Major Financial Aid Help.

Paying for College
1

<p>Hello. I really need some advice. I read this forum a lot, but need some thoughts on my particular situation. I am 21 years old and have always wanted to go to the Art Institute and study media arts & animation. About a month ago, I started pursuing the San Diego campus and have been working with an admissions advisor and a financial aid advisor. My financial situation is interesting. Since I was 17, I have worked full time, and for the past 3 years have made 12-18k, and have filed my taxes, etc. My credit, is something that I am currently working on. Its at about a 600-620. Obviously, I was concerned about a private loan. I filled out my fafsa, and since I am under 24, I need my dads tax information. He filled out "will file" on the fafsa, and I met with my advisor, and she gave me a payment plan, which I could afford during school. But that included grants and stafford loans. Let me just put it this waythat I cannot provide my parents tax information..In that case, fafsa will give me nothing.
I called my advisor to explain and she "took it to her corporate office", its been about a week and I havent heard from her. My admissions advisor told me that he is totally confident in her ability to work around this, but my question is, has anyone else here gone through this much trouble? Do you guys know of any good private lenders if my advisor can't help me? I don't really have a qualified co-signer, my grandmother has PERFECT credit but is currently not working, she is willing to help, but did used to work in loans and knows that you need an income to cosign. Its tough, Im a good kid, building credit, I pay all of my own bills, my rent, all on time. My parents dont provide anything for me, yet my education is on the line because of their irresponsibility.</p>

<p>What would you do, other than seek out other schools, I am set on this school, and am open to taking general ed at my community college. Please help!</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure what school you are talking about but will they allow you to take a class or two at a time or whatever fits your budget allowing you to continue to work? I think your idea of getting gen ed’s out of the way at a CC is a good idea.</p>

3

<p>Im not sure, thankfully I only work Fri-Mon and can still afford to pay and attend the art institute, and be considered a “f/t student”. They already extended the program out a year to fit my budget. I do need to talk to them about taking the gen-eds at a CC</p>

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<p>Wow. I would be very, very careful here. You need to understand all the details for everything you sign. </p>

<p>For instance, there are loans that don’t begin charging you interest until you graduate. Great! There are also loans that start charging interest from day one. You can pay every month while you are in school (hard to do) OR they’ll have a handy little box for you to check that will defer payment until you graduate. Sound great? Nope. What happens is that the interest from Day one until you graduate is “capitalized” or added to the principal that you owe – so you graduate owing a LOT more than just the money you borrowed. </p>

<p>Keep in mind that the fin aid officer DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU. She works for the college. It is her job to get students in the door. </p>

<p>The grants are great. That’s money you don’t have to repay. Look into work/study too. Be very, very educated about subsidized vs. unsubsidized loans. Also check with a local credit union and educate yourself about what their details means (credit unions tend to be better lenders than banks). </p>

<p>Somewhere here on CC is information on what it takes for you to be considered an “independent” – ie, where you file the FAFSA and you do not need your parent’s info. It also should be on the FAFSA website. The fin aid officer might not know or it might be more of a headache, but you should know the details and when and if it applies to you and where it is an advantage. </p>

<p>Please, please be diligent and shrewd. There are thousands of kids who have been focused on getting into college and picking out the dorm room drapes that they sign the papers that the nice loan officer prepares for them . . . and don’t realize until six months after they graduate that they owe $600 a month for student loans for the next 30 years of their life. It happens. </p>

<p>This is a variation of what has happened with home loans. Several years ago my DH and I went to a bank to figure out what kind of loan we could get to buy our first ever house. The banker (or “bankster”) said, “hey, with your credit rating and income, you can buy a house in the $XXX,XXX range”. We were stunned at how much they were willing to lend us. (Mistake #1, thinking the guy with the money is looking after you!). Thank goodness, we were older, cheaper people and we just knew that big a loan would be trouble. </p>

<p>We also had kicked around enough to avoid Mistake #2 (Not knowing that emergencies, opportunities and unexpected responsibilities pop up and they all take cash). </p>

<p>We took the smallest loan we could to get a smallish house in a decent school district. I know the bankster was disappointed. “Is this really what you want?” he asked. We were passing up on the romper room, the 3 car garage, the granite countertops . . . </p>

