<p>For a homeless 24 year old (U.S. citizen) with no credit that has been accepted to GS for this upcoming spring semester, what options are there since private loans are seemingly out of the question for someone without any credit? Are there other types of loan opportunities (aside from having maxed out Direct Loans) applicable for this type of student?</p>
<p>Lending to students seems to be a thing of the past. Outside of federal loans, state loans (if you can prove a history of New York residency), and private loans, there really aren’t any other options.</p>
<p>I’d recommend looking to non-profit organizations who might award scholarships to people transitioning out of homelessness (they must exist, right?). Also, there’s always the military option. Columbia recently reinstated the ROTC and you’d be guaranteed some significant financial support.</p>
<p>Last, if those options don’t pan out, I can’t in good conscience recommend Columbia. If you’ve already been financially insecure, $100k of debt is going to make sure that you stay that way for years and years.</p>
<p>I find it amusing that students are getting into tons of debt to graduate from GS. Use common sense, people. Columbia does not pay for itself.</p>
<p>The cost of attendance at every other appropriate school is about the same. Might as well pick the best from the bunch if the price tags are all identical…</p>
<p>The best is subjective.</p>
<p>The price tags might be comparable. But, the actual cost is very different at Columbia when compared to other top schools.</p>
<p>hellojan - not entirely true. I was looking at very similar prices at other, substantially worse IMO, schools. I also received more financial aid at GS than at other schools. In particular GWU and American are both nearly as expensive for a worse education, worse name, and for me worse financial aid. University of Maryland College Park, since I was out of state, was also nearly as bad. I also decided that no matter where I went I was going to stop working fulltime, so I was giving up more than tuition in lost income, making an incremental $5k pretty irrelevant. </p>
<p>That’s not to say that GS is some good deal, it’s outrageously expensive. However everyone’s circumstances are different and for me the cost compared to my other acceptable options wasn’t too high.</p>