College Costs

Kayti was accepted at Southeastern … the highlight of her life-so-far. She’s graduating high school two years ahead of most of her peers with a 4.0 average – but because the high school made her a senior, not a junior, we’ve spent the last year scrambling to get things done that we should’ve started in 11th grade.

She applied for a bunch of scholarships but has been turned down for an assortment of reasons – quite likely more her age than much else The school gave her a small scholarship that may go up after she re-takes the SAT)

The government says we’re not eligible for Pell Grants and such (I thought that poor people were supposed to get government grants for college? I just checked and we’re barely over the limit for several federal aid programs. In fact, without my measly income, we’d be eligible for a bunch of things, including Food Stamps and Medicaid.)

So we get the financial aid package from the school yesterday – they want her to roll $20,000 per year into student loans. That means she’ll graduate $80,000+ in debt. She wants to do it! (we’ve tried to explain to her just how much eighty thousand dollars is… she says it’s worth it even if she pays on it forever!)

If anyone out there has managed to put a kid through college and can advise me on what we’re doing wrong (I have this suspicion that we are messing up somewhere) – please let me know!