Can't get a loan for last year of college... ideas?

Paying for College
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<p>I am in my final year of college and cannot get a loan to finish. Sorry for the long post, but I will lay it all out on the table as I'm desperate and in a bad situation.</p>

<p>I should have been done a year ago but my school has cancelled many classes that were required for my degree, were prerequisites for other classes, etc. resulting in several quarters (they do 4 quarters, year round) of only part time enrollment due to cancelled classes and no alternative classes that applied toward my degree. The school still charged me for full time tuition during those quarters, giving me the run around "Your program is only offered in full time, so we can't put you on part time for these quarters" which makes no sense since they weren't offering that curriculum full time. Now after the fact I've come to the conclusion it was just another money grab. Just like how tuition was $26k when I started and now is over $40k. I never expected or budgeted for that much of an increase over 4 years, and had only expected to be there for 2 - 2.5 years. They also did not permit me to take classes for the previous 6 months as it was a mandatory "co-op experience" in which I went to work all day, every day, as I have for the past many years ... But somehow was charged $18,000 by the school for it. If I had that $18,000 in my pocket right now I wouldn't be posting here.</p>

<p>Regardless, I am now almost through the first quarter of my final year, and have 7 classes remaining, so if all classes are offered and none cancelled, it is possible I could finish with only one more quarter instead of two. Regardless, I have got $12,500 in commie loans from Uncle BHO, but cannot get private loans for the remaining amount, or anywhere near it.</p>

<p>I am a white man with what I consider to be a good job, so I suspect that is a big part of the problem. Depending on how much I am able to work I gross between $45k-$55k after a recent significant raise, with promises of another significant raise next year (assuming I finish school). I have been with the same company for about 3.5 years. Government taxes about 15+% of what I make, I assume some of this goes to those I see at school getting a free ride and not learning anything. I also do side work some nights during the week, and most weekends have side work. A few hundred a month on a good month.</p>

<p>I decided to be responsible and pay off my credit card debt. I have been making very large payments and am one payment away from paying off my last card. My credit rating was ~760 as of a couple months back. Had a collection on my report for $25 (medical related, I was unaware of it until I ran my report) which I have since paid and had removed from my report. I have paid relatively small amounts (several thousand) towards my student loans, but have not paid off a significant amount yet. The plan was to pay off credit card debt and continue making the same large payments towards my student loans once credit card debt is gone. After next months payment on my credit card debt, I will have no debt aside from student loans.</p>

<p>I've applied with Sallie Mae (who did my previous loans and assured me they would continue to lend until I got my degree, assuming I didn't drop out), and several others. All have turned me down and won't give much detail. Sallie Mae said I had asked for more than their maximum, but would not disclose what that was or tell me how much they would lend me. The others I have applied for are supposedly sending me the reason in the mail.</p>

<p>I feel stupid for draining most of my cash reserves to pay off my credit card debt and paid some towards my student loans. If I had not attempted to be responsible, I could have paid cash for the the remainder of my balance after the government loans. My cash reserves now are not nearly enough and I don't have a lot that I can spend without dipping below my comfort zone of savings.</p>

<p>I'm at my wits end. I am now officially a deadbeat and on financial hold at school for non-payment and they have charged me some large late fees. I am still going to classes, but cannot register for next quarter or get credit for this quarters classes until I pay.</p>

<p>I can't justify paying off my student loans if I don't have a degree. I'd honestly tell Sallie Mae to shove it up their you-know-what since they didn't honor their part of our agreement, to lend to me through completion of my degree.</p>

<p>If I don't finish my degree I won't be earning more money to pay off the loans quicker.</p>

<p>If I don't pay the school they won't give me a transcript to transfer my classes/credits to another school to finish my degree where I could swing the cost with with government loans and/or cash.</p>

<p>If I stop going to school and save up for 1-2 years so I can pay cash, the numbers don't add up as to save that amount quickly I couldn't be dropping $1800+/mo on student loan payments (mandatory payments obviously once not going to class). No way I could save rapidly enough, the numbers just don't add up. I have nothing of enough value to sell to make the numbers work, and trying would only cost me my job from lack of transportation to get there.</p>

<p>I'm tired and I'm tapped out. I have no idea what to do. Going back to college has been the worst and most expensive mistake of my life, it has brought me to the brink of financial ruin. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>*I feel stupid for draining most of my cash reserves to pay off my credit card debt and paid some towards my student loans. *</p>

