Taking out significant student loans/paying for college

It’s really unfortunate that she will only consider the in state schools as a last choice. IMO it really doesn’t matter where you take your generals in the first couple years as long as those credits will transfer to another school down the road. Unless she is going to be able to get a job right off the bat that pays serious bank, it simply isn’t financially smart to rack up a ton of debt to go to a name brand school for undergrad.

Not to say your kid will, but so many kids (even some of those who were previously really good students) flame out in that first year. One of my cousins was a straight A student in HS and she completely crashed and burned under pressure in that first year of college away from home. Eventually she found her footing and ultimately graduated, but it took longer than she expected. Plus after taking a couple years off to work and explore different jobs, she completely changed course and ended up getting her degree in a totally different field than she started out pursuing. Years later, my niece did the exact same thing. She dropped out after the first semester, worked for a couple years doing different things, took classes online to become a pharmacy tech and after doing that for a couple years went back to be an RN.

More and more majors are requiring the major classes starting freshman year. My daughter is an architect major. She started her major classes day 1 her freshman year. Her general classes are spread out throughout the 4 years of a 5 year program. If she were to have gone the community college route to get her gen eds out of the way, she still would be looking at 4-5 years in her major because of having to take one class before the other.

I work in higher ed and public universities are generally quite transparent at what academic scholarships you can qualify for, based on gpa, and test scores, and geography. But those schools can be very selective for out of state students. They often do not offer much money to out of state students. However regional comprehensives often will offer instate tuition, and your student might qualify for a deep academic scholarship. And you can find some of the top ranked programs at regional schools, they may only be known for one or two things but they are often more focused on teaching than research.

Wether applying to private or public schools the sweet spot it to be above their average test scores, they will want your student to help give their averages a boost. Applying to multiple schools and then having some room to negotiate is a good place to be. In my experience smaller schools and private schools are more likely to negotiate. My daughter got a $5K talent scholarship because she had other offers.

Parent Plus loans seem to be the way many families pay for more expensive schools. Not something I was willing to do, but when my daughter saw the numbers she realized a regional comprehensive with a strong program of her interest and graduating with out any loans was the best way forward for her. S

The FAFSA is changing in a big way, it won't be available until December this year, it is typically available in October. So I am not sure how accurate the Net Price indicator will be, it was very accurate for my daughter when she was applying 3 years ago.

Parents

I agree that going into massive debt for undergrad can be a really bad choice... That said, there can be excellent reasons to go to a top-tier school for what you want to study: level of teaching, level of classmates, networking opportunities (which can be lifelong!), etc.

It depends on why you want to go to college. Everyone's got to make their own choices.

But the choice is ultimately yours, too, if you are asked to cosign loans.  Don't allow yourself to be pressured into doing it if you're not comfortable doing so.  Every financial advisor will tell you that your kids can get loans for higher education, but you can't get loans for your retirement, so don't cheat yourself to fund her.

My experience: full ride undergrad but $60K in loans for grad school at around 8.5% if I recall (and w/ interest rates up now, kids need to remember the difference it can make!).  My payments were around $650/mo I think for 10 years, and my starting salary was $42K.  We really scrimped for those 10 years and lived in a true starter house where our payment on a 15yr mortgage was less than my student loan payments! But, we finished paying my school loans a few months after moving into our "forever" house and one month after DD was born.  It's a massive relief to not have them hanging over us as we begin looking towards DD's postsecondary education/training in a few more years.  My advice: take only what you must and do whatever you can to pay it back sooner rather than later!

2 year junior college locally and save while attending there. Get a guaranteed acceptance agreement to transfer to the dream school as a junior. You will save a ton of money.

We had our daughter apply to a variety of schools - sizes, prices, private, public, etc. She had a a great ACT score and high GPA. From the very beginning we told her that money was going to be a factor in the decision. We had x amount that we would put up and that if she stayed under that, she would graduate from college debt free. In the end she attended a small private college that gave her their highest merit award and guaranteed entry into the program she wanted to get into. She also qualified for a really generous local scholarship that made attending this college very affordable. There were a couple schools that she applied to that could have been cheaper, but there was always a wait to get into the program she wanted to get into and many end up going an extra semester.

I felt like the more we got into it, my daughter started to really see the big picture. At first she wanted to go to one school because she really liked the admissions rep. Another one she thought she wanted to go to because she thought it was a big deal and then she visited the campus and was disappointed. A couple others she loved, but thought they seemed intimidating. In the end she made a great choice for herself and it was the one we hoped she would want to attend.

I don't have any personal experience here. My parents paid my college tuition. DD 23 did not go to college (we have a small amount set aside if she changes her mind and will help with what we can).

However we have very close friends who took out parent plus loans for their dd's private art school. She had a small scholarship. Supposedly she is supposed to pay when she has a job. Graduated in June and has applied for many jobs with not one bite. In the meantime they took a major hit in income.  They also did the same for their son who is still in college.  He's going for a better paying degree but is not happy and not doing what he needs to do to graduate. We are super worried about them.

Paying for college is so hard. I think avoiding debt as much as possible is best in most cases.

That is obviously a private, unsubsidized loan. A lot of students don't realize that some student loans start charging interest the.day.you.get.the.check! Three or four years of 16% interest on $28,000 really adds up, and they student ends up owing a lot more than they borrowed as soon as they graduate.  As I understand it, subsidized loans don't start accruing interest until 6 months after you graduate, but they often don't offer enough funds to pay the full cost of attendance each year. Filling that gap with a private loan is risky. Not only is the rate higher and interest starts immediately, I don't think they are eligible for the public-service loan forgiveness programs.

There are NO subsidized loans available for graduate students. That is why so many people with professional or PhD degrees have such high student debt.

**Disclaimer: I do not work in financial aid, but this is my understanding as it has been explained to me by those who do.

Pomona is a private college that’s why the tuition is double a state school she had to make sacrifices to go to. And going to community college for the first two years also lowers that cost.

Agree 100%.

Never underestimate the value of the liberal arts! I understand the emphasis on stem and business careers, but liberal arts Gen Ed courses still need to be part of the equation.

One of my favorite memes is this: A STEM education can teach you how to clone a dinosaur. A liberal arts education can teach you why that might not be a good idea!

I mean - depending on the nature of the admin or retail manager role, college-level math and an ability to write at a professional level may be important. But probably not for all roles, I agree. I was even thinking like software developers or IT people, but again - they're going to have math/logic pre-requisites for their major courses, and of course a liberal arts background prepares people to work and deal with folks from around the world, solve problems creatively, etc.  It's hard to say.