<p>Hi! Got accepted to RPI and all, cost is just over $26k. One thing my parents are very concerned about is student loans. Specifically, they're concerned that, come my third or fourth year of college, the total amount racked up in loans might prevent me from being able to secure any other loans and I'll be forced to drop out and die old and alone.</p>
<p>Now, they get this fear from people they know who know people who have had similar situations. I've been told by plenty of people, including RPI graduates, that people will "throw money at me". So before we go meet with some financial aid representatives (a few planned this weekend), I wanted to poll some people in general. What do you think the chances of "running out" of student loans could be if I go to RPI? Family income is ~$100k.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Maybe I’m wrong but from the way to express your situation, you are not up-to-speed yet with college FA. First, we need to understand what exactly is the breakdown of the source of your support. Of the Financial Aid portion given by RPI, how much of it are loans, and what kind of loans are there? Then for the $26k cost, is your parents going to pay that for all 4 years? If not, how much are they willing to help pay? Then how are you going to pay the rest if your parents cannot cover the $26k?</p>
<p>In general, I don’t think it is true that people will throw money at you. The only thing that you can count on is the guarantee student loan called Stafford loan that is most likely already there in RPI financial aid package. Then if RPI provides you with additional loans in your package, it probably hshould be there in similar amount the following years. Now if you need more loans beyond that, you probably going to need your parents to co-sign for a loan from another financial institution. It is unlikely that anyone will throw money at you without it being backed by your parents.</p>
<p>Most important of all, you are going to have to pay all these loans back. It is important that you understand the consequence of having whatever amount of loan you are going to have after you graduate including all the loans in the financial package and all the outside loans. If your parents are in good credit standing, there is usually not a big problem getting additional loans the following years. The question then should not be whether the loans would be “running out”, the question should instead be whether it is feasible to take on that much debt.</p>
<p>About $7k is in loans from RPI, the rest is made up of grants. As for the cost, my parents won’t be able to pay much of it out-of-pocket (maybe a couple thousand). They have a pretty good credit score and we understand that they’ll probably have to co-sign for me. So for the rest of the cost, we’re going to have to turn to private loans (I’m assuming? Unless there are alternatives to cover almost $100k cumulutively).</p>
<p>The “throw money at me” bit was a bit of a joke 
I understand what loans mean as far as debt and am really not concerned with taking on the debt. I posted this thread to really just get opinions on the chance of not being able to get loans. I suppose the problem was that I didn’t give enough family information then</p>
<p>So you are saying that you are very concerned about the ability to get 100k loans but not the ability to pay it back? And do you realise that you will be paying a lot of interest while going to school. How about grad school? You will be paying interest while you are doing that too if you decide to pursue it. You can be sure that the 100k loan will quickly be 120k or more if you do that. What interest rates are we talking about here and what interest rates will you be paying 3-4 or 7-8 years from now? And don’t forget the cost will be going up and most likely your aid will not be (this is something you can talk to the FA office about).</p>
<p>So based on what you said, 7k + ~23k a year, for 4 years, which makes it about 120k, add maybe another 10k of interest and another 15k of cost increase for the 3 following years (ball park estimate), you might have 145k of loan by the time the 6 months grace period after graduation starts. </p>
<p>You asked for an opinion and I think 145k loan is really too much for a student to take on. This is one person’s opinion, I think maybe you should post this question on the Financial Aid forum, there are many more experts there that can give you more thoughts and good advices.</p>
<p>I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions as fully as possible. However, I do understand how interest works and am well aware of how much money it would cost. The reason I posted here was mostly because I was interested in what the availability of private loans could be for me.</p>
<p>I hadn’t noticed the financial aid forum (just googled for “RPI College Confidential”), so I’ll post this there as well. Thank you</p>
<p>I would say getting a loan is no guarantee, especially after you already have so much debt piling up in the 3rd and 4th year. It will depend a lot on the credit worthiness of your parents because you essentially has zero or near zero credit worthiness. Can you with your parents be rejected from a big loan during 3rd and 4th year? That is definitely a possibility. It is hard to say for sure about it here and now without knowing all the information, and many things can change overtime down the road.</p>
<p>ttparent said “And don’t forget the cost will be going up and most likely your aid will not be (this is something you can talk to the FA office about).”</p>
<p>Are you implying that we can work out some sort of deal to increase aid or freeze tuition for next 4 years if we talk to the financial aid office? - Hopeful thinking on my part I know but I had to ask.</p>
<p>I am just trying to warn the young man about the pitfalls that he will have to encounter as he goes through the school years. I don’t know but I imagine that school such as RPI, who does not give full need aid, will not increase aid and keep gaping a student more after the first year financial aid numbers and as the tuition increases every year. If you have trouble meeting these needs in the very first year, maybe talking about it with the financial aid office ahead of time, you might get some more help. I doubt it, but just maybe.</p>