I have benefited greatly from the information I have found on this website. This is the first time that I come to you for advice. I know from reading the posts here that there is a wide range of users on this site who are knowledgeable and possess the wisdom of experience.

I have a 16-year old daughter who is going off to college. She's very talented and full of potential. I would like to give her a chance to go to a reputable college, but the costs scare me. She has a choice between going to UW-Madison or Stanford. Her preference is the latter. After grants/scholarships, we are looking at $15,760 per year at Madison, and $20,000 per year at Stanford, as parent contribution. She can take out a Stafford loan for a maximum of $3500 in her first year, which leaves us with the balance to finance with a parent loan. We make a good income but there is no way we can afford this without making our retirement saving and household cashflow suffer. We have two other children.

I was educated in my home country where costs were really low. I have no experience in navigating the college financial maze here in the US.

I have been informed of the unsubsidized Stafford and Plus loans. We do not qualify for the Perkins or subsidized loans.

I will call on the financial aid offices at the schools to get more information next week. But I also wanted to put this post out there for members who can give me advice. Perhaps even give me advice on what questions to ask for when we talk to the Financial Aid office.

I have heard of many students graduating from college with $80K in loans. I do not wish that burden on my child. If my husband and I shouldered half of the expected contribution, she will still need to borrow $40k throughout 4 years. That in itself seems a lot to me.

I really value the wisdom of groups that I have found in this forum. Please forgive my lack of knowledge in this. My hope is that with your sound advice, you can lay out a good direction for me as to what questions to ask, what to look for, where and what to watch out for, and what to be leery of.

Thank you.

$40,000 isn't bad. Considering the relatively small price difference you're looking at, I'd say she should go to Stanford. Assuming she doesn't become an "artist," she should be able to handle that amount of debt. If you're going to be helping her out, don't do it through plus loans. Those loans don't have much of an advantage over other types of debt and they are just as non-dischargeable.

I'm also curious about why you're not able to take advantage of this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/21/stanford-eliminates-tuiti_n_87716.html

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Attending Stanford University next year will be a lot more affordable for some undergraduate students.

The university said Wednesday it plans to eliminate tuition for students with annual family incomes totaling less than $100,000. It also will pay most room and board for students with families making less than $60,000.

Hello, bbwallet. Thank you for replying so quickly. I feel that we're educating ourselves so late in the game that I need to get as much information as I can fast.

I tend to agree that between the two, the small difference inclines us to choose Stanford. The new financial aid initiative Stanford came out with did benefit us, but not as much because our combined income last year was over 100K. Out of the estimated $51K first year costs, we're responsible for $20K and Stanford will cover the rest in scholarships.

If we did finance the $20K in loans, what are the best options for us, for both student loans and parent loans? You mentioned not to go with Plus loans. What are the better options for us to explore and where do I find them? I plan to ask the Fin Aid office and my bank about this as well.

Thank goodness she doesn't plan to be an artist. She wants to be a physician, but that also adds several years more. She will major in Biology, and hopefully get a decent research job while in medical school.

I truly appreciate your input.

I know families who make under 60k a year, and need based aid even at private uni's is still non-existent becaused they saved for college and the gov't assistance and college assistance is designed to have you actually pay your own money first, even if it TOTALLY wipes out your savings (as I've seen many times). This is pretty much the norm. (I wish they had just spent the tens of thousands in savings instead of living within their means and buying used cars once every 12 years, and gotten a free ride on taxpayer dollars and the endowment, but that's in hindsight and people used to be responsible and college costs used to be reasonable haha.) You make over 100k/yr and she's going into a profession that makes over 100k also. The cash you're talking about is almost nothing compared to the earning potential of a Stanford graduate. Madison is also a great school for bio and genetics, so don't knock it too much. Might want to consider Madison undergrad and Stanford for grad school. Having debt can be a burden, but having a solid plan and working hard will get you through it. Will want to look into merit scholarships and shop around for loans, trying to get lenders to beat each other's rates. Having a paid research job will let her get experience and money at the same time.

contact the financial aid office and fill out the financial aid forms . i was reading some article on wsj which was talking about it .

"She's very talented and full of potential."

Stanford, easy decision. The wage difference between the 2 areas will easily justify the more expensive college. Financially you should finance as much as possible by federal and private student loans before dipping into retirement savings, since it should be your daughter's responsibility to pay off the cost.

Another benefit for going to stanford is that it is among the top several colleges which can actually afford to reduce tuition, due to their huge endowment funds. In the last 10 years the cost of high education has gone up at a disgusting rate year over year. Sooner or later, a huge political backlash will materialize against runaway tuitions. What that happens, sandford will be in a better position to offer more breaks than UW madison (unless UW madison is a good fisical shape, which would not be typical of a state university.) Just my 2 cents.

If your daughter has a high EFC (Effective Family Contribution), then she will be out of luck getting federal grants or other grants for the "needy" students. However you may want to consider taking Federal PLUS loan (Parent PLUS loan). Whatever you do, do not buy into private / alternative loan (they may have lower rate than Parent PLUS loan at the beginning however they usually have a built clause for rate adjustment). Also Parent PLUS loan has superior benefits than private/alternative loan. I hope you have filled the FAFSA so at least your daughter can take advantage the maximum Stafford loan that she can get. As a freshman dependent student, she can get a maximum of $3,500 in combination of sub and unsub. Best of luck!

Thank you all for your sound advice. I will ask Stanford's Financial Aid Office about matching UW-Madison's package.

Both of them are good schools for someone pursuing medicine, though SF/Palo Alto area has a lot more companies to find good jobs/internship opportunities in.

We know that we will need to tighten our spending to funnel as much money into her education as we can afford. I also believe in making her have some "skin in the game" and be responsible for at least half of it. That is my insurance that she will not squander the opportunity given to her. That's why we are shopping for a loan.

I will keep you posted on what we find out from inquiring with the aid office. Many adviced we should start there, and we should be able to get information on loans we qualify for from them.

Thank you for your responses. Please keep them coming. They help affirm initial thoughts and gain a new perspective.

Interestingly, contrary to what other posters have said, going to a big-name school doesn't seem to effect your future pay, at least if you're a talented student. I listened to a report on NPR a few weeks ago (sorry, Google isn't helping me find it) about a new study that compared the pay of students who attended Ivy League schools with those students who were accepted to an Ivy League school but ended up going elsewhere. With the exception of students from low-income families there was no pay difference between the two groups.

Dynastar454 said:Interestingly, contrary to what other posters have said, going to a big-name school doesn't seem to effect your future pay, at least if you're a talented student. I listened to a report on NPR a few weeks ago (sorry, Google isn't helping me find it) about a new study that compared the pay of students who attended Ivy League schools with those students who were accepted to an Ivy League school but ended up going elsewhere. With the exception of students from low-income families there was no pay difference between the two groups. Stanford isn't in the Ivy League (though it probably should be).

Your 16-year old daughter... is she going to college early? How about a part-time job or a year off working full-time? Congratulations on having options!