Financial Aid --- can anyone get unsubsidized federal loans? Kid's contribution to college costs?

[Anonymous]

We will take advantage of subsidized and unsubsidized loans, one year covered with prepaid 529, savings to cover remaining costs. As freshman, he will receive $2,500 scholarship from work and may receive another smaller one, might get some merit aid, work study if available. He will pay outright for books, spending money, extra curricular activities, and the interest on unsubsidized loans when those come into play. After graduation, we will pay minimums on any loans until he has decent job. -- And yes, we will keep him on our super cheap health insurance as long as possible.

[Anonymous]

Last poster again, yes I believe anyone can get unsubsidized loans, amount is around 5k a year with some max. Subsidized is the type of loan the government subsidies so interest does not accrue until graduation.

[Anonymous]

To answer your question, complete the FAFSA application each year and your child will be eligible for the loans.

[Anonymous]

I do not worry about “skin in the game”. The loans don’t feel real to kids. They are just signing an online form , it feels like Monopoly money to them.
I don’t require my son to work at a job during the school year. He works very hard to get all As in a demanding major.

I pay what I can and he takes out a loan for what I can’t cover.

[Anonymous]

It is downright stupid to make kids pay for college. I say this as my wife and I had parents who did not pay at all.

My issue was I worked a lot in HS. I had a 20 hour a week job starting at 16 and impacted my grades.

Then in college I literally could only attend a college within 20 miles of my home and the best price. Remember I had a 18 year old car with 150,000 miles on it. I paid myself. Then during college my grades suffered which impacted my starting salary greatly.

My two daughter I told them do not work in HS unless the summer and focus on grades. I was willing to pay up to $35k a year for school so focus on merit money if want to go out of state or private.
Both went OOS state university’s. Both got partial merit money. I mean for example Delaware gave my daughter a 16k a year scholarship. That is 64k off over 4 years.

And also my daughters do work full time in summer and winter break. My senior daughter even has a 15 hour a week paid internship. I don’t touch that money. I see their savings account. Both my daughters are saving up for an apartment, cars, bills post grad.

That said my older senior daughter already has a signed job offer at a Fortune 500 FinTech at their headquarters. She interned there.

Thanks hated the burden my parents gave me that put me in a hole till 30!! My wife has same deal.

Even though I graduated debt free going to a second tier college, living at home during college, working so much and lower grades I started behind in my career.

My older daughter is way ahead. And guess what cost me $140k out of pocket to make her life better.

And I was not willing to pay Syracuse or American University she did budget it.

My younger daughter also got into pitsburgh with 5k merit and chose Delaware with 16k merit. Her degree maybe cost 150k by done.

My youngest in HS maybe I budget 160k.

So what I drive a 12 year old car and have not been on a vacation in 5 years.

[Anonymous]

My husband's parents drew up loan documents with a payment plan and loaned him money and he paid it back over 10 years.
He sent his mom a check every month.

However, this was for medical school. They wanted him to pay for his schooling without paying large amounts of interest.

He went to a state honors college for undergrad and had a full scholarship. But I could imagine them doing something similar for part of undergrad tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is downright stupid to make kids pay for college. I say this as my wife and I had parents who did not pay at all.

My issue was I worked a lot in HS. I had a 20 hour a week job starting at 16 and impacted my grades.

Then in college I literally could only attend a college within 20 miles of my home and the best price. Remember I had a 18 year old car with 150,000 miles on it. I paid myself. Then during college my grades suffered which impacted my starting salary greatly.

My two daughter I told them do not work in HS unless the summer and focus on grades. I was willing to pay up to $35k a year for school so focus on merit money if want to go out of state or private.
Both went OOS state university’s. Both got partial merit money. I mean for example Delaware gave my daughter a 16k a year scholarship. That is 64k off over 4 years.

And also my daughters do work full time in summer and winter break. My senior daughter even has a 15 hour a week paid internship. I don’t touch that money. I see their savings account. Both my daughters are saving up for an apartment, cars, bills post grad.

