You might want to check some of the SUNY schools. Not excessively costly even for OOS students. And she could get merit aid at some.
You definitely will be able to reach your price point at University of Alabama, University of Mississippi, and Louisiana. Would your daughter be interested in that part of the country?
Miami of Ohio is worth checking.
Loyola Chicago is a great option and likely will meet her price point if she gets merit aid there. Chicago is a great city.
Look at Drew University in NJ. It’s a short train ride to NYC. Again…potential merit aid could bring her within or close to your budget.
Does this mean $120K in loans for undergrad? English majors who work in publishing or international relations majors tend to start at lower than average salaries.
Here are some calculators where you can see model loan payments and the salary needed to pay that debt.
Wellesley is one of the few schools that gives such good aid that she could actually go there. The NPC comes out with 35,000 a year cost total. While it’s slightly above what I would love to spend, that school is amazing. We did tour it and she liked it and I absolutely loved it.
To be honest, her first choice and she’s applying ED because she’s shooting her shot is Yale. I don’t think she has a chance with her extracurriculars, but she has no chance that she doesn’t apply and that has been her dream for years. Thank you, Gilmore girls. Our net cost for Yale, and most other ivies is under 30k. But, most of the safety schools or even target schools that she is looking at have an NPC showing much higher.
Yes, that is often the rub, and a safety is not a safety if it’s not affordable. Maybe look at Lehigh and Oberlin, they meet full need and have more attainable acceptance rates.
Also look here for states that give Maine residents tuition match:
And if she is applying for merit scholarships elsewhere, she MUST submit her applications to those colleges to meet the early deadlines many have for merit consideration. I believe Yale allows these early applications for merit aid…but you need to check their SCEA guidelines.
So, she could be doing a LOT of applications prior to Dec 1.
@L_Abbott could you clarify something. Do you mean you can pay $30,000 a year without taking additional loans as parents? So you are looking for a net cost in the $30,000 range? Is that what you mean?
Or will you need to take loans to pay a $30,000 a year cost for your child to attend college?
Definitely a good point. I suspect we will end up taking on about half of it and she would take the other half for repayment.
We’ve already had a conversation with her that when she gets all of her acceptances she’s going with wherever will cost the least.
Additionally, we have some family that may throw some in to assist with paying. I’m not banking on it, but she has a very successful Aunt and my daughter is an only child and an only grandchild and she is super close to her aunt so it wouldn’t surprise me. Plus this aunt is setting up a meeting for us with her financial planner so that our daughter can learn exactly what it is going to look like financially to repay all of this.
No, we have nothing we can pay out-of-pocket. Literally. We make good money for the area that we are in, and apparently good enough according The calculators that I’ve pulled out that they think we can afford about that a year. But it would all be loans.
Please understand…your daughter for freshman year can take a $5500 Direct Loan in her name only. Anything above that amount will either need to be cosigned by you…or take out by you. IOW…they will be your loans.
This sounds like you have a ready budget of about $15,000 a year to fund your daughter’s college costs. Is that correct…without any parent loans?
Are you planning to fund all four years of college with loans?
She can only take $27K in total…$5.5K first year, then $6.5K, $7.5K and $7.5K. The rest will be on the parents. Here are the current federal loan rates and vigs (parents would be taking the Plus loans, unless they have a private option):
I encourage you to work thru the financial scenarios with your D, so she understands what she is signing up for. Regardless who is paying, the monthly payment on $120K will be at least $1,200 per month. Show her the typical take home pay for someone in the publishing industry (or whatever) and how much she would be taking home per month, and make assumptions for other expenses too.
I am not making a judgment on that level of debt, just making sure your family has the tools to make an informed decision.
I would encourage your D to consider attending community college for a couple of years. That would be a less costly option.
We’ve actually visited quite a few schools, i’m not sure why you would get that impression?
She liked Wellesley, but I liked it more. It just seems so supportive. She’s a kid that’s grown up in a very small town in a pretty rural area who thinks that she wants a city but has never spent more than two or three nights in New York or Boston or DC.
She loved George Washington University, but the cost is a huge factor there and they don’t give enough merit aid to bank on anything. She will likely apply because she really did love the school, but unless they were to come out with their biggest merit aid offer that they give, it would be off the table.
We toured Boston College before I wised up and started looking at the NPC before touring. I should’ve done it first because she loved the school and it is 100% out of range for her. She now understands that that School is off the list fully.
We’re doing these tours in Western mass because I grew up in that area and those are the schools I know and I feel like they would be a decent fit for her. I feel like we are still stressing out what she really is looking for in a vibe. The school she’s connected with on tours have been kind of all over the place. But I just worry that other than Hampshire College, they are pretty competitive and I don’t know if she’s got what it takes to get enough merit aid to afford any of them.
She loves Yale- terrific. You are done at the reachiest reaches end of the scale.
It’s hard with a teenager I know- but it’s really time for her to focus on the match/realistic/safe part of her list because the longer Yale hangs out as the only college she can see herself attending- well, you know the odds.
Loved the suggestion of Goucher if the money looks like it could work. Take a look at a few of the SUNY’s (again, if the money is in line)-- a couple of them have very charming campuses. If she thinks she loves NYU (and frankly, I don’t see a snowball’s chance of it being affordable) she should look at Hunter and Macauley Honors. Both still attract the brainy/intellectually minded women (yes, Stars Hollow types) and both would be easy enough for a part-time job in media, publishing, whatever. Fordham at all close financially?
St John’s? Holy Cross? Clark? Agree with the suggestion of Wheaton above.
She sounds terrific. The hard part is figuring out how to get her a college education without burdening YOU with crippling loans. The very best gift you can give a kid is for them to know you won’t be moving in with them once you retire because you cannot afford to retire. It’s hard to tell a kid that you can’t afford a school that has admitted them. But it is many magnitudes harder to tell a kid “Dad and I don’t need much- just a roof over our heads, social security will pay for our food and incidentals”.
And these conversations usually happen at the worst possible time- your D’s spouse has just been selected for a fellowship in Boston and the only way to make it work financially is to live in Med school housing, or your D has just been promoted and is being transferred to Rome for a year. Ask me how I know.
Don’t sacrifice your retirement for her college education. Just don’t.
Then your budget isn’t $30k. Don’t forget when you borrow, you are getting less. 4% plus is gone up front in fees.
So English is a tough major - getting a job and salary wise. Doesn’t mean she won’t be different but based on reality, you are looking with 100k in loans ;which will net you just $96k or so ) - more than $1200 a month for ten years.
@L_Abbott I applaud you for starting this research now. It gives you time to actually look at the costs, etc.
If you think you can pay back $1000 or so a month in loan payments, try this. Put $1000 a month in a dedicated savings starting now…and see if that’s sustainable. If it’s not, that should give you some information you can think about.
Your daughter WILL get a college degree, she will. But it might not be exactly what she envisions right now…or you.
