Strangled By the Invisible Hand!
Salut, From the Other Side of the Waiting-for-April-1st-Vortex (...almost)!
Because I tend to kill good moods with flicks of the wrist, or perhaps because my family upbringing has been quite conservative and strange, I have a rather utilitarian question to ask, which concerns pragmatic monetary affairs in all of their bland necessity. This question, and those like it, are going to be the pivot-points of my fate in the coming weeks, and I ask it in all direness and sincerity. I know relatively little about the economy, about bank accounts, savings, loans, debt, income, the FAFSA, the difference between Perkins, Stafford, & Federal PLUS loans; similarly, my thoughts of college (as some of you may have perhaps warned me) have been composed of images of libraries and busts of Greek historians and grand research initiatives and Dead Poets' circles. I don't know anything about career plans or career planning, the relative influence of the Name Game on grad school admittance records, or about conniving or manipulating the parental psyche.
So! Here is my situation, and my request:
According to my parents, I can afford to attend only two colleges.
This displeases me greatly, both because I would like to think that I have worked hard enough to secure myself a choice, and because I do not like the fact that wonderful things like education should be consigned to scales of economic propriety.
I received a letter from my father yesterday, detailing that my parents are willing (and their word is able...I'm not sure what to do about this, because if they believe the FAFSA is an instrument of federal deceit, I am no-one to influence their stubborn viewpoint) to contribute exactly $5,000 a year to my education.
Average Cost of Private-School Education: $43,000-47,000.
Jessi's Miscellaneous Grant Offerings: $10,000-17,000
(with the exception of Brown, who was generous enough to woo me to Providence with a whopping total of $2,000 in financial aid! Way to go, Ivy League! Good for you!)
The letter also included foreboding warnings about the price of grad school, and the horrors of entering the Adult World crippled with a proverbial caravan of debt.
*****************
THE QUESTION:
For those of you who do have to worry about financing your education, what are the factors that you have been weighing?
Have you come up with any ingenious strategies (hopefully supported by spreadsheets, positive studies, or other accounts) that have helped you to convince your parents that you should attend the school of your desiring, even if its tuition is quite weighty?
Are most of you stomaching your own loans? Is this even possible?
(I have been told that I need to go to the local bank to ask if I can take out $89,000 in loans. According to my parents, I will be laughed at, given that I have approximately $400 to my name and no sustainable credit record.)
Are these things difficult to pay off after college?
And does debt (let us say...$89,000 in debt) truly cripple an individual?
And what about legal emancipation? This has been suggested to me by a number of individuals (meaning that I will take out loans in my own name), but is this an easy thing to do? Are there marked consequences?
*****************************
I apologize for the bluntness of these requests, or if any of the information contained herein seems whiny, irrelevant, or somehow off. I lament (daily, daily!!!) the fact that I have to worry about any of this, and perhaps I should just accept the fact that different families have different priorities and get on with my OSU career, but I don't want to give up if there is still hope that general enlightenment on Financial Aid and Economic Principles could bring my family and I to some sort of glorious understanding.
And so very many apologies to any of you in a similar situation.
It's a tricky boat to be stranded on, but I'm sure there is always some
opportunity to think oneself off of undesirable boats.
Rosencranz & Guildenstern, again!
Advice & Commiseration welcome--please!
$$$,
Jessi
Because I tend to kill good moods with flicks of the wrist, or perhaps because my family upbringing has been quite conservative and strange, I have a rather utilitarian question to ask, which concerns pragmatic monetary affairs in all of their bland necessity. This question, and those like it, are going to be the pivot-points of my fate in the coming weeks, and I ask it in all direness and sincerity. I know relatively little about the economy, about bank accounts, savings, loans, debt, income, the FAFSA, the difference between Perkins, Stafford, & Federal PLUS loans; similarly, my thoughts of college (as some of you may have perhaps warned me) have been composed of images of libraries and busts of Greek historians and grand research initiatives and Dead Poets' circles. I don't know anything about career plans or career planning, the relative influence of the Name Game on grad school admittance records, or about conniving or manipulating the parental psyche.
So! Here is my situation, and my request:
According to my parents, I can afford to attend only two colleges.
This displeases me greatly, both because I would like to think that I have worked hard enough to secure myself a choice, and because I do not like the fact that wonderful things like education should be consigned to scales of economic propriety.
I received a letter from my father yesterday, detailing that my parents are willing (and their word is able...I'm not sure what to do about this, because if they believe the FAFSA is an instrument of federal deceit, I am no-one to influence their stubborn viewpoint) to contribute exactly $5,000 a year to my education.
Average Cost of Private-School Education: $43,000-47,000.
Jessi's Miscellaneous Grant Offerings: $10,000-17,000
(with the exception of Brown, who was generous enough to woo me to Providence with a whopping total of $2,000 in financial aid! Way to go, Ivy League! Good for you!)
The letter also included foreboding warnings about the price of grad school, and the horrors of entering the Adult World crippled with a proverbial caravan of debt.
*****************
THE QUESTION:
For those of you who do have to worry about financing your education, what are the factors that you have been weighing?
Have you come up with any ingenious strategies (hopefully supported by spreadsheets, positive studies, or other accounts) that have helped you to convince your parents that you should attend the school of your desiring, even if its tuition is quite weighty?
Are most of you stomaching your own loans? Is this even possible?
(I have been told that I need to go to the local bank to ask if I can take out $89,000 in loans. According to my parents, I will be laughed at, given that I have approximately $400 to my name and no sustainable credit record.)
Are these things difficult to pay off after college?
And does debt (let us say...$89,000 in debt) truly cripple an individual?
And what about legal emancipation? This has been suggested to me by a number of individuals (meaning that I will take out loans in my own name), but is this an easy thing to do? Are there marked consequences?
*****************************
I apologize for the bluntness of these requests, or if any of the information contained herein seems whiny, irrelevant, or somehow off. I lament (daily, daily!!!) the fact that I have to worry about any of this, and perhaps I should just accept the fact that different families have different priorities and get on with my OSU career, but I don't want to give up if there is still hope that general enlightenment on Financial Aid and Economic Principles could bring my family and I to some sort of glorious understanding.
And so very many apologies to any of you in a similar situation.
It's a tricky boat to be stranded on, but I'm sure there is always some
opportunity to think oneself off of undesirable boats.
Rosencranz & Guildenstern, again!
Advice & Commiseration welcome--please!
$$$,
Jessi
posted by goodbye, goodbye at 10:55 AM
2 Comments:
First, let me start by saying I <3 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Ok now on to more serious matters. I think you just have to think about what it is you are going to do with your degree.
My brother paid off his debt to Harvard within 3 years (it totalled like 30,000 ish) by living in a shitty little apt. with other recent graduates. Given, this only works if you are going to make 6 digits upon graduation.
Basically, if you are going to do anything involving stocks, medicine, or chemicals, you've got no worries.
Schools aren't trying to put you into eternal debt. They want their students to graduate and be able to soon thereafter give them bulky contributions and prestige. I think its almost always a good investment if its a great school.
And, my dears, there are always outside scholarships!!! Some deadlines are still in mid April or May... APPLY!
And call the financial aid office or talk to your school guidance counselor on where to go for loans.
Student loans must be eaaaaasy to get, or else no one would go to college.
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