<p>mmmgirl, your conditioning is right. $15K/year is too much debt. And if you need to take $15K to fill your gap now, you’re going to need to take more each year over the next 3 years to make ends meet because tuition and room and board will go up each year, and your aid (unless specifically tied to tuition, like “half tuition scholarship”) will not. Even if you only borrowed $15K per year, you’d accrue an additional $5K or more in interest before you even graduate. So you’ll graduate owing at least $65K. </p>
<p>Plug that into the loan calculator at [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Loan Payment Calculator - Finaid)</p>
<p>Assuming an average interest rate of 6.8% (the rate on unsubsidized staffords – perkins and subsidized staffords are less, private loans will be more) you’d have a monthly payment of about $750 to get it paid off over 10 years. During that time you’ll pay an additional $25K in interest. </p>
<p>How much do you think you’ll be able to make when you graduate? To be able to comfortably pay back that level of debt, it is estimated that you’d need an income of $90K according to that calculator site (although you may be able to get by on as little as $56K depending on how close to the poverty line you’re willing to live for 10 years after graduation).</p>