This is my first time posting on Reddit, which hopefully portrays the pickle I'm in.
I applied to 20 schools for an undergraduate degree in business/finance without giving much thought to the costs because my parents had consistently told me I wouldn’t have to pay anything for college. (Because schools would be handing out need based aid left and right, not because they had college savings.) I got rejected/waitlisted from 16 of these schools, including my own state school, and only found out this info was wrong when my four financial aid awards letters arrived.
My options: 44k per year for IU (kelly direct admit into finance), 25k per year for Butler (finance major), 35k for Miami Ohio, and 19k for Missouri Science and Technology. As implied, my parents make little money and the cost of college is 100 percent on me. What do I do?
From my understanding, breaking into the well paying jobs in finance is far easier from a semi-target school like Kelly.
For some context, I am not a bad student: 5.0/4 GPA, 32 ACT, 8 AP Classes (all 4's), 3 varsity sports and 2 jobs throughout highschool, 10 years of violin tenure (first stand in school orchestra) etc. I am also not an idiot with my money- maxed out my Roth IRA 3 years in a row, buy essentials only…
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Posted by Full-Amoeba-1265
4 Comments
If you pick the expensive school just be sure the income you will receive will let you pay off the loans and support your lifestyle. For instance I live in a HCOL city w about 150k mixed federal and private student loans but make about 140k. My minimum payment on student loans is 1450 a month. Thankfully a have a secure stable job in healthcare (which is a big reason I choose the filed). Also I do make sacrifices and have had roommates, no car only public transit, small apartments etc.
First off it makes no sense. If your parents make little money you should be getting Pell grants and the scholarships should be plentiful from the schools as well ones you can apply for
Well, this isn’t a nice solution, but taking a year to work as full time as you can and save up some money while reapplying to different schools with more realistic expectations is a possibility. Gap years are very common, and if your folks let you stay at home you can put aside some solid savings even working retail.
You could also look at community college. There’s some really good ones, and your Pell Grant should mostly cover tuition. Jobs will generally just care about what school awarded your ba, not where you started, so that lets you get things done cheaper and transfer.
Community college for 2 years and then transfer to in state public for the last 2.
I’m sorry your parents didn’t prepare you better for the reality.