Loans and paying for college ?'s

[dreamin_disney]

Hello. We've been looking at colleges for DD. She will start in August of this year. She is our only child and Hubby and I did not attend college. This is all very new to us. I sat down tonight a made a list in excel of the main cost: Tuition, housing and meal plan.

The housing and meal plan have a monthly payment plan or pay full by semester. Here is where I hit a wall. My DD doesn't qualify financial aid or cal grant.

A private school send her a fact sheet and she earned achievement award of $25,000 for 4 years, plus something else but e cost out of pocket for tuition, housing and meal plan would cost us $22,000. Its showed a loan amount she qualified for $7,000.

A state school is cheaper but I believe they don't offer $$ like the private schools. She is interested in the state university because its a lot cheaper.

How do the loans work? Do we go out and look for our own loan? Do we do it through the school admissions and they have a list of lower % rate loans??? How do the loans work for housing and meal plans and books do we request a certain amount to over all cost or we get what we qualify for?

My daughter has applied for over 40 scholarships and plans to apply for m at the school she plans on attending. Where do we go from here . Its our first time going through this. Thanks in advance

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

DD went last fall and DW and I went 20 years ago, everything is different so don't feel bad. Nothing was like we experienced. DD got all types of scholarships for private and out of state colleges but it boiled down to in state tuition/housing was overall cheaper by far. She didn't receive any scholarships (even though she applied). FAFSA application was mandatory but she qualified for a loan of 10% of her yearly tuition because it is based on our parents salary. Luckily we have savings which should cover the first three years but after that we are not sure? she will probably have some sort of private loan we will have to cosign (not really thrilled, but since so many people don't repay their loans, this is the way it is). I know they offered to break up the semester tuition into 3? payments during the semester but there was a pretty steep fee to use this service. It's not an easy process... best advice don't wait till the last minute, stay on top of it all...

 

[Southernmiss]

Hello. We've been looking at colleges for DD. She will start in August of this year. She is our only child and Hubby and I did not attend college. This is all very new to us. I sat down tonight a made a list in excel of the main cost: Tuition, housing and meal plan.

The housing and meal plan have a monthly payment plan or pay full by semester. Here is where I hit a wall. My DD doesn't qualify financial aid or cal grant.

A private school send her a fact sheet and she earned achievement award of $25,000 for 4 years, plus something else but e cost out of pocket for tuition, housing and meal plan would cost us $22,000. Its showed a loan amount she qualified for $7,000.

A state school is cheaper but I believe they don't offer $$ like the private schools. She is interested in the state university because its a lot cheaper.

How do the loans work? Do we go out and look for our own loan? Do we do it through the school admissions and they have a list of lower % rate loans??? How do the loans work for housing and meal plans and books do we request a certain amount to over all cost or we get what we qualify for?

My daughter has applied for over 40 scholarships and plans to apply for m at the school she plans on attending. Where do we go from here . Its our first time going through this. Thanks in advance

She is starting college in 2017?

Most merit award deadlines for colleges were before December.

I'm afraid it's a bit late for this fall. You need to be in touch with the college she's interested in today for answers to your questions.

 

[Southernmiss]

.

 

[kymom99]

I have a son starting in the fall as well. Also going away. I think merit scholarships here required enrollment by feb 1 but other foundation type scholarships vary in when they are due and announced. I don't know how loans work but you can ask at the university she chooses. We met with an admissions counselor and got a lot of good information. He told us what offices to contact when he didn't have answers for us.

 

[runwad]

First off welcome to the club! College today is so complicated. Check out the forums at collegeconfidential, they help with all things college. Don't get discouraged if your kid isn't a genius who got a perfect score on her ACT just skip over that stuff and look for the info you need. They have a Financial Aid section there and those people really know their stuff.

First off you have to fill out the FAFSA https://fafsa.ed.gov/ with all your financial info. Once you do the form is sent to the colleges of your choice and they will come back with a financial aid package for you, most of which yes is in loans.

Students can get loans from the Federal Government in the amount of
$5500 Freshman Year
$6500 Sophomore Year
$7500 Junior & Senior Year
For a total of $27,000 for 4 years

Also on your "aid" package there will be loans that parents can take to make up the gap and those are called Parent Plus Loans.

I'd stay away from any private loans because those have interest rates that usually aren't fixed.

 

[kymom99]

Also have your daughter consider working on campus. I told my son this is the best way to earn money because they are in tune with your class schedule. This was reinforced by the admissions counselor we met with as well as one of his high school teachers with a daughter in college. Working off campus has its drawbacks, such as transportation issues, scheduling around classes, etc.

