by Tasnim Shamma
Maureen O’Brien told her daughter Emily Macri: dream big.
She could pick any college she wanted and they would figure out a way to pay for it.
Macri chose the University of Vermont, which costs more than $49,000 in tuition and fees per year for out-of-state residents.
O’Brien and her daughter co-signed a private student loan from Sallie Mae for $24,000 and a $30,000 Parent PLUS loan, a federal loan program for parents. And that was just for Macri’s first two years of college.
“That was one of the compelling reasons why I asked her to consider coming to a state school here in Arizona,” O’Brien says. “I just couldn’t keep doing that. And with my son going to college, too, I can’t do that for two kids.”