<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I'm trying to become totally financially independent so I can qualify for in state tuition at Arizona State University after I fulfill a few other requirements. In order to be financially independent, I can't have any co-signers on my loans. So I was curious, are there a lot of loans out there that don't need a co-signer? I'm going to need about $18,000-$20,000 in loans for my first year.</p>
<p>Are you a freshman? I don’t think so, unless you have the income/credit history they’ll require. Stafford is only $5500 for freshmen, plus another $4K if your parents are turned down for a PLUS loan. That’s an awful lot of debt for you to take on, imo. Please think about it very carefully - even at Stafford’s rates, an $80K total debt would mean payments close to $1,000/month for ten years. Where I live, that’s a house AND a car!</p>
<p>Please look through other threads about financial independence. The rules are very strict. What you think is financial independence may not be. Unless you are over 24 and/or married odds are you cannot be declared financially independent. If your parents are not willing to pay that does not count.<br>
Agree with above poster too…do not borrow that kind of money for your undergraduate degree.<br>
You need to think about other options. What about your in state schools or a community college to begin?</p>
<p>Being independent for financial aid purposes is very different from claiming yourself as an exemption on your taxes. You could make $30,000 - and have $100,000 in loans without a cosigner - and you’d still be a dependent for financial aid purposes if you can’t answer yes to any of the dependency questions.</p>
<p>I’m willing to take on the debt. It wasn’t easy making the decision, but I’m confident in myself that I will get to the career I want to be in and will be able to pay off my debt easily. Also, I’m hoping to get a student manager job with my school’s baseball team and they offer full scholarships for their top student managers in their junior and senior years. So hopefully I can get that if I can get the position this year.</p>
<p>This is not logical and seems like a house of cards. At this point, you don’t know if you can get a job with the team, much less get chosen for a scholarship from it. Do you have a plan B, in case that doesn’t pan out? Maybe you could get an RA job after freshman year that would reduce your living expenses.</p>
<p>What career are you planning? Does it require grad school? I know med, pharm, and law students that are worried about paying their loans and living comfortably! If you’re planning on grad school of any kind, it would be so much smarter to keep your undergrad loans as low as possible. Does your field have a placement rate near 100% at graduation? </p>
<p>I see from a previous post that you live in NY. Do you realize that some SUNY’s (ie. UB) would completely meet your need, probably with only a few thousand in subsidized loans needed? I know it’s not AZ, but a few more years of wind and snow could mean decades of a more comfortable life!</p>
<p>Well tuition is only about $18,000. It’s really the room and board that’s killing me, it’s a little over $10,000. I have absolutely no plans to stay on campus after the first year, which should save me a ton if I can rent an apartment with a few roommates. I can probably save about $5,000 if I do this and this also means I can go food shopping and not have to get a meal plan to save some more money. </p>
<p>I also plan on working somewhere even if I don’t get the student manager job. However, I feel comfortable that I will get the position as long as the operations coordinator of the team decides to hire someone this year. I already had an interview with him and he said that they already have 4 student managers and the amount of work for them is good, so he doesn’t know if he needs another student manager. However, he said he also doesn’t want to skip a class year without a student manager. So, he said he would inform me come the Summer, as to whether or not he’s looking to hire someone. Even if I don’t get it this year, I still have an opportunity to get it next year.</p>
<p>But if I have to get a job somewhere else, so be it. With a job, I hope I can at least contribute $5,000 a year to school so that’ll be $5,000 less of loans I need to take out. My grandfather has also offered to give me $2,000 a year for college so my breakdown currently looks like this</p>
<p>Scholarships: $6,500 a year
Money from grandfather: $2,000 a year
Food payment from my parents: About $2,000 a year
Money from job: $5,000 a year
Money i’ll have saved up before the first day of school: about $6,000</p>
<p>Total: $21,500</p>
<p>That’s also only for the first year, I’ll probably only have to pay about $27,000 after the first year since i’ll be living off campus.</p>
<p>So that means I’ll only be taking out $10,000 in loans for the first year if everything goes as planned. Yes I know you can’t assume everything is going to go as planned. But i’m willing to take out $40,000 in loans.</p>
<p>Many students borrow that much or more. I don’t recommend it, but it is your choice. I do want to caution, though, that you need to understand how the interest on your loans will affect the actual amount of money you will be paying in the end. Please make sure you check out some loan calculators so you can find out exactly how interest affects repayment. If you are deferring repayment of loans until graduation, but if you are not paying interest as it accrues, you will also be paying interest on interest. Just make sure you truly understand what you are taking on in terms of debt.</p>
<p>Yea I’m waiting for my parents to fill out my FAFSA form so I can see what my school is offering in aid and then see how much I’ll have to take out in private loans. However, I feel like the school I have chosen (Arizona State University) was really the only fit for me. It was also the only school I applied to and I already have my schedule. So I can’t really back down now unless I decide to go to a community college. But i’m really hoping I get this student manager position with the baseball team since ASU has one of the most elite baseball programs in the nation. One student manager went on to become a sports agent (the career i’m hoping to get into) and another has gone on to work up in the management department with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres. If I end up getting this job, I think the debt will totally be worth it and that’s not even considering the education I will be getting in one of the top 25 undegrad business schools (W.P. Carey). If I can get a job as a sports agent, i’ll be able to pay off the debt easily. But then again, it’s not an easy career to get into.</p>