<p>Wow, am I so glad we passed on the mega loans. </p>

<p>Please understand, every step of the way, what you are signing and what grandma is signing. Don’t let the siren call of your artistic passions pull you both down the drain.</p>

5

<p>Samantha – </p>

<p>You’re 21 now, and if you go to the cc and do your general ed requirements and get them out of the way, could you then look at art school for your final two years. If you push it just a little so that you file your FAFSA for art school at 24, having supported yourself fully for years before that, you’d then be able to file as an independent student. </p>

<p>I would also encourage you to be open to applying to other art schools in California – if one happened to give you a better package it could really make a difference.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Well my grandma isnt signing anything yet. I havent applied for loans YET, Im not sure if she can co-sign because she doesnt work anymore, but does have stellar credit.</p>

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<p>Samantha, you sound like a hard working, industrious young woman. So a few questions:
–how can you work ft and also go to schooll ft?
–how much are you planning to borrow?
–have you taken a hard look at job placement and salaries from this school?</p>

<p>There are many for profit schools that mislead young people, get them to borrow large sums and don’t produce marketable skills. Please be careful. </p>

<p>Consider starting at a CC taking only as many classes as you can excel in. Then you can consider transfer to schools like USC or UCLA with top programs in your field that are much more likely to yield you a job in this extremely competitive field.</p>

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<p>I second Olymom’s advice about being very, very cautious about the financial aid “advisor” at the art school. This school is a private, FOR PROFIT school, unlike most other schools mentioned on CC. They’re paid to get more students signed up, not to help you figure out if you can really afford to attend and pay back the loans; in fact, there have been numerous problems with students getting far more loans than they are ever likely to be able to pay back with the for profit colleges. Their average grant is only $1593, which is really, really low considering their cost of attendance.</p>

9

<p>Currently, I work two jobs. Obviously I would have to cut back with school. The art institute could fit my 4-5 classes into Tues-Thu. While in school, I can work Fri, Sat, Mon at the boutique that I manage and continue to work in apartment leasing on Sundays. Yes, I would be busy, but I have to continue working. I also live with my boyfriend who would help more with rent, bills, etc while in school.</p>

<p>I really DONT want to go to a community college. The program at AI is focused and I am the type of person that excels in a smaller enviornment. I want to specialize in animation/media arts and my boyfriend is a project leader at a 3d company. He hires tons of students from this school who are on their 3rd/4th industry job. Its great, if you excel, it pays off here. What I did mean was that I could take just the gen ed requirements for the program at a CC WHILE at the AI. I may have to do that to cut costs.</p>

10

<p>I believe what the financial aid advisor is doing is trying to help me appeal dependency, she is helping me find a way to attend without fully taking out a private loan, yet I am pretty much denied the fafsa because I cannot get any tax information from my dad. its so complicated. I have read online that sometimes schools can offer unsubsidized loans. Not sure…</p>

11

<p>I think we’ve been told that for next year, kids can file FAFSA w/o parental info to get unsub Staffords.</p>

<p>The student needs to go to a CC for 2 years, then when old enough, do what is needed to get the 4 year degree as an independent.</p>

<p>However, even when the student is 24 and independent, she shouldn’t borrow too much. I think there are some Calif public options.</p>

12

<p>^^^yes, but apparently the parent has to document that they refuse to provide the FAFSA data for that to work. So if you have a parent who is just being awkward it ends up not being helpful at all.</p>

13

<p>Ok… I got my dad to fill out the fafsa but he refuses to provide a tax return, same thing??</p>

14

<p>It’s much more complicated than that to get the unsub loan … the parent has to sign something stating that he refuses to help the student financially in any way, including but not limited to insurance (health, auto), a place to stay, and any & all financial assistance. This must be done each year. The DofE has been VERY explicit in its instructions that there must be documentation of the parent’s refusal to support, complete with parent signature.</p>

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<p>Also … the student is only going to get the sub & unsub loans up to the annual max for year in school. The student income here is most likely going to be too high for any federal grants if they somehow grant a dependency override (which they should not do, given the info presented here … the reasons fall into the category of “when you may NOT grant a dependency override” … unless there is more to the story than dad simply not giving the kid the info).</p>