I am deathly afraid, my story may sound familiar but please hear me out. Last spring i applied to a university without any prior knowledge, really my parent all the way in africa forced me into it. I should mention that i am a citizen so i did get fin aid, but not enough to cover the 30k a semester (i had been told otherwise). I finished the semester on a high note but with a huge debt of about 20k and have no means of paying. No help from any family and receiving constant e mails from the school. I am not interested in getting the transcript and i know other school require them. I would like to know what’s more than likely to happen if i do not pay
You will be unable to apply to any other US college.
I had that figured out, i am more concerned about the debt
You should post this in the financial aid forum. I am really sorry that you are in this scary situation. It’s sad that you were badly advised. If you don’t pay, you are defaulting,your credit is ruined, etc… Not a good situation. You need to stop burying your head in the sand. This problem won’t disappear. Go to the school’s financial aid office, sit down with a counselor, start working out a repayment plan. Maybe there will be some loan forgiveness or soemthing, I really am not knowledgable about it. You can’t ignore this. You have to have transcripts if you are going to ever transfer to another college. Your records are all computerized and any college you try to apply to will discover immediately. You will feel better if you confront the problem. Good luck.
Moving to the FA forum
You need to get a job, and work out a payment arrangement with them. What kind of school is this, that you were able to finish the semester with an outstanding bill?
It depends on who issued the loans. You did not get $20k in loans from the federal government for one semester. If it was from the school directly, whether they sue you is up to them. The Stafford loan servicers have become more likely to start collections immediately. Private lenders will come after you.
You need to get control over each loan and how much you are to pay back each month. There are deferral programs, modified payment programs and you should look into them.
i did not receive loans from them, the amount is simply the balance i owe for that semester
You owe your college $20,000? How were you NOT just dropped from classes when you didn’t pay your bill.
The college could send you to collections…interest will accumulate on what you owe them.
if you stay in the US the college will come after you, so I suggest you contact them- arrange a payment schedule and get a job. you will be unable to take classes from any other US college until that is paid off.
i received my financial aid package after the deadline to drop classes because of some weird delays. so i didn’t know to drop out immediately.
I’m assuming this was a fo r profit school? Contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and see if they can help you. They have a very fine student loan group.
Contact the school. Where is the financial aid you received.?
You really need a lawyer. See if anyone from the Legal Aid Society in your area can help you.
A lawyer for what? The student OWES this money. What is a lawyer going to do?
The student can and should work out a payment plan with the college.
A lawyer might help the young person minimize future damages from parties who want to sue him/her for the money. A lawyer will advise the student of his/her rights. I stand by my advice for the young person to seek a lawyer (Legal Aid should be free or low cost). Why would a young person with no experience want to negotiate with a college that has lots of experience (and lawyers)?
Really? I’m pretty sure that all a lawyer will do is tell him he needs to contact the school asap and set up a payment plan. It’s not a negotiation, the student will need to pay ALL the money owed. If anything the school might be less sympathetic if the student brings in a lawyer and simply turn the bill over to a collection agency and be done with it.
I don’t believe this is a negotiation with a lawyer…at all.
A lawyer will also want to be paid.
i understand all inputs, i should also mention that i’m 17 so i have to wait till legal age to receive credit card to put a payment plan on. Either way i’m sure to be billed for life for attending one semester and receiving no transcript