<p>Hey Sybie, yep the max loans a student can take out in Stafford loans is $5500 and I’m maxing em out. When I talked with my financial aid officer, she was pointing me in the direction of taking out loans from private institutions as a last option. Financial suicide. In a tired/hasty calc prior to my 1st post, I had originally lumped in the diff in EFC, the stafford loans, and cumulated private loan interest rates with misc expenses like books per term, etc. to get a figure, spread out over 7/2 years, upwards of 6 figures. Sloppy math I know. To resolve this, I want to thank you for your clarifications. </p>
<p>They were significantly more help and informative than what I’ve been getting from the paperweights at the fin aid office, and I understand the evaluation more clearly now. Sucks that my brother hasn’t been claimed as a dependent for 3 years and is killing my funds but I guess thats just how life, or, the limits of the CSS Profile and evaluation, goes. And I’m going to have a lot of fun digging out papers tonight! Again, thank you for explaining the differences in what instances will be able to count as a legit appeal. </p>
<p>And I understand some of your concerns about graduating with a large amount of debt and I do plan on using my 1st year to establish my GPA at the transfer univ to apply for their continuing students’ merit aid. Whether or not I get them is another story but I’ll always kick myself in the a-- if I turn this admission offer down for doubting my capability to improve my competitiveness. Go big or go home! But not in debt of course</p>