Midwestmomof3 sounds like she needs to get out of her dorm as much as possible. If there's substance free housing, maybe she could go there before her apartment people pre-game. Joining clubs, volunteering and working are other ways to meet people with interests besides drinking. If there's a Starbucks or other hang out, go there. If she's into cards she can go with a deck and see if she finds anyone else. Then they can go to the game together. Is there an outdoors or hiking club? Even at schools not known for partying, there's a good percentage of people who make that their focus especially on the weekends. Hopefully she'll soon find others who don't.

No, I didn't meant to imply that the students were being given the loans because the parents probably wouldn't qualify. I was saying that the students probably would not be able to have the additional loans co-signed by their parents. As parents with income below 30K generally have an EFC of 0, that's what schools which meet 100% of need aim for their financial package to show - that the parents don't have any contribution. Some colleges can be rather creative in making that happen and others truly do meet the full need. Well as the one scenario showed a student loan amount of 11K I don't think the college is taking into account anything other than having "all need met" in whatever way they can on paper, whether or not it's a likely scenario in real life. Yes I do know that students, whose parents are turned down for parent plus loans, may take out additional amounts in loans. For these students especially it's probably not prudent to do so. Packages look different because the colleges are free to put whatever number they want on loans to make it look more manageable. There are no rules. Just because a student may have a parent who won't co-sign for more, doesn't mean that the college can't include a high amount for student loans in that student's financial aid offer. Students have the choice whether to accept the offer of admission and aid, or decline. CC posters are looking out for the students' best interests in directing them not to think in terms of loans above the $5500 amount as huge debt is rarely a good idea for undergraduate school. Obviously medical school students may need to take on high debt, but their prospects for paying it off are quite good. Not necessarily so for undergrads. You're welcome, but truth be told, I didn't experiment with the NPC. I just got lucky and input some income and asset numbers which happened to work out close enough. Maybe if I added another 20K to the income it would come out closer.

Actually I input some numbers and I came close. Student loans 7500 Work study 3000 Parents or wherever 20,500 In this example, it's probably realistic that the parents would be able to co-sign for the extra $2000 above the Stafford loans. I would think that the 20.5K would be workable, although not necessarily advisable, but of course that depends on many things. When I input for the second highest merit aid, the student loan dropped down to 5500 and work study was 0. Total for parents became 18.5. The U of R grant was lowered considerably. Interesting. I was wondering how some were getting different numbers using the same info for a particular school, and now it's happened to "me". I removed the merit aid and the grant dropped down to 19K (I think the original number had been in the 30K range) and without changing any income/asset info, it changed to 5500 student loan and 3000 work study and parent contribution of about 36K. I'm guessing that changing scenarios too much while within the calculator messes up some of the algorithms and produces wonky results. Might be best to just go in once and input the into and take that as the best guestimate of what aid will be.

In the example I gave, the total loans were under the student's responsibility. Generally when the parents' income and assets are so low there is nothing, or extremely little, asked of them. The financial aid packages don't give any suggestions as to how a student should even go about procuring such loans if they should even want to try. I used the example of a low income family as it would be obvious, for most anyway, that there wouldn't be resources outside of financial aid, merit aid, reasonable loans ($5500) and some work study and possibly some summer earnings. Neither work study nor summer earnings are even a guarantee especially for incoming freshmen. For low income families it would be doubtful that a loan would be approved for the parents even if they were willing to take on such debt. I have no idea what types of numbers to put into an NPC to produce a parent contribution of 25K or I would to see how they distribute the loans. If you want to play with U Roc's NPC it would be interesting to see what you find.

Some NPCs can and do show student loans in excess of the $5500. I ran University of Rochester for a family income of less than 30,000 and minimal assets. Before merit aid, it showed student loans of $11,000. After submitting for medium/high merit aid, it dropped down to $5500, but the remainder of student/family contribution was still too high. Resubmitting for top merit aid it became affordable, although their estimates for personal/travel/book expenses may be lower than a student's actual costs, as is often the case with the estimated expenses. With a merit scholarship of $7500, the second lowest category, the student loan amount was $8000. Not picking on U of R as their aid and merit combination work very well for many students and they provide an excellent education and opportunities, it's just an example of one NPC which can show the student borrowing more than the basic federal loans.

Each department usually has extra texts of those used in classes. I would think that the disability office could arrange for an extra one to be available to him while he's in class and on campus so he can keep his own texts at home for homework and studying.