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

Also have your daughter consider working on campus. I told my son this is the best way to earn money because they are in tune with your class schedule. This was reinforced by the admissions counselor we met with as well as one of his high school teachers with a daughter in college. Working off campus has its drawbacks, such as transportation issues, scheduling around classes, etc.

Yes! I will second this- working on campus is another great way to help with money. They usually pay a little more than your typical job for a college student would, too. I worked off campus and made only minimum wage, while friends on campus made $9 or $10 an hour. Two things to consider, however, with on campus jobs are 1) Depending on the size of the school they can be very limited and thus, very competitive. 2) While they do work around your schedule, sometimes they also limit the amount of hours you can work per week. this is a good thing in a way, since it's important not to overwork and make room to study, but if you really need the money this can be tough.

First step for loans would be to fill out the FAFSA, then go from there.

 

[kymom99]

Hello. We've been looking at colleges for DD. She will start in August of this year. She is our only child and Hubby and I did not attend college. This is all very new to us. I sat down tonight a made a list in excel of the main cost: Tuition, housing and meal plan.

The housing and meal plan have a monthly payment plan or pay full by semester. Here is where I hit a wall. My DD doesn't qualify financial aid or cal grant.

A private school send her a fact sheet and she earned achievement award of $25,000 for 4 years, plus something else but e cost out of pocket for tuition, housing and meal plan would cost us $22,000. Its showed a loan amount she qualified for $7,000.

A state school is cheaper but I believe they don't offer $$ like the private schools. She is interested in the state university because its a lot cheaper.

How do the loans work? Do we go out and look for our own loan? Do we do it through the school admissions and they have a list of lower % rate loans??? How do the loans work for housing and meal plans and books do we request a certain amount to over all cost or we get what we qualify for?

My daughter has applied for over 40 scholarships and plans to apply for m at the school she plans on attending. Where do we go from here . Its our first time going through this. Thanks in advance

Did you fill out the fafsa? It opened this year on October 1 for next fall, which was a change. My son's school had a senior/parent night to go over all that with us. Guidance counselors should have given lots of information about all this. Private schools give a lot of aid but percentage wise you will still be left with a big bill. My son wanted to run for a small school until he saw how much more they cost. We finally chose a state college based on the programs they offer which are in line with what he wants to do. Sad thing is, we have a state university 5 minutes from us. It doesn't offer his major, so he is going away.

 

[MrsPooh]

Also have your daughter consider working on campus. I told my son this is the best way to earn money because they are in tune with your class schedule. This was reinforced by the admissions counselor we met with as well as one of his high school teachers with a daughter in college. Working off campus has its drawbacks, such as transportation issues, scheduling around classes, etc.

At my daughter's school the only on campus jobs are work-study. This was the same when I attended college many years ago. However, both were at smaller schools.

Work-study jobs are a part of the financial aid award and if you do not qualify you may have trouble getting an on campus job.

 

[tvguy]

At my daughter's school the only on campus jobs are work-study. This was the same when I attended college many years ago. However, both were at smaller schools.

Work-study jobs are a part of the financial aid award and if you do not qualify you may have trouble getting an on campus job.

Same at my son's University, but it was smaller and basically they had more jobs that they had students.

 

[dreamin_disney]

First off welcome to the club! College today is so complicated. Check out the forums at collegeconfidential, they help with all things college. Don't get discouraged if your kid isn't a genius who got a perfect score on her ACT just skip over that stuff and look for the info you need. They have a Financial Aid section there and those people really know their stuff.

First off you have to fill out the FAFSA https://fafsa.ed.gov/ with all your financial info. Once you do the form is sent to the colleges of your choice and they will come back with a financial aid package for you, most of which yes is in loans.

Students can get loans from the Federal Government in the amount of
$5500 Freshman Year
$6500 Sophomore Year
$7500 Junior & Senior Year
For a total of $27,000 for 4 years

Also on your "aid" package there will be loans that parents can take to make up the gap and those are called Parent Plus Loans.

I'd stay away from any private loans because those have interest rates that usually aren't fixed.

we filled out FASFA the first day it opened up. Hubby tried going back in to update our tax info but it wouldn't let him change it.

Only one private schools send back a letter with a facts sheet. The 2nd private school sent a letter saying they will give $6000 per year for next four years.

She applied to 7 schools and got accepted to all 7. I haven't seen anything about loans or loan offers. Are parent plus loans considered private loans? Is the interest rate high?

 

[dreamin_disney]

She is starting college in 2017?

Most merit award deadlines for colleges were before December.

I'm afraid it's a bit late for this fall. You need to be in touch with the college she's interested in today for answers to your questions.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Yes fall 2017

She is starting college in 2017?

Most merit award deadlines for colleges were before December.

