Posted by Steve Dedman on April 20, 2001 at 19:20:22:
In Reply to: Re: Re: The Cost of Tution, OUCH! posted by Tim Murphy on April 20, 2001 at 16:22:56:
You shouldn't feel even marginally ok with that kind of burden.
I know EXACTLY what Sean means about the loans and credit cards. Due to a vague federal regulation in effect for only one year, I was ruled inelegible for financial aid my last year in a state university. My wife & I lived on credit cards for that year.
Our student loans totaled more than our combined income the first year out of college. The interest rates on credit cards are legalized loan sharking.
The combined payments on the student loans and credit cards are right at $800 per month. That's right. The monthly payment is enough to afford the mortgage on a modest house and a car payment. Every year, I pay enough on my college tab to buy any of several very good makes of horns, or in 18 months enough to buy a Yorkbrunner. Ready for this? The total amount originally borrowed (student loans + credit cards) is LESS than two years at your "top-notch" school.
I won't tell you that going to this top school is a patent mistake, because I would be wrong. But you need to think very hard about what happens 6 months to the day after you get your degree. When they start calling you for their money, you will wish you were in the witness protection program, and they'd probably still find you.
Ask yourself these questions. If the answer is no to any of them, think VERY hard about where you attend school.
Are there 5 alumni from this program that are successfully doing what I want to do as
a profession?
Will the teacher/advisor at this school work hard to get me the grant/scholarship
money I need to be able to attend that school?
If I mention that I might not be able to attend due to finances, will the response
be, "How can I help because I really want you in my studio?"
Is this the only school in the country that can teach me what I need to know?
Will I be able to afford $600-$800 EVERY MONTH for TWENTY YEARS? (My kids will be
starting college at about the same time I pay mine off.)
Since you don't mention assistantships or fellowships, I'm assuming that you're talking undergrad here. FOR ME, there is not an undergrad program in the country that is worth that much coin and the accompanying monthly headache. Especially when there are EXCELLENT programs at places like TN Tech, Ball State, UGA, UNI, LSU, Kansas, USC, UNCG, and many others for a fraction of the monetary cost. After you run up the $80K tab ask yourself where you're going to get your M.M. later. The masters is the place to drop the big bucks, IMO.
Not saying that the school in question is a bad idea, just please think it through very carefully and objectively.
Steve "who wishes he'd taken work-study" Dedman