(This is a repost from College life because I feel like it would be better suited to be posted here)
I’ve estimated that, if I do nothing, I will have about 70,000 (after capitalization of interest and such) dollars in debt after college. What can I do to decrease this? Are there any specific scholarships that you all would suggest, or internships? I have a job right now and have expressed interest in being full time this summer, and I am looking at other jobs to supplement that (because I know my current employer won’t put me at full time, but may increase my hours). Anything else I should do?
Thanks.
Have you already picked the least expensive option? If so, any possibility of graduating in 3 years by taking summer credits in addition to working? That may be extreme for some, however.
I mean, perhaps I could get some credits during summers. I kinda missed my opportunity to take college courses this summer, but I’m planning to come back home next summer and get a job and the nearest community college has classes that could work for that. However, I don’t think I could get enough credits to graduate in three years. And the career field I’d like to go into really wants internships so it would be tough to take classes sophomore and junior summer. Could the internship help pay? I know there are a lot of summer internships that offer a pretty nice payment.
And yes, my cheapest option has been taken. Surprisingly, it was a private college.
So you want to help your parents pay off their Plus loans?
I won’t need PLUS loans until junior year if my financial aid from the school is the same next year. But on top of that, my mom might not qualify for PLUS loans because she has had her identity stolen and is in default on her loans. And besides, if she was able to get one, it would really be my responsibility to pay it. She had already told me that I am getting the 10000 I have in my 529 plan (should cover 2 years of out of pocket costs) and that’s it.
Ok. I was just confused about your $70k figure since cant borrow even half that.
I just recalculated it and apparently I overestimated. After accounting for loans accruing in college, my post-college debt should be around 55-60,000 dollars. Either way, that wasn’t really my intention of posting. I was wondering if you or anyone else had any advice on decreasing debt during college.
The best way to decrease post college debt…go to a school that requires less loan debt.
I’ve already considered this and have chosen the cheapest option available to me short of community college. Not anything wrong with community college, but I don’t want to go there. That is my choice. Honestly I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but there’s no need to post blatantly obvious advice
I’m not sure what you want to hear. If you chose a college that requires loans for you to pay the costs…you will have that loan debt when you graduate.
Some students reduce their loan debt by working, and using their earnings to pay for some of what they would have needed for loans.
Any answer you get regarding reducing this loan debt is going to seem “obvious”.
And I’m not meaning to be snarky…but that is a fact.
Yeah I know. Sorry if I sounded harsh. I guess I was just anxious when I posted this. And you’re right. Everything may seem obvious because there’s nothing out of the ordinary I could do… I suppose I was looking for ways to earn money or save money that I could use. Like donating plasma or something.
But thanks for posting.
I’m confused about where you’re getting the money to borrow. YOU can only borrow about $5500/year ($27k total over 4 years). If your mom doesn’t qualify for Plus loans, where’s the other $30k+ of loans coming from?
Well…if his mom is declined for Plus, the student can take an additional $4000 a year in Direct Loans. But that still doesn’t cover the costs above.
If these are federal loans, your student loan service provider (probably Nelnet?) will have a website where you can look at your student loan balance. One approach that may help is to pay the interest on your student loan using your income from a job; this will keep the interest from being added to the principal of your loan which can save you thousands of dollars if you’re somehow borrowing $55K to $60K. Paying the interest can be more affordable than making principal payments since when you start out it will only be a few dollars.
Beyond that I’m not sure that there’s much you can do though. You already know about having a job and selling plasma, but you’re not going to get that much money from that. You can use the income from selling plasma to easily cover your early interest payments though.
Just stop worrying about that. I’ve already calculated it and I don’t want to take the time to explain how I went about calculating it, but I know I have the right figure. I’m not borrowing 55-60,000, that will be how much it is once I graduate (estimated). I’m planning to borrow about 42000 dollars, 32000 of which will be from the federal government.
Thank you @DmitriR
I will be sure to pay as much interest as I can while in college
Well, there was the infamous sugar daddy thread that got closed down last year. Are you open to unconventional and possibly morally objectionable ways to reduce debt?
As far as the sugar daddy thing goes, I’m a guy so I don’t think that’d work haha. Otherwise, it depends lol
@Madison85