<p>Hi! I am currently attending Community College but plan to transfer to UCSB as an instate thru the TAG program. I have an EFC of $0 but according to UCSB's financial aid Calc the COA is total of 30,000 and thru FAFSA app I would get the tuitions/books etc total of 20,000 a year paid. The extra 10,000 is for room and board/living expenses. Would I be able to take out a Stafford loan for the 10k/yr? Or any loan for that matter? I know stafford has maximums like 7500 for a junior. How would I be able to pay for the extra 10,000 for living on campus apartments and food plan? Is financial aid and a loan different ? It's all confusing . Thank you!</p>
<p>Your direct loan is limited to $7500 as a junior. If you are short on money still, you would need to get a job or a private loan to pay. Or you family.can pay.</p>
<p>So if my grants/financial aid etc plus the 7.5k loan being a maximum id have to get other private loans? Private loans are scary to me </p>
<p>Or you have to work enough to earn enough to pay the difference.</p>
<p>
Are you saying that COA of your school is $30,000 and your financial aid award is $20,000. This $20,000 is all grants and does not include any loans; therefore, you want to borrow $7,500 in Direct Loans to cover the $10,000 gap.</p>
<p>Yes the total COA is 30,000$ and my awarded package is a total of 20,000$ . This is not loans it’s direct aid(my family is very low income). So yes I still have that 10,000$ gap that would be mainly housing /meal plan. (Darn financial aid doesn’t cover it ). </p>
<p>Are you quite sure there are no loans in the aid package already? It is fairly common for loans to be included in the award.</p>
<p>Is your family in the area and the school assumes you live with them? Otherwise UCSB should be covering your COA through Pell grant if applicable, calgrant, family contribution and student contribution which includes loan and summer earnings and work study. So the student contribution is usually 9,000 max, which would include student loan plus summer earnings. 10k isn’t that far off, so maybe that includes your family’s contribution. Yes you can take 7,500 loan if it is not in your package. If you live off campus and can get a cheaper place than the dorms and make your own food you might not need to earn any in summer to make up your living expenses. Or is your family in the area and the school assumes you live with them?</p>
<p>I live about 4 hours south from the school. On the FAFSA app I put that I would be in need for living on campus independent from parents(while still being a dependent student overall)</p>
<p>My underlying question now is are there other grants/loans available other than the 7500 stafford loan grant? (This would need to be used for housing, living expenses and food)
I don’t want privatized loans(little to no credit and no consigner) if possible (: thanks all</p>
<p>A difference of about $10,000 between what your grants cover and the cost of attendance at UCs is normal; that is usually the self-help portion of the cost, and would be covered by your loans ($7500), work study (if offered), and summer work earnings. </p>
<p>
Yes, Direct PLUS Loans for your parents. See <a href=“http://www.direct.ed.gov/parent.html”>http://www.direct.ed.gov/parent.html</a></p>
<p>You might want to call the financial aid office since they should have shown your total COA (Cost of Attendance which includes room and board) and sources of aid, including your student Direct Loan of up to 7,500. </p>
<p>Sources in addition to your loan:</p>
<p>Parent Plus, as mentioned above, this is a loan your parents can take for you (iif for some reason they are declines, you will be allowed to ake an extra 4,000)</p>
<p>Outside scholarships, it is a bit late now in the admissions cycle, but you can apply for local and national scholarships. Rotary club, Elks club, parents employer, local banks sometimes give them, and anything you find through a scholarship search.</p>
<p><<<<
I know stafford has maximums like 7500 for a junior. How would I be able to pay for the extra 10,000 for living on campus apartments and food plan?
