<p>I just received my financial aid package for the school I want to attend... It seems as though I will not be getting much help from outside sources and must shoulder the burden myself. I am 24 years old, thus independent from my mother. I have decided that, despite an outrageously high cost of attendance, I would be willing to take any means possible to attend. I have had a nightmare of a time reaching the school's financial aid department so I was hoping someone here could help me a bit. I am looking for some fairly immediate help as the deposit to accept the offer is due within a week or so.</p>
<p>My question is this: The estimated cost of attendance for the year is ~$55k. Is there any way I can get loans to subsidize all this? Are they all private loans? Also, my credit is not the greatest... not bad, but not great, will that prevent me from getting loans?</p>
<p>I know nothing about the process and wish to learn but do not know where to start.</p>
<p>Did you even apply for financial aid? If you did, and filled out FAFSA, you would have an EFC that would or would not qualify you for federal, state monies. You can get a non subsidized Stafford loan whether you have need or not. But the amounts are not going to come anywhere close to $55K. Unless you have the credit yourself, you will need someone who is credit worthy for those loans co sign for you. Are you an international student? It is a bit late to be wondering how to get the money to pay for this. If you told the FA dept at the school that you were NOT applying for aid, by not checking “yes” on the app that asks that question, they are not going to be interested in talking to you if you do not even have the basic apps on file there. What have you done in this regard thus far?</p>
<p>Thank you for the response. To answer your questions:</p>
<p>Yes, I have filled out, and submitted, my FAFSA months ago. I did not qualify for any aid (state or federal). My EFC was in the neighborhood of $15k due to the fact that last year I had a career. Unfortunately, I no longer have the income I did last year. I sent in an “expected income” form to reflect my new, part-time $8per hour job but I guess it was still not enough to get any aid. </p>
<p>No, I am not international.</p>
<p>As far as being a bit late, unfortunately, I had no other option. I received my acceptance about two weeks ago and received my financial aid package yesterday so I have not been procrastinating. </p>
<p>I have completed all the necessary financial aid info. It is not that they are not WILLING to talk to me, but rather I cannot get in touch with anyone. Each of the 15 times or so I have called nobody is there to answer, then I am sent to a voicemail box to leave a message and then told the mailbox is full. I have finally been able to reach someone via e-mail, but the communication is very slow and, as you said, it is not as though I have much time.</p>
<p>the max stafford will be 9300 for first year independent students. Do not even consider taking out 40K+ in loans for 1 year of school (federal or otherwise). That would be a huge mistake</p>
<p>You can take out the maximum Stafford Loan for whatever year student you will be at the school. That will be a drop in the bucket for a $55K total cost. If you peruse the financial aid thread, someone mentioned a site that directs you to student loans. However, finding a lender willing to give you a loan in that amount for an undergraduate degree when you don’t have the credit or assets to back it up is going to be very difficult. All the loans I have seen require credit worthy co-signers. If you can get someone at the financial aid office, they may be able to give you a list of lenders that students like you have had luck with in the past, but given the scandals of aid office ties to lending firms, that may no longer be something that is being done. Which means that you will have to find a lender that will give you that much money without anything to secure the loan. Your best bet is for a credit worthy family member to co sign for you. Next year, you may do better since you will not have the salary you did, and you may get some need based aid. However, be aware that FAFSA will only guarantee a Pell grant, and that that only comes to less than $5K with a zero EFC. The rest are loans, again. Most money comes from the school itself. If the school is not generous is its financial aid–look up how much need is traditionally met, and whether it is in loans or grants, you don’t have much hope of getting much from them. The only loans you can get that I know about without going through a credit check and meeting standard loan provisions would be the Staffords, Perkins and school loans, but the govt loans total numbers over 4 years is hardly going to add up to even one year’s cost at this school. Paying interest alone each year on $40k in unsecured loans is going to run into the the thousands if you can even get a lender to give you that much. If they do the interest is going to be up the whazoo, and collection methods are going to be in dark alleys.</p>
<p>Your options are eating beans and having roommates for the rest of your life; forget buying clothes new, a house, and having children.</p>
<p>Taking out $40K of loans for FOUR years of college is dangerous; doing so for ONE year is sheer insanity. You need to find a less expensive school. Why on earth would you apply to a school that is $55K/year when you don’t have a way to pay for it?!</p>
