School-Related Expenses Not Covered By Total Award

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I am a junior at Pepperdine U and have a question regarding extra expenses not covered by total financial eligibility. </p>

<p>Overall, I have an outstanding financial aid package - 100% total need met, with 70% in grants/scholarships. However, I will likely need to buy a laptop this fall and obviously, this expense is not included in my total award. I can't afford one right now (and neither can my parents; they're poor) and was wondering if there are sensible loans for expenses like these. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any experience with loans outside of one's total eligibility index? </p>

<p>Any information/insight would be helpful. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Could you rent a computer?</p>

<p>If you do not need a loan, I would stay far away from getting one.</p>

3

<p>Let me preface this by saying that as I’ve gotten older, I come to the conclusion that the worst 4 letter word in the English language is “debt.” Debt is not only physically, but mentally draining as well, even more so when you’re taking on debt for unnecessary items.</p>

<p>So the first thing you should ask yourself is do you really need a new computer, or do you just want a new computer. Is your computer broken and beyond repair? Does Pepperdine have computers, for example, in their library that you could use? Let me ask this another way, do you really need a new computer and the debt?</p>

4

<p>Laptops are getting cheaper all the time. (I'm hoping to be able to get one myself in a year or so.) Could you work part-time to earn the money for it? Or if you are already working, increase your hours just until you earn enough? I think that would be better than taking out another loan.</p>

5

<p>Well, when I entered as a business major, I knew full well we were required to have a laptop, but I decided to get a desktop instead because I like desktops better and I knew they stocked laptops in most of the business division's classrooms. Well, I got an email saying they retired all the division's laptops and students would be required to bring their own. </p>

<p>I think I'm going to ask some friends if I can borrow theirs for the course, since this is the last division course I'm that requires a laptop. </p>

<p>But yeah, a good part of me kind of wanted some new electronic gadgetry. I think I'll wait awhile until I get one. Maybe if I go to b-school....</p>

6

<p>consider talking to someone in the department and ask what happened to the retired laptop -- maybe one is available.</p>