Girlie AGDee's College Search Thread

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by AGDee

She still can't decide between Michigan and Barnard. I finally got to see both financial aid packages information myself and it's about $8000 more a year for Barnard. Discussing these things with her may drive me to an insane asylum.

On the bright side, this is the best discussion to be having.

You'd rather be having the "I can't decide between 2 of my top choices and 2 great packages" discussion than the "I'm so depressed because I only got into a safety while Suzie and Jenny got into blah blah blah" discussion. THAT would drive you to drink. lol.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

Dee, I thought in your OP about the Barnard acceptance that it was only 3,000 in loans for that school? What did I miss?

Yeah, that's the Stafford loan she qualifies for. She wasn't looking at the $18,800 expected parental contribution, most of which will need to be in loans.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

On the bright side, this is the best discussion to be having.

You'd rather be having the "I can't decide between 2 of my top choices and 2 great packages" discussion than the "I'm so depressed because I only got into a safety while Suzie and Jenny got into blah blah blah" discussion. THAT would drive you to drink. lol.

She's not considering them to be great packages given the amount of student loans she will have when she graduates. Things she's reading say that students should go somewhere they can afford so that they don't have more than $15K in student loans TOTAL when they graduate and she's looking at $60-90K in loans when she graduates. However, she's exaggerating some things and isn't listening to me when I tell her that I should have her first year Parent PLUS loan paid off before she graduates or that when her brother starts school, her part of the EFC will be reduced and he will have some of that burden so it won't really be $90K.

I've pointed out that even if she had applied to my alma mater, one of the cheaper state colleges in Michigan, whose costs just about equal what they all seem to think *I* can afford, she'd have $16K a year in loans because she wouldn't get any aid at all. The only way to get it cheaper is to go to community college.

It boils down to the fact that they seem to think that I can contribute 30-36% of my take home pay to her college expenses and, frankly, I can't do that. Once I finish my master's, I will be able to contribute more. I'm hoping to land a part time teaching gig at one of my alma mater's or at a community college too, because I've always wanted to teach at that level, since before she was born.

There are a lot of details that I don't want to post on the Internet, but my income appears overinflated last year for several reasons and I believe that EFC will go down over the years, or I'll get a new job and it will remain similar but I'll actually be making more money than I am now. I also expect to be able to bear about half of the re-payment burden because I do want to help pay for college. I've tried pointing out all the little expenses that I will NOT have when she goes to college too ($40 in gas per pay period for her, $30 a pay period for school lunch, marching band fees, etc.) that will, instead, go toward paying these loans off. My grocery bills, utility bills, etc. will all go down when she's gone. As she takes a half hour shower right now, I'm thinking about how much the water bill will go down...lol. My boy takes 5 minute showers, mine are about 10 minutes.. that girl is in the shower FOREVER. I'll be doing half the laundry I do now because she changes clothes so many times a week and brings me her dirty laundry from her dad's house when she's been there. The girl doesn't realize how expensive she is to support right now! When the boy is away at school too, my living expenses will be almost nil. I might only have a TV for an hour a day, can tolerate much lower temperatures in the winter than they can, eat the least amount of food, etc.

I'm trying to explain all this to her. I do plan on taking out the max in loans but also plan to pay them off as quickly as I can while she's in school so the total amount will not be as bad as she thinks. However, I will have wiggle room in my budget for unexpected emergencies also if I do it this way. And, we will negotiate how much of it I will need her to pay back once she's grounded in a career.

[Sciencewoman]

Originally Posted by AGDee

As she takes a half hour shower right now, I'm thinking about how much the water bill will go down...lol. My boy takes 5 minute showers, mine are about 10 minutes.. that girl is in the shower FOREVER.

Lol...same here! My daughter claims it's her long hair, but she also seems to do most of her choir practice in the shower. Great acoustics in there!

Sounds like hypo's going to take it right down to the May 1 deadline! Even after my daughter made her decision, she's still been saying things like, "I'm going to miss you", etc. I think the reality has sunk in that she'll be a long way from home. But, she also says she's really looking forward to it and she has no trepidation or second thoughts about her school choice. I actually think she's having a harder time dealing with the transition than I am (right now, anyway). The whole graduation season is hectic, too. She just told me this morning how stressed she is with everything that's going on...prom, AP tests, honor student dessert, senior banquet, blah, blah, blah. It all seems to accentuate the "leaving the nest" situation...lots of mixed emotions.

