Good luck OP!!!
@MYOS1634 my S was telling me about the confusion with those 2, so my bad!!
That’s part optimism and part inexperience.
Most people do not have experience with taking out large loans repeatedly in successive years. In other words, you buy a house once. Most people do not, a year later, attempt to buy another, and then, a year later, another again. But that’s pretty much what you’re doing when you commit to paying a school’s cost of attendance **every year **for four years. And just because you get approved for that massive loan the first year (or two) doesn’t mean you’ll get approved in subsequent years.
If your mom says this is doable, have her put her four-year plan down, in writing, so you can look at it and see if it makes sense.
Most plans that involve grandparents taking out loans are a bad idea. @PSU_Rotc, you’re not an only child, right? So they’re going to try to do this for a sibling too?
You need to be the fiscally responsible one here and take PSU entirely off the table. People who have to take on the kind of debt you’re talking about to afford a college can’t afford the luxury of being “stubborn.”
I think you’re asking yourself the wrong question. You seem to be asking, “Do I want a degree from PSU?” when the question should be, “Do I want a degree at all?” Accepting PSU’s offer and not only asking your parents to borrow year after year after year after year, but also asking your grandparents to borrow year after year after year after year means the likelihood is that you won’t get one. Too many things have to go right for it to work out. And you’ll be limiting the options of any siblings you may have because all the family finances will be tied up in your education. I understand you love PSU and would love to go there, but your first responsibility is to your family. If paying for PSU means your family has to take out more than the ~$5500/year federal student loan that you can take, it’s unaffordable. Turn them down and choose another college.
@PSU_Rotc to answer your Q:
Some schools stay on the list a long time, some go quickly! And, importantly, schools get added to it!
@austinmshauri I am not an only child but I only have one sister who has already finished college. So I guess for the sake of the argument, I am the only child that they will be putting through college.
I’m going to talk to my mom and figure out more of the details on her point of view.
Also, I believe I mentioned this earlier in the post, I have been considering joining he armed forces AFTER college. Not sure how that would effect my student loans. Also, does anyone know if students can join ROTC their sophomore year? I’m sure it’s filled up a bit now but I heard some kids drop out before the summer training thing is over.
I want to reiterate that I am not looking at the armed forces as just a way to pay for school. I’m interested in looking more into it (I like the idea of it), not necessarily fully on board with it yet
Seriously, you need to start looking at options now. Check the schools that still have openings before it is too late. The window of opportunity is finite. Many of the open seats and FA will disappear quickly. There is no guarantee that there will a school that you can afford and will be willing to attend but you don’t know until you look. Waiting until you exhausted all avenues of paying for PSU will severely limit your options. In this case, the early bird gets the worm.
When you make a major purchase (which 4 years or more of college is), you need a plan to pay for it BEFORE you make that purchase. Your plan seems to be that you will figure it out as you go. You already committed to PSU (a decision that is not binding) yet you are still trying to cobble together a plan to pay for it. You mention that ROTC might be part of the plan but you don’t plan on making that decision until after your first year. What if you decide it is not for you? What then?
I know very little about ROTC. You seem to think that you can just sign up. ROTC is extremely competitive and selective. I do know a friend (long time ago) that wanted to study computer science and ended up committing to being a “Missile Man” since that was the only option open at the time. Not his dream but that was the price he paid. Don’t assume you can just apply and get the assignment of your dreams.
No, it doesn’t. My brother was a career officer in the US Air Force. He’s always said that nobody should join the armed forces unless that’s what they were choosing as a career. It’s not a scholarship service and it shouldn’t be treated like one.
I agree with @noname87; the time to figure out how you’ll pay for college is before you start. Your initial posts said PSU would leave you with $160k of debt. The short answer is that there’s no way to make that affordable. There just isn’t. Even if your family qualifies for $40k in loans for your first year, it’s no guarantee that they’ll qualify for the full $160k you need.
Why are you so against choosing an affordable option? Many of us have taken gap years to earn money for college. Some of us started at community colleges while others commuted to 4-year colleges or dormed at (relatively) inexpensive universities. We got degrees with little to no debt and have had excellent careers. Why would you choose crippling debt for yourself and your parents when there are better options available?
@PSU_Rotc one school is not the end all be all. It’s really late in the college selection game but you’re not done with. Going off what others say there are options still: community college to cut costs, gap years, apply to cheaper schools, etc. For my situation it was literally April of my senior year when I realized I had no college options (other than cc) that I could afford, so I had two options: 1) go to cc or 2) apply to somewhere else in a gap year that I can afford. I chose option 2 because not only was I having health issues by the end of senior year that I needed time off but right around there I got on this website and found out about my future college and its scholarships…plus since I had 40+ credit hours of college credit, community college wouldn’t have been necessarily the best situation in my case for engineering. So I took the gap year, applied to this college, and got the scholarships I needed to attend, all while saving every dime I could from working full-time for living expenses that I would need in college.
