|
Colby, Kansas | "If your child his having a hard time in a class and knows they cant pull out at least a C (better if a B) then drop it with a W before the deadline. It will cost you a little in lost money but save you in a lot of GPA. I should have dropped my Chinese taught chemistry class that I knew I couldn't have passed but didn't and damned if that single class didn't bite me in the butt the rest of my college career. Lessons learned."
That is some excellent advice. Know when your over your head and walk away while it can be clean on the transcript yet. Doesn't matter if its your fault for getting behind, a foreign teacher, whatever, if you don't like where the train is heading you need to bail. I've got a few W's on mine, not ashamed of it, they were replaced with far better grades than if I would have tried to hang on. Pretty sure mine was a chem class also....
To the OP: FASFA is a must. I qualified for some low-interest loans which have been a Godsend as in Kansas if your a KS tax payer but an out of state resident you get to pay out of state tuition. Now, had I been the son of an illegal it would have been in-state rate, but thats a boiler room topic....
I don't know where people are getting the deal about listing assets unless it has changed in the past couple of years. When I applied (early 2000's) there was no listing of assets, net-worth or anything of the sort. Every year I would fill it out and just planned on submitting copies of my and my parents 1040's and accompanying schedules as anybody with anything more complicated than a 1040EZ got flagged for verification, although I'm pretty sure the "verifier" didn't have a clue how to interpret a schedule F or C.
Your son needs to be in touch with the undergraduate coordinator for the department he is entering into. That person can be key to success, scholarships included. There are scholarships offered through the department, some of which can be very lucrative. A lot of alumni give back to their departmental funds rather than the general university scholarships. Any money I donate to KSU is straight to the Ag Engineering or Agronomy Departments. Now that being said my undergrad was in a relatively small department (120-140 between 2 majors) and that was great. If your son is going into general business or education or something like with hundreds of students then the dynamics will be different, but still important that he is in touch with them.
Make sure you exhaust all options before taking general co-signed student loans, my subsidized loans through FASFA are at 3.25%, my wife has some loans above 8%. Thats the difference. I'm stretching mine as long as possible, thats the cheapest money I have borrowed right now and probably the cheapest I will ever borrow.
Anyones family finances are none of my business, but I am intrigued by the insinuation by some that they owe their kids an education. I was never under that illusion from my parents, and I don't intend on putting my children under that illusion either. Don't get me wrong my parents helped get me into position for me to earn my way through school and have done many things to support me, but they never cut a tuition check and I never expected one. In the people I interacted with in school there certainly was a difference between those who were cutting the check over in Fairchild Hall out of their own account and those whose money was mailed in from home. I'm glad I was in the former group I think it drove me to make it a better experience for myself.
Lucas
Edited by LHaag 4/23/2013 00:36
| |
|
College financial aid questions.
