Tuition shock can be softened
By Eileen Ambrose
Baltimore Sun
Maybe you procrastinated. Maybe a family emergency derailed your finances. But your child's college tuition bill is due any day now, and you don't have the cash.
It could be a lot of money. If your child is attending a top-tier university, the bill could be around $20,000 for tuition, fees and room and board. And that's just for the fall semester.
Schools say it's not unusual to hear from families that they can't pay.
"It happens all the time," said Jim Belvin, director of financial aid at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
How schools handle these last-minute cases differ. Some are willing to give parents a little leeway; others are hard-nosed about deadlines. At worst, a student might arrive on campus and not be able to register or move into the residence hall until the bill is paid.
Though it's late in the game, families have options. Schools can adjust a financial aid package when a hardship occurs, such as a parent's death or job loss. For other cases, aid officers can outline financing tools — from loans to tuition installment plans — and will know of any resources unique to that school.
But parents must move fast.
"The sooner they let us know, the more options we are going to be able to offer them and the more help we will be able to give them in settling this balance," said Mark Lindenmeyer, director of financial aid at Loyola College in downtown Baltimore. "Any college or university would agree with that."
With the clock ticking, here are moves to consider:
Provided parents have a good credit history, their application can be approved in as little as one day and the funds can be disbursed within a week, experts said.
A PLUS loan can be obtained directly from the government or through private lenders, depending on the school. The fixed rate on the PLUS loan is 8.5 percent. Due to a quirk in the law, the rate is 7.9 percent at schools in the government's direct lending program, experts said.
Financial aid offices should know what aid a student is eligible for five to 10 days after the FAFSA is submitted, depending on the school, experts said. Students, for instance, may be eligible for a subsidized Stafford loan if they meet a needs test. With a subsidized loan, the government pays the interest on the loan while the student is in school.
Even if family income and assets are too high, students can take out an unsubsidized Stafford loan. Students pay the interest while in school or can have it added to the loan's principal.
Stafford borrowing limits are $2,625 for freshmen, $3,500 for sophomores, $5,500 for juniors and seniors. Students begin repaying loans six months after graduation.
The interest rate is fixed at 6.8 percent, although lenders often give discounts when the loans are being repaid.
With a home equity loan, families borrow a lump sum, usually at a fixed rate, and generally repay it over five to 20 years.