<p>While I’m not a fan of this…but, since you paid down your credit cards with your cash, you may have to put your course fees back onto your credit card.</p>

<p>How much have you borrowed from Sallie Mae. I didn’t think they had an upper limit. Are you confusing with Direct loans?</p>

<p>How much have you borrowed with federal direct loans?</p>

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<p>I’d have to look up the exact numbers but I’ve borrowed about $80,000 from Sallie Mae (3 years at school, original plan was to be done by now but the school yanked me around to drag it out and get more money from me). I’ve done about $7000 from the government. Of these I’ve paid back $5000 to Sallie Mae so far on my highest interest loan, and none to the government. When deciding to go back to school I knew it would be a lot of money, so it came down to either buy a house, or go to school. Family and lying salemen at various schools sold me on going to school as being a greater long term benefit.</p>

<p>The thought had crossed my mind to use my credit cards to pay for this last year of school, but after doing the credit card debt thing previously I really don’t want to do it again. Debt is slavery, thoguh I’m not sure which type of debt is worse.</p>

<p>I suppose technically credit card debt may be better than student loan debt, in that bankruptcy would do something for me if it came to it. I’ve considered bankruptcy as an option but right now it won’t do me any good since it won’t affect student loan payments, interest, total amount, etc. at all and that’s the only debt I have.</p>

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<p>*I’ve done about $7000 from the government. *</p>

<p>When did you do that?</p>

<p>You should be able to borrow more from the gov’t. If you haven’t borrowed any fed money this year, you should be able to borrow about $11k if you’re an independent student. If you’re a dependent student, then you can borrow $7500 this year (if you haven’t already borrowed this year from Direct)</p>

<p>Have you submitted a FAFSA? Do so.</p>

<p>You already have a huge amount of debt. You need to carefully consider your employment options and possibly living at home while you make huge payments once you graduate.</p>

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<p>You’re in luck. I’m going to tell you not only how to get this loan, but how to do it interest free (for at least the first year). I’ve done this, not for educational purposes, but for investing purposes. However, the concept remains the same.</p>

<p>Here’s what you do:</p>

<p>Step 1: Open a credit card, start with your own bank as they will give you the highest line of credit. If they don’t have one, go here —> [Best</a> Credit Cards - Reviews, Offers, Applications | Card Ratings](<a href=“http://www.cardratings.com/]Best”>http://www.cardratings.com/) and check out ones that have interest free for a year (many do around now, as interest rates are near an all time low).</p>

<p>Step 2: Once you receive your card, go to the US Mint website and buy coins [U.S&lt;/a&gt;. Mint Online Product Catalog](<a href=“http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=27238&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=16238&top_category=16238]U.S”>http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=27238&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=16238&top_category=16238) You can buy up to $50,000 in coins.</p>

<p>Step 3: They’ll arrive, with free shipping of course, and you take them directly to a Money Box or similar check cashing place. They’ll whine and moan about how many you have and how you can’t do that, but keep insisting that they take the coins and give you a money order (which cost about 60 cents). If they won’t cash all of them, then take them to a Walmart or somewhere else that does Money Orders. IMPORTANT: Don’t take them to your bank, as that is in direct violation of the Terms of Use on the US Mint website, which says you cannot immediately take the coins for deposit at a bank.</p>

<p>Step 4: Go deposit the money order at your bank. The money should show up in your account instantly.</p>

<p>Step 5: Pay off the card. It will be interest free for the first year, you should try to pay it off in this time. Your card will probably have points (such as 1% cash back) so you’ll probably get to apply that to your loan immediately. During this year, you’ll only have to pay about 1% of your loan each month. So since you need about $18,000 (as you said if you had that money, you wouldn’t even be posting here) then it will be approximately $180 per month.</p>

<p>This is a good plan for a person with a good paying job and credit score, as you likely have since you already have an established job. Probably not a good idea for the typical college student on this board.</p>

<p>Edit: Finished reading your original post. You said you need this money really quickly. My way will take about a month to fully complete. I hope you can wait that long. If not, You’ll have to take at least one quarter off, which isn’t as bad as the 1-2 years you were stating you’d have to take off.</p>

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<p>Mom2collegekids:
The previous $7000 was last year. This year the government will loan me $12,500, which leaves about $28,000 left to pay. If I was going to milk my savings dry I’d need about $20,000 in loans. It would suck but in a couple months I could have my emergency fun back to a comfortable level and start making big payments on loans again.</p>