It’s hard I know to change your mind when you got your heart set on something. But don’t cripple your loved ones with debt they cannot deal with. It broke my heart when I had to hear how my uncle and aunt took private loans for their daughter that died at 27…and they cannot discharge any of it. Nothing is more of an insult than to have lost a loved one and still have to pick up their debt tab…banks won’t be merciful if something happens to your family. Don’t borrow so much that it puts a noose around your family’s neck…
OP- you would have a lot more credibility with the adults here if instead of saying that you think ROTC has filled up a bit, or that maybe you’d enlist after you graduated and what would that do to your loans, you actually DID the research on what it takes to get into ROTC, and what the military programs are for financing a college education (both before and after the fact).
People are trying to help you but you are coming off as extremely tone deaf here. If you could lay out the various elements of your background that suggest that you’d be a strong military officer, then you might get some helpful information from the many ROTC parents and veterans here. But right now you are sounding inflexible and naive AND incapable of doing a google search on your own. Not qualities which suggest leadership and the ability to manage people.
I hate to be harsh. You are surely a nice kid and a good person. But your current financing plan will not work. Help us help you come up with plan B. We are telling you that you can’t do it because logically- you just can’t do it. You don’t have a plan in place for paying four years-- and getting 1/4 of a college education doesn’t do much for you.
Regarding naczc list, kindly provided above : You have to send your applications this week to all of those you’re interested in. If none are affordable, at least you tried. But if you decide to apply later, it’'ll likely be too late for aid. Whereas if you apply now and change your mind, no harm no foul, just decline your admission.
In another thread you said your parents can pay $11k/year. With the $5500 federal student loan and $3k summer work earnings that gives you a budget of ~$20k/year. Are there any colleges in NJ or on the NACAC list that a NJ resident with a 1760 SAT and 3.3 GPA can afford on a budget of $20k?
The [current NJ openings](http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx) on the [NACAC list](http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/College-Openings/Pages/College-Openings-Results.aspx) include [Stockton University,](Admissions | Stockton University) which is ~$25k for NJ residents, and [url=<a href=“http://admissions.rutgers.edu/costs/tuitionandfees.aspx%5DRutgers-Newark,%5B/url”>http://admissions.rutgers.edu/costs/tuitionandfees.aspx]Rutgers-Newark,[/url] which is ~$26k. Both are taking freshmen, have housing available, and offer financial aid. @PSU_Rotc, you may be able to afford either with just the federal student loans if your parents can contribute just a little more and you can do one or more of the following: work a little extra over the summer and/or during school, choose the least expensive housing and meal plans, and rent books instead of buying. It doesn’t hurt to submit an app to each one just to see what kind of package you get.
[William Paterson](http://admissions.rutgers.edu/costs/tuitionandfees.aspx), which is ~$24k for state residents, is also on the list.
Some private universities from the NACAC list discount heavily, too, if you can afford 20-25k.
MANY private universities on this list are better than your NJ choices and would allow you to go OOS at instate cost, with a better value (better academics and student life . a similar cost)
“Dude, this whole situation sounds borderline disasterous…”
Borderline disastrous? This is how you ruin your entire life before it even starts.
I don’t even understand the obsession with PSU. I grew up right near it. It’s good, but it’s not worth this much debt. In my opinion it’s not worth any debt beyond what you can take out on your own (about ~27k in debt).
This is beyond NYU-levels of delusion, and that’s saying something. OP, you absolutely cannot go down this road. Period. Turn back now, please.
“I’ll admit that when I made my decision I was both excited and dedicated to going to PSU. That hasn’t changed but I don’t want future me to regret it.”
Future you won’t be able to live on your own. Future you won’t be able to buy a car. Future you won’t have the money for a house. Future you won’t be able to settle down with a partner. Future you won’t be able to travel. Future you won’t be able to save, have an emergency fund, or invest towards retirement.
You WILL regret this choice. You have a window of opportunity right now to make a better choice. Please do.
OP – break the pattern and be the financially responsible one in your family. PSU is not worth it, AT ALL. Go to a NJ school you can afford, not a school where you have heard of the football team.
If you don’t want to apply to anymore schools, then go to a community college in NJ and save that $11 k your parents can contribute per year for two years and save it for when you transfer to Rutgers or another instate public 4yr university. Get great grades so transferring will be easier.