<p>Have any Massachusetts residents dealt with MEFA , the state agency, regarding loans?</p>
<p>Their rates are a percent or 2 below what other lenders are offering for PLUS loans, and they have lots of payment options.</p>
<p>They are available for students attending college instate, or state residents going to school out of state.</p>
<p>Any info would be appreciated. On the surface, they look like a good deal.</p>
<p>What's to wonder about? Best interest rates around; takes only a few minutes to apply and you get your acceptance in a matter of hours. I applied for both students online (individual apps required, BTW) at around 9:00 pm. Had reply next morning when I check my email before taking off for my commute. We have two students in college - an incoming freshman, and incoming junior - neither in the state university system. We have multiple income sources but with variable timing of the actual cash receipts. With the high tuition requirements, for us it is all about managing cashflow. </p>
<p>A combination of scholarships, grants, MEFA and payment plans from current income lets us send our kids to great schools and still have control over our income and savings. Our plan is to use the MEFA loans to help us manage the cashflow needs that we have now (i.e., income vs. expenses with some left over for ice cream!) and quickly repay the loans with future income sources to avoid excessive interest payments. </p>
<p>I'm a finance guy by training and practice, but, I must admit that there's something daunting about the college financing experience. Just seems to come at you from all directions. Follow MEFA's online instructions and use the budget worksheets if you have to. I also called the tuition payment plan companies for advice and those were helpful in understanding the big picture. Go for it & good luck.</p>
<p>We're not MA residents. We're on our 4th year of borrowing from MEFA for our rising MIT senior and our first year for our incoming freshman. We looked around and had a financial planner look at everything, and decided this was our best bet. No regrets (except for the amount we've had to borrow!).</p>
<p>Thanks all. It's just that sometimes, when things look too good to be true, it's because they are (too good to be true!). </p>
<p>D needs modest loans (thank God), will probably deal with MEFA.</p>
<p>Same as Over30: we're not MA residents but D is going to the best MA college and the MEFA loans are terrific. Have borrowed more than I'd like is my only complaint but we hadn't saved so I can't complain. Will probably let the MEFA loans hang on for a while while paying other stuff down, the fixed interest rate being pretty darned good if you have to carry debt.</p>
<p>AND THIS IS THE LAST YEAR FOR WHICH I HAVE TO TAKE OUT LOANS!!!</p>
<p>Any advice on whether to use MEFA or a home equity? We're MA residents, with a student going out of state.</p>
<p>The MEFA fixed-rate is lower than any Home Equity loan I'm aware of. Plus I think tapping home equity should be a later, not an earlier, option. It can be overly seducing to treat one's home as a very large piggy bank.</p>
<p>On that same line, we're also MA residents with a student heading out of state. We have enough saved to (hopefully) pay for the first two years, figured we'd have to borrow to pay for the last two since our EFC is laughably high. We were planning to use a home equity loan because it would be tax deductible for us, and I don't think we could deduct the interest on the MEFA loan (although our son probably could...) I haven't looked too far into any of this since our son just graduated hs, and I figured we'd use up all the tax-deferred for-college-only UFund money first, which should just about cover 2 years.</p>