How much should I take out in loans?

Paying for College
21

Marie- there is a substantial difference between living with your mom and living with another relative. You do not get instate rates at college by living with a cousin… but after a waiting period, you WOULD get instate rates by moving in with a parent. Got it?

We are not incompetent. We are trying to tell you that your plan has lots of holes in it- most of which are going to leave you heavily in debt and without a college degree. forget about the doctorate- we’re talking about you being in debt without a BA.

First things first.

You need to withdraw from the college you are enrolled in. You don’t have the money for year 1- and you can’t borrow enough to make it through year 1. So you need to withdraw before you end up owing a college you never attended (yes, this happens. Kids post here all the time about being in arrears for classes they never even showed up for).

So withdraw.

Then if you can let us know which state your mom is moving to, the very savvy folks on CC can help you evaluate some cost-effective ways to get your BA.

Prior to the divorce- what was your parents level of interest in your education? Had they been planning to help (not monetarily, but at least giving you a free place to sleep) until the divorce? Give us a sense of the family dynamic. We may have some suggestions of social service organizations or non-profits that might be able to help you as well.

Nobody wants you to be homeless. But enrolling in a CC in a state where you don’t have a parent living is a very, very expensive way to start your education.

22

How is there a difference in what I will be paying?. Either way I will be a non-resident for a year along with my mother will be a non-resident for a year because she’s moving to a different state the same time I am moving to another state. It will take a year regardless of where I go to establish my residency.

23

Most state universities, before they give you instate status (without it being tied to your parents’ residency status), require that you prove that you are totally self supporting, no help from your parents at all. Then they want to see that you live and work fulltime in that state and have done so for a certain time period, usually a year. That you pay taxes there, vote, etc.

If they suspect that you moved there for educational reasons, to attend college there, especially if you start attending as an OOS student and then want to be reclassified, they might not ever give you instate status.

Also you might not even get the grant of $2600 or the loan of $5500 if you are not talking to your parents. How are you going to fill out the FAFSA for next several school years without their help?

IF you can’t pay the first semester fees you can’t attend. Lot’s of young people have to change their plans.

You can regroup once you get there and figure out how establish instate residency wherever you end up moving to.

24

-OP is no longer a minor (based on information OP has provided), so the emancipation ship has already sailed.

-Even if OP were still a minor and successfully petitioned for emancipation, that’s no guarantee that OP would be considered independent for FAFSA purposes.

25

You are right, @BelknapPoint, I guess I chose the wrong term, I think maybe ‘dependency override’ might be a better term?

So the college only looks at your financial information and not the parents’? Even if you don’t fulfill the usual conditions to be deemed independent for FAFSA.

26

I’ll answer the question regarding the $9500. IF your mom is willing to apply for a Parent Plus loan–that’s a loan in HER own name that SHE is responsible to repay–and IF she is denied the Parent Plus loan due to poor credit (though it’s pretty easy to be approved), THEN you can borrow the higher amount via a federal loan. So, some serious"ifs". And a serious amount of debt to accumulate for someone who has grad school in her sites.

On another subject, accusing posters who are trying to help you of being “incompetent” is a sure way to stop getting help altogether. Perhaps you should consider that you have may not have portrayed your situation with crystal clarity. I understand that you are stressed and panicky, but courtesy has to come first when people are volunteering their time and effort. Note that everyone posting here is quite bewildered that you would register for school without a clue how to pay for it and is wondering why you didn’t take the time to figure out how financial aid worked during the full year you had to consider this stuff since graduation. So perhaps throwing around a word like “incompetence” is pretty ironic in your situation, no?

27

It’s important not to mix up terms and definitions. “Emancipation” is a legal process by which a minor (typically a child under age 18) petitions a court to be released from parental control. This happens automatically once a person reaches the age of majority.

A college can do whatever they want when they are handing out their own money, but a college must adhere to FAFSA procedures where government money (Pell grants, Stafford loans, etc.) is concerned.

28

Yup.

29

I can probably find a way to pay for both semesters if I can get that 9,500 loan. Next year I will barely have to pay anything compared to this year. Am I able to help her pay for it? I didn’t “have a full year to consider this stuff since graduation”. No one here knows my situation and it is pretty incompetent to tell someone they can do something after they repeatedly said that they couldn’t. I didn’t receive help in the first place so it really wouldn’t hurt me if I no longer received that so called “help”.

30

Sorry, I was too busy wanting to throw myself off a bridge.

31

@blossom is absolutely correct; take her advice.

The federal government loans the majority of monies to students. They have rules for FAFSA monies with regard to age and parent requirements. That money is then dispersed to the state’s colleges, who then make the rules about residency requirements and fees. We don’t make the rules here on this website.

You didn’t understand and didn’t read what I said. We the parents, who do have the funding, and can get the loans, WE do the following

YOU are supposed to live like this as a student.

Parents do this to save money for their kids, so that we can pay

Nope, we are not rich either.

and you won’t get a loan, on your own, for $9500 because the lenders don’t have a guarantee that you will pay it back. The only way you will get it is with a Parent plus loan. The money has to be loaned to your parent for you.

You’re at a CC and have several years to go. You need to save your pennies to pay the big costs of a university.
I don’t know of any university that gives substantial scholarships AFTER you’ve attended. ( I’ve had 3 kids go through this process at 3 different schools; not one of them, in engineering or neuro or Comp Sci, was ever given scholarships after doing well at their schools).

So your options are to:

Ask your sister for the money..
She has the money now that she has her doctorate.
Or
**Have your mother take out a HUGE Parent plus loan for a CC, **
for this year only, because, if she’s limited income, she probably won’t qualify for another loan for you when you transfer. Oh, and a LOT of the Parent Plus loans require repayment immediately, or “as you go”. That’s their rules for the money.
Or move with mom, which you don’t want to do, and talk to the FA offices in that school area and see if they will fund you for instate fees. School doesn’t officially begin in most states until August. These are CCs, so you should be able to get classes before August.

Or
Stay at your current school, without attending class, and owe money if you don’t drop. They will hold your transcript until you pay the fees, even if you don’t attend.

You do have options.

32

You can’t get a loan for $9,500 without assistance from someone else: either a parent to apply for, and get denied, a Parent Plus loan, or a qualified cosigner on a private loan.

Maybe, maybe not. Tell us what state you will be going to school in and experts her can confirm and/or clarify things for you.

No one here knows your situation because you have not been providing enough details to get the best help. You are new here. Students come here all the time and say they can’t do this or can’t do that. Very often, after some more information is provided, it turns out that “can’t” really means “don’t want to.” In other words the student could have done one or several particular things to lower their school costs (like, for instance, live with a parent to get an instate rate), but that wasn’t their first choice option so they discarded it. That’s why so many posters are coming back to the idea of you living with a parent.

You haven’t been at all receptive to the advice that has been provided. If something suggested won’t work for you, explain why. That will allow for better, more relevant suggestions in future posts.

33

Mostly off topic, but are there really CCs out there that cost 8k a semester? Holy carp.

34

MODERATOR’S NOTE
The OP has left the building. Since this thread is specific to her, I am closing.