Beth it sounds like he's done very well in his history class. if he has concerns with writing the essays fast enough, he can talk with his professor and tell them that it took 20 mins for the essay and at that rate will he be able to complete the midterm and final within the allotted time. Of course nothing is certain depending on the questions, but it will give him an idea. I think the online tutoring sounds great for preparing for the major tests. If the timing works out, it would also be good for him to see his professor during office hours. The more interest he shows, the more they're likely to help. Good idea for him to ask his advisor about a college skills type of class and whether it's recommended for him or not.

Night Elf is he familiar with the learning center on campus? He can get help there and they may even be able to assign him a tutor for the semester. The disabilities office can also help him. There may also be a class available for new college students which teaches how to study, take tests, research, etc.. That might be of great help to him. If there's still time to drop/add, and the days and times work out, I'd ask him to consider doing that.

Nan I get what you're asking and I've wondered the same. Basically does a public college education cost about the same as private college education. Of course there's a good bit of difference even among the privates, but are they in the same range if you add in the state and federal aid. Even many private colleges say that the actual cost per student is more than they charge for tuition, fees and room and board, so looking at what they charge may not be the whole picture either. Would be interesting to read about this as I'm sure someone has worked the numbers.

Faith I think you're right that they did change the calendar at some point. If you pull up their academic calendar, the first listing is for Labor Day and the one below that is Sept 2 for Classes Start. It's chronologically out of order. Someone taking a quick glance might easily assume that classes start after Labor Day! Major oops on their part! https://www.umflint.edu/sites/default/files/groups/Office_of_the_Provost___Vice_Chancellor_for_Academic_Affairs/documents/academic_cal_1516.pdf I also noticed that none of the other information I mentioned, such as add and drop dates, is included on their calendar. These dates are important for students to know! Edited again. I wonder if the changes were due to budget negotiations. I noticed that last year there were 69 days of instruction and this year and next have 67. At least next year's calendar has the start date showing as before Labor Day.

Our students should become familiar with their college's academic calendar. It will show days with no classes and even more importantly registration dates, add dates and drop dates, housing and financial aid deadlines, etc.. It's something they should glance at fairly regularly. Faith so glad you went to convocation and caught it in time! Hope it's a great semester of learning and continued healing for him.

I don't remember calculators showing loan amounts above $5500, but some financial aid packets certainly did. The amount above the student loan was assumed to be a parent plus or parent loan of some kind. I ran one calculator and while they don't specify how the student/family is supposed to come up with the amount, it's obvious that loans above the Stafford amounts would be needed. Typically calculators will show how much it will cost for tuition, room and board and then estimated amounts for books, travel and personal expenses. Often the last three items are listed as lower than what the expenses will actually be, so it's best to estimate them for your particular student. Then the calculator will show what will be provided with scholarships and grants - merit may or may not be included - and then it shows the difference between the two numbers. This is the actual cost to the student/family. When it comes out to 16K for a family with an income less than 30K, it's obvious that student summer work, on campus work and $5500 loan aren't going to cover it. No idea what they expect a low income family to do to bridge the gap. Obviously this school does not claim to meet full need. However we did find some schools which do claim to meet full need leaving too large of a gap to not expect parent loans.

What I took "true merit" to mean is that it's equally available to the students regardless of the family finances. I agree with you that in general the wealthier students do have more access to the types of classes, activities and test prep which may give them an edge. But most merit aid isn't given out by the numbers. At some state universities it is, so it's equal access to all, but at most private universities and public ones for OOS students, it's awarded case by case and the full pay students can be targeted. I agree with your take on how merit aid is awarded in many cases. As much as I am all for need based aid, I do think it's good that other schools provide merit aid as that can make a huge difference in a student's options. Just because a family can pay x amount on paper doesn't mean that they're actually able, or willing, to do so. Such students need merit aid options.

I agree that college tuition "discounting" should be based on financial need and true merit. I also agree with him about the common practice among many colleges of bait and switch, with the best financial aid given for the first year and increased costs the following years. I don't think that this practice will come to an end anytime soon as many schools are trying to improve their rankings and do that by attracting the high stats students in whatever way they can. Most of the top schools don't need any gimmicks to attract and enroll top students and mostly award aid based solely on need. Having other schools which award merit aid gives more students options. In the article he used the analogy of airplane fare pricing and said it's not the same as you don't get more by paying more for college. That is true at some colleges, but at many public universities the students whose families can pay more will often get better housing and meal plans. Kudos to the University of Dayton for guaranteeing incoming freshmen that their aid will continue proportionately for all four years. Not surprisingly their enrollment and graduating rates have been favorably affected. Hopefully others will do the same.