<p>I am fully (and painfully) aware of what a huge amount of debt this is. It was a decision between taking on this debt for school or for a house. I picked wrong and chose school and to delay a house. Currently I can comfortably pay $2000/mo, $2500 would be squeezing hard but possible. Anticipating a good raise next year contingent upon completing college, I would be making $2800+/mo payments. By my rough math I figure this would have me paid off in 6 years or less. In place of taking classes every night I could get a night job and probably shave some time off that, and then finally start saving for a house again.</p>

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<p>What college is this?</p>

<p>Trunl, what an intersting idea.
<a href=“http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8100[/url]”>http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8100&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>MidwestMom2Kids_, this is Drexel University in Philadelphia. I would highly recommend for anyone to avoid this school. Even putting aside all the money grabs, class cancellations, etc. I have been nothing but disappointed in the quality of classes there. They are very basic and you do not learn a lot. Most of the classes are brought down to the dumbest common denominator, which is typically pretty dumb. Professors are typically disinterested and you can tell most are not particularly excited about teaching or the content. Much of what you do learn is not practical or particularly useful on the job. I can only speak of my experience in the IT/computer science program though. </p>

<p>Trunl, that is an interesting idea. I could go about this in a more direct way as my school does accept credit card payments. I will see about getting a card with a no interest intro period as this may be a good option for me since I could most likely pay it off within a year. Thanks for the idea, and the coins/cash idea is a good one.</p>

<p>Yesterday I finally got to speak with someone face to face in the financial aid office. I laid it all out on the table, she spoke with supervisors, and the bottom line is there’s nothing the university will do. What I have taken away from the meeting…</p>

<p>-They will not help me with any other loans or amounts, though I can fill out a mountain of paperwork, write a letter, and submit and appeal. If approved I would get an additional $5000 loan, which wouldn’t solve my problem anyway. It’s doubtful I would even be approved as I’m not a minority and I have a job, so would be difficult to prove a financial hardship.</p>

<p>-I am not eligible for any scholarships or grants, as I am not a minority and I have a job. There will be no free money coming my way.</p>

<p>-They will not give me a transcript unless I pay, so transferring to another school will be difficult. There is a possibility if I pay for one quarter of the cost I might be able to get credit for the courses I’m currently taking and get a transcript. I’m not holding my breathe on that one.</p>

<p>My plan at this point is to feel out other schools. I’m looking at a cheap state university where I should have gone originally and just gotten whatever degree in programming/computer science they offered. Waiting to hear back from them about what I can transfer with and without a transcript (from both Drexel and my previous two year cheapo county college). Not exactly expecting good news, but if I go this route, however long it takes, I’ll be paying cash and not taking on any more debt.</p>

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<p>University of Maryland University College will accept up to three years of transfer credits from a 4-year college or university. [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.umuc.edu%5DUMUC%5B/url”&gt;http://www.umuc.edu]UMUC[/url</a>] I believe that Penn State has a similar program. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>OP - Just to clarify, were you trying to complete a 4 year program in 2 - 2.5 years by taking only evening classes? Had you spoken with an academic advisor about the feasibility of this plan? Also, Drexel does not hide the fact that you will be paying tuition while doing a co-op, afterall, you are receiving 16 credits per quarter towards graduation for the co-op experience. Also, you are permitted to take limited credits while on co-op:
[Career</a> Development and Drexel Co-op](<a href=“http://www.drexel.edu/catalog/general/coop-index.htm]Career”>Drexel University < 2023-2024 Catalog | Drexel University)
“F. Classes While on Co-op In an effort to better couple academics with students’ cooperative education experience, undergraduate students enrolled in a co-op program may register for a maximum of 6 credits (up to 4 credits without additional charge) during each term for which they are on a co-op assignment. …”
Without knowing all of the facts concerning your situation, I tend to believe that the problems that you are experiencing do not fall totally on Drexel, but could be a result of incomplete reasearch or a misunderstanding of the feasibility of your plan.</p>

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<p>Most education loans and grants are based on your income and assets. None that I know of are based on minority status, certainly no federal ones. Why do you keep continuously harping on about minorities? It sounds like the school considers you not to have need because you have a good income, not because of your gender or non minority status.</p>

<p>Federal loans have a maximum aggregate amount you can get. If you are at that maximum you are not eligible for more. Doesn’t matter your color or gender.</p>