<p>Disclaimer: I honestly just want to know if it is possible and/or how hard it would be. I know it's not recommended, but...</p>
<p>I've been thinking of getting a private student loan... using it for school tuition, room & board along with travel expenses (a car).</p>
<p>I've been thinking of a new 2012 or 2013 car, $15-$22000, but I'm not opposed to buying a used car as long as the mileage is comparable to a newer car.</p>
<p>I do currently have a car, however there are many things wrong with it. I don't have turn signals, the RPM's go crazy on the highway, there's something wrong with the ball-bearings, it rattles and clangs all the time and it's even rusting through. I get about 15 MPG. It's a 1993 Mercury Cougar XR7 that my dad bought for $300 from a man in a nearby retirement community.</p>
<p>In any case, I don't have a job or credit to get a regular car loan not that I would be able to afford the loan even if I did. But right now I especially need a car to get back and forth to school everyday (30 minutes each way) and in a year I'll be at school in Mississippi and with no public transportation there, it is cheaper to drive than fly. (I live in MD).</p>
<p>I need something that gets good gas mileage and that will last (at least) until I'm out of school and have a steady job.</p>
<p>What I'm not sure about is if you can get enough in loan money to do something like that. I would be getting the loan to pay for school as a whole, it wouldn't just be for the car.</p>
<p>Which is why I've come here... so, is it possible to buy a car using student loan money?</p>
<p>Also... One thing I don't know is if I get a loan for my community college (where I am now) now (which is what my mom has suggested I do if writing the expense off as a transportation cost since I'm driving to school M-F) if I'll have to start paying it off when I transfer. I'll still be in school, but I'll be at a different school and I've heard that lenders look at transferring as leaving school and they start your payback period then.</p>
<p>To get a loan for $20,000 or so, you will need a cosigner. You will not be able to secure a loan for that amount in your name only. Will one of your parents cosign a loan for you…so that you can buy a car? If not, you won’t be able to do this.</p>
<p>you will not be able to get a student loan that exceeds the cost of attendance (remember the check is made out to you and the school). Why don’t your parents pay for you to get a car or cosign for a car loan?</p>
<p>Your total aid including any scholarships, grants, federal loans, and private loans, cannot exceed the cost of attendance at your school. You may have a little left over after paying direct expenses, but certainly enough to cover the cost of a $15-20k car.</p>
<p>No, transferring will not mean you have to start paying your current loans back. As long as you are enrolled half time in school, you can continue to defer your loan payments.</p>
<p>Aren’t student loans at a higher interest rate than what the dealers are offering? Why would you want to start out with a double debt? It’s gonna cost you a lot to go to a university. Get a used car with a good history/reputation: Toyota, Honda, Hyundai. Credit unions can usually help.</p>
<p>It will probably be my grandmother who co-signs due to my mom being in a debt settlement program, but…</p>
<p>Sybbie719: Because neither my mom or I have credit to get a car loan. Not to mention neither of use have money right now to start paying for a car loan. </p>
<p>Aunt Bea: Because I don’t have a job, and therefore would not be able to get a loan.</p>
<p>I currently get no aid for my CC. Didn’t apply last year and missed the deadline this year. I’m trying to get aid (so I can pay for next semester since this semester is paid for) but my step-father has yet to write the school a letter “explaining the reported child support paid and where the children were living when child support was paid” about the child support he pays for his kids (who live with their mom) every month. </p>
<p>I pay $330 per credit hour+books+$70 in gas (every two weeks-I have a 13 miles commute each way that has no public transport until about 5 miles away from the school). I usually take 12-14 credits per semester. According to FAFSA I should get about $2100 from Pell grant and $6,500 from Stafford loan.</p>
<p>I go to Montgomery College in Montgomery County, MD. </p>
<p>I was wrong… -sigh- it’s $174 (with fees) per credit hour, $438 per 3-hour course (I had been looking at the tuition cost for 3 hour class without fees when writing before). Sorry. It comes to about $2100 without books. However that is the in-county rate. The in-state rate is $289/credit hour and the non-resident rate is $383/credit hour.</p>
<p>I hope to… I need it to be able to pay for Spring semester… all the money that I had saved in education bonds has basically run out, so… </p>
