[qypuote]Tufts is need aware and doesn’t usually give out much money
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Tufts is need aware but the school does pledge to meet full need for all accepted students…need calculated by Tufts.
They give out tons of need based financial aid per year to those who qualify. I don’t know why you would say the don’t usually “give out much money”.
You seem like a good kid. Strongly encourage your parents to run the net price estimators and educate themselves on the convoluted workings of aid so that you can move forward. It is not possible for you alone to borrow enough at these schools it seems.
I’m going to put another plug in for UT Dallas. You could graduate in 4 years for about $32,000 or $8000/yr. It is not a guaranteed scholarship but you do have the stats. Good school for computer engineering and many, many internships between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Austin.
@thumper1 He is upper middle class. @ANewName105 What is their combined salary. I realize a salary of say 200k doesn’t get you far in Mass but how are they planning for you to go to college? You take out $5500 year 1, $5500 year 2, $6500 year 3, $7500 year 4. That is all that you can take out. Are they think all the rest would be Parent Plus Loans? You might need a gap year to reapply to high merit schools like the University of Alabama http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html You would qualify for the Presidential scholarship which is 25k a year. But you need to apply by Dec15. You can’t take any classes at other colleges or you would be disqualified. Work during the gap year and save money. I think engineers receive even more money off. @mom2collegekids OP has a 1440 CR + M. So your final price would be about 13k a year I’d guess. You’d have to work every summer.
Your best values locally would be UMass/UMaine at about 24k. Lowell would be cheaper. You have to leave New England for better value. Maybe add in South Dakota School of Mines in addition to Texas ^ options. No help from parents is a completely different approach.
It’s $5500 for freshmen, $6500 for sophomores, $7500 for juniors and $7500 for seniors… But even a couple hundred dollars difference isn’t going to fully fund college for this student.
To the OP, you need to sit down with your parents. Find out what they hope to see you doing next year. If the say “we expect you to be in college.”, then you need to show them the costs of these schools. Have them do the net price calculators for each school. Maybe they really think college is less costly.
Are your parents self employed? Do they own a business? Do they own property other than your primary residence (rental property, vacation home)? Are they married to each other? Are they U.S. citizens? If no to any of these, the NPC might be inaccurate.
Oops, my bad Post 63. ^ @thumper1 is correct with the loans amounts. What school could you commute to, OP?
@TempeMom I’ll be running the NPCs once my father gets home from work tonight.
@GTAustin Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll be looking into UT Dallas. I’d hoped to keep whatever college I went to in the New England area so driving wouldn’t take so long, and I could avoid flights, but as @gearmom has mentioned, this isn’t cost efficient.
@thumper1 My parents are not self-employed, they do not own any businesses, they do not own any property other than my primary residence, they are married, they are U.S. citizens.
@gearmom Combined salary is in the range of $125,000 to $150,000.
@TempeMom @gearmom @thumper1 It seems that, based on what I’ve said so far, I can’t afford to go to anything other than the cheapest community college while commuting so as to avoid costs. I’m going to speak with my parents about this tonight for sure, but I think there has to have been some miscommunication between me and my parents so far. My father works in finance and they’ve already been through the college process with one of my siblings, so I don’t doubt that they know what they’re talking about when they tell me not to worry about financing college. I am unsure at the moment as to how they’re thinking it will be financed, but the idea seems to be that I’ll be taking on what’s not given in merit/aid as debt and trying to pay that off as soon as possible after college to minimize interest charges. Based on what you’ve all said so far, it’s impossible for all of my loans to be federal, so I imagine we’re going to use private loans. I suppose I’ll add an updated comment after I do some NPCs and talk about financing college with my parents. Thanks!
@ANewName105 how,did your sibling pay for college. How long ago did that sibling graduate?
Could you talk to your sibling about this? See how the sibling paid, how much in loans he or she took, etc. find out how easy or hard this sub is finding paying back those loans. Find out if the parents took the loans…or if the parents cosigned loans with your sibling.
