Anyone have kids in college or going to be this Fall??? Sry long RANT

[cthrash1]

Quote:
She got 1250 in financial aid and a perkins loan (I think it was) for applying to FAFSA. She also got a KEES scholarship About 1600-1800 per year for the 4 years she's in school and keeps it as long as she keeps a 2.5 or higher...It's a scholarship program through the state that puts money into a college fund for the kids, they get so much money for final GPA each yr of HS from 500.00 and down and so much for ACT scores too dependent on what they are. Plus a CAP grant from the state. And her swim scholarship. She didn't get any of the scholarships she competed for. And they should have told her at her interview for the academic program that they aren't able to grant the regular quantity...Her hopes were just crushed when she found out she wasn't accepted, her college swim coach even thought she had it since she aced the language part of the ACT and it was the English dept sponsoring it. We should have looked into NKU at that time, but that would mean no swim team and that is her relaxation and stress relief.

 

[Lea71]

Nice to see I'm not the only one with college-bound kid issues. My son just graduated HS and is attending a communtiy college in the fall. And due to our average, middle-class income....he qualified for no scholarships. He was actually quite upset when he came home from a financial aid seminar. He stormed in the house ranting about how because he's not an illegal immigrant or any type of minority, he doesn't get any college assistance...he was definitly jarred by the real world. Welcome to college....now struggle to pay for it...nevertheless....community college it is...at least for two years. Then he'll have to get loans to pay for the rest. The only positive note is that he did receive the future vision scholarship at the community college he is attending, his first year's tuition is paid for, we'll just have to cover the books (gulp!). The college he's attending awards this scholarship to one senior at the local high schools. My son just got lucky....our tiny high school had a graduating class of 18, so the odds were good.

Good luck and best wishes!

 

[silkiechicken]

At first I wanted to go to the private school but reality was that it cost too much. I've learned that it's best to keep you eye open to options because even if it's not advertised by the school, many things exist on the student run level. Books are a pain though. I paid for those myself and after the first year doing 500-1k on books a quarter. I got smart, bought used, traded books with the books I got the first year, and used amazon.com to get them instead.

A HS class of 18! Wow. We had a HS class of 300... sadily... entering class was 600...

 

[patandchickens]

Well, speaking as a former college professor --

The simplest and most obvious solution would be to say Oh Well on the swim team thing. She can still SWIM, most likely -- most towns big enough for a college also have a pool of some sort or another -- but if worst came to worst there actually are other athletic activities that a person can learn and enjoy

It does not seem to be smart to be real rigid about the exact nature of a recreational pursuit if it prevents you from doing the bigger things you want in life.

Alternatively (or in addition), doing 2 yrs of community college is a common way of making 'real' college affordable. The best thing to do is identify several four-year colleges where you would like to go and TALK with them about what community colleges in the area will give you the most transferrable credits for the program you ultimately want to get into. Your daughter may think as she wishes about community colleges -- and honestly I am not sure I 100% disagree with her <g> -- HOWEVER if that makes the difference between making a four-year degree affordable vs no college at all, then it is a pretty stupid thing to have a stick up your butt about

And done with advance planning - to make sure you will be correctly prepared for admission/success in the program you want your Bachelor's degree from -- it generally works quite well and can save a LOT of money.

Another extremely good alternative for most people -- in many ways, I would say the best alternative, aside from your medical-insurance issues -- is for the kid to go get a job for several years, either living at home (paying some rent) (if y'all can stand the arrangement <g>) or sharing a house/apartment with others, and NOT BUYING LOTS OF SHOES OR ELECTRONICS OR CAR LOANS, til they've saved a bit of money and also now qualify for more financial aid. I highly recommend this because I will tell you that the 'returning students' in my classes were without exception among the best students in the class. Now, they did not all get A's, but NONE of them I can ever recall getting lower than a C+ and they all were WONDERFUL to have in the classroom and in the lab, and often leveraged this into getting good letters of recommendation written on their behalf when applying to grad school or for jobs or whatever else

Because it was their own money they were spending and they'd been out there in the working world, they knew how to get the most value out of their college dollar and by gosh they were GOING PLACES. Truly.

Also a college degree is not necessary for everything. (Like, why would you want a college degree to be an equine massage therapist? You ideally apprentice yourself to someone good, or more realistically in today's world take some course somewhere and *then* apprentice with someone, or sometimes you take a course and then work part-time while supporting yourself thru a more normal job.)

Of course, many young adults know exactly what they want to do and do not want to entertain the notion of compromising one tiny bit.

But (equally of course) the reality is that life most often does not work that way -- it's not all wine and roses and My Pretty Pony; there are generally waitressing jobs and breadth-requirement coursework and sometimes even career changes, mixed in with *some amount* of your dream job.

My general line to my quota of college-student advisees was that, you know, you can spend your time fuming that the world is not bending itself totally to your desires, which will not change one tiny bit of the situation, or you can accept that the world is somewhat unfair and see what you can do from where you are. My observation is that it generally takes some months or years of trying the 'pointless fuming' and then the lightbulb goes on and it seems worthwhile to explore other options that, when pursued, turn out actually not to be such bad things after all and maybe actually sort of enjoyable and useful

JME,

Pat

 

[Rosalind]

She will have to get student loans, and the school financial aid office will also expect YOU to apply for Perkins loans. These are private loans to pay tuition that are in your name, not hers, and they require collateral (such as your house or money down).

