Student Loan Debt?

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm looking to start college this coming fall and will have to take out student loans to pay off the costs. The problem is that each school I got into is going to cost at least $23,000 per year, and thats the price for the cheapest. I plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering, We have enough money to pay off about 1.5 years but still I'm slightly worried. What do I do from here?</p>

2

<p>Are you an international student? If you’re US student, have you file the FAFSA? See <a href=“https://fafsa.ed.gov/”>https://fafsa.ed.gov/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Yeah I’m in the US, even after all the grants and scholarships, I’m looking to pay that amount. I did not factor in the loans that are included in the FAFSA in my net cost.</p>

4

<p>

Your parents could take out Direct PLUS loans. See <a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/plus”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>I guess I’ll have to try and get internships and co-ops to help pay them off and apply for a bunch of scholarships to lower the cost of attendence the later years.</p>

6

<p>Are you saying the 23k in addition to your student Direct Loan? </p>

<p>Yes keep applying for scholarships each year. Also if you can work your way through with coops then problem solved?</p>

<p>Usually you work on affordability when you are applying. One way people save is do start with community college and transfer to the state college. Or, did you look at the automatic scholarships in the threads at the top of the forum? If you qualify for any they are guaranteed and it would be worthwhile to take a gap year and work or travel, and apply for it next year. That’s a lot better than not being able to pay to finish your program.</p>

7

<p>Are you saying you have ~34K in total savings (enough to pay ~1.5 years)? If so are your parents able/willing to pay any additional amount from income?</p>

<p>When you say you did not factor in the federal loans, do you mean you have to pay 23K per year in addition to what you will pay via loans, or that you can pay part of the 23K each year with the loans. </p>

<p>Assuming you can pay part of the 23K each year with loans, over 4 years you have ~$92K total to pay (probably somewhat more, since costs go up each year). You have ~34K in savings and a maximum of $27K you can borrow unless you have also been offered Perkins loans (and even if you were offered them this year, you might not be able to depend on them in future years). So you have 61K of your total covered if I’m understanding the situation correctly. You need to come up with another 31K over 4 years. It would be a stretch to earn that much in the summers. You probably can’t get engineering internships until you have at least 2 years of school under your belt, so you’re probably looking at a basic low-paying summer job for this summer and next at least. </p>

<p>You’re not FAR from being able to make this work, so again, can your parents contribute anything more than the money you’ve already said you have available?</p>

8

<p>With your current plan, it appears you will end up broke having spent all your cash in the first two years. Then what? You don’t have funds to continue and community colleges will have little to offer. Loans will then start coming due.</p>

<p>As pointed out above, if the parent can’t guarantee to co-sign loans then you need a new plan. If you have a community college option, you can finish you first two years and then transfer. This gives you the option to save all the money for the last two years. Student loans could cover the first two years. The downside to aid for transfers students is generally not good. Do you have a state option for the last two years?</p>

9

<p><<<<I’ve applied to all my schools and they all have Engineering as my first choice major. Here are my stats:
Asian Male in Illinois
GPA 3.7 W, 4.57 W
Class Rank: 103/980 (about)
45-50 Hours of Community Service
29 and 28 ACT composites (29 and 31 in Math, 29 and 28 in Reading, 30 and 28 in Science, 28 and 26 and 27 in English. 10 on Writing Portion)
Essay I’m still unsure about the essay I wrote since it had to do with changing my beliefs. (I didnt find it offensive).
<<<<<</p>

<p>You should apply to UAH…not too late to get a merit scholarship. Often with your stats and engg, they give enough to cover OOS costs.</p>

<p>uAH is great for engg.</p>

<p>you are trying to borrow tooo much.</p>

<p>how much can your parents pay each year?</p>

10

<p>Uah…looks like you’d get at least a 45-67% tuition scholarship. Likely more from engg.</p>

<p>does your transcript have your weighted GPA? If so, then you’d get the 67% award</p>

<p>All merit tuition scholarships are four-year awards, renewable each year based on full-time student status and satisfactory academic progress. Scholarship values represent available amounts for the academic year 2014-2015 only and are subject to change without notice. The actual award value is determined by applying award percentages to resident or non-resident tuition charges for the academic year of enrollment.</p>

<p>UAH is located in Cummings Research Park…so lots of high tech companies…lots of internships, co-ops. </p>

<p>Are you trying to go to an OOS public and pay nearly all costs?</p>

11

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<p>University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne
Purdue
Marquette
CU Boulder
University of Southern California
University of Miami
Syracuse
Case Western
Ohio State University
Georgia Tech (Deferred)
<<<,</p>

<p>which schools accepted you and what is the cost at each school?</p>

<p>what aid did you get at each school</p>

12

<p>What I meant was that the net cost of each school with only the grants given to me would put me at a range of 25-35k a year for each school. My parents can cosign the loan for the Direct PLUS and can most likely pay the full cost for 1-1.5 years without any loans. I am eligible for the Stafford and Perkins Loans according to FAFSA. We may also be able to get some extra help from other family members.
The net costs for each school that I got into (rough estimates) are:
Purdue: 35k
Marquette: 25k
CU Boulder: 31k
University of Miami:30k
Syracuse:32k
Ohio State: 29k</p>

13

<p>So this is the cost before ANY loan? You can get the student Direct loan. That will cover about 5 to 7k of those costs depending on what year you are in. But the Perkins has to be given by your college. If they didn’t put it in your package you didn’t get it–those funds are very limited. </p>

<p>So your parents would have to borrow/spend another 20-30 a year. The Direct Plus loans they have to take out are not cosigned. Those are your parents loans only and can’t be transferred to you. Only private loans can be cosigned and I don’t know if your parents would qualify and it could be more costly.</p>

<p>Do like mom2collegekids says and apply to UAH now to get a quick response, It is ABET accredited and looks like it may be much less expense for you. When are the acceptance deadlines for these other schools?</p>

<p>"UAH’s College of Engineering (COE) offers the resources of a major Public Research and Space Grant University while being located in a high tech community that Forbes has noted as one of the Top 10 Smartest Cities in the World.</p>

<p>The UAH campus is located within Cummings Research Park, the 2nd largest research park in the U.S. and home to major Fortune 500 companies. Redstone Arsenal, located near the campus, houses several U.S. Army research and development centers and the NASA- Marshall Space Flight Center."</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.uah.edu/admissions/apply/type”>http://www.uah.edu/admissions/apply/type&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>The deadlines are May 1st, so would I end up taking out private loans? I qualified for the Stafford and Perkins Loan according to the Fin. Aid package given to me.</p>

15

<p>Also when you say cannot be transferred to me, does that mean the payments are not transferred or that the loan itself cannot be used to pay for my costs? I understand that they will be responsible for the payments.</p>

16

<p>

The parents are responsible for the Direct PLUS Loans; they may use the loans on your educational expenses. See <a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/plus”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/plus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

17

<p>If you post the details of your finaid package, people will be able to help you more accurately.</p>