That said my older senior daughter already has a signed job offer at a Fortune 500 FinTech at their headquarters. She interned there.

Thanks hated the burden my parents gave me that put me in a hole till 30!! My wife has same deal.

Even though I graduated debt free going to a second tier college, living at home during college, working so much and lower grades I started behind in my career.

My older daughter is way ahead. And guess what cost me $140k out of pocket to make her life better.

And I was not willing to pay Syracuse or American University she did budget it.

My younger daughter also got into pitsburgh with 5k merit and chose Delaware with 16k merit. Her degree maybe cost 150k by done.

My youngest in HS maybe I budget 160k.

So what I drive a 12 year old car and have not been on a vacation in 5 years.

I appreciate that you took the time to answer, but I think you are making this an "all or nothing" question. I was asking what people do. I do not expect my kids to pay 100%. But I am very interested in setting up SOME sort of financial responsibility. To my great surprise, DD was just given $3000 renewable (based on keeping a certain GPA). We did not expect this b/c her stats were right on the line of getting admitted. Since I will consider that $3000 part of her contribution, I'm thinking that maybe our "policy" will be that she buys her books and pays for her own spending money. (I don't think that is particularly onerous.) There is a chance she will lose that $3000 in year 3 or 4 of college for not having high enough grades. So, our "policy" has to contemplate that. And we have a younger child with a different academic profile -- so we have to keep that in mind as well --- having a policy that works for both kids' situations.

I expect books to be about $1000 per year (???). And I would expect spending money to be about $1000/yr as well. DD spends very little b/c she is very introverted. But, even if she goes out for fast food and a movie once a week, that would be $30. Over the year, it would be about $1000.

I don't know -- we can afford to pay for all of it. But, I want her to have some financial ownership. This isn't high school (which is free). This is college... and it costs a lot!

Like I said, I'm just looking for ideas about what other people's policies have been -- flat rate contribution? percentage? specific items?

[Anonymous]

I appreciate that you took the time to answer, but I think you are making this an "all or nothing" question. I was asking what people do. I do not expect my kids to pay 100%. But I am very interested in setting up SOME sort of financial responsibility. To my great surprise, DD was just given $3000 renewable (based on keeping a certain GPA). We did not expect this b/c her stats were right on the line of getting admitted. Since I will consider that $3000 part of her contribution, I'm thinking that maybe our "policy" will be that she buys her books and pays for her own spending money. (I don't think that is particularly onerous.) There is a chance she will lose that $3000 in year 3 or 4 of college for not having high enough grades. So, our "policy" has to contemplate that. And we have a younger child with a different academic profile -- so we have to keep that in mind as well --- having a policy that works for both kids' situations.

I expect books to be about $1000 per year (???). And I would expect spending money to be about $1000/yr as well. DD spends very little b/c she is very introverted. But, even if she goes out for fast food and a movie once a week, that would be $30. Over the year, it would be about $1000.

I don't know -- we can afford to pay for all of it. But, I want her to have some financial ownership. This isn't high school (which is free). This is college... and it costs a lot!

Like I said, I'm just looking for ideas about what other people's policies have been -- flat rate contribution? percentage? specific items?

I think paying for books and spending money as the student's contribution is fine. I also think that strong, hard-working students shouldn't be penalized financially for doing well academically (all too often, parents illogically limit their gifted, diligent student to merit-only, less challenging schools in order to have more funding available to fund the tuition of a low-achieving, unmotivated younger child who won't qualify for scholarships. It's wrong to tell your student that she has to turn down Amherst to attend a crappy school like the Univ. of Idaho because you'll need to fund her brother's tuition at Boise State).

[Anonymous]

"It's wrong to tell your student that she has to turn down Amherst to attend a crappy school like the Univ. of Idaho because you'll need to fund her brother's tuition at Boise State)."

OMG! I'd hate both my parents and my loser brother for the rest of our lives if they did that!