Other option is to find a cheaper school somewhere. Sometimes even without scholarships, other schools can be cheaper overall. And sometimes there are scholarships and financial aid you don't know about. One school, when I told them I was unable to afford their tuition, magically found another $7800 for me in departmental scholarships. Small schools do that sometimes.

It is no longer the case that if you wait a couple of years you will be considered independent in the vast majority of states. Where I went to school (PA), you could be 30 years old and living on your own, working full-time, but they did not consider you independent unless you were married, had a child, both parents were deceased or you were legally emancipated by a judge, which could only be done prior to turning 18 with a social worker's testimony that you were abused. Another state I lived in, I was told the magic age was 24. Most states are pushing the age of "financial independence" higher and higher, as tuition goes up but the tax budget for education stays the same.

The general idea of financial aid offices everywhere is that you, the parent, should be willing to bend over backwards and sell your house, your soul, your kidney, and your firstborn child to send your kid to college. In reality, some parents are willing to do that and some parents aren't. When I was 19, I had not lived in my parent's home for 2 years and worked full time, but the financial aid offices just did not care. They have plenty of students beating down their doors who do have the money to pay in cash, they have no reason to care. Another friend, who made straight A's through school and scored incredibly high on his SATs, didn't get financial aid because his father had remarried and wasn't interested in supporting the kids from his first marriage--the gov't counted his income, even though my friend's family was owed several thousand in back child support by his father, and there wasn't a hope in heck of tuition money from dad.

I, and most of my friends who did put ourselves through college, ended up not really majoring in the thing we wanted to do out of love. Instead, you review what you can afford and what is available, and see what you can do that is similar to that. Or see what you can do that will justify student loans and has steady work, such as nursing or accounting. I really love my job now, but if my major had been left to my druthers I probably would have picked linguistics. That's life and it's not fair.

 

[Lea71]

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The entire high school has 56 kids total....it's great....I guess that's one advantage of living in the sticks.

I, myself, have a community college degree and make a decent living...no complaints..so comm. college is definitely a good option. You can becomes a registered nurse with an associates in science degree and start out making over 50K a year.....beats the heck out of being a waitress with a BS in psychology....that's exactly what's happening to my cousin....spent a ton on a private college and four years after graduation she's in the same place she was prior to attending college....you have to major in something in which there is a demand.
I work to live, not live to work. And I am not defined by my occupation (although I do love what I do!).

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I'm a current university professor and I was going to say pretty much what Pat said. She is dead on the money with her advice.
In TN the schools in the TBR system (pretty much everything except Univ. of TN and they have their own system) are required to accept each others classes. Translated that means that if a student takes all the gen ed classes at a local community college, we accept them for credit. It is A LOT cheaper to take classes at the local community college. If you apply yourself, you can knock out almost all of the general ed classes in two years. If you don't take summers off you can do it faster than that. Since many students change majors at least once in the first two years, it makes sense to stay undecided and plow through the basics. That gives your daughter two more years to figure out the best way to accomplish her goals. The general ed classes are pretty generic too, so they will fit into whatever she ultimately decides.
If she wishes to continue swimming, look around for a Master's swim program. It's for anyone over 18 who wishes to swim competitively. There's no scholarship, but she'd get to continue doing something she loves and will meet some interesting people as well.

I was in the same boat for college and grad school. My parents couldn't afford to pay for any of it. I paid for the whole shebang with scholarships and student loans and jobs along the way. It is very doable. You just have to get creative and spend wisely. I lived on Cheerios and Ramen noodles at the end of every semester, but I finished school.

And I will second that returning students are better students. The older the student and the more of the financial burden they bear, the more serious they tend to be about their studies. Kids whose parents are paying the tab think nothing of failing a class. Mom and Dad will just shell out more so they can take it again. If the student is the one coming up with tuition, they don't want to waste a penny of it!

Good luck. I know it is frustrating dealing with academic institutions. The financial aid system seems designed to make you crazy. I figure it's just getting the kids used to dealing with the IRS someday.

 

[ams3651]

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im not entirely certain how it works but I was 23 when I went to a trade school and I still lived at home but was able to get my own loans. She or both of you should be able to get government loans and the pay back doesnt begin till graduation and is very adjustable to your income. If she works a year or two and saves she may mature a little and decide what to do.

 

[Aneesa's Muse]

I paid my own way through college ...making many sacrifices along the way ..and my 2 children are helping us (me and their father/my ex) pay their way through. They are in public schools ..and they are making some sacrifices regarding the "extracurricular" activities/sports, as well.

Also.. I did quite a bit of my course work at Community College level ..and it had no bearing on what schools I got accepted into. (Nor my children's)

I agree with the two professors and silkiechicken...

 

[cthrash1]

Quote:
The entire high school has 56 kids total....it's great....I guess that's one advantage of living in the sticks.

I, myself, have a community college degree and make a decent living...no complaints..so comm. college is definitely a good option. You can becomes a registered nurse with an associates in science degree and start out making over 50K a year.....beats the heck out of being a waitress with a BS in psychology....that's exactly what's happening to my cousin....spent a ton on a private college and four years after graduation she's in the same place she was prior to attending college....you have to major in something in which there is a demand.
I work to live, not live to work. And I am not defined by my occupation (although I do love what I do!).

WOW, I didn't know there was sticks in California...

We moved from LA county 28 yrs ago and the only sticks I ever went to was San Fransquitas canyon, which I hear is now grown up too. Oh yeah my grandpa had a beach cabin in Santa Barbara but there was a lot of folks around there still.