<p>Hi… I was wondering if someone would be so kind to help me out with these questions.</p>
<p>EFC 3304.</p>
<p>My daughter got accepted to Penn State and needless to say the aids package was very poor. She will receive $1400 per year of a grant and was able to qualify for $3500.00 on loans. Now, we have accepted the offer and here are the questions.</p>
<p>The COA including; books, room and board is $27,000.00.</p>
<li><p>The loan she qualified for, how do we apply to that? Will the school send us an application? what will be the next step to follow on this?</p></li>
<li><p>The remainder loans, I’m a single mom, therefore, I would like to take the loans under her name and help her pay them after she graduates; where do I go to get those loans?? Apparently we did not qualify for the Perkins loan or work study… Does the school send the information and applications? If not, can some one recommend where to find these loans??? I heard the private loans carry high interest rates… When do we apply for all these loans, do we apply now??? and what about the programs where you pay the interest rates as you go along, is this the best solution??</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any and all information, suggestions, and advice will be very appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Michina - Did you file FAFSA late (after the priority deadline)? With an EFC of 3304 I would have expected her to qualify for a Perkins loan and Work Study. But they are both limited funds (the school is given $xxx dollars and once they are awarded there is no more).</p>
<p>The loan is presumably a subsidized Stafford loan? At my daughter's school she did not have to apply - just go online and sign a master promissory note. </p>
<p>To be honest the amount of debt your daughter is contemplating taking on is much too high for undergrad - 22296 in loans a year. That totals nearly $90,000 by the end of four years - and that is assuming you are paying the interest as it occurs (the subsidized - if it is subsidized - Stafford the govt pays the interest till she finishes school or drops below 1/2 time - other loans you are responsible for the interest from day 1 - at 6.8% - just grabbing a rate from the air - that would be $1278 year 1, $2500+ year 2, $3800+ year 3 and $5100+ year 4 and remember you also have to come up with your EFC each year). Please have a look at the loan calculator at finaid.org to see how much her monthly debt is going to be once she graduates and the salary recommended to be able to pay that loan.</p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator</p>
<p>Assuming you have paid the interest each year on the unsubsidized part of the loan - </p>
<p>for the debt of $90k the monthly payments with 6.8% interest rate over 10 years would be $1036 a month - for 10 years!! - with a recommended salary of $124,000.</p>
<p>If you cannot pay the interest and instead capitalize the interest (add it to the loan which means the loan increases and you are paying interest on the interest) the loan will have grown to $102,000+ by graduation. </p>
<p>Will she be earning $124k straight out of college? </p>
<p>That is just a horrible burden of debt for your daughter to be starting her working life with. However hard it may be to not go to Penn surely she has been accepted somewhere where she will not end up with such a debt? Have her think about how she pictures the 10 years of her life after she finishes those 4 years at Penn - is she thinking she might like to buy a house, a car, take nice vacations, get married and have a family maybe? $90-100k in debt will limit her options enormously. </p>
<p>Seriously please reconsider this. I just shudder to think of your or your daughter taking on such a burden.</p>
<p>Hi... THanks so much for your response.</p>
<p>We actually were one of the first ones to file the fasfa. We filed around the 15th of January. The school said they have limited funds.... I don't make much, only 42k year and that is all they were able to give her. With that, they also claimed she did not qualify for the Perkins or Work Study.</p>
<p>She got accepted to some schools in New Jersey, however, the COA was almost the same. They differ maybe 6k or 7k cheeaper per year.</p>
<p>As, I've spoken to several parents and alumni in different colleges, they have told me that once she is at the university, she will be able to qualify for different things.. such as if she becomes and RA, she will be able to stay at the dorm for free... and so forth.. We are hoping this is true... </p>
<p>WHat I need to know, is where can I go to get the loan application for the residual amounts?</p>
<p>I don't have personal experience of student/parent loans other than Perkins/Stafford. The finaid.org site has useful information on financial aid including loans
FinAid</a> | Student Loans</p>
<p>plus loans are parent loans
FinAid</a> | Loans | Parent Loans</p>
<p>Most private loans for students would require a cosigner - probably you - who will be responsible for the debt if the student is unable to pay it. Eligibility will be based on the credit rating of the student and the cosigner. </p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Loans | Private Education Loans</p>
<p>I am truly baffled as to why they would say she does not qualify for WS or Perkins. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Michina20 - as a 20 year resident of Pennsylvania - I feel quite comfortable telling you that Penn State is not worth going into that much debt.</p>
<p>If your daughter takes out "signature" or "alternative" education loans she will most likely need a cosigner. Are you willing to co-sign for her?
If not then she definitely needs to be looking at another school.</p>
<p>If she is going to school in PA then she will qualify for this program:
<a href="http://www.aessuccess.org/find_aid_for_school/alternative_loans/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.aessuccess.org/find_aid_for_school/alternative_loans/index.shtml</a></p>
<p>Please do not count on getting an RA or more scholarships etc - it is indeed more heartbreaking to have to leave a school after a year or two because of finances. It would be much better for her to stick close to home for a year or two and transfer - she then would have that all-coveted Penn State degree.</p>
<p>Perkins - don't know what the deal with that is this year. My daughter's school said they did not get any money for Perkin's loans this year.</p>
<p>Are your daughter's stats high enough that she might qualify for some merit aid? Also, what is her intended major? If she is science or engineering, there are many outside scholarships for women for which she can apply. I would definitely set up an appointment with the Financial Aid Office to discuss what they might be able to do to help you afford a Penn State education without going into such excessive debt.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input and advice.</p>
<p>To answer a few of the questions; I called the FinAid dept again today and asked them to go over the package. They've told me that even though she was in the first batch for the financial aid packages (20,000 students), they did not received the funds necessary and they are running short on aid. Kind of crazy if you asked me, given the fact that they all know how much Seniors seek the university.</p>
<p>The options I was given was to apply for the loans and seek scholarships. </p>
<p>What is Merit Award?</p>
<p>I did look into the other schools she was accepted and their tuition, which, they still believe will be increased prior to the fall semester are :</p>
<ol>
<li><p>school of choice $21,725.00 which only offer her $1400 on grant and $3500 on stafford loan this is in our State.</p></li>
<li><p>school of choice $ 22,858.00 this only gave her $3500 on stafford loans this is in our state.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>She has not decided on a major, but she applied to the school of liberal arts, which she was accepted.</p>
<p>Has anyone utilize the Parent Plus loan and if so can you provide me with some information? I would like to know if that loan could be deferred for the years she'll be in college or if I would have to start paying this right away?</p>
<p>Thanks,
Judy</p>
<p>Penn STATE, right? Yep, they are notoriously bad on financial aid. My eldest S, accepted to SHC, was going to have to borrow upwards of $18K/yr, $72,000 with no increases, for four years. We sought his high ed elsewhere.</p>
<p>CAn your D start out at a PA State college? Their tuitions are $4K-$9K - much more affordable than PSU. Perhaps a year or two at your local cc would be worthwhile as well. Besides being far cheaper ($78/credit in county), maybe she could stay at home for another year, saving the R&B as well.</p>
<p>Good luck. I don't know how PSU stays in business.</p>