<p>I agree with Happymom…</p>
<p>There’s a risk that your mom won’t qualify to co-sign these loans in future years. Each time she co-signs her credit score takes a hit…and she’s lowish income. </p>
<p>Do this…with your mom, contact a private loan company and find out if your mom would likely qualify and requalify and requalify and requalify (year after year), if each year she were to co-sign about $10k in loans each year. It sounds like her income is around $50k or less…if so, qualifying for that much debt may not happen.</p>
<p>Her income is around 60k, I have around 21k saved up in for college funds. Her credit score is very good. I plan to take out a stafford loan as well through FAFSA. Will I still not qualify well for those loans?</p>
<p>There’s no way to know…that’s why I think you and your mom should talk to the lender.</p>
<p>Your mom’s credit score is currently based on her current credit condition. However, after the first loan for frosh year, her credit score will go down…and then again…and then again…etc So, you need to talk to a lender to investigate how that will affect her ability to co-sign in the future.</p>
<p>However, now that I know what your college fund is like…It looks like you have $5k per year to put towards college. If you borrow 5500 in student loans (and that’s only if Brown doesn’t put loans in their FA pkgs), and you take $5k from your college fund, then it doesn’t sound like you’d have to borrow privately at all.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wasn’t originally given loans in my package at all. I had work-study. I will be working all summer and transferring my job, hopefully, to the Providence area. I can take out the Stafford loan (5500), apply around 3200 a year (it’s a plan in my state where it pays a certain amount of my credit hours from that 21k), work (1500), and my mom has also said she’d contribute to the amount left over without loans if possible. If private loans are necessary, she will co-sign, but I do not think that I will be needing a hefty amount of loans.</p>