Grants are not paid back. It’s “free money”. Another word is “scholarship”, although grants typically represent financial need (you get them because you have financial need) and scholarships typically represent an prize for your academics or talent (you get them because of test scores, of musical ability…)
Federal loans can also be adjusted if you earn 75K after college so that your payments aren’t too high. No such convenience with private loans. Also, federal loans are partially subsidized.
I can’t believe that bank agent took advantage of you and your mom like that. It’s horrible. Well, I can believe it since a law had to be passed to stop the practice wrt retirement funds, but it makes me very angry on your behalf and against that bank person. It’s just not right to take advantage of lower-income, first gen families.
@MYOS1634 Yeah, I had a meeting with my financial advisor at my campus and she really helped me get back on track. We were looking back at past years, and I did receive some federal loans in the past but it didn’t cover all my tuition. I also stopped getting grants because my mom’s income went up slightly the one year and it pushed me out of range for grants.
But she advised me that going forward, since my parents aren’t living together anymore and I only live with my mom, I only have to include my mom’s information on the 2017-2018 FAFSA, which could help me get more aid since I won’t be reporting my dad’s info.
And she also informed me about federal repayment plans and adjustments, etc.
Unfortunately, I’m still going to owe around $100,000 by the time I graduate (combination of federal and private loans), but that’s just the way it’s going to be. There’s no other way for me to enter the career field I want to, so I’ll just have to be confident that I’ll get good jobs that allow me to pay it off relatively quickly.
There has to be a better way. You’ll be in your 40’s by the time you’ve paid $100,000 back.
Yes, that’s true, if your parents separated, only your mother’s income will count for FAFSA hence for Pell grants and getting subsidized loans.
Can you do a year’s worth of poli sci credits at your local cc? If you’ve only had one year of that major, the lower level courses might be able to be completed there.
You can evaluate which classes would transfer by using this
https://www.admissions.psu.edu/my_admissions/tas/steps.cfm?p=pr
@MYOS1634 I don’t qualify for Pell Grants because my parents’ income isn’t low enough.
It’s possible I could take 1 or 2 classes at my local CC but that’s it; I’ll be moving into intermediate courses soon.
I don’t understand why people are balking at the cost…yeah, it’s terrible, but how else do people do it? I know many people who, in their 30s, had no college debt. These people either didn’t attend college or just had average success in life.
Coincidentally, all the extremely successful people I have known, and those who work in very critical and important fields in life, were still paying back college debt in their late 30s or 40s. It seems to just be a harsh and unfortunate reality in order to excel in a really good career field.
It doesn’t have to be from a community college, could be from a 4-year colère nearby. It’s just that cc would be cheaper. But indeed there may not be many classes for you to take there. Look at RAP s from Penn state, use the transfer tool to see classes that’d carry not just credit but also exact course replacement, and make sure you take classes that count .
And perhaps it won’t be $100,000…I just finished the 2017-2018 FAFSA with only entering my Mom’s financial info, which hopefully will yield me more aid for next school than so far. My tuition is around $7,000/semester, and if I receive a $2,000 grant (which I did in the past once), that cuts some off.
Could be around $75,000 by the time I graduate, with a bachelor’s of course.
However, I also need to move away from home and live in University Park main campus, which means I will have to pay for some sort of living arrangement, which sucks.