I'm afraid it's a bit late for this fall. You need to be in touch with the college she's interested in today for answers to your questions.

fall

 

[LadyD]

You mentioned tuition, housing, and meals as major costs for school. Depending on her major, books can be an astronomical cost each semester too, so don't forget to build that into the budget. If she knows her major, see if there is a way to look into the average book costs each semester to budget that as well.

As a science major, it was not often that I could purchase an older edition of a textbook for a class, and for core science classes there is generally a new textbook edition released every year (and since they updated so frequently I could rarely sell them back for more than $20 at the end of a course). Each of those books was easily $200-$300, and with 4 or more classes, I was dumping $800+ on textbooks every quarter (I was on the quarter system, not semester) if I bought all the books.

As a recentish grad, I strongly advocate for attending the school that is going to result in the least amount of loans. Even a moderate amount of college tuition debt really eats away at those entry level salaries you face coming out of college. Unless your daughter is enrolling in a major with a high job placement and high initial average salary, those student loans that don't seem like that much while in school certainly eat up a huge portion of your salary once you leave college for the real world. It hurts.

 

[kymom99]

we filled out FASFA the first day it opened up. Hubby tried going back in to update our tax info but it wouldn't let him change it.

Only one private schools send back a letter with a facts sheet. The 2nd private school sent a letter saying they will give $6000 per year for next four years.

She applied to 7 schools and got accepted to all 7. I haven't seen anything about loans or loan offers. Are parent plus loans considered private loans? Is the interest rate high?

Oh that's good that you filled it out. I thought, but I'm not sure, that freshmen can take $5500 in federal loans. My good friend's daughter takes the max every year. My son also got $6000 a year for 4 years at the state university. I can't tell you how close he was to the next level, $10,000 a year. He took the ACT 4 times and it just wouldn't budge. The school he committed to just sent us a financial planning letter a week or so ago based on his fafsa results. It listed that he is eligible for $5500 in loans.

In Kentucky we also get KEES money based on gpa each year and act score. He will get about 2300 each year from that program. He will not need any loans the first year thankfully. I don't know after that. He has applied for numerous scholarships, so hopefully he will get at least one.

Good luck, I hope you find all the answers you need.

 

[danygirl]

Each college should have given you a breakdown that tells you how much scholarship//grant/loan/expected parent contribution. If you did not get a letter your child will have a login to their account and it will be there. Check with your high school's college counselor and ask for help. Ours met with us the summer before and sent out packets to the students with information about specific scholarships they qualified for. She was instrumental in helping dd1 win $20,000 that could be used at any university and dd2 winning a free ride at her dream school.

 

[runwad]

we filled out FASFA the first day it opened up. Hubby tried going back in to update our tax info but it wouldn't let him change it.

Only one private schools send back a letter with a facts sheet. The 2nd private school sent a letter saying they will give $6000 per year for next four years.

She applied to 7 schools and got accepted to all 7. I haven't seen anything about loans or loan offers. Are parent plus loans considered private loans? Is the interest rate high?

If memory serves me right, you get the acceptance letter, then later you get the financial aid packet. I think we got that in March for freshmans so maybe you have to wait a little more? Or you can call the schools and ask them when they will be sending out your aid packet, they all might have different schedules.

I can't really answer questions about the Plus Loans because we don't take them. Both of my kids got a little scholarship money, they work, and we have a some $$ in 529 plans for them. My goal is to get them out with as few loans as I can. My oldest lives at home and commutes, the middle one, goes about an hour away but she got enough scholarships and grants to bring her cost to the same as her older sister pays to live at home and commute.

I just flat out told the kids we wouldn't be co-signing any loans for them as we have multiple schools within commuting distance. I'm really against loans for all the reasons mentioned by another poster. But everyone has to do whats right for their family.

Here's a link with some info on the Plus loans
Summary: The Parent PLUS Loan is a federal student loan available to the parents of dependent undergraduate students. The Parent PLUS Loan offers a fixed 6.31% interest rate for the 2016-2017 school year and flexible loan limits. To be eligible, a parent can't have an adverse credit history.
Parent PLUS Loan Overview | Edvisors
https://www.edvisors.com/...loans/.../parent-plus/introduction-to-federal-parent-plus-loan...

 

[C-CMom]

I liked the book Paying for College Without Going Broke (used copy from half or amazon or from library!) and have referenced website FinAid.org.

Good basic info in both.

 

[familyfirsttimer]

We are in the same position where it's all new to us. We found that the Financial Aid offices at the colleges are your best resource for your options. I would give them a call or make an appointment to sit down and go through your specific situation. It is SO overwhelming and I feel unsteady as to where we are headed as well. Think she's going to have a lot of loans in some combination. Good thing she's heading into nursing and expected to get out making a good starting salary.....