who is falling in ‘love’ with NYU"

Please read this thread. This student got so invested in NYU they didn’t give themselves any alternatives and now they are locked into thinking they must go there at any and all costs. They have no perspective, clear thinking or sensible parent adviser on the subject. Even though there are still alternatives. They simply are frozen into only one ruinous action because they lack the ability to conceive of any other path for themselves. They are frozen into a mental trap of their own making and will be paying and crippled by this debt for 20 years likely. Getting accepted to NYU has already cost this student dearly, s/he is now in a mental prison and will soon be in a debt prison. Hope it is all worth it for ‘living the life’ for the precious time until they have to leave due to lack of funds.

I told them to run the calculator to see if it is really worth the time and mental investment.

83

OP - do please understand that the parents on this board are genuinely trying to help you comprehend the magnitude of your debt - which you will have even with this new package you have been offered. It is clear you have a lot of talent, and so many of us felt you could do better with a gap year and receive better offers. We have nothing to gain by keeping you from being successful. FWIW, my parents were also immigrants on a tight budget, and I wanted to go to a pricey East Coast school when I was a teen (lived in the southwest at that time). It just wasn’t In the cards. Ended up accepting a full ride at my state university, went on to a prestigious grad school (in the East Coast) for math and became a professor. Having no debt was quite helpful as the salaries for profs are usually not very high.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best!

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When it is not affordable, a school of your dream will become a nightmare.

85

[QUOTE=""]
Your plan to attend NYU is still terrible. The most likely outcome is that you will end up withdrawing for financial reasons, possibly as soon as your first or second semester. If by some miracle you do not, then you will graduate with at least $70,000 in debt for a degree that is unlikely to lead to a significant starting salary.

[/QUOTE]

This is sooooo true.

When you consider the possible salary that someone with a degree in Dramatic Writing would get straight out of college, the idea of even having $30k in debt would be a big risk.

I suspect that the mom is encouraging this by saying that she’ll “sell her home” or some other crazy promise.

this young girl needs to pause, and try to foresee the future if her mom ends up selling her home and becomes a financial burden to this student. I know that there can be a feeling that “mom did so much for me, I won’t mind taking care of her,” but the reality is that you may not be able to afford to do that, and your future significant other may deeply resent that imposition.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304818404577350030559887086

Older article but still relevant - student loan debt delays home purchase, marriage, children, etc.

@123jove

87

I know a student graduated from UMich a couple years ago hoping to get into a career like OP and still has no job.

88

OP, one more parent chiming in here. We are a low income family and I sympathize with your predicament. I do hope you take to heart the comments made here. You set your sights on only one school, and it was an unrealistic one for financial reasons. A bit of research on this website would have told you that, but unfortunately, now you know. ED was also (as has been pointed out) a tactical mistake. The problem with loans is that 1) they are presented by schools as if they are money being “given” not borrowed 2) people often believe this, in your case, yourself, your mother and the adults you asked for help, and most importantly of all, 3) you have to pay them back. Your family will not be able to help you if you run into trouble making your payments. You will not have a safety net. This is why our kids knew from the start of their college search that the only loans that won’t cripple them are subsidized, and not in excess of $20 K for 4 years.

OP, many of the posters who have responded to you have a lot of experience in these matters. It would be terrible if you have to drop out because of unpaid bills…then cannot get your transcript released, meaning no transfer.

A friend’s son was in the same situation: immigrant family, low income. When he got into a well-known college they were thrilled. After a semester he had to drop out. Four years later he is STILL paying back loans. He saw his friends graduate last May. His hope now is to finish payments ASAP so that he can finally get a transcript sent and begin attending community college.

89

OP, one more parent chiming in here. We are a low income family and I sympathize with your predicament. I do hope you take to heart the comments made here. You set your sights on only one school, and it was an unrealistic one for financial reasons. A bit of research on this website would have told you that, but unfortunately, now you know. ED was also (as has been pointed out) a tactical mistake. The problem with loans is that 1) they are presented by schools as if they are money being “given” not borrowed 2) people often believe this, in your case, yourself, your mother and the adults you asked for help, and most importantly of all, 3) you have to pay them back. Your family will not be able to help you if you run into trouble making your payments. You will not have a safety net. This is why our kids knew from the start of their college search that the only loans that won’t cripple them are subsidized, and not in excess of $20 K for 4 years.

OP, many of the posters who have responded to you have a lot of experience in these matters. It would be terrible if you have to drop out because of unpaid bills…then cannot get your transcript released, meaning no transfer.

A friend’s son was in the same situation: immigrant family, low income. When he got into a well-known college they were thrilled. After a semester he had to drop out. Four years later he is STILL paying back loans. He saw his friends graduate last May. His hope now is to finish payments ASAP so that he can finally get a transcript sent and begin attending community college at 23.

90

OP, I’ll just weigh in again with some specifically Tisch-related thoughts.

