Paying for college, this is looking ugly. Any advice?

[Ebola_V1rus]

Hello all, I'll start with some background info on myself.


I'm a middle class white male who has the 'honor' of calling Cornfield, Illinois home. Due to personal choice, and financial restrictions, (okay mostly financial restrictions) I've been attending a local community college and studying engineering for the last two years. I plan to transfer to a four year institution in the fall of 2011.


It has always been my dream to attend the University of Illinois to finish my undergraduate degree. To be surrounded by the rich history of technological innovation and learn from the minds behind them would be a dream come true. However, after filling out my application to the school and really scrutinizing the costs of attending I was surprised to find that it will cost me between $65k-$75k to attend the U of I for TWO AND A HALF YEARS.

I will receive no financial contributions from my parents, they make decent money, but have bills and debts of their own to pay. A common phrase I keep hearing from family and friends when discussing this matter is "Just take out the loans, everyone has to". I somehow do not believe that the average person has to take on ~$120k in debt for an undergraduate education.

Those familiar with Illinois will know that there aren't any other public schools in the state that even come close to the reputation of UIUC engineering. Accordingly, I'm feeling 'stuck' and very stressed out about this. I'm ineligible for financial aid due to my parent's income, and an unlikely scholarship candidate( my stats are there, my skin color is not). Alright, I'll stop my whining get to my question.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Do I have any other choices available to me that I'm just not seeing? Any advice?


Any helpful response is greatly appreciated, I'll be sure and check the thread as often as possible.

Thanks

 

[twofish-quant]

Go to a library and there are a lot of books on financial aid. What you'll find is that the list price in colleges is something like the full fare price on airlines. There are a lot of discounts and financial aid so that the actual price is likely to be a lot less than the quoted price.

 

[lisab]

Hi Ebola, welcome to PF!

Yeah I was sort of in your situation. From about the 7th grade on I didn't get my education in the usual way, and when I was 19 decided I should try again. Scholarships were out of the question.

I ended up going part-time and working nearly full time. Whew, it took a while but I didn't have much choice. But I worked at a lab as a technician, and the company paid for a lot of my tuition. A big plus: I had many years of lab experience by the time I graduated.

So, if you have to work, it can be done, but you have to be patient. Look for companies that offer tuition reimbursement, it helps.

Btw, have you talked to the financial aid office about this yet?

 

[Ebola_V1rus]

Go to a library and there are a lot of books on financial aid. What you'll find is that the list price in colleges is something like the full fare price on airlines. There are a lot of discounts and financial aid so that the actual price is likely to be a lot less than the quoted price.

Yes I've also heard this. However, the University of Illinois has a pretty nasty reputation for not giving much, if any, aid.

Hi Ebola, welcome to PF!

Yeah I was sort of in your situation. From about the 7th grade on I didn't get my education in the usual way, and when I was 19 decided I should try again. Scholarships were out of the question.

I ended up going part-time and working nearly full time. Whew, it took a while but I didn't have much choice. But I worked at a lab as a technician, and the company paid for a lot of my tuition. A big plus: I had many years of lab experience by the time I graduated.

So, if you have to work, it can be done, but you have to be patient. Look for companies that offer tuition reimbursement, it helps.

Btw, have you talked to the financial aid office about this yet?

Thanks for the reply,

It's funny you should mention working. I'm currently working full-time and going to school full-time at my local community college. It's pretty rough, especially with math/engineering classes, but I've managed an almost perfect GPA through it all. I'd really like to avoid doing this if I go to the University of Illinois or two main reasons. One, the increased difficulty of the classes. Second (and the main reason), is that my goal is to become involved in research, and that does not mix nicely with having a 'real' job.

Admittedly, I've never spoken with the financial aid office. I'm an independent, but still under 23 years old. So I still have my parent's $130k plus combined salary hanging over my head. I always assumed I wasn't worth throwing money at to the government.

 

[Mathnomalous]

I think what people are primarily paying for at places like UIUC are the brand-name, social connections, and job placement services. In my opinion, paying more than $20,000 over 4+ years is a bad financial investment. Ironically, I feel many private and public US universities are overpriced while places like MIT, Harvard, Princeton, etc. are underpriced.

