<p>I attend DePaul University and live on-campus. I want to pay for college on my own next year. </p>
<p>How would I go about FAFSA? Can I claim as not a dependent and get more aid?
Also what kinds of loans are best to take? I'm going to need some time to pay it off so Im not sure which ones.
Would a close to minimum wage suffice during the college years if I work full-time?</p>
<p>I'm looking at about 40k per year so I need the advice.</p>
<p>Thanks all. And I don't have any scholarships though I do check FastWeb now and then.</p>
<p>one thing is for sure, if you are looking to be in as little debt as possible, then don’t live on campus. find a cheap apartment for like $300/month instead of the dorms $1000/month.</p>
<p>be a minimalist</p>
<p>and work, work, work. work during the school year and hardcore in the summer</p>
<p>if you still speculate yourself to be in too much debt, then transfer to a (much) cheaper school.</p>
<p>Stafford loans I think are what you want. They’re fixed interest rate, cover tuition and have pretty good repayment plans IIRC. You don’t start paying them back till like 6 months after graduating.</p>
<p>How many years do you have left? 120K in loans is quite a fair bit, especially for undergrad.</p>
<p>You cannot claim independent to get more aid, and you also aren’t going to get 40k in federal loans, so you will either need to qualify for significant grants or scholarships or get a cosigner for a private loan-- which is the last thing you ever want to do if you can help it. 40k per year in loans is an awful lot, think this through. If you have to pay by yourself it might be time to transfer to a cheaper school.</p>
<p>“I want to pay for college on my own next year.”</p>
<p>Would your parents have otherwise paid and you decided on your own to pay for college. If so, you might want to consider whether you want to cosign a private loan that’ll accumulate interest payable while you’re in school rather than just borrowing (maybe interest free) from your parents.</p>
<p>Well tuition and housing is about 40k but I’ll get at least 7,500 in federal aid so take it down to 32500k.</p>
<p>If I live on my own, why can’t I claim independent status on FAFSA? It’ll make the process easier for me since I won’t have to ask about parental income.</p>
<p>What about these stafford loans? Also do I need a cosigner for a private loan if I’m a full-time student with a full-time job and 20 years old? How long do I have to pay off private loans? I heard 30+ years? True? The only thing is I don’t have established credit. Where can I get a credit card now to get stated. Do I necessarily need to go to a bank? I heard CapitalOne is available for pretty much everyone. True?</p>
Because living on your own does not make you independent for financial aid purposes. If it was that easy, all 18-year-olds would move out of home a couple of months before college! To qualify as independent, you should meet one of the following criteria:</p>
<p>Be 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the award year;
Be an orphan (both parents deceased), ward of the court, or was a ward of the court until the age of 18;
Be a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States;
Be a graduate or professional student;
Be a married individual;
Have legal dependents other than a spouse;
Be a student for whom a financial aid administrator makes a documented determination of independence by reason of other unusual circumstances.</p>
<p>Go to the above link and answer the series of questions regarding the determination of dependency. </p>
<p>It takes years to build up credit. Often times, it begins with getting a credit card in your own name, making small purchases over a length of time, and paying off the monthly bill IN FULL EACH AND EVERY TIME.</p>
<p>There are many college students who “live on their own”–meaning, they work in addition to going to college and they pay for their own rent and bills. They are still not considered Independent regarding FAFSA.</p>
<p>By the way, don’t have kids just to be independent. It seems like it might be cheaper that way but the little runts will end consuming your Stafford loans in diapers and baby formula the first three months after you bring them home.</p>
<p>I agree that kids are a terribly bad idea just to get more financial aid. But what about getting married? Seems like the extra financial aid should make up for the cost and inconvenience of an uncomplicated divorce afterwards. Just wondering…</p>
<p>By getting married, you get counted as independent so yo no longer need your parents’ financial information for the FAFSA. But I’m pretty sure that you now count your spouses’ income and savings now, which might make it even worse with reduced asset protection.</p>
<p>Exactly right. And then you lose your parents health insurance too and have to find a way to pay for that, and you have all the financial implications of being married-- depending on your state your spouse’s student loans may well be your student loans now.</p>
<p>I just found out my boyfriend’s GPA dropped below eligibility for the certification program attached to his degree and now if he can’t find a way to fix it he’ll be graduating with no job qualifications-- and he’s already graduating a year late. I am really glad we decided to wait until after graduation. This is like the fifth time something has come up to surprise us that would have been much more complicated if we had been married at the time. There are definitely benefits to staying single until things are more set in stone.</p>