关于支付大学学费你需要知道的事情

In 2022, the average college grad took out $34,800 in loans to earn a bachelor’s degree according to educationdata.org. 然后是爸爸妈妈的那份. 一些3.700万父母欠了一笔债务 集体108美元.50亿年 在家长PLUS贷款.

借钱不是一件坏事. 毕竟，教育是对你未来的投资. 当你借的时候 太多, and get in over your head with student debt, that things can get hairy. Here’s a look at what you need to consider when it comes to paying for college costs — to help ensure the educational journey is as positive as possible — for everyone in the family.

债务越少越好

正如我们所指出的，借贷并不是坏事. 但借贷越少越好. The very best way to keep borrowing at a minimum 是 choose your school wisely. As Ron Lieber, New York Times 列ist and the author of The Price You Pay For College 在采访中解释, colleges often offer huge merit discounts based on how much they want your student to attend. Casting a wide net is key, as is not committing to a “favorite” too early in the process. 也, doing two years of study at a community college before transferring to the four-year school you’ll ultimately graduate from can cut the price almost in half. (是的,一半!)

毕业后期望的收入水平是多少?

“It doesn’t make sense to borrow large amounts for education if the student is not expected to earn enough to comfortably repay the loan,帕蒂·休斯说, 他是芝加哥Lake Life财富咨询集团的老板. Financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz suggests keeping the amount of borrowing at or below the expected salary the student will earn the first year out of college.

如果你的学生知道他们感兴趣的职业领域, 你可以试着在像美国求职网站这样的网站上预测起薪.S. 劳工统计局 职业展望手册. 但即使他们没有, it’s a good bet that stem and finance fields will pay more than elementary education and liberal arts, 例如. Even if your student doesn’t know exactly “what they want to be when they grow up” chances are they gravitate toward one type of field or the other. 

联邦学生贷款优先

如果你要借钱上大学, you should start with federal student loans before turning to private ones. Not only are the interest rates on federal student loans often lower, the repayment options are much better (only federal loans offer income based repayment and public service loan forgiveness.)

也就是说, many families don’t realize their students can’t borrow everything needed to cover college costs through federal student loans. 有阈值. 如果你是本科生, the maximum combined amount of Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans you can borrow in an academic year is between $5,500美元和12美元,500, depending on the year in school and a student’s dependency status, 根据美国.S. 教育部. 研究生可以 最多可借20,500美元 每学年获得直接无补贴贷款.

当这还不够的时候

如果你需要更多, there are two main options: Private student loans (which typically require a parent to co-sign) and federal Parent PLUS loans (which parents borrow directly). Although PLUS loans share some of the convenient repayment provisions with other federal student loans, 你应该比较这两种类型. The interest rate on private student loans may be higher or lower depending on your credit. But, PLUS loans have an origination fee of over 4% that you won’t find on private loans. 再说一遍，最重要的是不要过度借贷. Even if you don’t know your student’s final college costs until late into their senior year of high school, you can still do some advance calculations on what you and your student could reasonably afford as a loan payment. To get a handle on what loan repayments will look like, check out this 学生贷款模拟器 从studentaid.政府.

你对债务的期望是什么?

Finally, it’s best to talk about repaying debt — of all types — before you borrow. Many families co-sign private student loans with the understanding the loans will become their student’s responsibility and the parent’s name will eventually be removed as co-signer. (Note: Parent PLUS loans belong to the parent and can’t be turned over to the student. Even if a student plans to help with payments, the loan will always be in the parents’ name.) While removing the parent’s name from private loans may eventually work for some families, Luanne Lee说, 她是大学规划师，也是Your college Planning Coach的老板, more than 50 percent of students are turned down when they apply to release their parents as co-signers.

“那是因为他们做得不够, 他们工作的时间还不够长, 或者他们的信贷债务比率过高,她说。. 这意味着贷款仍然附属于母公司, and it can affect parents’ ability to borrow for other children or for something like a car. 还有你们共同签署的贷款, the parents would be liable for payments if a student misses them.

在一天结束的时候, the best rule of thumb to keep in mind for keeping your debt in line is Kantrowitz’s advice: never borrow more than your expected salary in your first year out of college.