There really isn’t, to the best of my knowledge, any such thing as a job you get with a playwriting degree. You write plays, or TV scripts, etc. But that’s a thing you do, not a salaried job. The way you live, after Tisch, is you hope to share a rent-controlled apt (word of mouth), and then you get by on random low-paying jobs that pay the bills (assuming you can keep your bills low) and are vaguely in your field, which if you went to Tisch means that you do things you learned to do there (like working a camera) through friends you happen to have from there (“there’s this rap video being made, they need someone else on the crew, we’re supposed to get lunch but you know how that goes, the posse will eat it.”) That’s if you’re lucky, because the other option is waiting tables.

As I mentioned, my brother (and a few other folks I know) really DID go to Tisch and really ARE working in their creative fields. Even making a living at it – NOW, many years later. But they weren’t saddled at the starting gate with $500+ a month debt repayment to drag them into some bleak backup-of-a-backup job. If they had been, there is no way in god’s green earth they’d have managed. Please put this mantra in to your mind: “I will not get a steady job after Tisch.” Repeat over and over.

Really, you won’t, and that’s okay, because creative degrees aren’t mostly designed to get people jobs. They give you skills, and then you scrabble for a living while honing your skill further and trying to get a break, which will NOT happen because of the degree but because of your skills and contacts (which may relate to the degree but not in a one-to-one way, as in an engineering degree) … and then maybe – maybe, someday – your play will be produced. (My brother has had a play produced; I wish I could say you’d know his name, but you wouldn’t. It’s a very nice play and people liked it and he made no money with it. As I said, he actually does work in the arts thanks in part I’m sure to what he got from NYU – even has health insurance, I think – but that didn’t happen for years and years.)

Debt is a dream destroyer for anyone in the creative fields in the US. The chances of becoming a successful playwright without going to Tisch (or after transferring there later) are WAY higher than the chances of becoming a successful playwright if you’re saddled with debt.

91

[QUOTE=""]
A friend's son was in the same situation: immigrant family, low income. When he got into a well-known college they were thrilled. After a semester he had to drop out. Four years later he is STILL paying back loans. He saw his friends graduate last May. His hope now is to finish payments ASAP so that he can finally get a transcript sent and begin attending community college at 23.

[/QUOTE]

^^^
This is just heart-breaking to read. It’s very likely that someone was waving some red flags in this instance, but the others were so excited for this student that he wasn’t well-advised.

92

There is a facebook page called NYUdebt, and several other web pages discussing debt at NYU. Just google it.

93

There’s a reason all those college grads have been protesting to get their loans forgiven!

94

Wow. I am new to this website. I was looking for colleges that offer merit scholarships and found collegeconfidential, and the title of this thread caught my eye. I just read through all 7 pages of posts. I am so glad I found you parents. I have learned so much in the past 1/2 hour. Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that there are no rants, just solid analysis and advice, from what sound like very experienced parents. Not admissions officers or guidance counselors, but parents.

My son is a rising junior, and to his credit he has already declared that he wants to go to our state school, which happens to have an excellent program for his intended major - double major in computer science and math, or maybe CS major and math minor, or maybe vice versa. He’ll figure it out. I have already taken a stab at the FAFSA trial form (can’t remember what it’s called) and the net price calculators for several schools. I was surprised to see a family contribution greater than our (estimated) EFC and thought it must be a mistake. But I see from some posts here that it is common. sigh.

Looking forward to reading many more threads. Thanks again.

95

^^^

Be award that merit scholarships can’t just be applied directly to that amount that you’re expected to pay>

Merit would get applied to “need” first.

So to reduce the amount that you’re expected to pay, the merit has to be soooo hugeeeeeeeee, so that it covers all of need and also covers some of the remaining costs.

96

Plus, students under financial stress take on jobs that have them working 35 hours a week. Guess what can happen next? Grades tank. Student dismissed from the university. End of that road.

97

If the facts in the above article are true, I find it disgusting that a school can’t give a talented, low income student a grant to cover their gap, but provides loans (which are later forgiven?) to their faculty for cushy vacation homes.

98

I’m willing to wager that the OP will attend NYU come hell or high water. This is what the typical NYU groupie would do and a year from now complain how much debt they have accumulated or how many part-time jobs they have to take on in order to stay at NYU. As a devoted “NYU groupie”, the OP will not accept recommendations and view them as useless babble. Given the risky undergraduate major, a job after graduation from NYU is of little or no concern. The OP primary focus right now is to attend NYU come fall 2015, after all, it is her dream school.

The OP starts out by trying to shifting the blame to other “adults” and minimize her inability to read a simple Financial Aid Award Letter, something High School students should be able to do or use the resources on the internet to wade through the information. The Financial Aid Office at NYU is always there to answer questions, instead of burdening the GC with FA matters, which is beyond the scope of their responsibilities.

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@123jove You have been getting great advice from the parents here. I hope you really take it into consideration. Another expense you need to think about is health insurance. Many colleges require you to have a plan that meets certain requirements and if you don’t have one, you have to buy their plan, which can be another $2000-$3000/year.

100

Re health insurance: that is often a big bonus for going to an in-state school. It certainly helped for my daughter.

And out-of-state private schools with generous need-based financial aid often have funds for which students from very-low-income families can apply. Unfortunately, NYU is NOT so generous with need-based financial aid.