[Anonymous]

We had our kid take out the loan, she pays for books, and we don't provide "pocket" money. Depending on the path taken after graduation, we might pay the loans off for her. At 18, our kids feel like they want to make adult decisions on their own and be treated like an adult, we think they need some adult responsibilities then. Does the 5K really make a dfifference when we are paying over 70K a year? No. This 70k isn't nothiing to us though, we are sacrificing other things (admittedly, wants not needs) to pay it. This is a kid that got multiple full merit offers at solid state and non T25 privates, but wanted an elite education, we feel like she should contribute because of that choice.
I do think this is why when I send cards with $10 or $20 I get a call with a thank you or a with a pic of what she used the extra cash for. Verses when our friends give monthly and extra money to their kids and it is just seems as if the kids expect it.
She's working remotely over winter break for the company she worked with the last two summers...including the 2 weeks we are at a ski resort. Kinda silly? Maybe. She set this up on her own with the resasoing that we'll still be working while away, our senior will be churning out essays, so she might as well earn some money instead of sleeping or watching netflix. She is a fortunate kid and all we can do is hope that the choices that we have made (yes, there has been lots of volunteering and donating) help her appreciate what she has, understand the value of a dollar, and give her a work ethic.

[Anonymous]

My DC is a freshman in one of the top 25 schools and we don’t qualify for FA, so I thought about the federal loan. There are schools offer the loan, interest free, to any student but DC’s school isn’t one of them. The interest is around 4%.
Based on the list I found internet, H, P, S and a few other top schools offer the interest free HOPE loan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"It's wrong to tell your student that she has to turn down Amherst to attend a crappy school like the Univ. of Idaho because you'll need to fund her brother's tuition at Boise State)."

OMG! I'd hate both my parents and my loser brother for the rest of our lives if they did that!

My parents made my sister turn down Penn because they didn't think it was worth the price vs an in-state public with a strong program for her major. I got into several OOS privates but they didn't give enough merit aid to fit the budget my parents set. So I Also went to a strong public U. Both of us had great college years and good careers. We don't hate our parents. They were completely right IMO. Especially because my dad got laid off from his professional job while I was in college and never got another job at that level. I'm really glad they had not taken out loans for our education.

We've taken the same approach as my parents -- we set a reasonable budget ( would cover any in-state public or a lot of privates/oos public that give merit aid) and will pay up to that for tuition, room & board. We have that saved in 529s for each kid and they know anything left they can use for grad school. The kids work summers starting at 16 to cover personal expenses. DS is a freshman and also decided to get an on-campus job 2nd semester. His first choice school was also his least expensive option, well under the max budget.

When it comes to "skin in the game" I agree that if it's about motivation and appreciating the cost, loans don't really mean much. They don't seem real vs. putting in the time in a job and seeing the $$ leave your bank account.

[Anonymous]

I'm bumping this, because I'm interested in what more families are doing. College is sooo expensive compared to when my parents paid for mine, so I don't know what the best strategy it.

Our income it too high to get any financial aid.
I've saved in 529's and can pay about $35k/year toward college (basically full costs at in state university). And I push my kids to get the best grades they can, because I know it can mean $5k-$15k merit aid per year).

I want them to have "skin in the game", but honestly my Junior's $12/hr part-time job will not even make a dent in tuition. So, do I just have her work for spending money?

Any good plans to share?

[Anonymous]

IMO, putting your kids in debt for undergrad just to teach them a lesson (what lesson?) is stupid. She will have to pay out of pocket for grad school anyway and there are virtually no scholarships for med, law, or top MBA programs, so she'll have plenty of debt after grad school.

[Anonymous]

I figure that studying is my kid's job. So long as he's doing that and I can afford it, I'm going to pay the freight.

I'm not totally opposed to "skin in the game," but it has the feel of one of those superficially plausible life philosophies that don't necessarily do any good: of the "medicine doesn't work if it doesn't taste bad," or "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" variety. See also "grit," the value of spanking, and the hate toward participation trophies.