<p>lol thanks you all for the information. Really helpful, i cant handle 1k per month. maybe i should play with the calculator… can any 1 link the calculator link here so i can play with it?</p>
<p>[FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>http://www.finaid.org/)</p>
<p>If you are not planning to pay the interest while you are in college, make sure to add that interest to the loan amount to calculate your repayments more accurately. For instance if you are borrowing $15,000 a year for 2 years at 8% then the debt at the end of 2 years would be around 33,696 rather than 30,000 (if you are not paying the interest as you go).</p>
<p>In general, getting saddled with large loans is only worth it if you can somehow guarantee you will have an income level to pay them off. And, many of those careers require grad or professional school, which adds fuel to the fire. </p>
<p>No, it isn’t loan sharking. That interest and its calculation (and how it grows) are within fed regulations. If a $350+ payment seems tough, don’t take that loan total. That payment is the required monthly until you pay it off- the standard period is 10 years. --Just at a time when you want to live independently, maybe buy a car or travel, get married and have kids, etc. And, you can’t default or bankrupt your way out of college loan debt.</p>
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<p>You’re right, but very few people can guarantee that they’ll land a job right after school and that the pay will be high enough to afford that kind of monthly bill and that they won’t have any other expenses or problems. That requires an almost prophetic level of foresight – not something that I would really recommend risking if you’re the kind of person who thinks that the federal Stafford loan program is ‘loan sharking’. </p>
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<p>Seriously, OP, don’t do this. You deserve to be happy, right? Unless you win the lottery out of college, this kind of loan debt will smother most of your other plans. You can get the same quality of education anywhere else.</p>