PLUS Loans

<p>I know too many folks who qualify for a Parent’s loan when they really can’t afford to pay it back, so the second issue is probably more relevant. I also see lots of kids getting loans, some of them with high interest, and they are going to be hard pressed to repay them, if that is even possible.</p>

<p>Yes, there have been some parents here who have qualified for the first year or so, but then can’t qualify. And, there have been people who qualify but can’t afford the payments. Some students wrongly talk their parents into these loans by claiming that they (the students) will pay/help pay for those Plus loans. Most new grads cannot do that. </p>

<p>They are middle class kids who got merit within need awards. In some cases, NYU offered the best deal. But I also know far more who were terribly gapped.</p>

<p>A middle-class kid with super high stats might get a good situation with NYU because their need is much less. Their EFC’s may be in the $20k range, so with merit, grants, and student loans, it can be doable.</p>

<p>However, less than 5% of NYU students get merit money and some of their areas of study have no merit scholarships.</p>

<p>So we can’t get the PLUS loan because we don’t have a house and we don’t have over 700 credit. Wonderful.</p>

<p>That’s not automatically true, cowman. The Plus credit check is incredibly lenient, and even if you fail you automatically get more unsubsidized loans (close to $10,000 extra!) which is at a better rate than the Plus loans and more desirable in the first place.</p>

<p>It’s only an additional $4-5K/year. [FinAid</a> | Loans | Student Loans](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Student Loans - Finaid) That will get you to $9.5K in loans as a freshman. How do you intend to pay for the rest?</p>

<p>NYU told us we dont qualify</p>

<p>*The Plus credit check is incredibly lenient, and even if you fail you automatically get more unsubsidized loans (close to $10,000 extra!) *</p>

<p>NO! You only can get about $4k extra. Bedouin, do you just make this stuff up?</p>

<p>And, even if the Plus loan is lenient the first year, once a low-income parent has the first year’s loan on their record, they aren’t likely going to qualify for the following years.</p>

<p>NYU told us we dont qualify</p>

<p>It sounds like your mom doesn’t qualify either because she’s low income and/or her credit scores isn’t high (maybe she has credit card debt or something like that).</p>

<p>Don’t know where you get the $10,000 from. As Mom2 and Erin’s dad said - It is $4,000 extra for freshman/sophomore years, $5,000 for higher grades. It takes the student up to independent student level loans.</p>

<p>Do I have any other options? I really don’t want to attend UCSB.</p>

<p>No, you really don’t. What kind of FA package did you get from UCSB? If you’re instate, you probably got a good FA package.</p>

<p>Believe me, you’re better off at UCSB than at a school that will burden you and your mom with huge debt. Don’t underestimate how such debt would ruin your young adult life. When you’re 23-33, you and your mom will be soooo glad that you’re both not drowning in debt.</p>

<p>I just have the standard government loans, stafford subsidized and unsubsidized and the perkins loan.</p>

<p>I hate that school though.</p>

<p>What?</p>

<p>Isn’t your EFC low? If it is, you should have gotten more than just loans if you’re a Calif resident.</p>

<p>What is your EFC? Are you a Calif resident?</p>

<p>Where else did you get accepted?</p>

<p>Why do you hate that school?</p>

<p>My EFC is 0, so besides the loans for UCSB, everything else is paid for with the Cal Grant and other Federal Grants plus a university grant. I got accepted to UCSB, UC Davis, LMU, and NYU.</p>

<p>I just don’t like the culture and mentality of the school, it also is very weak in my planned majors (poli sci, philosophy).</p>

<p>You cannot afford NYU. You have been given a very good financial aid package at UCSB, and probably a similarly good package at UC Davis. If you did not submit a Statement of Intent to Register to either UCSB or UC Davis, you should contact one of those immediately to ask if they will still accept your enrollment. If neither of those schools is acceptable to you (and why did you apply to them if they were unacceptable?), your other option is to attend a community college and transfer after two years, though it is likely that NYU would still be out of financial reach for you and you would need to transfer to a UC or CSU. UCSB and UCD are excellent universities.</p>

<p>You cannot afford NYU.</p>

<p>I did SIR at UCSB.</p>

<p>I frankly don’t care if I can afford, I’m sure I will be able to in the future. I’m also sure that an NYU degree holds more value than a UCSB, just from the name in regards to employment (either way, I’m going to law school). NYU is a better school and has the best department in the world for my major, which will prepare me for law school. UCSB sucks at my major and would be useless to attend, I only applied because I had one more free application for the UCs.</p>

<p>

NYU will care that you cannot pay and will not allow you to attend.</p>

<p>We are a middle class family and my daughter goes to NYU. We are not rich and our daughter goes because we were able to save some money over the years and we gap our need with the parent plus loan. She will have her unsub ans sub stafford loans, cause she needs to have some skin in this. She could have gone to our flagship state school with no debt but this is what she wanted to do and we said it was ok.That is the only reason our daughter is able to attend. We will have some debt when she graduates, but she is our only daughter and we don’t really worry about it. God will provide.</p>

<p>

milkandsugar, cowman809’s parent has been turned down for the PLUS loans and he still has a $20,000 gap after the Stafford subs+unsubs and all other financial aid have been applied. Do you have a suggestion for how he should pay the $20,000 gap?</p>

<p>I don’t agree with Cowman’s logic. The UC’s are excellent schools. I don’t see how he can come up with that much more value for NYU. I know a number of kids who thought that way. My friend’s daughter is working at a coffee shop with $80 K in loans. All that talk she had about how much difference it was going to make for her to go to the college she did over her flagship has been replaced with her woes about how she is going to make the next loan payment. Now the reality of owing this money for a long, long time and having to live poorer than she did as a student has hit home. </p>

<p>Cowman, you have time to prevent such a fate.</p>

<p>alamemon,
I have no idea how cowman’s parents are going to pay.
My comments were in response to mom2college kids post</p>

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</p>

<p>I frankly don’t care if I can afford, I’m sure I will be able to in the future. I’m also sure that an NYU degree holds more value than a UCSB, just from the name in regards to employment (either way, I’m going to law school).</p>

<p>OK…now you’re just being naive. If you’re going to law school then YOU DON"T need to go to NYU at all. No one will care WHERE you went to undergrad school. Grads from UC schools can get into ANY top law school. What will count is your LSAT and your GPA, not whether the school is a UC or NYU.</p>

<p>NO, you won’t be able to afford to pay back undergrad loans AND law school loans. You’re being very naive about how much lawyers get paid during their early years. </p>

<p>You can’t afford NYU and you can’t get the loans for NYU. </p>

<p>I’m also sure that an NYU degree holds more value than a UCSB,</p>

<p>Uh…NO. Not in the least. </p>

<p>What you can do is this. Go to UCSB for 2 years, then transfer to a UC that you think is better for your major. You’ll still get your great aid and you’ll graduate from a school that you like better.</p>

<p>NYU would be the single biggest mistake of your life. I can practically guarantee it.</p>

<p>@milkandsugar…the fact that you and your daughter have chosen to take on debt to send her (your only daughter) to NYU does not affect my statement in the least. The school gives lousy aid and therefore it has to have many affluent kids and family’s who take on debt. I stand by my statement…I suspect that NYU has a lot of students from families who are either affluent or who have chosen to take on debt. Many middle class families cannot afford to take on Plus Loans for one child’s education because they have other kids to put thru college and taking on debt for the education of 2 or more kids is often not affordable.</p>

<p>*I suspect it’s a lot of affluent students whose parents can pay a lot, and some unfortunate students (and parents) who will be drowning in debt. *</p>