<<<<<</p>
<p>It isn’t an extra 10,000 after you apply the 7500 loan. it is an extra (gapped) 2500.</p>
<p>can you post the details of your FA pkg?</p>
<p>It is not unreasonable to expect YOU to contribute something towards your education. the taxpayers are already being very generous to you.</p>
<p>Plan on getting a summer job and work/save as much as you can to cover what the aid + loans doesnt cover.</p>
<p>It sounds like you’ll have over $27k in aid, so you need to come up with about 2500 from a summer job. That is not asking too much.</p>
<p>How do some kids leave college with 100,000 in debt? Where do these loans come from?</p>
<p>Busybenny…those with $100,000 in loans have had parents who cosigned significant portions of those loans.</p>
<p>How do some kids leave college with 100,000 in debt? Where do these loans come from?</p>
<p>Sigh. Why do I feel like there is ENVY for those who get into these situations?</p>
<p>First of all, as others have said, the ONLY entitlement a US citizen or permanent resident who is “clean” (males registered in SS, certain drug related convictions disallows you), are the Direct student loans with the $5500/6500/7500/7500 schedule. Which means $5500 max on your own freshman year with $3500 of it subsidized if you met federal need standards and $2000 unsubsidized which means the instant the funds are disbursed, the interest at about 4% a year starts cranking which means that by the time you are required to pay, six months after graduation (or when you cease becoming a full time ug student), that little burst of sugar will have cost you about $300 in interest that you owe. </p>
<p>If a parent applies for a Direct Parent Loan (PLUS) and is turned down, a student can get $4K more freshman year, all unsubsidized, which can crank up about an additional $600 in interest. I believe that supplemental amount is on a $4k/4k/5k/5k schedule so, it is possible for a student who has a parent who repeatedly does not qualify for PLUS and is turned down each year to borrow $45K face amount, and if none of it is subsidized, you can do the interest calculations yourself. At maximum subsidized levels, there is still a significant amount of inters=est accumulating. </p>
<p>For those students going to a school that participates in Perkins loans, it is possible to get some of that money if you qualify for it. Those loans are limited in amounts, depending on colleges as they have to “pay” to get them. The interest rate is 5% but the federal government subsidizes that while in school. But you have to have need as defined by FAFSA and the school has to have the money to give and it goes fast. The maximum aggregate amount an eligible undergraduate student who has not completed two (2) academic years of coursework is $8,000. The maximum aggregate amount an eligible undergraduate student who has completed at least two (2) years of coursework and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree is $20,000. The annual maximum is subject to change, pending available funds and financial need. None of that means anything to most people because the average amount of Perkins loans given out to students by those schools that give any out is less than $2K a year. But you can see the possibilities right here.</p>
<p>On top of the above, some schools, Cornell and Wake come to mind, have a stash of their own private loan money that they will give out to students on occasion. Those terms are entirely up to the school, and I don’t know any other schools by name who do this but I’m sure there are. The sky is the limit there, as it’s the school’s own business as to what they do with their own money. </p>
<p>Then there are the private loans that require a credit worthy adult to cosign. The terms for those are usually higher interest rates than Direct Parent Loans PLUS, not the flexibility of PLUS and without the insurance protection of PLUS (loan forgiven under PLUS if either the parent or student dies), and these loans are reported equally on both parent and student credit reports and if a payment is later or there are any issues with the loans, the lender can and will go after either and both of you. You are shackled to each other by the ying yang with these loans. You get whatever the parental credit report allows for borrowing each year in terms of the maximums.</p>
<p>Also, some students might have some credit on their own and borrow on their own. Given that the average undergraduate student is in his/her mid twenties, is in school part time and is working at least part time, maybe full time, I don’t think there is any surprise that those such students might be able to borrow on their own, right? </p>
<p>I’m not even going to go into personal loans that an undergrad might take from parent, grandparent or other relative who feel they are “investing” in the kid to graduate and make the bucks to repay them. </p>
<p>So, yes, it’s very possible for undergraduates, and there are some (I know one well who owes over a quarter million at this point as the interest keeps right on churning ) who do owe over $100K. Not a situation to be envied. They literally owe as much as mortgages would be on some pretty nice houses in much of the country, without having the house in the picture. Can’t afford a house with that loan profile on their credit reports. If they need a car to work, that can be a problem too, as the loan to income ratio can look bad for those just starting out, even in high pay professions when that much money is owed. Not something to aspire to do, as too many students on this board seem to be doing.</p>
<p>I do not by any means envy them by any means, 100,000+ in debt is not a good thing lol. In my situation I will need ~30,000 over 2 years in loans but with Stafford loans capping at 7500 each year I am trying to figure out where to get the other 10-15,000$ in loans since my parents won’t do a plus loan.</p>
<p>If you need to pay $10K per year, why will you need $30K in loans over 2 years?</p>
<p>If you really only need to pay $10K each year including all indirect expenses (books, travel, personal necessities, etc.) you should be fine with just the federal loans. You should be able to earn at least $2K over the summer and another $2K throughout the school year with a part-time job. That will cover the gap between the $7500 in federal loans and the $10K total you need to come up with.</p>
<p>Will my federal loan offers be all used up in my 20k/yr financial aid offer or are those gift/grant money?</p>
<p>None of us knows that beside you. People have asked you upthread what your financial aid consisted of. You need to look at your offer and figure out if you have loans getting you down to 10K to pay, or if you have 10K to pay, most of which you can cover with your federal loans.</p>