Paying for college WTF!
Hey it's Lisa. This is my mental download on paying for college for my child - part 1.
I don't think I have ever been more stressed out in my entire life. I’ve been crying uncontrollably because our daughter is a high school senior and I don't want to tell my child she can't go to college, with her heart set on it. She wants to go to WSU and graduate from the nursing program, which we think is fantastic!
Let me tell you, its a gut wrenching feeling when you are stuck in the middle income bracket. We have to juggle saving for future unplanned medical expenses, while trying to save for retirement since we are older parents than those of other high school seniors. I am looking at a really freaking pathetic "financial aid package" for our child that includes zero free money. FASFA's opinion of our financial situation is what the colleges are basing need for financial aid and their interpretation is that we don’t need any aid. That means our financial aid package for our child is a $5000 loan coupled with a parent plus loan that requires us to sign our life away. So far, nothing I have read about a parent plus loan is a positive thing. We are leaning more towards the Sallie Mae loan, as they seemed to have a lot more options.
Greg's comments to me were “the math isn't mathing", which I f***ing hate it when he says that! So now what? A starting nurse salary is roughly $74,000 a year. That’s not bad, but I don't really want her loan payments to be more than 10% of her income after graduation. I would prefer her loan payment be $600 a month, which probably only pays for about 2 years of college at WSU. So, how do we bridge the gap between what we want our child to be saddled with and her attending four years of college.
So here starts my frantic search for scholarships. If I was smart six years ago when my daughter told me she wanted to go to college, I would have started saving then, and maybe we'd be in a different situation today. My free time today is spent researching and combing through lists and lists of places to find the less competitive scholarships, and then applying for everything I possibly can as a parent for my child.
Next comes a conversation with my child about what she's willing to do to make this dream work. She knows the student loans will be hers. We've talked about the fact that she's going to have to work while she's in college. I am willing to help out monthly as much as I can, but the thought of tackling a possible $80,000 shortfall with my child is overwhelming, to say the least.
What I've learned so far is that there's a bunch of people out there on social media that tell you they have all these fantastic ideas and great plans for how you can get hundreds and thousands of dollars of scholarships for your child. Most of it is b*****it! Some of it is really good information, but you have to search for it.
Here's some things I have learned, so far. My child needs to write an appeal letter to the Bursar’s Office and the financial aid office of her college, and she needs to explain our financial situation, which unlike most people, is fairly unique. We have to plan for an unknown future because of my medical diagnosis. We would like to thank them for her financial aid offer and let them know that WSU is her first and only choice of colleges she wants to attend, and how making attendance affordable is going to be a stretch, or something to that effect. Additionally, she needs to be on board with madly applying for scholarships for basically the next four years. Luckily, there are scholarships for high school seniors, undergraduates and graduates that will keep us busy for the next four years.
I really want her to be able to do this. I believe that she needs to go away to college and grow, as it’s an experience I want her to have. I believe that she needs to, and this may sound really crappy, get away from her parents for a little bit and grow up. She's very smart and has been pretty dedicated while she is in high school. Her senior year GPA, thus far, is 4.0, so she has the ability to make this all work, but she needs to get her head in the game.
I will try and write more about our experiences as time goes by. In the meantime……
Back to the crying uncontrollably!!