The first semester senior grades don't have to be included in the transcript until it's time to send the Mid-Year Report. I don't remember the deadline for that, but we had DE grades before it needed to be sent. At that time, the spring courses should be set and can be included. For now, I'd look at what courses were offered last spring as an idea of what might be available and then let her come up with some likely courses. You can include those now with a notation that the spring course offerings haven't been announced yet, but these are possible courses. The CA can be quite frustrating with its lack of flexibility. Take advantage of the boxes in which they allow you to explain things as they do want you to list actual courses individually. You can also include whatever you like with or on the actual transcript. You can leave current course grades blank or include some notation.

Nan what happens when the skylight gets covered with snow? Hopefully they have some good lighting in there to help compensate. Jenny, glad to hear that his dorm room is so nicely situated and his roommates seem compatible. So glad all worked out so nicely for him.

Sorry to hear about your daughter's ankle Margaret. Hopefully someone on campus will offer to help her out with carrying her cello. Could disability services be of help in arranging a golf cart ride between buildings or something of that sort?

Agreeing with everyone that you have to check with each college. A couple we were looking at as possible safety schools dropped off the list as dd would have been considered a transfer student. In looking at the course offerings I can understand why as she would have had a hard time filling four years, especially in her areas of interest. Some schools set the allowable number of credits very low and others have no limit as long as they were completed while in high school.

Saxon works great for some and isn't a good fit for others. You don't know until you try. Usually it's done with four lessons M-Th and then the test on Friday.

Hope all have a great DE experience!

I'd call or visit the ones close to you and speak with dual enrollment about the specifics. Visiting is a good way for your teens to see the campus and ask their own questions.

I would suggest that he look up all the places he wants to go and put that info and maps onto his phone so he doesn't have to spend time there doing that. It should be a fantastic experience for him!

Cynthia I like that you don't cut back the amount just because your son isn't spending it all. In my way of thinking, you're rewarding saving as he can save up for travel or whatever. If a family is able to commit to a monthly, semester or annual amount, I think this is the best way to go to let them learn how to budget, especially if they haven't had to do it before college. In my opinion, this is how school budgeting is really backwards. If a particular department doesn't use all of their allocated funds one year, then their budget is cut for the following year. This results in wasteful spending and being frugal or wise in spending isn't rewarded, or at least not penalized. For us, we help out as we're able but dd is handling the majority of expenses. If finances didn't require work during semesters, I'd probably prefer that she not have to do that as studies are more important and take up a lot of time. But it's better to work and not stress over whether there will be enough to cover expenses and she's gotten some nice work on and off campus. OP $1000 isn't much for spending money at college, and of course it depends on the situation and what costs she'll need to cover. It would be enough if she'll be supplementing with work at school or if you supplement in some way. On other threads I see $150 as about an average amount for expenses during semesters, but it really depends on what interests the student has and whether most activities are free/low cost or pricey and how much they eat, and where, aside from the meal plan. I would pay for a haircut, but we go to cheap places, as I don't think of an age or a life situation (going to college) as some kind of line that gets crossed with regard to financial help. If you want her to shift her thinking about you paying, maybe you could mention that you'll pay for her haircut as an early Christmas gift or offer to pay half. Financial independence is a process. I think it's great that you recognize that you want something better for your daughter and are willing to ask others for help in figuring out options. If what you initially choose to do doesn't work then you can always change that and try something else. I'd also suggest that she's part of the conversation. They can make better choices when they know ahead of time what's expected and what's the goal.

I'm assuming that your daughter is aware of what she wants changed on the transcript. If that's the case, then I would suggest that she contact them to set up an appointment for herself and then talk with her guidance counselor in person. It may be important that she establish good rapport with this guidance counselor, and assuming that the requests are reasonable, I don't think it can hurt. She might also take that time to discuss some colleges she's considering and ask the GC's advice and suggestions.

Yes, the summer goes much too quickly. All dd's friends have returned home for various intervals this summer and some have left and most will be gone within the next week or two. Wishing everyone well during this time of of change.