<p>So I was offered 3 loans & work study:
Work Study- $1,500
Federal Perkins Loan- $1,800
Direct Subsidized Loan- $3,500
Direct Unsubsidized Loan- $2,000</p>
<p>On top of that my parents are also going to take out a Direct Parent Plus Loan of $4,472. The total cost of attendance is $32,563. </p>
<p>Anyways, I ended up accepting all the loans because I thought I had to cover the whole cost of attendance. The other day though, I stumbled upon a page that said that the cost of attendance is usually around $3,000 more than what I'll actually need and so because of that I should totally avoid loans especially unsubsidized loans. Is that true? And if so can I somehow cancel my unsubsidized loan?</p>
<p>I don’t know if you can change your loan amounts after accepting them, but I believe student loans are credited to your bruin bill account to pay for tuition and housing fees. If you don’t use all the money, it’s sent to your checking account to cover things like transportation and personal expenses. You can take as much or as little as you’re given in your offer. </p>
<p>UCLA calculates their estimated cost with the most premium options you can choose from. For instance, their room and board estimated charge is $14454. To put that in perspective, a double in a classic residence hall with a 19p meal plan is $13432. My deluxe triple with 14 regular is $11972.</p>
<p>They also include a “personal” budget of almost $1400. I’m all for having fun at college, and I’m sure I’ll need to buy shampoo, but borrowing money to have fun and go out seems like a really bad idea, that’s what part-time and summer jobs are for. The personal doesn’t even include pens and paper, which are budgeted along with books in their fee charts. </p>
<p>There’s also a $800 transportation budget, which really depends on how far away you live. Finally there is the $1500 UCSHIP (health insurance) fee, which can be waived if you already have health insurance.</p>
<p>So if you actually work it out line by line, you can find significant savings.</p>
<p>UCLA overestimated the cost in my opinion. You can actually trim down the cost to $5000 less than they estimated so around ~28K a year. I would not take loans for personal expenses and books as I’ve never seen anyone pay the estimated $1.5k for books per year. Not sure how to cancel eFan loans though, but I think you should call financial aid office. Should have calculated everything beforehand cause money matters and loans suck…especially interest rates <em>shivers</em>.</p>