One of the major considerations when choosing a university is cost. Should you or your child take out student loans? Millions of borrowers restarted their education loan payments this month.Student loans are coming 2 trillion dollars For undergraduate and graduate loans.
We told our three children that they could apply anywhere, but our savings and the scholarships they received had to cover the full cost of attendance. There is no loan for them or us.
The following is a column my oldest daughter, Monique Olivia McIntyre, wrote in 2014 near the end of her freshman year at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is now 28 years old and living a happy, debt-free life.
I’ve been preparing for college for as long as I can remember.
It wasn’t because I wanted to do it, but because my parents “encouraged” me to do it (nagged me). It started in middle school. In high school, you had to get good grades to get into a good program, and you had to get good grades to get into a good college.
And I wasn’t alone. It was very similar for my classmates. Of course, my experience differed from hers in one important respect. That means my mom is a personal finance columnist. Plus, her parents saved money for me to go to college.
I have been immersed in an unusual amount of financial knowledge over the course of my life. The evaluation of university tuition fees was no exception. While I’m on the subject of money, many of my friends and classmates were simply told that they would get into a “good” college and the rest would be taken care of.
Another thing I inherited from my mother is neurotic tendencies. This university question was causing me an unusual amount of stress. So, in my father’s usual fashion, I brought out my legal pad in “one of those moments” when all I really wanted was ice cream and a rom-com marathon. I then began charting and evaluating schools based on distance, location, academics, size, sports, and cost. (Many decisions are made using my father’s legal pad.)
Now, I’ve been guilty of using my habit of smiling and nodding at almost every talk about “the cost of college,” so when I actually had to think about money, I was a little surprised. I did.
First, because private and out-of-state schools were much more expensive than in-state schools. There were also many other things to pay besides room, board, and tuition. (It either didn’t interest me or, to be more honest, I probably sat out during that part of the story.) You have to pay for the book, but if I Not the $15 summer reads I was used to. And, of course, you’ll need meals away from the cafeteria, dorm supplies, entertainment, and transportation. If you have a car, you must pay to park on campus. You also have to pay to apply to university.
Talking to my classmates, there seemed to be a huge emotional disconnect between how much college costs and where that money comes from.
One of the problems I encountered, and which my colleagues also struggled with, was that parents made enough money to not qualify for much, if any, financial aid, but they were unable to send a check to the school. It was the fact that I wasn’t making enough money to cut it. My dream is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC was everything I imagined and wanted from a school. A great place to stay away from home, a warm climate, a beautiful campus, great sports teams, and a great program for your major. In my mind, I thought that if I could get in, my parents would make it work, even though tuition at about $46,000 a year was certainly quite high for an out-of-state student. They told me to be prepared that I might not be able to go. But I went through the smile and nod routine again. In my mind, I was going to find a way to get to that school, even if it meant listing my car, which I named Charlotte, as my home address.
Maybe that’s why I didn’t end up attending UNC — even though at the time it felt like the world was falling apart around me. I don’t know what would have happened if I had been accepted but couldn’t go due to the high cost. It happened to my friends and they were shocked. Still, some people decide to take on the loan anyway.
I ended up enrolling at the University of Maryland, College Park. And her first year is almost over. It had everything I wanted in Chapel Hill and ranked high on my list of legal pads.
The only problem I had with U-Md. It was very close to home and my parents (yes, my mother). But now that I’m here, it feels like another world. I received a scholarship from my school, but things still didn’t go as planned. I still need to cover about $15,000 a year, and that doesn’t include books or other personal expenses. My parents want me to pay from the income I earned during the summer. But it’s still much less than what I would have had to pay if I had gone to Chapel Hill. So I’m glad to be at U-Md. I love it here, but I don’t think I could have loved UNC any more.
We now understand how difficult it is for most people to not only enroll in college, but also pay for it. Seeing other students work to get grants and scholarships and then have to rely on loans made me really grateful that my parents saved up for me to go to school. They want me to be debt free when I graduate. Now I see that there is wisdom in it.
Thousands of high school seniors are currently deciding which college they will attend in the fall. I offer the following little advice. Going to a prestigious school may seem appealing and the only option for you, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter where you go, it matters what you do once you get to college. Please understand that there is. There.
