How much is a healthy amount of debt for going out of state for school.
Im planning to go OOS and only have 4k saved up by my parents.
I like the University of Cincinnati, but their OOS cost is about: 27k.
I like this one because, although it’s expensive, there offer co-op and is located in a bustling city, where there may be many job opputunities. I hope to get scholarships based on need and academics, but I know it would cover it all. So my question is, how much should I expect to take out in student loans?
There are many options out there for scholarships, loans and grants. Plan on taking the full amount for 4 years and hope to knock it down with alternative payments (grants, scholarships, etc.)
$100K seems like a serious amount of money, but student loans are incredibly low interest right now and you can pay them off over years and years. And remember, as long as you are enrolled in school, you don’t have to start paying them back. School is expensive, but if you’ve got the chops to get into U of Cincinnati, then go for it. Spend your time working on scholarships and grants.
Ohsheilla, the real answer to this question is that there is no answer. Each student has a certain amount of potential and ambition, those are things that can’t be figured out on paper but make concrete differences upon graduation. I had about 94k in student loans when I graduated (05) and I’ve chopped it down to 16k. I spend a lot of hours at the office and my lifestyle was commiserate with about half my income.
I’ll break it down based on my experiences, when I graduated my minimum payments were ~800/mo, I would overpay and have that amount applied to the principle. Now my payments are ~150/mo and I’m continuing to overpay. Whatever was leftover went into retirement accounts, now of course I’m in a much better position financially, but beware the toll student loans will take on your life if you don’t take them very seriously. Be prepared to put your ‘life’ plans on hold for a few years while you work to chip away at them, that means: no trips to Europe, learning to enjoy cheap beers, cooking at home, at least 60 hour weeks at the office, and you’ll probably have to have a roomate or two for at least a year after you graduate.
I made a profile on collegeprowler.com. After filling out my family’s income, they suggested that I’ll spend an approximate 14,845 out of pocket. crossing fingers
One more thing to think about, and to discuss with your parents. While it’s very beneficial for them to claim you as a dependent for tax purposes, it may do you more good for your parents not to claim you. When I was applying for loans, I was continuously denied because my parents could claim me and the government considered the amount they made too much to qualify even though they were only providing a small portion of financial support. Had I been able to be Independent for tax purposes, I would have had an opportunity for more grants (that you don’t have to pay back…) and more loans.
Definately a good idea to become an Ohio resident after one year. That will dramatically help out costs.
Another thing to look into is that when it comes time for the loan to kick in, will it be income based. Currently my household has over $1800/month in loans to pay back, but because some of the large ones are income based the payments are not bad. I was really thankful to find that out we werent totally screwed.
Try and look at the surrounding area for job opps for internships and part time employment. Your design education doesn’t necessarily have to follow a steady four year track. I’ve met people who have started out with 2 years, took a good design internship for several years then returned back to finish up their respective degrees. It makes for a very good wholistic design education because you can draw from the professional experience and apply it to your projects.
Try to get into some ID related work as well. Even if that doesn’t necessary fall into front end product design. You can learn a lot by taking a factory job, CAD draftsmen or the such to get some “grounding” knowledge while in school. Plus, they have 2nd and 3rd shifts so you can work around your school schedule.
