Loans and paying for college ?'s

[Sadie22]

The Middle Class Scholarship is something for certain California institutions.

 

[rockawaybeachgirl]

Ah, ok. So it's for the UCs or CSUs only?

 

[aprilgail]

Not that I am recommending doing anything illegal - but pdfs of a lot books are online. Not all - but a lot.



Good luck.

My daughter took a summer program at Brown last year and she downloaded her book she found online instead of spending the 250.00 they wanted to buy it!

 

[WDWNY]

A lot of schools have book Facebook pages. Students will share pdfs with each other for free, or sell their books for significantly cheaper than the bookstore/ online because the bookstore basically scams you when you try to sell it back, and shipping big books is expensive.

I've found that payment plans for colleges are typically in the $40-$75 range to enroll.

When I was in your daughters position a few years ago, I applied for scholarships at the schools I was applying to. I learned that you can appeal scholarships, and it doesn't hurt to try. Not sure if all schools do it, but I know my top school did and thats all I cared about.

I learned for my financial situation, I wouldn't qualify for financial aid from a public school. I did apply to some private schools and did qualify for some aid, but the cheapest came out to still be a difference of 20k a year. On the other hand, I did know some people who got no aid from public schools and got more aid from a top private school that it was cheaper for him to go there. I didn't get financial aid packages until a few weeks- a month after getting accepted. Some schools didn't accept me until the last week of April, even though I applied in October.

I can't really help regarding loans/ financial aid because I refused to go to a school that would put be in debt and luckily my parents gave me the opportunity to do so.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

This is such helpful info. Our son is a junior this year, and while I have been "researching" college info for the last 2 years to be prepared - I still feel like we are a mess.

 

[mmfox316]

First - Renting textbooks on amazon saves money. It has worked well for my daughter

Second- go to the state school. Those private student loans have high rates and you start paying back almost immediately. I work for one of the largest in the country and I see what that debt does to people. Especially if a masters is in the cards because if you get a masters no one cares where you undergrad degree was from.

 

[dreamin_disney]

The Middle Class Scholarship is something for certain California institutions.

The two she is interested in are CSU. The private school offered more but still to expensive