Go back to reply #44. Tuskegee, Florida A&M, and Prairie View A&M have automatic full ride scholarships, so that any small incidentals can be covered by federal direct loans or work earnings. The others listed have automatic full tuition scholarships, which would probably be a stretch to cover with federal direct loans and work earnings, but may be doable if your parents contribute a few thousand dollars per year.
Dallas is nice. Glad UT Dallas is on your list.
OP, you mentioned Bowdoin. No engineering major there, and they do not really have merit aid (looks like average award is $1,000 for those who get it – I didn’t look at their website, but I bet it is a national merit finalist award, and there is no other merit aid). Great school, but doesn’t seem like a fit for you.
Also, Bowdoin’s deadline has passed.
Co-signed private loans are a terrible idea. If you MUST take more than the Stafford loans, then Parent PLUS loans rather than co-signed loans would be the less bad alternative, but still pretty bad.
Parents are expected to contribute off income and savings. Is there any reason your parents won’t? Or will they contribute the 25K you thought they had?
If you can reconcile yourself with the idea of computer science rather than computer engineering, look into the colleges that were previously listed that have 2/1 or 2/15 deadlines.
If not, try UMass Lowell in addition to the UMaine and UMass possibilities.
Run the NPC for UMN, since you’d qualify for scholarships.
Temple’s pretty good, too, and you’d qualify for merit.
Temples merit is right on their admissions site!
Hang in there @ANewName105, in my opinion this line of questioning, discussion is one of the things CC does best. You have received a lot of good advice here. You might call UMaine admissions to see if merit (if they have any left) can be stacked on top of the new match instate tuition initiative. If so, then this might be an affordable option.
Hey OP, another option to consider: take a gap year. You don’t have to make that decision now, because you may well find and be admitted to a school that is both affordable and one that you like. But if you learn about another school that seems to be much more likable and affordable, but unfortunately the application deadline has already passed, you could wait and apply next year.
Not a decision to be made lightly, but something to stick in the back of your mind.
Looks like full tuition still possible @ Temple
Go west young man! South Dakota school of mines has already been mentioned. Wyoming would cost about $7500 in tuition and $10k in r&b with your stats, and you might even get more money from engineering department. Utah is quite inexpensive and it’s easy to get instate tuition after 1 year (lots of scholarships for first year). Look at Montana, Idaho, New Mexico. It is not too late for any of those schools (some states have 2-3 schools with engineering).
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making it seem like anyone can afford college. They also expressed the opinion that graduating from a good school will land me a good job and I’ll be able to pay off all my debts, and that going to a lower caliber school might make it more difficult to find such a job.
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Their thinking is very wrong. Very naive. companies do not pay you more because you graduated from a particular school.
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currently intend to major in Computer and/or Electrical Engineering. I
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Apply to UAH…excellent engineering and excellent job, internship and co-op opportunities at Cummings Research Park.
your parents can’t pay anything out of current income, so frankly, you need to get as much merit as you can. The idea of taking out a bunch of loans is just foolish.
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My father works in finance and they’ve already been through the college process with one of my siblings, so I don’t doubt that they know what they’re talking about when they tell me not to worry about financing college
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Where did your sibling go to college for all four years? Did the sibling get any merit money? What was his/her major? How much did that sibling borrow total? and how much is that sibling earning.
this is what I don’t like…your parents have a good income, but can’t pay anything towards your college costs, yet they think that you’ll be able to pay off a lot of debt. hmmm…if they can’t pay anything with a much higher income, how would you make big loan payments with a much smaller income???
Plus…there seems to be a trend where parents with good incomes, but no money to spend on college, will absolve their guilt by just thinking big loans will solve the problem. Just provide a signature…and problem solved (or really their guilt is solved.)
Perhaps the parents have spending habits greater than their incomes, may be in debt to (temporarily) sustain their spending habits, and not think how much of a constraint high debt can eventually become. It probably is not that unusual for people of all income levels (including high enough for no financial aid anywhere) to have spending habits greater than their incomes.