How much should I take out in loans?

Paying for College
1

This is my first post on here so I apologize if I did not submit it in the right place.

How do I know how much to borrow and when to borrow it? I owe around $6,700 right now. I’m assuming that is only for my first semester. Should I take out another $7,000 in loans right now for my second semester? Or do I wait until spring classes are about to start to get another loan for my second semester? I’m just a little confused about if I take loans out for only one semester at a time or both. Am I even able to take out that much in loans? I’m going into my first year of college out of state with little to no help from my parents or anyone so I am a little desperate for some answers.

2

Did you apply to your financial aid office. Did you submit a FAFSA.
You are eligible for $5500 loan on your own per year through federal loans.https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans#borrowing-limit

You need to contact your school’s financial aid office.

3

You can only borrow $5500, not $14000. Is your school unaffordable? Will your parents pay the difference?

4

Did you borrowed through school (from Federal)?

5

What did you already receive in financial aid? Was there a loan in your FA pkg?

You can’t borrow $6700 for the fall semester unless YOUR PARENTS cosign the loans for you. What are they saying?

You’re trying to borrow too much. How much are your parents contributing each year for college?

6

I received 2,700 from filling out FAFSA. So I get roughly 1,300 my first semester and 1,300 in the spring. My parents are contributing absolutely nothing towards college. I’m going to a community college out of state it’s not like I am paying $50,000 to go to an university. I owe roughly 6,700 now (including books) and I’m assuming once I register for my spring classes I’ll owe another $6,700. How do people even go to bigger universities? I don’t know why everyone pressured me to go to college when I can’t afford it.

7

That school is not affordable. Find out the procedure to withdraw from it and cancel your housing contract.

Can you live at home and commute to a community college in your city?

What do you plan to study? What is your GPA/ACT/SAT?

8

Then absolutely no school is affordable. That is literally the cheapest option I can get as an out of state student. How do people afford $25,000? $35,000 even more? I cannot live at home in my state because my parents are getting divorced and both are moving. That’s why I am moving out of state to live with a family member. The house I am living in currently is being sold I have no option but to move states. Once I become a resident next year it shouldn’t be as expensive. I was planning on studying psychology but not I’m not so sure because I’ll never be able to afford it. My GPA and ACT were not great thus another reason why I applied to a smaller school and not an university.

9

Are either of your parents staying in state? Are either moving to within commuting distance of a community college?

What is the cost of your current community college for residents of that state?

What do you plan to do with an associate’s degree in psychology that you can’t do now?

10

I have no choice to stay in state with my Dad he does not want me living with him. My mom is moving out of state so I would still be in the same boat with being an out of state student. I don’t know how to make it any clearer that I do not have any choice but to move out of state unless I want to live on the street. If I were a resident of the state I would have to pay 2,800 (per semester) for 14 credit hours + books if I lived out of county and if I lived in county it would be 2,240 + books. I’m not getting an associates in psychology. I’m getting an associate in arts so I can transfer into a 4-year to study psychology after I’m done with my basics.

11

Move to where your mom moves and get residency (may take a year) and then have instate rates there.

No one is going to lend you the money that you’re now asking for.

Move to where your mom lives and get a job at Chipotle or another place that gives tuition money after one year of work.

You need to deal with reality, even if it means waiting a year since NO ONE is going to loan you that extra money unless your parents participate.

12

Like I’ve mentioned above multiple times I am not able to live with either of my parents. I have absolutely no idea how to make that any more clear. Is it possible to ask for a 9,500 loan? “Independent Students (and dependent undergraduate students whose parents are unable to obtain PLUS Loans) $9,500—No more than $3,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.” https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized. Are my parents able to cosign on a loan to get more than 5,500? I’ve already waited a year. I am already dealing with reality and that reality is that no out of state student that is freshman in college can afford to pay for college out of pocket.

13

Why can’t you move with your mom?

How much have you saved from the past year (you graduated from high school in 2015)?

What are your plans after a bachelor’s degree in psychology?

Did you ask your parents if either will cosign private loans for you? This means they are responsible to make the monthly payments if you don’t.

14

I have already been accepted and registered for my classes. I leave in less than thirty days. Please explain to me why in the world I would change everything just to live with my mother? What difference would it make living with my mother? I would still have to pay out of state tuition. I don’t have a lot saved up since I only started working at the beginning of summer and have other things I need to pay. I am sure I will be getting my P.h.D but that is a long ways from now I don’t have to have my entire future planned right this second. My mom said she will be willing to at least cosign but I still might have to be the one giving her most of the money.

15

Unfortunately, you are an OOS student and the CC is under no obligation to fund your education, so you have to pay their OOS rate.
We get that you don’t WANT to/“can’t” live with either parent. The only way for you to get a loan is through your parents. THAT’S it. You can’t be upset with the people on this post trying to help you by telling you the truth.

No one is going to loan a college student, with no collateral, any private or public funds. The school can’t loan you any further funding.

How do students afford college? The parents pay and the **students work ** while going to their affordable instate schools. To make it affordable for us, our kids have jobs and we budget by driving old cars, fixing things around the house ourselves, no vacations, no dinners out, no luxuries.

