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Student Loans?

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Starting the process of looking into student loans, has anyone gone through this recently and have any information?

My daughter will be going to college in the fall and we received the financial aid package.  She did receive merit aid based on her grades and SAT scores but the only need based aid we received was the ability to apply for a $5,500 student loan.  Worst case scenario she will need to borrow another couple of thousand and i will fund the rest.

If anyone has any information please let me know as I am starting to look into loan options now.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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Take as much of the low interest loans as you might need when considering the 4 year commitment. Maybe you don't need it this year but will it impact year 3?

best advice I can give is to tell her to treat college like an investment. Do what you love means do whatever it takes to get the job you love, not taking easy majors and loving the social aspect (can still do the latter though much less frequently).

if she makes the right investment, there's these groups of private lenders who will pay off the monster interest rate loans and give you less than half the original. This needs to be done ASAP when graduating otherwise you turn all the eventual interest into the principle. These private lenders only do this for NYC lawyers, doctors starting fellowships, etc etc. She has to make herself a good, fool proof investment.

 My wife and I both finished grad school in 2013 and we are another year or 2 away. We're driving the same car from undergrad and haven't even considered kids so we could dump as much money into the student loans as possible. There is no magical way to get it done but there are infinite ways to screw it up.  

I don't want to make it sound too scary at such an exciting time. Undergrad was the best years of my life. If she's only graduating with a few thousand per year in loans then you've set her up literally 100x better than the average college student. Good luck!

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Use student loans as the last resort to pay for school.  They are the only loans that can't be discharged.  


Agreed. Best way to keep loan amounts low is go to a state school.


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My advice is to do what ever you can to avoid borrowing money for school. This includes minimizing ALL expenses, and focusing on her getting an education at the least cost possible. I've had three go through college, so I've been there, done it.

First (but it might be too late), I would suggest her doing the first two years at Community College. There is ZERO need to do all the basic classes at a four year school, and actually live there. ZERO need. To pay room and board while taking the basic classes is just wasting money.

The best plan, and to keep kids out of debt, is for them to do 2 years at Community College, while working part time and living at home. Then, after the two year degree, transfer to a 4 year school, commute to the school and DON'T live there.

In both cases, commute and stack all the classes in two or three days, which will leave the other 4 days so they can work part time. This way, they can pay off a lot of the costs as they go along.

Anyone who piles on $50K - $100K of school debt on their kids should have their head examined.

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My advice is to do what ever you can to avoid borrowing money for school. This includes minimizing ALL expenses, and focusing on her getting an education at the least cost possible. I've had three go through college, so I've been there, done it.
First (but it might be too late), I would suggest her doing the first two years at Community College. There is ZERO need to do all the basic classes at a four year school, and actually live there. ZERO need. To pay room and board while taking the basic classes is just wasting money.
The best plan, and to keep kids out of debt, is for them to do 2 years at Community College, while working part time and living at home. Then, after the two year degree, transfer to a 4 year school, commute to the school and DON'T live there.
In both cases, commute and stack all the classes in two or three days, which will leave the other 4 days so they can work part time. This way, they can pay off a lot of the costs as they go along.
Anyone who piles on $50K - $100K of school debt on their kids should have their head examined.


That's almost exactly what I did. 2 years at Brookdale while living at home, and then transferred to Trenton State aka TCNJ. My parents helped me buy a condo in Hamilton for $59,000. Over the summer and winter break I took courses at Brookdale, Rutgers, Glassboro, and Jersey City. I did this to insure I would have all my credits for a double major with a minor. These single classes were cheap at the time. During the school year I would have class all day Tuesday and Thursday basically 12 hours on campus, and Wednesday I would have either a 3hr morning or night class and one semester both a morning and night class. 12 credits a semester or 21 credits a semester was the same price. I would use time on campus between classes to get school work done.
On a whim I took the LSAT and scored very high so I got a full scholarship to Wake Forest Law. I sold the condo for $89,000 and I rented an apartment off campus in Winston-Salem, NC. With the profit on the condo I estimate that my entire college education was free. I believe at the time full time credits at Brookdale was around $2,500 and TCNJ was $4,500 a year for a total of $14,000. Then the classes in summer and winter were another couple thousand. Books another another couple thousand. Total undergraduate was under $20,000 and post graduate was just the cost of living.


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1 hour ago, Sevenshot said:

Take as much of the low interest loans as you might need when considering the 4 year commitment. Maybe you don't need it this year but will it impact year 3?

best advice I can give is to tell her to treat college like an investment. Do what you love means do whatever it takes to get the job you love, not taking easy majors and loving the social aspect (can still do the latter though much less frequently).

if she makes the right investment, there's these groups of private lenders who will pay off the monster interest rate loans and give you less than half the original. This needs to be done ASAP when graduating otherwise you turn all the eventual interest into the principle. These private lenders only do this for NYC lawyers, doctors starting fellowships, etc etc. She has to make herself a good, fool proof investment.

