ElderGreenKid has been accepted to his dream college and been offered a partial scholarship

[GreenPartyVoter]

that could cover 25% of the costs over 4 years. We are still negotiating FAFSA for further financial aid. If anyone has recently been through the process of figuring out how to pay for school, do you have any suggestions? I am scared to death for him being saddled with enormous debt so young. (I suggested other ways to get the education he wants at a better price, but he is dying to go to UMass Amherst come heck or high water. And yes, I plan to vote Democratic this fall.)

Old timers might recall me talking about my boys quite a bit before I became a lurker. They were 2 & 4yos when I first signed up here.

[kentauros]

1. I haven't seen you in a long time!

I wondered if you were still a member. Glad to see you around, even if lurking

Sorry I can't help with the other stuff. No kids here, and haven't been in university since the early 90s. Hopefully someone will post to help you.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Nice to see you! Yeah, the excitement of the Primaries has

brought me out of the woodwork.

[kentauros]

3. I noticed in your profile that you spend some time in GD:P

I had to trash that forum. Their 'energy' is a bit too much for me

I still have to look at it from time to time through juries

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I try to avoid the craziest threads. Being on a jury puts you smack dab in them!

LOL

[kentauros]

7. Yes, it does. *sigh*

Sometimes they are so crazy, I bow out of the jury. Let crazier people than me dive into them
Stop by the Lounge some time. It needs a jolt of Less Seriousness

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. I will do that sometime, if I can even stop being mesmerized by GD:P!

:p

[kentauros]

12. Beware!

It's Primary Meth. It'll ruin your smile

[KamaAina]

5. A friend's daughter serves as an RA at her college

Western Washington University. She was lucky to get that as a sophomore, though.

Are you in Mass. or another New England state? The six New England states basically offer reciprocity to each other on in-state public university tuition.

As you probably know, one of the big draws of UMass Amherst is the "Five Colleges" cross-enrollment program. UMass students get access to Smith, Mt. Holyoke, etc.'s top professors while the smaller colleges benefit from UMass' larger science labs, libraries, etc.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. The "five colleges" bit is part of what drew him. We are in Maine. Have not seen anything about

reciprocity of in-state tuition. Will double check!

(Hubby did the RA thing,but as a freshman that isn't an option yet. Your daughter was really lucky to get it so young! )

[KamaAina]

11. Not my daughter. A coworker's.

I'm not sure you get full in-state tuition, but at least a break. This dates back a few years. Hopefully they haven't screwed it up.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Sorry about that. I can't read today! LOL A friend of mine says she

thinks in-state applies only if your state doesn't offer the degree you want.

[logosoco]

6. That is great!

My son graduated from a four year college in 2014 (then went to Africa with the Peace Corps, so his student loans are deferred!). They gave him 50% off tuition from the start. We also did the FAFSA (they also paid for my AA and now my daughter is working on hers, so I am familiar with that!). Our state (MO) had a "Bright Flight" scholarship that paid $1000 per year for going to an in state school. My son worked on a lot of private scholarships, I think he got one from the Rotary Club and another from a dentist because his degree was in science.

Since I get to read his mail while he is out of the country (!), I saw that he is currently around $20,000 in debt. It makes me sad because he is a very smart young man (and has sent in his primary absentee ballot for Bernie!) and is very careful with money.

We need much better education options NOW! Education is what will make this country strong. It will make for a better future if everyone can get a good education.

Good luck to your son!!!! I hope he enjoys writing essays, because that is a good way to get scholarships! And it helps if he knows what he wants to get into because then he can relate that to the scholarship!

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Thanks! Your son sounds awesome! My guy doesn't have a clue about what

he wants to major in. His interests have varied throughout high school. We'll have to push him about those scholarships. I know he hasn't applied to many yet.

And yes, we desperately need to do something different regarding education costs! This is insane!

[logosoco]

15. That is understandable!

I am 51 and i still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

I tell my grandsons, ages 8 and 6 they should get into robot repair and building!!!

[Justice]

14. My niece attends there and loves it. She learned to drive a bus around campus to make money.

Pretty proud of her.

[mnhtnbb]

16. First, congrats to your son!

Second, do not leave it to him to see what other scholarship money he might find. It could be late to be doing this, but you might want
to scour the internet for scholarships that are still accepting applications.

My husband helped our youngest son apply for scholarships in 2007. He ended up with an Opportunity scholarship--funded by GSK (local headquarters in
the Research Triangle of NC) that basically paid his tuition for four years at an in-state school. He went to UNC-Chapel Hill.

If it turns out the application dates for scholarships have passed (my guess is they have) then turn your focus to trying to find him
a situation that will help with his living expenses.

When my oldest was a baby--back in the mid-80's--I advertised for a college student in Los Angeles to live in our guest bedroom and provide x amount
of baby sitting hours/week. She basically lived rent free in exchange for some baby sitting time. It was a good deal for both of us.

If your son has some skills that would translate to tutoring, search for jobs like that near U Mass Amherst. Focus on trying to find him
a living situation that would minimize his need for living expenses.

I agree, encourage him to figure out a way NOT to take out loans. Our youngest son is now a grad student at Yale School of Drama--with a nice
financial aid package that pays most of his tuition-- but he still needs $$ for living expenses. He has work/study, but that doesn't cover everything.
He wanted to take government loans, but we talked him out of it. We figured if we could help, we would, so he wouldn't have debt after grad school.


Good luck!

[joeybee12]

17. Great news...congratulations!

[MissB]

18. Have a dream life, not a dream school.

That's our mantra.

I have a senior too, so I feel your pain. We let our son apply to one school that was completely unaffordable (I.e no merit available and we couldn't pay the cost of attendance) and all but one of the rest he applied to had great scholarships possible but not guaranteed. The last one he applied to was our state school - a financial safety school.

We don't want either of our kids to have loans. We can't stop them from taking out federal loans (unless we refuse to do the FAFSA forms each year) but that would limit them to $27k total debt if they signed up for the federal loans.

We have two kids that are one year apart so we were careful to let them both know what the cost constraints were.

My son has three of six colleges that are financially feasible. Two of the six haven't worked out and one of the six hasn't released acceptances yet but it's the completely unaffordable one anyway.

He's currently sitting on some disappointment - two of his favorites haven't given him the merit he'd need to attend. He was nearly over one of them last week but the wounds reopened his week when he received his merit decision for the second. I'm staying back and not prying. He will get to the point where he loves one of the remaining two (he won't go to our state school). It's tough, but it helps that he knows the cost constraints.

There aren't a lot of funding sources out there for middle class kids. The best deals come from the universities themselves. FAFSA will reveal your expected family contribution (EFC) which may line up with the EFC using the university's EFC calculator on their website.

You can ask for more merit or more financial aid - schools often have forms- but usually there has to be something for them to consider, such as a better offer from a similarly ranked school or a job loss by a parent.

Stay away from PLUS loans. Dream life, not dream school. Remember he can only take out $5500 this year as a freshman in loans. You'd have to cosign anything above that.

[flygal]

19. Oh wow - old timer here too

I remember you from the 2004 campaign, you had a calm reasoning to your posts, appreciated that.

I hope your search for aid is painless!