Friday, April 15, 2011

More College Fun......Keeping My Fingers & Toes Crossed!



So Hubs took Daughter for a campus visit to the safety/small state college she was accepted into.  This is the school that offered her a 1/3rd tuition merit scholarship and is the only one that the pile of money we have set aside for her will cover the cost of the degree without lots of student loan debt.  It is NOT her 1st choice school so she grumbled the whole way to the visit.

She came back fairly impressed with the school and the biology/bio-medical departments there.  Her biggest concern seems to be now that this school is NOT in a large city like her 1st choice, so she thinks there will be nothing to do for fun.   Kids.....

She will be bored for awhile but she won't be in massive amounts of debt when she is done there.
I think that's a pretty good trade-off.
Heck, knowing her, she'll be running this school before she's done!lolol

She also discovered that this school has a nice little perk.  If she gets accepted into a special pre-med program there, she gets an automatic berth into an accredited medical school that is affiliated with this college.  No having to interview or apply to medical school(she could still apply to other med schools if she wanted to)and no competing with the hundreds of thousands of other potential medical school candidates for the finite number of slots each year.  There is having to keep her grades at a certain level through her undergraduate years but if she does, she's guaranteed one of the 5 automatic seats for graduates of her school into the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Well she will have to get a 24 on her MCats as well as pass the interview and get letters of recommendation too.
She has already sent in her application for this program so we wait to hear back.  Please cross your fingers that she gets in....I'd appreciate it. ;-)

Of course, the $200,000+ she needs for medical school is another matter she can worry about 4 years from now.lolol

Here is some more information on this whole Student Debt issue.  If you have any articles or stories to share on this issue, please leave a comment and links for us.

* A Video from Glenn Reynolds' talk give at the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism lecture series last fall on the 'Higher Education Bubble'  HERE.

*A humorous column from George Will HERE.

* For the first time, Student Debt surpasses Credit Card Debt HERE.

* A podcast by Zac Bissonnette, who wrote a book about going to college without going into debt(while he was still a student!) HERE

* An article on saving on the cost of school by incorporating Community College into your plan HERE.

* If you put your college funds into a state plan or a 529, you need to go read this HERE.

Also, if you have a Coverdell Education Savings Account(not a 529), you need to know that they extended the tax breaks that were due to expire 12/31/10.  The new end date for these breaks is  12/31/12...unless Congress extends the deadline again at that time.
This is something you should keep your eye out for in a couple of years if you'll have an ESA at that time.

Sluggy

7 comments:

  1. Crossing my fingers & toes! Good luck ;)

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  2. Fingers, toes, legs and arms crossed here! She will not be bored. These are teens! The find and make fun. One piece of advice--read and reread the school catalog. Students, profs, and administration wanted to know how I figured out certain things.

    I carried the catalog with me in my book bag. A proofreader was probably the only person who read more of the catalog than I. This is how I discovered I could be in more than one degree program. Okay, I was a dork. As I neared the completion of my BA, I could not get a full load in the degree requirements. So, no wanting to waste a 100+ mile round trip, I decided to start the next degree. Then, in my next-to-last semester for the 1st degree, and working on second degree, I decided to start the MA program. So, for two semesters I was working toward 3 degrees without double-dipping.

    When I went for permission for the 3rd simultaneous degree--"No one has ever done that before." My argument was that there was no prohibition. Three levels up and I finally got permission. The catalog is gold.

    Even if the kid has one, parents should purchase one for home, hard copy, and read it every spare moment. I only gave you one example of my catalog-reading highlights.

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  3. I hope your daughter decides to go to the small state school with the amazingly excellent perk for med school later! That would be so cool to have that IN if she meets the requirements! All fingers crossed for her and you :)

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  4. I hope it goes well for her! Maybe some hospital or town will pay for the rest of her schooling if she contracts that she'll work for them when she's done!

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  5. I'm sure that it will all work out in the end! Fingers, toes and anything else that I can cross I will.
    I have a question that you will surely know.When will we find out when the Grant money will be released? I know its different for every school but I was wondering if you knew when 2011-12 was to be handed out. I keep going to the school to look it up online but it isn't higher learning in the office!
    Have a great weekend!

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  6. McVal--I believe Daughter is still considering joining the military after her undergrad degree so she can get them to pay for medical school.

    SonyaAnn--With #1 son's school, any federal $ is handed directly to the school and put into his school account and applied against his bill. We get the bill and have to pay that. We get billed early August and it's due before the semester begins. With his scholarship(school funded), that's just applied to his bill before we get it. I don't have experience with independent/outside aid money so I'm not much help there if the grant money is non-federal or non-school funded. You'll prolly want to call the school directly. Good luck! 8-)

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  7. SonyaAnn and Sluggy, Samantha used to find out what her financial aid package was around the first of May. So she always knew if she would have to come up with additional money during the summer.

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