Girlie AGDee's College Search Thread

[IrishLake]

Peppy is sooooooo wise and spot on with this. Had I known then what I know now, I would have gone to Ohio State. Our overall out of pocket costs between Ohio Northern (small and private) was the same as Ohio State. But I ended up with about $40K in student loans, only which about 30K is paid off to date. I don't know anyone with that amount of loan debt who went to OSU for undergrad.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

True. The out-of-state tuition + room/board at my alma mater = same tuition as any number of private schools. Although I think a lot of state schools around here give in-state tuition to kids from neighboring states (PA, WV, etc.) to try and pull kids from other states.

Some states have formal agreements with other states to count their students as in-staters. WI and MN had this for years, but I think it is ending soon.

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

As someone who attended a very expensive private university, if your daughter was sitting in front of me I would tell her to seriously reconsider it unless the school gives her a very generous GRANT package. I got good financial aid from my university, but it was only half grants. The loan debt is stifling for the first 10 years after you graduate, which is the time in her career when she will be making the least amount of money. And that was for a loan debt significantly lower than it sounds like she would responsible for. When she's paying $500-$600/month for student loans, it's going to make it hard for her to even move out of your house! That's how a lot of young people get themselves into major credit card debt - it's the only way they can afford to live.

YES. And also, just to throw a wrench into things. I think major universities do a terrible job of explaining to their students the financial ramifications of picking a major.

For example, at my school Economics majors usually went into accounting firms and started in the mid-$40K-$50K range. Engineering majors were going into positions in the $40K-$60K range. My brother is about to graduate with a Bachelor's in computer science, and has already accepted a position starting at $70K+.

If you're following a humanities track, expect to start in the low $30K's. All of my friends who graduated as English, History and Poli Sci majors were in that boat. I worked in politics for many years, and started at around $33K, and it would have been LESS had it been an entry-level job with a federal elected official rather than a city official (different pay scale that is somewhat averaged nationally, or something like that).

A family friend just graduated from an Ivy League school with honors with a somewhat obscure humanities major, and is making barely over $40K in a very expensive city.

I think this is a BIG something to keep in mind in terms of future finances.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

One of the biggest things that costs money, though, is NOT GRADUATING IN FOUR YEARS. This isn't to say that students shouldn't change majors, or that every class you want is always available, but students should be working with their advisors from day one to ensure they have everything they need to get out in time.

[Munchkin03]

I don't know--if you're good at reining in the loan amounts, I don't see anything terribly wrong with a small amount of student loan debt, especially if it means that you were able to go to a fantastic school. I don't agree with taking out loans for schools that aren't in the top 50, though.

My parents made a deal with me--go to my dream school and be on my own for grad school, or go to a state school and they'd pay for grad school. I took the first option and I have the grad school loans to prove it, but I'm so glad I went where I did. No regrets (even on the 23rd of the month ). I know people say that it doesn't matter where you went to college after the first or second job, but doors--both professionally and personally--keep opening up for me and I'm nearly 10 years out.

[KSUViolet06]

^^^I always tell kids to save the loan debt for grad school, as I think where you get your GRAD degree from matters more to your professional mobility than undergrad (unless you're in a field that allows you to reach your highest earning potential with just an undergrad degree.)

[DubaiSis]

I guess I always figured you go to a good full-service (so to speak) undergrad university and go to the most prestigious grad school you can afford. I had $10,000 in debt, and $110/month payments and THAT was hard for me. I can't image having to handle $500/month payments. And 30K? I didn't get paid $30K until just several years ago. My first job out of college, with a degree, paid $5.50 an hour. And I made rent, a car payment and a student loan payment. And I'll spare you the rest of the sob story, but I'm not a starving artist; I'd say I had a pretty typical situation, except that my parents paid for about half of my education which is better than a lot of kids get.

I would REALLY consider what it means to attend some of these schools, if Mom and Dad aren't (can't/won't doesn't matter) footing the bill. And maybe just maybe "only semi-prestigious in-state school" won't sound so bad.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

And 30K? I didn't get paid $30K until just several years ago. My first job out of college, with a degree, paid $5.50 an hour. And I made rent, a car payment and a student loan payment. And I'll spare you the rest of the sob story, but I'm not a starving artist; I'd say I had a pretty typical situation...

Wow. Well, I don't know how typical that is. For instance, minimum wage in my state is $9.09, and many many retail employers even pay more than that (when I worked at Starbucks in college 15 years ago they paid more than $10/hour, Nordstrom retail was $13 I think).

[AXOmom]

I saw someone on tv this month - some financial aide expert on a talk show I think, that said a college education at most schools will probably pay for itself in the long run up to $50,000 assuming the student majors in a "typical" (my words - not hers - I can't remember what phrase she used) field which were things like business, economics, etc. Above $50,000 and she said it isn't usually worth it anywhere unless you planned on lawyer, doctor, engineer, etc. as a career.

Between 2 kids we are right at the $50,000 mark which probably wasn't our wisest finanacial move, but I'm okay with it and right now we can handle it (knock on wood). I felt like their undergraduate education was our responsibility although my son did pay for part of his and daughter will pay me back the loan amount (I won't charge her interest) for this last year (since she changed schools and ended up going longer than her 4 year limit).

