<p>I'm attending a city college and I took out less loans than needed because I thought I had financial aid applied.</p>
<p>Turns out that financial aid was simply a loan. Now I'm going to be paying $16,000 after 4 years. To many, that's not bad but with the situation at home and my dad wanting to use my loans to buy a house, it's completely hectic and I need financial security.</p>
<p>I'm also different from most teenagers. I have 430 volunteer hours recorded and I was hired by that place. I intern and have letters of reccomendation. I wrestled and kickbox now, and run a web design firm. I'm 17 turning 18. I also do weekend workshops for public speaking and promoting your business. My GPA was 84.5 and my SAT score was 2010 (680/670/660). I'm hoping any of these things can get me an advantage.</p>
<p>Honestly, I could pay the $16,000 in cash if I worked on my jobs within a few months but at the risk of severely falling behind in education. Can you tell me what my options are? I'm stuck with a huge bill and my dad agreed to pay my college bills before and is now backing out, saying he's taking my financial aid because of the low interest rate for the house he wants to buy next year. (Seriously, after 18 years he wants to buy a ****ing house now)</p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated so thank you so much.</p>
<p>This does not make sense. How can your dad take your financial aid? Any loans for school are paid directly to the school and the school uses them to pay your direct school charges such as tuition and fees. Your dad cannot access your college financial aid money. Any excess funds left after the school’s direct charges are paid will be refunded to you. You, not your dad. But if the loans are insufficient to cover your tuition, no money will be refunded (and you will owe the school money still). </p>
<p>Even if your Dad has taken PLUS loans in his own name, those are paid direct to the school. Only any excess aid is refunded.</p>
<p>Also, if it is PLUS loans, the interest rates are higher than current mortgage rates anyway (unless your dad has a bad credit rating). If it is Stafford loans, those are your money. Either way - the money goes first to pay your tuition and fees and any other direct charges. Unless the loans are higher than the direct charges, you will never actually have your hands on any of that money.</p>
<p>On my bill less fa/ something else is applied. I think that’s the loan. My dad was planning to take the money for the house. He doesn’t know that the financial aid was a loan he thinks I’m going to college for free.</p>
<p>This is making NO SENSE. A Stafford or Perkins loan would be disbursed DIRECTLY to the college. Those are the loans in your name…did you get THOSE loans? And in what amounts? Do you need an extra $4000 a year in loans or is that ALL you will need in loans?</p>
<p>If your parent applies for a PLUS loan, it’s in THEIR name…and really…a home mortgage loan has a FAR lower interest rate than the current PLUS. There were 30 year fixed rate mortgages for 4% this week. The Plus interest rate is higher than that, I believe.</p>
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<p>It sounds like you are earning a fair amount of money at your job. Other than that…really you are NOT all that different from other teenagers. The info above would have no bearing on need based aid which is based on your (yours and your parents’) income and assets. Your GPA and SAT scores have no bearing on your need based aid. They WOULD have been used to determine awarding of merit aid but your GPA isn’t all that terrific in terms of merit aid qualifications. PLUS…it’s a bit late for that now…you didn’t GET a merit aid package.</p>
<p>Has college started? If so, you need to figure out how you are going to pay whatever it is that owe. If not, I would suggest withdrawing, taking a gap year, and applying as an incoming freshman to places where you would get some merit aid OR where you can afford to pay the cost of attending.</p>
<p>If you want help here, you need to cut-n-paste (or carefully transcribe) the content of your financial award and post it here. List the names of the grants, scholarships, awards, loans with the amounts. List the total cost of attendance (COA) as well.</p>
<p>The reality is that if YOU took out the loan, only YOU can decide what to do with the money. Most likely, it is already been given straight from lender to your college–so your dad can’t get ahold of it anyhow. </p>
<p>You can simply tell your dad “no.”</p>
<p>If your family situation is this complicated that your dad wants you to take 16K out in <em>student</em> loans for his housing and you are unable to say no, I agree that a gap year is best until you have it sorted out.</p>
<p>This is the most bizarre scheme I’ve heard from a parent…using kid’s federal student loans as a downpayment on the parent’s residence and leaving kid with no education funding? How would that work exactly? After one semester of unpaid bills, you wouldn’t be able to re-register. Therefore, this plan can only net him about $2750.</p>
<p>Federal loans are paid to the school, not to the student. Only money left over after the schools direct costs are covered would ever be given to the student. So I don’t understand the father’s plan and I don’t understand how the student is screwed for the tuition bill.</p>
<p>I think this family is just confused. The student doesn’t realize that his loan money will go right to the school and go towards THOSE costs. And, the dad doesn’t realize that the loan money doesn’t come as a big check to the son (which he thinks he can get his hands on.).</p>
<p>That said, if the loan is for an amount that is for more than tuition, then at some point the school will issue YOU a check. Instead of having that check mailed to your home (where your dad might grab it), find out if you can pick it up at the school’s office. Then you can cash it to pay for books and stuff.</p>
<p>Why does your dad think that your college costs are “free”???</p>
<p>It sounds like the parent thought college was FREE but the AID included the college loans. </p>
<p>I’m confused how college loans (unless there is a surplus disbursed to the college) will be used to pay for a house? It does NOT sound like there is a surplus.</p>