roselie

Hi everyone. I'm not sure how many people on this board have kids already in college but I was wondering how others have managed to fund a college education. I'm a single mom working as a teacher, so my daughter's acceptance at Stanford has been a challenge, even with the few grants we were able to get. I'm in a bracket where I can't really apply for financial hardship but paying off PLUS loans still requires a lot of sacrifices. Any thoughts or words of encouragement would be helpful.

fallon

I don't have any advice to offer but good luck to you and your daughter, even though it's a hardship you must be so proud of her

Kaytee

I also don't have any advise good congrats on Stanford!!!

My parents did not help fund my college degree. Now they gave me money on the occassion something came up. twice that I can recall. I always had to pay them back though. I have a lot of student loans that I am "trying" to pay back, its mega hard. All I can say is that your dd should try her hardest to get scholarships and such. There are many webistes and books you can go to to find out about them. THings like essays and such. Good luck!

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horsfield

I'm in the same situation with my college undergrad (congrats, by the way!). Stanford is private, so the price is a bit heftier, but a lot of people feel the education is worth it. You could have your daughter look into scholarships, etc, although many of these are ridiculously competitive. I also took out PLUS loans and started repaying over this summer -- basically I had to just consolidate and start paying off at the lowest plan (a lot of places have a sliding scale based on income, too). That's really the only thing you can do.

There's also currently a bill that wants to reform student loans, which I think is fantastic, but it will only apply to incoming freshmen of this year, and it will probably run a lot of lenders out of business; bad for people like us with high interest rates. For example, I consolidated with the Educational Loan Company; after two years of on-time payment my interest rate will drop by 2.5%. But if the bill passes, these companies would have to drop their inventive packages, leaving current loan-holders in the dust. Anyway, I'm just saying that it's option that may not be open for much longer, unfortunately -- although I may save money when my younger daughter goes to college, which I'm certainly looking forward to. If you have any other questions feel free to pm me.

Joyce

I am also very interested in this subject. I believe both my two daughter are college bound. My 15 year old has her heart set on college already, so we want make that happen for her in 3 year.

tater03

First congratulations to your daughter. As for the financial brackets where you can get help. I feel they are absoulutly ridiculous in the amount parents can make.
I have two young sons and thinking about the cost of a college education when they get old enough is enough to make me sick.

PennQuaker09

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Stanford has a need based financial aid system right? I wonder what freaking bracket they put you in. Most of the Ivy League and Ivy caliber universities are all giving out much more financial aid than your average university.

Because she's attending Stanford, she is practically assured a great job when she graduates. So for that reason, I think alternative student loans might be a good way to go. Unlike Federal loans such as the Stafford, alternative loans are credit based so someone would have to cosign the loan for her, but the advantage is that she can pay the loan back when she graduates. This would save you from having to get a PLUS loan, which you would have to start paying back. Technically, this would be her loan, but you could help her out with it. I know you might feel like you have it bad, but trust me, Stanford undergrads have one of the lowest graduation debts in the country.

I'm a college counselor on the side and I had one girl who had her heart set on NYU (wants to be an actress, I'm rolling my eyes) but in terms of financial aid she would have been better off going to Yale (excellent drama department). NYU has a horrible financial aid program. And I think NYU runs somewhere around 52000 a year, so I urge you all steer your kids in another direction. Princeton University has the best financial aid program in the country, for those enough lucky to get in. Any student who qualifies for aid, has 100% of their need met. They don't make student take out any student loans. Even if a student comes from a family with a income of 120K and they qualify for aid, loans are not a part of the financial aid package. They're aiming for a more socioeconomically diverse student body.

For those of you who have high schoolers, I have to emphasize that just because a school costs 30K+ doesn't mean it's out of reach. Some private schools offer excellent academic scholarship programs as well as need based programs. At Tulane, I had the Dean's Honor Scholarship, it covered 100% of the tuition. I'm not sure what the requirements are now, but when I applied you had to have an ACT over 33 or an SAT above 1450 in addition to being at or near the top of your class. I know that the SAT requirements have changed because the SAT is now scored on a 2400 point scale. I don't currently have any students applying to my dear old Alma Mater. State schools are really big. High schoolers are hard headed, I keep trying to tell them that even if you have high scores and grades applying to the big state schools is basically a waste of time and money. The I have one I'm trying to talk out of applying to Columbia. It ain't gonna happen unless daddy can buy a building or something.

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AmyL

Wow, that's fascinating information. And I had no idea. And now I'm scared, lol. 52,000 a year? Soo, with 4 kids I'd be paying a cool hundred grand a year for 8 years at today's tuition rates? I better try and win a lotto.

Just kidding. I'd heard that there were private sources available. Can you give us an idea of where to start looking? I've got 9 years to solve this problem, better get moving.

PennQuaker09

Well, not exactly Amy. Personally, sending your child to NYU is like sending them to a large state school. NYU has about 21K undergraduates, which makes for a crappy student teacher ratio. Plus, its overpriced. Maybe because it's in New York City, but if you're going to go to school in NYC, Columbia is the best bet. Unlike NYU, Columbia has an actual college campus. The trade off is that it's in Harlem, but I didn't have a problem with that. I'd take Columbia over Dartmouth (in the middle of NOWHERE), Cornell (in a cornfield, upstate New York is ehh . . .), and Yale (New Haven is DANGEROUS). Anyway, I'm digressing.

For you in particular, I'd make sure that your kids meet the requirements to get into Michigan State or Ann Arbor. Michigan is one of the top 5 public universities in the country. The top five, Berkeley, Virginia, UCLA, Michigan, and North Carolina, all offset the tuition of residents by charging non residents astronomically high tuition. Use this to your advantage. However of the 5, I think Virginia and North Carolina have the best overall financial aid programs. The average UNC student graduates with around 12000K worth of debt. The average Harvard student graduates with about 5000K in debt, and average Princeton student has about 3000K in debt.

I think whenever there is a high quality state school available, the school should be the students first choice. More often than not, your student is going to receive a great education and it's not going to cost a lot.

I recommend looking at schools that admit on a need blind basis and offer 100% of demonstrated need.

Right now, the cost of a college is increasing so much that private loans are becoming more utilized. As I said, these are credit based loans, so your student is going to have a good score to be able to get the loan. The advantage is that the loans don't have to be paid back until the student graduates.

If anyone has any specific questions, I'd be more than willing to answer. Most of my students (clients) have parents that can afford to pay 40K a year with no problem, but I have advice for students who aren't professional high schoolers.

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