<p>Is your stepfather the only person in the family who is working?</p>
<p>Why are you looking to attend school in Mississippi? If you are pell eligible, it is highly unlikely that attending school with out major merit money (again highly unlikely) is going to make this a financially feasible option. Why are you not considering attending school in MD, at least where you can get in-state tuition rates?</p>
<p>My step-father doesn’t have an actual “job” (he does odd and end, paid under the table plumbing/home improvement jobs). My mom is in accounting and gets about $60,000/year. </p>
<p>I’m going to Mississippi because I want to go warm, I need to go to a school with an accredited coordinated nutrition/dietetics program and I don’t want to go about $25,000/year (tuition, room, board and other miscellaneous things) for school and I found that in Mississippi. </p>
<p>The only school in MD with a coordinated nutrition program is Johns Hopkins which is $45,000/year just for tuition. UMD does have an accredited degree program (to be a R.D. you have to have bachelors from accredited program along with an internship which is what the coordinated program gives), but I really want to live on campus, and I live too close to UMD to pay an extra $10,000/year to live on campus. It costs the same to go out-of-state (where I want to go) as it would to do the same exact thing (live on campus) in-state.</p>
<p>Obviously you have only provided minimal details concerning your financial situation, but it sounds like it would be foolish to consider buying a new car. A new car would lose roughly 20% of its value as soon as you drive it off the lot. I know it is discouraging and frustrating owning an older car (I drive a 14-year old car with 170k miles), but this is far cheaper than being in debt.</p>
<p>$15-22k is a huge amount for someone with no job. Remember that interest accrues from the time you receive the money, not when you start paying it back. Even worse, student loans cannot be discharged in bankrupcy like a car loan can. Please reconsider your options: maybe live at home? maybe work part-time while going to school part-time? maybe work and save for a year to accumulate a nest egg?</p>
<p>Sybbie719: No my parents are not in a position to pay for college in Mississippi (they aren’t even in a position to pay for college in-state living at home). </p>
<p>My step-father’s earning were recorded on my FAFSA. </p>
<p>I have 3 younger siblings, but none who attend undergrad. </p>
<p>I was afraid I wouldn’t be eligible… since combined they made about $75,000 in 2011. But my mom has a good $60,000 in credit card debt, along with a mortgage on a $235,000 house she bought 3 years ago and another $30,000 401(k) loan debt. She can barely afford to pay the mortgage, much less feed everyone and/or do anything else. </p>
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<p>Rmldad: At this point, I’d be okay with an older car. Just not the one I have because with everything that’s gone bad in it the past few months, I am convinced that it will crap out by mid-2013 and I’ll have to get a new-to-me car anyway. The cougar I have is 20 years old with about 90,000 miles on it (the tripometer stopped working after I got it… it’s stopped on 86,546)… it gets 15 MPG city. </p>
<p>I’ll try to reconsider, but I really have to be full-time. I need to get school done and over with… mainly for my own sanity.</p>
<p>And I just realized (after looking over my fafsa stuff for 2011-2012) that my mom made $54,929 last year. I have an EFC of 03468, which is why it told me that I could be eligible for $2100 in pell grant money.</p>
<p>However, most of this will not be taken into consideration as far as financial aid is concerned. The FAFSA does not look at your primary home nor does it look at debt.</p>
<p>Step-father was paid $15,688. Paid $10,000 in child support.</p>
<p>That sounds fishy. When a man’s income goes down, CS is decreased. </p>
<p>The EFC still doesn’t sound right. </p>
<p>Is your mom receiving child support for you and those younger kids? If not, why not?</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking of getting a private student loan… using it for school tuition, room & board along with travel expenses (a car).</p>
<p>The problem is that “travel expenses” will only be estimated to be about 1000 on the COA…not enough to buy a car. If you were approved for a student loan (with a cosigner), the amount that you’d be allowed to borrow would be the cost of the school MINUS and Pell, Stafford or other aid the school gives you. No money for a car. </p>
<p>The fact that your family has so much debt suggests to me that you’re not being taught good money management…hence your idea of borrowing a lot of money for school AND a car.</p>
<p>You need to find a public that you can commute to.</p>