[USER]

My son got offered a place in his dream college studying Aerospace Engineering. I’m embarrassed to admit we have no solid plan for assisting him pay for it, and neither does he.

We also feel that the paying responsibility should sit largely on his shoulders so he takes this seriously.

(He is smart but not always a 100% dedicated student, if that makes sense.)

He applied for FAFSA, but because of my husband’s investments (for our retirement) not being in a retirement vehicle but an ordinary brokerage, we had to declare it on the FAFSA, and he will get practically nothing, while our funds are largely tied up, leaving little to help him unless we dip into that (which my husband doesn’t want to do, except perhaps a small portion).

I have been encouraging my son to apply for scholarships like crazy, and also look into an Air Force ROTC program that can reduce his college cost (not sure how much yet), but those are total “unknowns” just yet.

Any advice for us/him on how we can assist him better, but still leave the bulk of the responsibility on him and avoid him saddling himself with a massive student loan?

We had also looked at the local school with Engineering, or even 2 years of Community College and transfer over to another school for the degree.

Anyone gone down this path or something similar? Are the employment opportunities solid, or is he better to get a general Engineering degree that isn’t specific to Aerospace? (Sounds limited to me.)

Thank you!!

[Kyle]

Community Colleges that have 2+2 arrangements with engineering schools are definitely a cost effective way of going about an engineering degree.

The first two years are all core math, science, and tech courses that really don’t require a large school price tag in my opinion.

[Heather]

He is limited to the federal guidelines on the amount of loans he can take on.

Ex. Freshmen year it’s $5500.

[Sacha]

As a parent, you should really help your son as much as you can.

[Kelli]

So, I’m in Colorado where aerospace engineering is huge. I have a friend whose kid wanted to go to a very prestigious aerospace program here but ultimately went out of state and it was cheaper.

He also got offered more in merit at this smaller out of state school.

He got job offers before his peers that went to the prestigious program bc his smaller school was more hands on.

I guess my point is: what makes his dream college the dream college. Is it the name? Is it only known for this type of engineering?

Has he toured other engineering programs?

Yes, community colleges with the 2+2 programs are wonderful and can save quite a bit of money.

[Katherine]

Daughter got into several schools considered “dream” schools by many, yet chose one that is paying her and turned out to be the best fit.

University of Alabama in Huntsville has a fabulous aerospace program, is a small nerdy campus and has a nasa facility nearby.

We visited thinking of it as a safety and were blown away. She has zero regrets choosing it over the others and will graduate debt free.

They have a published chart showing automatic scholarship based on your weighted gpa and test scores.

Worth consideration. She is a sophomore and already has had paid research opportunity in a fusion propulsion research lab.

There are lots of brilliant students there. You are apt to find more choose fi type families as well.

They have a lot of internship opportunities nearby and their job placement rate is very very high.

She already has an IRA started and a nice little nest egg in savings from her work.

[Jodi]

College counselor here. You’re going to want to chase merit since you cannot chase Financial Aid.

For that major specifically, depending on his stats, I would absolutely encourage him to consider university of Alabama at Huntsville, Mississippi State, University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and University of Central Florida.

If he’s open to majoring in mechanical engineering, there are a number of additional schools that you could add on to that list.

Not all schools have aerospace as a major, but PLENTY of aerospace companies will hire a student with a mechanical engineering degree.

[Liz]

Iowa State College of Engineering. My son worked internships each summer that paid for his living expenses which is half the expense of college.

We had 529 to pay tuition.

[Gretchen]

I have my BS Mechanical Engineering and materials sciences, MS Product Development Engineering. My husband has BS aerospace Engineering. We met through Boeing.

I worked there for 12+ years, GE and some other companies.

I’m career paused now for raising kids. My husband has worked for Boeing for 20+ years now. We both got our BS from state schools, Boeing paid for my MS degree from an expensive private school.

I have valued having the broader degrees because I’m not as interested in aerospace as my husband is.

I like knowing that I have options beyond one industry and one set of companies. My husband doesn’t mind the more specific degree because he sees enough to keep him engaged in the one industry and one set of companies.

Both of us have kept up with each other/traded off who made more; having my MS helped me keep with salary-wise even when I took time out for kids.

I don’t know if your son has specific interest in one company or one area of aerospace— and/or what the future at Boeing will be…. There are many internships and coops usually available that can help with $.

Boeing has had quite a large group of interns for the summers, many return multiple years during college and are offered permanent positions following graduation.

