Hi, I’m a high school senior and I’m planning to start college next year. I’m in a pretty unfortunate situation where my parents make a decent income but are almost completely unable to pay for my attendance. First of all, my parents are divorced. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail about my family situation but because of medical and legal expenses, my dad has almost no savings. He’s also filed for bankruptcy recently so he can’t take out a parent plus loan, which I don’t think I’d be comfortable asking him to do anyway. My mom has a lot of monthly expenses and lives paycheck to paycheck and again, has minimal savings. They’ve both made it clear that they would want to help pay for my college but realistically can’t contribute more than maybe $5k per year between the both of them.
I’m deciding between two schools, one of which is a state school with an approximately $18k yearly cost of attendance and a private school with an approximately $22k yearly cost of attendance. I received the largest merit scholarships available from both schools and got some additional financial aid from the private school. I like the private school a lot better and without revealing what school it is, it’s a very niche type of school and I couldn’t get the same experience at most colleges in the country. It’s also in a metropolitan area (better for internships) and has better outcomes for students in terms of graduate school. I’m hoping to work as a pharmaceutical researcher in the future so I’m planning, at least for now, to enroll as a PhD student after undergrad. I know that my career plans could change but I just want to make it clear I do have plans with college. My mom said she would co-sign private loans because that seems to be literally the only way I can attend college. Considering I’m going to have an insane amount of debt either way, would it be irresponsible to go to the private school I would really rather go to?
Before anyone mentions that I should have applied to cheaper schools, almost every college I applied to was a safety school because I knew cost would be a huge concern. I got the largest possible merit scholarship at every school I applied to and even with that plus need-based aid at some schools, nothing is affordable. The state school I mentioned above is my cheapest option. Also, as morbid as this sounds, I’m the sole beneficiary of my dad’s life insurance policy and in the event of his death, I’ll easily be able to pay off my loans with the benefit I’d receive. My dad is older and he himself brought this up in discussions of how to afford college. Does it make my situation better knowing that at some point in my life, I’ll gain access to this money that I know I can pay off my debt with? Sorry for the long post, I’m just super worried about get stuck with $80k+ debt in four years.
Submitted April 04, 2020 at 12:36AM by makeitawful6 https://ift.tt/2V1zw3O
