<p>I am a student stuck with a high EFC, and half the bill of college (room and board), and am currently reviewing my options as far as private student loans; I plan to use the $5,500 ($6,500?) Unsubsidized Federal Direct Loan , but that leaves a 5-6,000 gap between federal loan offerings and my actual costs.</p>
<p>My parents are not able to cosign on a private loan due to unwillingness/being maxed-out, and I have no credit history; with these two limitations are there any private loans available to me for ~$6000 per year? (I am a junior transfer, so I will only be at the institution for 4-5 semesters)</p>
<p>$5500 for freshman year, $6500 for sophomore year, $7500 for junior and senior years.</p>
<p>I don't think you can get a private loan without either your own credit history or a cosigner with credit history. Is there some other adult besides your parents who would be willing to cosign? The cosigner doesn't even have to be a relative. With some lenders, the cosigner can be removed from the loan after three (or so) years of on-time payments by you.</p>
<p>You could also consider a social networking-based facilitator of microloans such as GreenNote. You would have to come up with a list of friends, relatives, or well-wishers who might be willing to lend a small amount, say $100. Then the microloans get bundled into one big loan and the company does the paperwork with your school. But you'd need a lot of these small lenders to add up to the $6k you need.</p>
<p>Hm, my financial aid offers lists $2750 per semester for "FED.DIR.LOAN-UNSUB1," which is the Unsubsidized Federal Direct Loan I am referring to above. Is this the same at the Stafford loan?</p>
<p>And unfortunately, no, I have no one else willing or able to; my parents view cosigning as taking away money they may need to borrow in the future, and I am making little headway convincing them to assist in that regard.</p>
<p>I called my university's financial aid office, and the representative said that the unsubsidized federal direct loan had been raised to $7500 only for the *combined *amount allowed by adding together the subsidized version (which is need based) and the non-need unsubsidized version, and she continued to say that due to the size of my EFC, I did not qualify for the subsidized versions (which I already knew), and will only be able to take out $5500 in unsubsidized loans since I could not combine it with the subsidized version.</p>
<p>Is this information correct? She did not know of the recent increases to the loan before I mentioned how recent the changes were, leading her to check, so I am unsure if I should take what she said to heart.</p>
<p>have you already accounted for money that can be earned through a summer job and work-study?</p>
<p>As far as I know, you won't have any luck getting a private loan with no credit history and no co-signer -- they are getting tougher about their lending practices.</p>
<p>I have not accounted for the money I will make this summer, that will most likely bridge most of the gap (that and selling my car, haha).</p>
<p>Secondly, Berkeley only offers work-study based on need, as I understand it. I still need to look into it a bit closer, though.</p>
<p>Yes, the FED.DIR.LOAN-UNSUB1 is one kind of Stafford loan.</p>
<p>From everything I've read, the representative you spoke to was wrong. You can get a base amount of $5500 for juniors and seniors (which might be subsidized or unsubsidized depending on your need), plus now an extra $2000 which is always unsubsidized. Have the representative look for information on HR 5715, signed in May. The NASFAA site (<a href="http://www.nasfaa.org%5B/url%5D">www.nasfaa.org</a>) which is for financial aid administrators has details.</p>
<p>Would your parents be eligible for a Parent PLUS loan if they applied? Even though they don't want to borrow, if they applied and were turned down (because of poor credit or something like that), it would allow you to borrow an extra $4000 in your Stafford loan. I wonder if you could persuade your parents to apply for a federal PLUS loan, with the agreement that if they were approved they wouldn't actually sign the papers to take out the loan; they would just decline it.</p>
<p>Even if you aren't awarded a work-study job at Berkeley (you're right, you won't get one if you don't have enough demonstrated need), you can still get a job. Look here for non work-study jobs: career.berkeley.edu/Jobs/CalJobs.stm</p>
<p>Oops, that same recent bill also changed the extra amount you're able to borrow if your parents are turned down for a PLUS loan from $4000 to $6000. So if they are ineligible for a PLUS loan, then I think you're set. If they applied and were approved, then it's back to the drawing board, if the $7500 Stafford isn't enough.</p>
<p>Editing again - never mind. It's only one extra $2000. So if you take the extra $2k in your own Stafford, then you dont' get a second extra $2k because of a turned-down Parent PLUS, just the regular $4k. Sorry for the confusion.</p>