[Coral]

Students can only borrow the federal loan limits posted above.

Any other debt will be in your name or co-signed by you. FAFSA is largely looking at income- and only qualifies for $7k PELL in most cases if below poverty.

What have you saved over his life for college? What can you cash flow a month?

You let a high school student apply to colleges without any talk of a budget or how to pay for it?

Time to make a realistic plan & budget. He may need to look at other colleges.

Community college would not have helped my engineering kid- the 4 year college has a set progression.

[Aimee]

Ugh. This breaks my heart. College is expensive. Like really expensive. And if you get scholarships, they usually only cover a portion of tuition.

Room and board is easily another $8k per year.
Students can only take $5500/year in student loans. Outside, independent scholarships are like needles in a haystack.

With thousands of applications and essays and time, you MIGHT get $1k here, $500 there. One time. So not a reliable source of funding.

The only real way to get the $$ is from the school directly. And you need to be at the tippy top of the applicant pool or show something extraordinary to earn top $$.

So, unless you really haven’t been paying attention to the exponential increases in the cost of college these days, you would never have expected a child to afford college on his own. When I went in the 80s, yes, it could be done.

These days? No way. Some states offer free community college for 2 years.

Most don’t. But good summer jobs and a solid part time job while in school could probably cash flow CC. But allowing him to apply to and get accepted yo his dream school that you had no solid way of paying for is simply cruel.

I’m sorry. And no matter how you compartmentalize it, you DO have the $$, or he would be eligible for Pell grants that don’t need to be repaid.

You just don’t want to spend it on him.

[Stefanie]

With engineering even if you can’t help at all, he will be able to pay back the loans.

I had classmates whose parents couldn’t help but they got scholarships and/or lived at home when graduating, put all their income on their loans and would be done in a year or 2.

As someone who graduated with an engineering degree, I would be EXTREMELY careful at taking community college courses.

A lot of universities will “accept” the credit, but won’t allow you to take the next course in line until you take their course, thus rendering the course you took, completely pointless and a waste of money.

Additionally, by year 2 all of my classes were specialized and I would have not been able to take any of those courses at a community college.

[Nancy]

YOU have to decide your help level. Correct on the low amounts available for student loans. Has he been working and saving? Have you had college conversations or is this all a surprise to him?

If it’s your only child, are you and your husband willing to take on extra jobs/side gigs to help and not affect your retirement?

Is there a reason you haven’t been using a retirement vehicle for your retirement? It’s a side question but may not be as efficient for you either

Do you know the actual cost of attendance? Not just tuition? Room/board/meal plans. Fees. Can almost double the tuition in many places

You and your husband need to sit down alone and Really talk about it. How does it look for everyone.

What are You willing to do now? I do know several parents taking on extra work to help at for college.

As is the kid
Have set plans then Then you need to sit down with your son.

The longer you don’t tell him the more heartbreaking it will be
Yes, on scholarships for sure – I know someone that’s in the running for a full ride someplace

MANY Scholarship Applications are Due by January 30th. (Some have already passed).

It may be an all hands on deck to help him search the best available to him NOW.

They all come with more essays, etc.
Good luck!

[Lori]

He can try for scholarships, but it’s unlikely they would come close to covering the cost. Especially in the kind of school where every student is a shining star.

The realty is that kids from high earning parents cannot go to these schools unless there’s been money saved or the parents are willing to cosign the loans.

Their “need” is largely based on your income.

They can borrow $5500 themselves and anything beyond that will be your responsibility if he defaults.

[Kris]

So, what was your plan leading up to this? Clearly your student has applied to college, so what was the discussion? Did you set a budget? How much are you willing to contribute?

He will not be able to get more than the federal student loan. Which is $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year and $7,500 jr/sr year. That’s it.

The difference has to come from grants, scholarships, cash or parent loans. Even if your student received an outside scholarship, it’s unlikely that it will be renewable all 4 years.

So, what will happen years 2-4. I have 3 kids in college currently. Because I had zero financial help and took me 10 years to finish as I had to work full time and go to school part time (going to CC first and transferred) I didn’t want my kids to have to go through this.

I don’t believe in “skin in the game”, I look at it like they are getting their inheritance early and we have funded their college education as it’s that important to me that they have a college education and graduate debt free.

They have never taken advantage and know what a gift it is. My oldest is now in grad school (aerospace engineering undergraduate degree) and my middle just graduated this past December (who did do the CC route to transfer).

My youngest is a freshman. Set a budget.

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