Where does hypo really want to go? If she wants Barnard and you can make it work, then I'd just try to help her feel good about that decision. Has she pulled out that pro and con list again, or is it just down to the financial aspects now?

[LAblondeGPhi]

Originally Posted by AGDee

There are a lot of details that I don't want to post on the Internet, but my income appears overinflated last year for several reasons and I believe that EFC will go down over the years, or I'll get a new job and it will remain similar but I'll actually be making more money than I am now. I also expect to be able to bear about half of the re-payment burden because I do want to help pay for college. I've tried pointing out all the little expenses that I will NOT have when she goes to college too ($40 in gas per pay period for her, $30 a pay period for school lunch, marching band fees, etc.) that will, instead, go toward paying these loans off. My grocery bills, utility bills, etc. will all go down when she's gone. As she takes a half hour shower right now, I'm thinking about how much the water bill will go down...lol. My boy takes 5 minute showers, mine are about 10 minutes.. that girl is in the shower FOREVER. I'll be doing half the laundry I do now because she changes clothes so many times a week and brings me her dirty laundry from her dad's house when she's been there. The girl doesn't realize how expensive she is to support right now! When the boy is away at school too, my living expenses will be almost nil. I might only have a TV for an hour a day, can tolerate much lower temperatures in the winter than they can, eat the least amount of food, etc.

My dad recently mentioned that when I went away to college he started inadvertently stockpiling TP because he didn't change the way he grocery shopped for certain items. One day he was like, why do I have so much TP???

This probably makes more sense in the context that it was just me and my dad, so my absence really affected the delicate TP balance.

[christiangirl]

Dee, I thought in your OP about the Barnard acceptance that it was only 3,000 in loans for that school? What did I miss?

[AGDee]

She really wants Barnard. Fewer loans are her only reason for considering Michigan.

[Gusteau]

Where did she read the $15k thing Dee? That seems a little low to me. Mine are just a bit above that and I know from talking about this with friends that most of them are in the 25k-40k range and that's as out-of-state students at state schools, so I would imagine being at a private school, especially one of that academic prestige, the average student has higher debt.

I will admit it's been a long time since I've been looking into any of this stuff, and $90k is obviously a big chunk of change.

[AGDee]

College confidential.

[alum]

Choice is definitely a good thing. My senior has been accepted to 3 schools where we just have to pay R&B and fees thanks to my employee benefits. This makes his COA less expensive than our instate publics. A 4th school to which he was accepted but does not do TE with my school is trying to negotiate but they seem to think that their package of grants, loans and work-study is equivalent to an outright grant of the same value. So when they are only $3000 difference on the bottom line between schools 1,2 and 3 as compared to school 4, it's really 9k because they are including the Stafford.

[AGDee]

Exactly, alum. It's easy to look at the school package and not keep in mind that there are loans in there also.

However, I was told today that we could go ahead and put the required deposit down to accept her admission to....






















































Barnard!

[AZ-AlphaXi]

Congratulations!

[Always AlphaGam]

Congratulations hypo and Barnard!

[Bummed about Michigan, obviously...but we'll get her somehow! ]

[Sciencewoman]

Wonderful! Time to celebrate!

[AGDee]

After I had a chat with financial aid this afternoon, the offer has been accepted and the tuition deposit has been made. Long story, but my artificially inflated salary last year affected it significantly but we can expect the expected parent contribution to go down significantly. And, she confirmed that it will go down even more when my son starts college. Unless her dad gets a job or I get a huge raise, but if I get a huge raise, I'll be able to afford that contribution anyway.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by AGDee

After I had a chat with financial aid this afternoon, the offer has been accepted and the tuition deposit has been made. Long story, but my artificially inflated salary last year affected it significantly but we can expect the expected parent contribution to go down significantly. And, she confirmed that it will go down even more when my son starts college. Unless her dad gets a job or I get a huge raise, but if I get a huge raise, I'll be able to afford that contribution anyway.

Yeeeaaaa congrats to hypo! And you!