I think you need to reassess your situation.
Per your information: You have no money and no home.

You can’t get a loan on your own.

You can’t afford the fees to go to an OOS CC.

So, either you go back to your state and live with someone and get your education in that way OR, you quit the school you attend and work to save up some money to go to school.

You’re going to HAVE to save up a LOT of money if you plan to do graduate studies in psychology. In my experience, a BA in Psych doesn’t pay much. Graduate studies in psychology have limited funding options-mostly loans. How will you pay everything back? Many loans require payment as you go to school.

16

You graduated June 2015 and didn’t get a job until June 2016? That’s a problem since you may have been able to earn enough to pay for a year of school if you worked that year.

Do you and your parents understand that if you don’t pay, you can’t attend? You can’t borrow borrow than $5500 on your own. If your mom cosigns private loans, payment likely begins right away. Where will you and she get the money to make the payments? Would she qualify (what is her income)?

17

Move in with your relative, change all your registrations to the new state (drivers license, voting,) get a job immediately, and just start working for a year. Tell the college you cannot start for 1 year (unless the state has a shorter time to become a resident, some do for community college).

How do other students do it? They go to instate schools, they have scholarships, they have parents who pay. Some borrow too much. It really doesn’t matter how they do it, what matters is how you can do it, and you have to be self supporting. Take advantage of the opportunity this relative is giving you to live free/cheaply and save money for college.

18

The difference that living with your mother makes is that your state of residency is tied to your parents until you’re 24. If you can live with your mom, you may be considered an instate resident of whatever state she’s moving to by next fall. Check the residency requirements of the college closest to where she’s moving to find out what their rules are.

You can’t borrow enough money to attend this school, and it’s not a good idea to ask your mom to cosign a loan so you can get the money. Students shouldn’t borrow more than the federal student loan amount (~$27k over 4 years); you’ll be hitting that total before you’re halfway done. Since you’re receiving Pell, I’m guessing your parents are low income. That means that even though your mom may be approved for a loan your first semester, the likelihood is that she’ll be turned down before you’re done. At that point, you’ll have to drop out. You’ll have no degree and your loans will come due. You don’t want that.

I know this must be tough for you, but you have to do what’s best for your future. Contact this college and formally withdraw (make sure to fully withdraw from classes and cancel your dorm contract and meal plan). You don’t want it to get so late in the year that you owe money for a school you can’t afford to attend. Move with your mom, find a job, and look into schools near where she’ll be living.

19

Ok people are trying to help, you can’t pay something if you have no money.

If both parents are moving and you could live with one of them, once they are in their new state long enough you could be an instate student there with instate tuition. As long as you are a dependent on your parents from an age standpoint (for example for FAFSA it is 24), your residency will most likely be determined by where your parent lives, with whom you live with the most.

Without your parent financial information on the FAFSA (for every year of college until you get bachelor’s degree), you can’t even get federal grants or loans. You would have to petition to be considered emancipated, but that is difficult to achieve.

So you can’t just live with a relative and go to a college where you have not enough funds to pay for it.

You can only borrow $5,500 a year on your own and $2750 a semester. So if your OOS community college costs $8,000 ($6700 +1300 grant) and you have $4050 ($1300 grant and $2750) per semester covered, then where is the remaining $3950 a semester going to come from? Once you don’t pay the bill, your enrollment will be dropped, or if you start there but don’t pay for second semester, then you owe them and they won’t release your transcript until you pay up.

You don’t want to be in that situation. You then can’t transfer anywhere else.

So you need to make a plan. If neither of your parents wants you to live with them then you need to get a job, several jobs, and work and save money. You might have to wait until you are old enough to be considered independent for financial aid, or you could take a few night classes at a CC as you can afford it.

But once you transfer to a university for a 4 yr degree it will be even more expensive.

For now college will have to wait until you can afford it.

If your mom moved to an area that has a community college nearby, see if she would let you live with her until you become a resident of that state. Work as much as you can and save money during that time.

20

I’m not upset with people I’m just quite annoyed with the incompetence on this thread. If I say I cannot do something. I can’t do it. Staying in the state I am currently in is not an option. My father has no obligation to provide a housing for me to live under. If I stayed here I would be homeless. I have a home in the state I am moving to. What’s the difference between living out of state with another family member vs living out of state with my mom? I would have to pay out of state fee’s regardless. I have already been accepted and registered for my classes. Why would I drop all of that just to do the same damn thing in another state? That’s just silly. Universities in my current state are more expensive than the college I’m going to out of state. Not everyone has the privilege of their parents paying for a ton of their college tuition. I work, I drive a piece of crap, I don’t go on vacation, dinners out, or throw money around that I don’t even have. People do not pay $20,000 up front, out of pocket, unless they are rich. I understand that I can’t get loans for 14,000 but no one answered my questioned about the 9,500. I’m not worried about my other years yet. I’m just worried about this first year. I don’t care about how much it pays. That’s not my reasoning for going into the field. There will be a lot more opportunities for scholarships once I’m actually in school and doing well in my classes. Next year I won’t even have to pay half of what I do this year. My sister got her doctorate, I can find a way to get my P.h.D.