We had a friend who's 4.0 daughter (or close to it) went to University of Washington and majored in....ready for it....dance. I have no idea whether they paid out of pocket or got loans. I know they put 5 kids through college in under a 10 year period, and if any of them had scholarship money, I didn't hear about it. I believe in supporting your children, but 4 years away at college to major in dance....I would've...well, never mind what i would've done. Admitting to it would get me arrested.

[AGDee]

Just in: Rejected from Northwestern. She says she is fine, via text message. I was getting my nails done and couldn't talk on the phone. The reality of all this is hitting ME now. My heart is breaking for her right now because neither of us think she'll get into Columbia and Brown is extremely unlikely too. It would blow me away if she did get into Brown. That leaves Barnard, her true dream school and I'm not feeling at all confident about that right now. I know her test scores were low (for these kinds of schools) and that probably eliminated her from all of her top choices. She doesn't test well. She's a slow test taker. I will put on my happy face for her later. I talked with her some about how cool the neighborhood around DePaul is and how much we enjoyed hanging around there with the cool restaurants and shops. I talked up the advantages of still being one of the top students at a school rather than being among the cream of the crop. We talked about the awesome internship possibilities that exist in Chicago too.

College confidential's discussion board has crashed and has been down for a couple hours now. She tried to look on there to see if the international students who applied to Barnard got their emails yet. When they get their emails, then the snail mail acceptances have been sent to those here. Express mail large envelope for accepted.. regular mail, small envelope for rejected, so we'll know by the envelope.

There's just this problem that you want your kids to live their dream and it is heartbreaking when you realize that they might not be able to and some of the reason for that is that you simply can't afford to help them do it (in the case of American).

So for tonight, I'm going to be heartbroken for her, while she's not here to see it. Tomorrow I'll put on my optimistic face. And, until we hear from Barnard, I'll be doing a lot of praying. Please let my little girl live her dream...


Accepted:
University of Michigan- signed up for the Residential College program, waiting for financial aid package still
DePaul- Accepted- $52K scholarship over 4 years, brings the cost down to the cost of U of M, accepted to their honors program, financial aid package is pretty reasonable.. nothing out of pocket, about $51K in loans (yeah, that's reasonable compared to the next one and is about 1/4th of the total cost for four years)
American University- Financial aid package leaves more than $20K up to us and includes about $20K in loans, only $1700 of that is federal subsidized loans. I have no idea how in this world I would come up with $20K a year and that breaks my heart because, of the schools she has to choose from right now, this is her top choice.

Waitlisted:
Wellesley


Rejected:
Washington U.- St. Louis
Northwestern

Waiting to hear from:


Barnard
Brown
Columbia

[Sciencewoman]

*sigh*

Still keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Barnard, but she does have two great options so far. I was at a conference at DePaul two years ago. We stayed in a boutique hotel in the neighborhood and walked everywhere. I think it had a similar feel to Ann Arbor, but less busy.

Guess what? Northwestern's admissions portal/link crashed tonight, too...before my daughter was able to see her's. The link doesn't work, and a message pops up that their outside vendor has "all hands on deck" trying to fix the problem, but "please don't keep refreshing". Good luck with that! I'm sure there will be even more irate posts on the NU boards when College Confidential comes back on-line!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

*sigh*

Still keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Barnard, but she does have two great options so far. I was at a conference at DePaul two years ago. We stayed in a boutique hotel in the neighborhood and walked everywhere. I think it had a similar feel to Ann Arbor, but less busy.

Guess what? Northwestern's admissions portal/link crashed tonight, too...before my daughter was able to see her's. The link doesn't work, and a message pops up that their outside vendor has "all hands on deck" trying to fix the problem, but "please don't keep refreshing". Good luck with that! I'm sure there will be even more irate posts on the NU boards when College Confidential comes back on-line!

She had a hard time getting onto the portal earlier, but finally got in. But that was around 6:30 our time.

I thought it had a similar feel to Ann Arbor also. We ate a great restaurant right there for lunch and really enjoyed the atmosphere around there. The weekend we were there, a bunch of students were hanging out on the lawn, hula hooping and playing frisbee, enjoying a pretty fall day. It was a huge contrast to U-Chicago where we didn't see a soul anywhere. I'm glad she didn't bother applying there!

I've had my little meltdown and I'm ok now. I know she will be ok and will thrive wherever she ends up.

ETA: CC is back up.

[Sciencewoman]

OK...I'm going to go on CC now and then we'll give NU another try!

Good news on our end is that she received her acceptance to Colgate today...but no mention of any financial aid, and their portal is inactive until they're sure all snail mail letters have had a chance to be received. My hunch is that it will be too expensive, though.

[AGDee]

They are saying that 32,000 people applied to Northwestern, for 2000 slots. Of course they accept more than the 2000, but still, that's crazy.

[IrishLake]

My cousin just got accepted to Northwestern for grad school. She was so happy!