I am white and straight. Both of my parents attended college. I come from an upper middle class family. Our family income is roughly 130k. We don’t drive fancy cars but we don’t drive beaten down cars that are 20 years old. My parents have told me that they can provide 20-25k per year for my college education. However, I have dreams and aspirations of going to a school who’s full cost is 65-70k annually.
Now, I have sent my fafsa, CSS profile, and tax documents to all schools that ask for it. However, I’m anticipating that I won’t receive any aid because of my parents salary. Yes, I know the CSS profile asks about assets and investments and all that. My family still owes more than 200k on our home and a similar amount on the primary mortgage. We also don’t have any investments. This is the only reason I did the CSS profile… but again, I’m not hopeful for receiving aid. Please correct me if I’am wrong.
Lastly, you might be wondering why I said I was “white and straight” in the first sentence of this post. I said this because I have been looking at the non-merit scholarships that the schools I’ve applied to provide. Almost every single one of these scholarships has to do with being black, Latino, a first generation college student, identifying with LGBT community and/or demonstrating financial need. Obviously these do not apply to me. Please don’t interpret this as an attack on the groups that I mentioned. I am all for diversity and I am accepting of all differences.
This all brings me to my question: how will I afford to go to a school that costs 65k+ when my parents have told me they can only provide 25k a year. $160k worth of loans is truly a death wish.
First…did you and your family use the net price calculators on EACH college website? They give a good estimate of your net cost.
If your “dream school” is not affordable, you will need to just move on.
There are tons of colleges on this country. You are very fortunate that your parents can contribute $25,000 a year to your college education. That is a wonderful gift. Add the Direct Loan of $5500…and you have $30,500 for your freshman year…and that doesn’t include the summer job you should have.
This $30,000 should pay for at least one of your instate public universities.
If you are a VERY strong student…you might have garnered merit aid at some schools…assuming you applied to them. Looking at your past posts…that doesn’t sound likely.
For most people, dream won’t come true. For the top schools that only offer need based aids, affordability is more predictable. You should not even put a school on the list without first checking the NPC.
Absolutely true. Even $60k of loans is a lot and will probably end up being painful. The vast majority of students need to take cost into consideration when deciding where to go to university.
As @thumper1 has correctly pointed out, you should be running the NPC on each school that you apply to. It should give you a pretty good idea what each university is likely to cost. If your parents were divorced, self employed, or owned rental property or a small business or farm the NPC’s are less accurate. However, lacking any of these things the NPC’s tend to be relatively accurate.
“how will I afford to go to a school that costs 65k+ when my parents have told me they can only provide 25k a year”
Frankly, most students just can’t afford to do this. Also, as I suspect you have probably heard many students take on a crippling amount of debt in order to go to university. Some students have started at schools that are this expensive but then had to drop out for financial reasons (such as an inability to borrow more) part way through and end up with huge debts but no degree.
Some students can find universities for $25k or less through merit scholarships or through picking an in-state public school. Some can get costs this low through need based aid. Some students need to start at community college. We found schools that cost less than this by virtue of the fact that we live in the northern US not all that far from the US/Canadian border, and there are schools on the other side of the border that cost about $25k in US dollars even for an international (ie, American) student (we were however helped by having dual citizenship which makes them cost a bit less).
It is probably also worth mentioning: Depending upon which state you live in, in some states the in-state public universities will cost well over $25k per year. It depends upon where you live, and to some extent whether you qualify for merit based aid. For us in-state would have been no more than $25k/year.
You definitely have financial need if you want to go to a $70K school. The question is, do they meet full financial need, if they don’t, then you really have no chance of affording it.
Every college is required to have a net price calculator. Enter your data on each website to see if any of your current schools are affordable. If you cannot find it, look up the school on collegedata.com, then select the money matters tab, and click on “net price calculator URL”
You will probably be offered some aid at schools that cost 65K, but probably not enough to get your cost down to 25K.
@thumper1 Actually, I have applied to some safety schools: University of Oregon (my state school) and Arizona State. I have received merit aid from both and more can very well be on the way. Im saying this because I applied for more merit. I could go to either of these schools without any or very little loans.
I don’t consider my self a VERY strong student. I believe that I am just solid. 1440 sat, 3.85 UW gpa, 4 ap’s (all my school provides), 2 sport varsity athlete, and a good amount of community service hours. I mean I don’t think anything in my stats screams “very strong student.” I have seen much better.
Also, I have ran net price calculators on all the schools I’ve applied to except Oregon and ASU lol. I just never believed they were actually accurate. However, thanks to @DadTwoGirls and the points he made about the NPC’s in the 3rd paragraph of his comment, I feel much better now.
Also, @thumper1 , you’re right. 25k from my parents is an absolute blessing and I understand that. I will also have a summer job to help pay for my education and I’m also considering working during school. However, I want to pursue a double major so I’m not sure how that is going to work out.
Run the NPC on all the CSS profile schools you applied to. At many CSS schools thet ‘meet need’, 130k means a 2/3 to full tuition scholarship or close. With no investments and 200k to pay back in mortgage, you could well be within budget.
Run the NPC on each college, one by one.
Are ASU and Oregon within budget of your ‘lotrery schools’ fall through?
^ many students manage to double major in 4 years, unless they’re majoring in ’ preprofessional/vocational’ fields with prescribed sequences. In many majors, 2/3 courses are gen ed (which can fit into majors) plus electives. This however is impossible in engineering or nursing which have very little leeway (often, fewer than 20% classes are choices).
So are your parents divorced? Do they own a business? Are they self employed? Do they own real estate other than your primary residence?
If NO to the above, then you can pretty much believe those net price calculators.
Re: the $60,000 a year college…you will just have to wait and see. But really…it won’t be a dream if you have to take out HUGE loans…and anyway your parents would need to sign those. You have two affordable and good options. You might have to jettison the $60,000 school if money (or an acceptance) are not forthcoming.
@MYOS1634 it’s not impossible to double major as an engineering major. My kid did it. But it meant taking an overload of courses some terms. Kid also did take one course one summer. But she was working at her university anyway so it really wasn’t a big deal…and in her college case…the school charged far less in the summer than during the academic year.
It’s only one college in 3000. If you can’t afford it, scratch it off your list. You’re not doing yourself any favors by spending more money on a bachelors degree. A college does not qualify as a dream. It’s merely a tool to achieve to achieve real dreams. It’s no more a dream than owning a Chevy. Trust me, you have it good! Spend some time deciding what your interests are, then spend time finding colleges with majors that fit your ambitions.
@MYOS1634 yes both Oregon and ASU are within budget. I also just received an acceptance letter from Clark Honors College. Going to apply to Barrett as well.
Clark is very good. I’d take Oregon + Clark over ASU Barrett - even though Barrett is excellent, ASU as a whole has some issues (lack of funding and very rapid growth) that Oregon doesn’t. That being said, you can’t go wrong at either and if you want sunshine Arizona is hard to beat. You chose your safeties well.
Congratulations, you have good choices and you’re sure to go to college next year. Everything else is cherry on the cake. There can only be good surprises.
Also it’s all a matter of perspective, just the other day a student from another state said here on CC that U of Oregon was their dream school and it was way above budget for them.
So congratulations on your merit scholarship and honors college acceptance at U Oregon and U Az, I am sure you will do great things wherever you go!
Depending on the schools, you may get enough aid to make them affordable.
What does the dream school(s?) have that UO and ASU don’t? What is dreamy about them? Maybe there’s a way, if it comes to it, to make your UO or ASU experience dreamy. Honors programs with smaller classes and a different cohort of students, study abroad programs to get experiences your campus can’t offer, things like that.
