<p>Your mother is right. I am not against all loans, and when parents, students, the whole family works together, it can be doable. But your mother is making it VERY CLEAR, like absolutely no doubt, that she wants NO PART of this, and you should not be dragging her into the picture, especially since she does not have the resources, and dragged in she will be if you take out the kind of debt that you are considering.</p>
<p>You should read some of GWgrad’s posts. He’s living the reality that you are seeking. And he’s successful with a good job. </p>
<p>Where do you think you are going to get an additional $9K in loans anyways? Not without a qualified co signer. Not going to happen. And if you don’t have a job in the wings right now, getting one with sufficient hours to amass the kind of money you need is unlikely. What you have earned and saved in the past is the best indicator of what you will be doing in the near future, with a bump up for effort, but it takes a while to get up to the peak. Not in time to make $9K. My kids, and my cousin’s kids worked and saved all through high school and had jobs at their finger tips that they were pretty sure were good for the money. They work(ed) weekends, vacations and kept their hand in that till to ensure as much as possible that these were realistic options. </p>
<p>GW or any sleep away college for just $9K a year seems like a wonderful bargain. But really, it isn’t just $9K. How much are you borrowing already? Is there work study in that award? You do understand that though you can work on bringing down some of those COA figures, stuff happens. It always does. We, as a family have a high income and buffers, and we’ve been hit by some stuff this past year, and some other select years, and them gremlins can do a lot of damage even with allowances and contingencies in place. Your mother is so against loans because she KNOWS, she can feel it to the marrow of her bones how it feels to owe and that she can’t, absolutely CAN NOT take on anymore and is probably scared to death of what the future holds. I’m seeing this with a lot of my single friends who don’t have savings, don’t make much on the jobs, have little or no support from anyone else. </p>
<p>You are in the position to being able to help your mom through some rough times that may be coming as she crosses over from middle age to old age in a low income situation that will likely just get lower. I’m older, most likely that she is and a lot of my peers are making this transition and it’s tough. To have a child also in debt, needing help and not able to give much of a hand makes it all that much harder.</p>
<p>My son has what is considered a good job at reasonable pay at this point–in his late 20s as does his SO, and they are barely scraping by due to expenses to get to that point. Thank goodness they have no school loans. It was difficult enough without them. The SO is in a master’s program now which makes her downright broke. Can’t make much more without that degree, will get an auto bump up in pay even if she stays where she is with the degree, but got turned down by very competitive state programs two years in a row, so is now biting the bullet and paying full price private. If she had loans, it would be just insurmountable. THat she does not, makes it barely possible. She is envied by her co workers that just flat out cannot afford to do what she is doing because it costs too much and most of them have loans, some in both directions, their kids’ and theirs, yes, it happens when you take on 25 year term loans. They are worse than mortgages at that point.</p>
<p>So yes, it kills me that someone may have to walk away from a $9K a year gap. But, I reiterate, it isn’t going to be just $9K. Believe me it won’t. Most schools expect a larger student contribution each year, so I do suspect your Perkins will go up in amount; your Staffords absolutely will. Have you been allocated work study as well in your package? Because if you have, some of your time has already been conscripted to pay off the financial aid package and not usable towards your EFC. </p>
<p>I also want to address your “most people have loans”. Most people who have loans have a job or some backing to get that loan. School loans are federally backed so the standards are low to get them. If it’s regular old untethered loans you are talking about, there would be no discussion. You wouldn’t be eligible for a dime. No one is going to give an 18 year old an unsecured loan, most likely not even a secured one. No one. Try to go out there and get one, if you don’t believe me. Even with a car securing it, they’ll want a cosigner, and the interest rates would usurious, the place not so reputable that would give you a car loan and the repo man would out there to get your car within a week of a late payment with penalties up the whazooie. YOU cannot get loans on the open market. The only reason you are even allowed to take out the loans offered to you in your financial aid package is because the federal government is guaranteeing them. And in guaranteeing them, they are not dischargeable. Not till death do you part. They are more binding than the wedding vows, my dear. They will hound you, prevent you from getting jobs, apartments, cars, any loans, starting a business go after you through tax returns and even go after your social security if you can avoid them that long. And if your poor mother co signs they’ll go after her too. Like she needs that. </p>
<p>If you don’t see the evidence of the carnage from loans, you have your head in the sand. Haven’t you read about the housing bubble and foreclosures? And those folks had SECURED loans. They also had the possibility to go bankrupt. Look up the bankruptcy rolls and you’ll see the harm loans do. And these are the lucky ducks that can default. You can’t blow off the student loans because they are for life. Can’t discharge them through bankruptcy. That is why you are even being offered the option. </p>
<p>It’s highly unlikely you’ll have a job in hand at graduation, and even within the six months grace you have before having to start paying on those loans. And some of them will be unsubsidized so that the 7% meter would have been ticking from the instant they were discharged. Your unsub Staffords of $2K from freshman year alone will have cranked up about $400 in interest by then. Do the math.</p>