The knowledge obtained at most US universities seem to be the exact same; the textbooks across US campuses seem to be similar; and if cash-strapped places like CUNY can run laser labs, most US universities probably use similar equipment. Furthermore, the Internet connects you with intelligent people all over the world, such as professors, scientists, students, philosophers, etc. The Internet also grants you access to an enormous amount of knowledge.

I also think US higher education is a bubble fueled by student loans and will probably crash in the next few years. More US students are graduating with higher levels of debt every year but with a similar knowledge base all across; add to that the bleak job market and the near certainty that in the future we will have to pay higher taxes to cover the US deficit + social programs. As an additional "slap in US students' collective face", our counterparts in Europe seem to be fully covered or mostly covered by their states yet it seems they lead similar lifestyles, perhaps better.

Frugal is the new smart. My $0.02.

 

[twofish-quant]

The knowledge obtained at most US universities seem to be the exact same; the textbooks across US campuses seem to be similar; and if cash-strapped places like CUNY can run laser labs, most US universities probably use similar equipment.

In physics and math the formal coursework is pretty much the same across different universities. However what makes things different between schools is "informal knowledge." If you go to different universities, you'll be surrounded by different people, and you'll get different attitudes around you.

Furthermore, the Internet connects you with intelligent people all over the world, such as professors, scientists, students, philosophers, etc. The Internet also grants you access to an enormous amount of knowledge.

Yes, the internet helps.

I also think US higher education is a bubble fueled by student loans and will probably crash in the next few years.

It's crashing now. Something that is interesting is that a lot of universities were spending money based on assumptions that their private endowments would grow at a certain rate, and now that it's clear that they won't, you are having problems. One thing that is a little scary is how many universities became real estate speculators

Since we are talking about UIUC...

http://stayatthei.com/

Your tuition money at work...

As an additional "slap in US students' collective face", our counterparts in Europe seem to be fully covered or mostly covered by their states yet it seems they lead similar lifestyles, perhaps better.

Maybe not. Look at the demonstrations in England.

Frugal is the new smart. My $0.02.

Frugal is the old smart. One thing that you really should do is to ask some tough questions. You are assuming that a degree from UIUC will pay off more than a degree from another university. Do you really know that?

Something that got lost when education became a commodity is the idea of "alma mater" or "in loco parentis" which is the idea that the university would do what is best for its students even when it wasn't in the interests of the university. Once students became consumers rather than students, that disappeared, and it's a fact that you have to think of buying an education in the same what that you think about buying a new car, and if you were buying a new car, you wouldn't take everything that the salesman says at face value.

One question that comes up is that if the university is so sure that the education is a great deal, then why isn't *it* the one that puts up the loan. It's trivially easy to write a loan such that if you don't get a job after X years, that the loan gets cancelled.

 

[phyzguy]

Where does the $65-75K come from? It looks like in-state tuition at UI is more like $10K/year, so about $25K for 2-1/2 years. Am I wrong? Is the rest of the money to pay living expenses? If so, it doesn't seem fair to count this as the cost of getting an education, since you will need to pay to live no matter what you do. One strategy that many have followed is to work part-time and/or summer jobs to earn enough to pay living expenses (living as cheaply as possible), and only borrow tuition, if necessary. Could this work for you? If this means taking fewer courses and taking longer to graduate, what's wrong with that? I would certainly advise against borrowing a large amount of money (say more than ~$50K) to get an education.

 

[Feldoh]

The tuition price seems normal. Try and get some scholarships is about the only thing you can do. Most people are in debt by the time they are done with college from what it seems.

 

[Astronuc]

The $65k-$75k to attend the U of I for TWO AND A HALF YEARS may be for out-of-state tuition.

I would expect in-state tuition is considerably less.

For example, see UIChicago rates
http://www.uic.edu/depts/oar/undergrad/tuition_undergrad/tuition_ug_fal09_spr10.html

If one is planning to attend a university - then visit the university and talk to the faculty. I transferred universities during my undergrad program. As part of the process, I visited the university and talk with the faculty in the department of interest. I think went to the registrar and financial aid office. I rejected loans, and instead worked during summers and holidays. I was independent of my parents who had three other children in university or planning to attend university.