My daughter was accepted to University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign as a Spanish major. We just found out yesterday that she got ZERO financial aid and barely qualifies for any subsidized loans. Cost per year will be over $30K.
She was also accepted to Northern Illinois University, a tier 2 state school about 50 miles from our home, and received $7K in merit aid per year (renewable with a 3.2 GPA). Not sure of cost per year yet due to not having received the financial aid document yet, but I estimate it will be around $18K with the merit aid applied.
If she was a STEM major, without question we would make sure she attended UIUC. But she's a Spanish major and wants to be a Spanish teacher. My husband and I are willing to pay half of her tuition/room and board, but she'll have to take loans for the rest. That's potentially a big load of debt for a teacher just starting out!
She's now leaning towards NIU since they offered up that merit aid, but we are attending Admitted Students Day at UIUC next week and checking out the campus over the weekend.
So, fellow parents, I ask you--what would you do?
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