More re. college loans... How inexpensively did your kids go and how?

[mom2abcd]

I thought I'd start a new thread. Like many of you, I was shocked that the best financial aid package one college offered would still require $18,000 in loans as a freshman. The second one has come back at $11,000 with opportunity for work study to take that down $2,000.

 

Back in the old days... when I went to college... I was able to attend a similar private university and with work study, came out with only $1,500 in loans.

 

I've heard many parents say that the private colleges/universities their dc applied to came back less expensive than public universities. We haven't gotten that financial aid package back yet so can't compare.

 

(BTW, ds and I both scored quite high on our ACT tests and had excellent GPAs. His ACT score is higher than mine because they raised the scores some years ago:o)

 

Now I've long kept in the back of my mind the "free" colleges... Some are accredited and some aren't. I don't think any offer engineering programs.

 

Here is a list of the work colleges in the U.S.:

* Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky ?

* Berea College in Berea, Kentucky (Accredited)

* Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois

* College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri (Accredited)

* Deep Springs College in Deep Springs, California (Accredited) male only

* Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont ?

* Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina (Accredited)

 

 

Check out http://www.workcolleges.org/.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_college

 

Check accredidation here:

http://collegeboard .com/homepage? student

 

I'm interested in hearing any great ideas on getting a free or nearly free college education.... preferably in the engineering field. Thanks!

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

I thought I'd start a new thread. Like many of you, I was shocked that the best financial aid package one college offered would still require $18,000 in loans as a freshman. The second one has come back at $11,000 with opportunity for work study to take that down $2,000.

 

Back in the old days... when I went to college... I was able to attend a similar private university and with work study, came out with only $1,500 in loans.

 

I've heard many parents say that the private colleges/universities their dc applied to came back less expensive than public universities. We haven't gotten that financial aid package back yet so can't compare.

 

I'm interested in hearing any great ideas on getting a free or nearly free college education.... preferably in the engineering field. Thanks!

 

Well, living in TN we probably would have had ds look very hard at going to TN Tech University via the engineering co-op program. Other state universities may also have this type of program. Hope scholarship, National Merit, in-state tuition, work-study, summer work, internship application, and/or co-op would have to suffice to pay for an inexpensive degree from a school whose graduates have successful engineering careers.

 

Ds wanted a small liberal arts college, so he's following his bliss with econ/math up in Indiana. He'll carry some loans, but we're not concerned with the amounts.

[Quiver0f10]

My oldest was accepted to a college in the North East that would have cost her roughly $30K a year after grants, but she chose to attend the University here for @ $10K a year and with grants I think she has @ $7K in loans for this year I think, I don't know the exact total.

 

My next to graduate this year chose the same school as my oldest for the same reason and my soon to be 12th grader has decided to get his AS at the community college in town and then, when he is a junior, transfer to the same university the other kids are attending. The total for his BS should be @ 20K.

 

My oldest was in pre-vet, next is going into engineering and the soon to be 12th grader into criminal justice.

[cin]

I graduated from a state school in 1988. I had 12,500 in student loans; 2,500 per year. (yup, 5 yrs...there was a change in majors in the middle, much to my parent's aggravation!) My parents chose to not pay for my college, for various reasons, and I had to foot the entire bill. They paid it off when they died. :glare: I would LOVE for my girls to graduate without loans, but reality stinks. We are trying to put money away. College costs scare me to death. Our girls are 3 & 6, and according to the calculators, they are going to need around $150,000. ARGH!!!!!

 

Okay, totally irrelevant rant over. Thanks for listening!

[Jenny in Florida]

She has a special situation (being young) and is attending the only program in the country that fits her needs. So, we didn't have choices or what one might call bargaining power.

 

Tuition, room and board add up to $29,200 this year. She got a scholarship for $13,000. We are paying what we can of the balance out of pocket and took a PLUS loan to cover the rest. She took no loans in her own name this year.

 

Next year, she would like to be able to go abroad for May Term (kind of expected of theatre students at some point during their degree program), and we've told her she may need to take a student loan to cover that "extra." If all goes well, we'll be broke and in debt by the time she finishes, but she will have very minimal loans, if any at all.

[Mandamom]

at two different times with two different B.S. degrees. I had zero in student loans, zero grants and zero in assistance. My degrees are in liberal arts rather than engineering or math so I know that made it easier.

 

Anyway, my parents saved up a good bit of money for each of us three children by living a debt free life, living in a house where the mortgage payment was only about 15% of their monthly income and the mortgage was paid off in about 12 years or so. All of their cars were paid in cash and they basically lived a frugal lifestyle. (I didn't find out until much later that we really weren't poorer than my friends' family we just lived well below our means)

 

They then cash flowed my first few years of college at which point I stopped going to college for unrelated reasons and started working. I got a cash lump sum (about 25K) from them which I used to supplement me cash flowing the rest with the lump sum and my employment pay combined to cover my college costs. With that I ended up with a totally paid for B.S. degree which I went on to do again a few years later.

 

I'm not in a position to do the same for my kids now but I'm planning on making some major changes in my life to try and get them as good a start as I can. It won't be easy but I'm committed to it.

 

One of the things I'm seriously considering is getting my M.S. degree and a good job to help that with. Problem is I don't have the money to do it and given my life situation ironically I might have to go with some student loans to make it happen. Not at all what I want to do but I'm struggling to see how I can make it happen otherwise.

