College Costs
Kayti was accepted at Southeastern … the highlight of her life-so-far. She’s graduating high school two years ahead of most of her peers with a 4.0 average - but because the high school made her a senior, not a junior, we’ve spent the last year scrambling to get things done that we should’ve started in 11th grade.
She applied for a bunch of scholarships but has been turned down for an assortment of reasons - quite likely more her age than much else 
The school gave her a small scholarship that may go up after she re-takes the SAT)
The government says we’re not eligible for Pell Grants and such (I thought that poor people were supposed to get government grants for college? I just checked and we’re barely over the limit for several federal aid programs. In fact, without my measly income, we’d be eligible for a bunch of things, including Food Stamps and Medicaid.)
So we get the financial aid package from the school yesterday - they want her to roll $20,000 per year into student loans. That means she’ll graduate $80,000+ in debt. She wants to do it! (we’ve tried to explain to her just how much eighty thousand dollars is… she says it’s worth it even if she pays on it forever!)
If anyone out there has managed to put a kid through college and can advise me on what we’re doing wrong (I have this suspicion that we are messing up somewhere) - please let me know!
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:47 am
It stinks, but you’re looking at normal. You were supposed to have saved $80K for her tuition by now.
My best trick was to get myself declared independent before going back to college. Can’t offer any better help, I’m afraid.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:41 am
I don’t know if you’d be willing to go for this, but tuition is a lot lower in Canada; in some cases, even the international student fees are cheaper than American domestic tuition.
If it’s a Christian school Kayti’s going to, there are a few. My cousin’s going to one in Brantford, Ontario, and I just found out an elementary school chum is now working at Booth College in Winnipeg. And those are just the ones I know about. If you’re interested, I could look for more.
Failing that–$80 000 is a lot, an obscene amount for undergraduate tuition, but it will be worth it, even if she does end up paying it back forever. Think of it as her investment in her future.