 My wife and I both finished grad school in 2013 and we are another year or 2 away. We're driving the same car from undergrad and haven't even considered kids so we could dump as much money into the student loans as possible. There is no magical way to get it done but there are infinite ways to screw it up.  

I don't want to make it sound too scary at such an exciting time. Undergrad was the best years of my life. If she's only graduating with a few thousand per year in loans then you've set her up literally 100x better than the average college student. Good luck!

Great advice.  My daughter is definitely treating it like an investment, she is taking a dual major, bio-chem and pre-vet-med and then planning on going to veterinary medicine. 

For us, with the scholarship $$ she got,  it was about the same or a little better going out of state than it would have been to stay in state, go figure.

Unfortunately I will have 3 kids in college over the next 5 years, any way I look at it, it is going to be expensive.  

 

 

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Bio major will be tough. I was a bio major with a chem minor. My typical semester was 17 credit hours with the 2 lab sciences. The labs count 1 credit hour but were 3-4 hours each a week, which really makes it tough. I highly recommend taking at least 1 lab science per summer to ease up the workload. Find a much cheaper (and hopefully easier) college where the credits transfer to do it at. I know a lot of people who took classes like organic chem where the courses were much easier. Plus it helps when it's the only class you are taking.

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this is easy for me to say, 'cause i don't have kids.....but avoid student loans like the plague. they almost always lead to bad. if you gotta borrow money to put the kid through college, re-mortgage, or find a more affordable college.

 

 i'm not trying to sound like a jerk........

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Debt is a wealth killer.  Avoid debt whenever possible.  I believe this so strongly that I would recommend college part time, county college, trade school, or some other path than graduating with debt.

If she only needs a couple of thousand more, she can easily cover that with a part time job.  The lessons learned from having a job are probably going to be more valuable than the lessons learned in class. When she's finally done with school, employers will prefer a new grad who has work experience over one who doesn't.  The work doesn't even need to be in her field.  Just holding a job (or jobs) for 4 years gives a huge leg up.

 

 

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4 hours ago, jm1827 said:

Great advice.  My daughter is definitely treating it like an investment, she is taking a dual major, bio-chem and pre-vet-med and then planning on going to veterinary medicine. 

For us, with the scholarship $$ she got,  it was about the same or a little better going out of state than it would have been to stay in state, go figure.

Unfortunately I will have 3 kids in college over the next 5 years, any way I look at it, it is going to be expensive.  

 

 

Depends on how committed your daughter wants to become a vet.  Getting into veterinary school is very hard in the US.  Much more costly as a NJ resident has to look out of state.

My vet's daughter went for a BVM in Scotland out of high school.  Cheaper than going here and less time.  5 years vs 8 for undergraduate and veterinary school here.  Those 3 extra years working instead of going to school can be used to pay off loans.

My vet's daughter and her husband (she met in Scotland) took over her father's practice.  23 years old and she got to do what she wanted 3 years earlier than if she went to school here.

Speaking of vets the military is a good way to avoid college debt and do something few do.  The NJ National Guard offers free tuition in all state schools plus give you GI Bill benefits you can use for post graduate work.  If she goes active duty they have programs to send her to school.  Could be worth looking into.

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My daughter is stating URI in September for pre Vet , i feel your pain . Thank god she got some scholarship money. I tried to explain to her that she will have loans till she’s an old lady. 44k a year before scholarship money is a scary thought. I’ll help her as much as i can but i can’t afford to pay her mother ( x- wife) and tuition at the same time. Have her look into being an RA if she is rooming. Rooming is free if you RA. That’s 14 k savings

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31 minutes ago, JMich3 said:

a great time isn’t exactly what i was hoping for my daughters college experience. Lol

My take on college is this :

”it’s as easy or as hard as you wanna make it”

I was a chemical engineering and math major.... gotta let loose on the weekends!

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Most recent numbers for 4 years of vet school is $275 to $300K by the time your finished. That doesn’t include doing an internship or residency post grad. Those are usually paid positions but just enough to maybe live on. 

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2 hours ago, BullzeyeNJ said:

Most recent numbers for 4 years of vet school is $275 to $300K by the time your finished. That doesn’t include doing an internship or residency post grad. Those are usually paid positions but just enough to maybe live on. 

Much cheaper in the UK.  You get through in 5 years total rather than 8 and you don't have to learn another language 

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6 hours ago, GRIZ said:

Much cheaper in the UK.  You get through in 5 years total rather than 8 and you don't have to learn another language 

It doesn’t necessarily take 8 years here.  It can be done in 6. Two years undergrad and 4 years med school. 