<p>UMMM, Sueinphilly, if OP is a nontraditional student, he would be in the School of General Studies. Age and work references point that way. Though GS students scream that they are treated as equals by the university, they are not in at least one very important way–financial aid. GS does not guarantee meeting full need. Makes a big difference. Funds for GS are not the same as the ones available for the more traditional schools. Most GS students are expected to cough up the cost of their education. If they worked, they are expected to have saved something for going back to school or have built up the credit to borrow the money. Some GS students strike a deal with their companies to have their way paid. Regardless, this division of Columbia is not going to meet full need. Even if the OP has the need, which he may not since he was working and is expected as an independent student to have saved about half his pay for school.</p>
<p>Depends. Op may be able to get some more money next year without a salary that has the 50% savings expectations. Maybe the school will kick in a little more, maybe with NY state residency, he can get some TAP money, and maybe some PELL. Still it isn’t going to even come to covering half the cost, and for every dollar he earns working, half is going to be expected to go to cover the cost. Perhaps he can get some good income since he has work experience or get employer to pay for some of the cost. GS does permit part time courses. With work experience, the OP will be at advantage at getting some decent paying work in NYC. So the $40k may not be for more than the first year.</p>
<p>Still as someone who has worked for several year, OP should have something saved if going to a school of this cost was something he wanted. Also, he should know something about how difficult it is to get an unsecured loan for these amounts. There is not that much out there for UG educations because it is not a good investment for banks to lend that much money. The new Stafford limits actually scare me, as I always felt that the govt loan limits were good guideline for max loans a kid should take, and these numbers are really high for kids to pay back. However, OP is not a kid. He has been out there in the world and can make this judgment, so I don’ t feel the same way I would with an 18 year old flush out of high school making this sort of decision I think it is shame and disgrace to suggest that those kids take out that kind of money when they truly are too young to understand the ramifications of that decisions. Would serve those schools right if they lost out on those loans, but I guess they are outsourcing them.</p>
<p>Try calling admissions if you can’t get through to Financial Aid. Maybe they can transfer you to someones who can help. Or if you have a specific admissions counselor, speak to them. Tell them you need to speak to FA before you can accept their offer of admission.</p>
<p>What Op must also take in to consideration is the vast majority of students who attend GS are students who work full time and have a nice chuck of their tuition covered by their employers (through tuition reimburesement).</p>
<p>My recommendation is that if you really want to attend GS at Columbia, that you get a job at Columbia as even the lowest paying job at the university will pay the full cost of your tuition as an employee through their very generous tuition plan for their employees which kicks in from day one.</p>
<p>We need to hear more from the OP. It sounds like his/her EFC is $15k, which should go down for sophomore, junior and senior years, if a full time student.
Please confirm.
$40,000 in overall debt for CMC or Columbia may be reasonable, particularly for someone getting a second start at 24 and making $8 an hour.
I may be interpreting the posts incorrectly.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the information. After much deliberation, I have decided to defer enrollment for a year to save money.</p>
<p>As far as the debt goes, I am not too worried about it. I have been making in excess of $100k since age 19, I am fairly certain that with a college degree the money will come. However, as many people suggested, it makes fiscal sense to defer those bills… Plus, I am not sure that I will be able to come up with the money on such short notice anyway. </p>
<p>es four - as a GS student, you have the option to enroll part-time. couldn’t you work and take a few classes at the same time? The debt wouldn’t be so harsh then.</p>
<p>I have thought about working but really want to attend school on a full-time basis. I would rather incur the debt now than prolong the time before starting a new career.</p>
<p>Esfour, if you truly can make the type of money that can pay the loan in several years, it may well be a good investment. What I hate to see is when kids take out a horrible loan to get a BA which is not likely to bump up their pay out of college much and puts them really behind the 8 ball for many years. When you owe $160 K, and are hard put to get a job for a quarter of that amount, it is a big problem. Especially these days when low or no paid internships are becoming common for certain industries that have a decent pay scale once you are on the pay ladder </p>
<p>My friend’s D is in debt for about that amount after 4 years of college and 3 of law school. But her pay package makes it very much worth while. She will be able to pay back the money and still live a life without pinching too hard. If she did not get that kind of money in her job, however, it could have been a real problem. It used to be that you would have to do without a car for a few years as the loans were about the cost of one. Now it’s a house.</p>