<p>I honestly know nothing about how loans work. Apologies in advance.</p>
<p>Worse case scenario, if I can't get any scholarships, with financial aid, I should be paying roughly this much, give or take a few thousand or so. </p>
<p>I may be able to scrounge up some scholarships. I intend on applying to as many as I have time for, but I'm not going to count on getting them. If I'm fortunate, I might be able to get ~$10,000 off for my first year.</p>
<p>You can try using this to get a sense of what paying off $40,000 might look like:
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Loan Payment Calculator - Finaid)</p>
<p>Thank you. :)</p>
<p>Standard repayment plan is 10 years for federal student loans.
See [Repayment</a> Plans | Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans]Repayment”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans)</p>
<p>Are you talking about $40,000 for a year, or $40,000 total over 4 years? </p>
<p>Also, are you assuming that your financial aid will all be grants? Not usually a safe assumption. If your EFC is $10,000 and you’re getting significant aid anywhere other than the few places that have “no loan” policies, your aid package is likely to include loans starting with $5500 in government backed loans your first year, and more in later years. Need doesn’t have to be met with grants and scholarship - it can be met with loans - and not all schools pledge to meet need.</p>
<p>Also, if you get outside scholarships, the school may see those as meeting your need, and reduce your aid package. That’s fine if it reduces the loans and work requriements within the aid package, but it still doesn’t reduce your family contribution.</p>
<p>And …
You should not go into debt more than what the first year’s salary of your intended job will be. Otherwise, you face financial ruin.
Your question might be the first sign you are looking at schools too expensive for you and that you should look elsewhere.</p>
<p>It should take 10 years. But that’s with a payment of almost $500/month - every month.</p>
<p>But what if you don’t get a job right away? Or you just can’t afford to make those payments at the beginning because you need to come up with a deposit for the place you’re going to live? Then you get permission to skip a few payments until you’re able to pay again . . . but while you’re skipping payments, the interest keeps accruing. So now the payments are over $500 . . . and that’s more than you can afford. So you start making partial payments. And the interest keeps accruing. Now there’s no way you can get it paid off in 10 years . . . and the longer it takes, the more you owe. Now you’re looking at 15 years . . . and if you ever miss a payment again, for any reason, it’s going to take longer.</p>
<p>Sure, in a perfect world, you can pay it off in 10 years. But the world is rarely perfect.</p>