Don’t forget that UK grads are considered foreign in the US and they have to either pass a foreign graduate comp exam or take another year of schooling to be allowed to practice here so add on another year of school or wait about a year to take the exam. Both of which are not cheap.

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5 minutes ago, BullzeyeNJ said:

It doesn’t necessarily take 8 years here.  It can be done in 6. Two years undergrad and 4 years med school. 

Don’t forget that UK grads are considered foreign in the US and they have to either pass a foreign graduate comp exam or take another year of schooling to be allowed to practice here so add on another year of school or wait about a year to take the exam. Both of which are not cheap.

I know my vet's daughter did it in 5 in Scotland and had no problem taking and passing an exam to be licensed here.  She said it was considerably less expensive overall than doing it all in the US.

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It doesn’t necessarily take 8 years here.  It can be done in 6. Two years undergrad and 4 years med school. 

Don’t forget that UK grads are considered foreign in the US and they have to either pass a foreign graduate comp exam or take another year of schooling to be allowed to practice here so add on another year of school or wait about a year to take the exam. Both of which are not cheap.

 

That is correct. They want 60 hrs and your applied sciences taken. If you are a resident of WV, VA, or MD and go to the VA-MD Vet School cost is $21,800 a year for 4 years. Out of state is $47,500. Wisconsin has best deal at $19,000 in state $26,000 out of state.

 

Scotland the cost of the program is 45,000£ ($60,000) for residents and 125,000£ ($167,000) for non residents. If you become a resident of the UK it is a little cheaper than being a resident of Virginia ($28,000 less), but it is cheaper to be a non resident and go to University of Wisconsin than non resident in Scotland ($63,000 less). UK Residency takes 5 years to establish. As a non resident the Scottish Schools are not any cheaper from what I could find.

 

 

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1 hour ago, capt14k said:

 

That is correct. They want 60 hrs and your applied sciences taken. If you are a resident of WV, VA, or MD and go to the VA-MD Vet School cost is $21,800 a year for 4 years. Out of state is $47,500. Wisconsin has best deal at $19,000 in state $26,000 out of state.

 

Scotland the cost of the program is 45,000£ ($60,000) for residents and 125,000£ ($167,000) for non residents. If you become a resident of the UK it is a little cheaper than being a resident of Virginia ($28,000 less), but it is cheaper to be a non resident and go to University of Wisconsin than non resident in Scotland ($63,000 less). UK Residency takes 5 years to establish. As a non resident the Scottish Schools are not any cheaper from what I could find.

 

 

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I only relate what I've been told by someone who did it a few years ago.

I don't know where you got your figures but the link below shows about $41,000 a year in Scotland.  That tuition is fixed for your complete program.  Note that the person I know that went there graduated 3-4 years ago.  It probably was cheaper then.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/fees?programme_code=UTCLIVMS

There is also acceptance rate to consider. University of Wisconsin accepts about 1 in 3 WI residents for about 2/3 of their slots (62).  Non residents get to compete for the remaining 34 slots at an acceptance rate of about 1 in 30 or about 3.3%.

They also seem to require higher standards for non residents compared to residents.  Keep in mind you've already paid for a bachelor's if your applying to WI.

https://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dvm-students/prospective-students/applicant-statistics/

If you go to the following link and scroll down to the pdf you will see the acceptance rate for foreign applicants in University of Edinburgh is over 50%.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/admissions-advice/admissions-statistics

If you don't get accepted, lower tuition is meaningless.

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I only relate what I've been told by someone who did it a few years ago. I don't know where you got your figures but the link below shows about $41,000 a year in Scotland.  That tuition is fixed for your complete program.  Note that the person I know that went there graduated 3-4 years ago.  It probably was cheaper then. https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/fees?programme_code=UTCLIVMS There is also acceptance rate to consider. University of Wisconsin accepts about 1 in 3 WI residents for about 2/3 of their slots (62).  Non residents get to compete for the remaining 34 slots at an acceptance rate of about 1 in 30 or about 3.3%.

They also seem to require higher standards for non residents compared to residents.  Keep in mind you've already paid for a bachelor's if your applying to WI.

https://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/dvm-students/prospective-students/applicant-statistics/

If you go to the following link and scroll down to the pdf you will see the acceptance rate for foreign applicants in University of Edinburgh is over 50%.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/admissions-advice/admissions-statistics

If you don't get accepted, lower tuition is meaningless.

 

 

 

 $167,000 divided by 4 is $41,750 a year. I said cost for the program. The $63,000 less was based on 4 year program or $15,750 less a year.  

 

 

Yes it is much more competitive for non residents than residents. On average overall twice as many people apply to veterinary schools in the U.S. than spots are available.

 

 

If it was me I would try and establish residency in Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia at the start of undergraduate with plan to attend Virginia-Maryland Vet School.

 

 

 

 

 

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