 

My dad went to college in the 1960's, took 10 years to do because he went to work while in school, went into the army to help with college costs, and finally graduated 10 years later with a degree in Math. He was able to get into the early field of computers with that degree at the time he was in school.

 

So, those are ways we went to college without college loans.

[at the beach]

Hi Again, My dd (a freshman) is attending a school where total cost is about $40,000. She has $24,500 in scholarships. So, that leaves $16,500. She has taken loans and we pay the rest.

 

I would say that your offer of everything covered except $11,000 and books, etc. is really very good. He can earn $ over the summer to lower that amount in loans plus do work-study. I think this sounds very reasonable. After all, a person would be hard-pressed to have all basic living expenses covered for $11,000 a year, kwim? If your son can earn $2500 per summer and the $2000 in work study, that leaves the loan amount at least reasonable IMHO if he's hardworking and committed to paying that debt off quickly. Honestly, based on one of your other posts that indicated your son could not live with you after he's in college nor could you financially help him, he'd probably going to have more than his loan amount in living expenses anyway. With this offer, he's getting an education in a field he desires with living expenses covered for $11,000 per year, either through loans or his own work efforts.

 

My dd could have gone to the state school slightly cheaper for the first four years, but it was an 8 year program so that would have been 4 years grad school, not 2, which would have then cost more in the end.

 

As for free opportunities in engineering, I can't comment on that.

[Annie G]

She not only went to school tuition free, she earned enough scholarships to graduate with about $10,000 in the bank, and she didn't have to work a job during college.

Grad school has been better. Tech pays her to get her PhD.

I love Georgia. Dd #2 went to school where we live (Illinois) and it wasn't free like her sister's. With two more kids galloping toward college age, and one wanting to attend Tech, we're wishing we lived in Georgia again.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I'm interested in hearing any great ideas on getting a free or nearly free college education.... preferably in the engineering field. Thanks!

 

I don't know if you are aware of ROTC scholarships or the federal service academies. I run into a lot of families who've never heard of them.

 

The service academies include the Military Academy (West Point), the Naval Academy (Annapolis), the Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs), the Coast Guard Academy (New London?) and the Merchant Marine Academy (Kingspoint). Cadets/Midshipmen are essentially on a scholarship that pays full tuition, books, room & board as well as a stipend to cover other items. They graduate with a bachelor's degree and a commission as an officer. They agree to serve for a minimum amount of time in the military service for that school (typically five years). These schools are quite competitive, but you don't have to "know someone" or have a parent in the military or contribute money to a polititian to be accepted.

 

ROTC stands for Reserve Officer Training Corps. Each service runs their own program. Students attend a civilian college or university that has an ROTC unit and include military classes and drill in their schedule. After they earn their degree, they are commissioned as an officer in that service. The time committment is similar to that for the service academies. ROTC refers to the entire training program at civilian universities. There are 4 year and 2 year scholarships available. Scholarships are competitive, but do not require participation in high school JROTC.

 

The service academies have engineering, science and humanities degree programs. The ROTC cadets/midshipmen can pick from whatever their university offers.

 

The application window for both of these programs is already closed for this year, so they may not help you out. But both programs are quite happy to consider candidates who are already enrolled in a college or university.

 

There are many people who would never consider these programs. But I also run into many students who would have been interested, but found out too late. I am a Naval Academy graduate. DH was commissioned through an ROTC program. Neither of us had any college loans to pay back.

 

I like to say that the education was not free, we just didn't pay money for it. The military committment is a serious payback. But I don't regret it at all and dh is still in (and got the military to pay for most of his master's degree too, but that is another story).

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

My dd went out of state to a private Christian college and grants and scholarships came to about half of the 20,000 price tag. Both of us got loans. She didn't keep her grades up, so she lost her scholarships for the second year but we helped her out again anyway. She came home after the fall of her second year for personal reasons. Now we are paying on parent loans for what we consider a wasted education. She is also paying student loans. We required her to pay 100% of her personal expenses while she was at school.

 

We decided we cannot afford to go through the same process again with our next child who starts school in the fall. He is much more focused and ambitious than dd, but we had to tell him we can't get any more parent loans. However, we will help him with personal expenses when we can, and after he graduates we will help pay off loans as we are able. So far the best financial deal he has recieved is from the University of Richmond. They make it their goal to enable a child to encur no more than 4,000 of debt each year, even though they have a 45,000+ price tag. They were good to their word. If ds decides to attend there, the first year will cost no more than 4,000 plus personal expenses.

 

We have not recieved the financial aid statements from the two state colleges ds is also looking at. But we estimate that he shouldn't have to pay more than half of the 17,000 price tag should he go there. William and Mary is offering a free ride to kids from families that make under 40,000 a year, but we don't qualify. Some big name schools like Harvard and Yale have also started similar programs recently. All of these schools that offer great deals for low income family's do expect the kids to keep up their grades to continue getting the aid.

[Hannah C.]

If my loan amounts stay the same as they are now, I'll graduate with about 26K in loans for four years. However, I actually have more loan money than I need right now, so I'm hoping to be able to start paying off loans when I'm still in college / take out fewer loans and hopefully end up with less than that total.

 

Considering how much my college costs per year, I think it's worth it, though I still don't like the loans at all.

[Ellie]

Neither of my dds took out loans. Both graduated from community college; one went on to San Jose State and worked her way through as a hair stylist. The other did not continue on (for some good reasons) but might go back at a later date. She won't take out loans, either. Of course, she probably won't go to a private college, either. The one private college where she was accepted was $30,000 a year, after the scholarships. There was no way we could do that.