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

About College Stuff

So #1 son is a High School Senior. The local school district has an arrangement with the local community college, where, if you are among the top percentage of students in the senior class, you can take college courses during your senior year.


These classes are college level. They satisfy the seniors high school credit requirements for the diploma but they also possibly can be applied to your college record when you matriculate at a school. This means if your college will transfer these credits, you can possibly graduate in less than 4 yrs. When you are footing the college bill, getting through faster can be a good & frugal thing.


Anyway, #1 son has chosen to attend a public State School for College here in PA. The state school system here DOES accept these Dual Enrollment Credits if the grade is a B or over.




This is #1 son. He just got his grades from the Community College for the 2 courses he took this semester as part of the Dual Enrollment Program. He doesn't look very thrilled and it's not a very good picture anyway but he PASSED! Not only did he pass English 102 & Sociology but he got A's in both!

Add these to his grades for last Semester's English 101 & Philosophy grades and he has 3 As & 1 B for the year.

Maybe this is why the college he accepted entrance into surprised us last month with an Academic Excellence Scholarship! Since we have no debt(nothing since paying off the house in March of '07)the Federal Government considers us WEALTHY! Yes, the Federal Financial Aid Thingy said our family can afford to contribute almost $40 THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH toward #1 son's 1st year of College.

Yes, I said....

Forty.

Thousand.

Dollars.

So because we are 'wealthy', #1 son can't apply for any financial aid except for loans, which have to be paid back. We can't apply for any financial need scholarships. Since he isn't part of any minority group or have a strange last name(well, he DOES but no one wealthy with our last name has ever endowed a scholarship for people with this last name) or a standout athlete, #1 son is only eligible for widely popular scholarships that everyone can apply for (Coca-Cola, etc. which he has no chance getting because of the sheer numbers of applicants) or Merit Scholarships. Most Merit Scholarships(both widely available or particular to a school)also have other components(applicant also have to be in a certain group racially or gender or living in a certain place or attended a certain high school, or has some other qualifier that knocks him out). The PURE Merit Scholarships are very few and most aren't within his reach because he isn't a Valedictorian, in the top 1% of his class & he didn't score perfectly on his SAT.

So he applied to a State School that we CAN afford to pay for in CASH! because
we live WELL below our means, save money and have no debt. We aren't relying on anyone else to pay for his education. He'll have an on-campus job too as part of paying for his education. By working, he is also contributing to his education.

So we were overjoyed when the letter arrived from his College that because of his high school grades he was being awarded a Merit Scholarship. It's not much money, but it will help pay for his books, etc. And if he keeps his grades up, it renews for all 4 years, IF he takes 4 yrs. ;-)

And in 2 more years, I get to go through this Federal Financial Aid stuff again, with daughter. I wonder how 'wealthy' the government will think we are when we have TWO kids in college? I may be the only 'wealthy' person in line at the Food Bank by then.

Sluggy