<p>I have absolutely fallen in love with a private school and know that it is the place for me. However, I am not getting the financial aid that I wanted. After the merit scholarship, my parents help, and work study/stafford loans I still have about 15K that I need to cover. The only option, it seems, is to take a loan. I have heard so many scary things about taking such a large amount of money in loans, whether it be the Parent PLUS loan or a private loan. </p>
<p>Is it worth it, to take such a big loan for my undergraduate education? I do have another option, a fairly reputable public school that is giving me a pretty big scholarship so I would not need to take a loan or do work study. However I do not love the school and can't pursue everything that I want there. I am so conflicted and wondered if anyone else is in this situation or if anyone has any advice as to what I should do?</p>
<p>Run the numbers here [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) to compare your aid offers.</p>
<p>You can only borrow the Stafford Loan maximums on your own, ($5,500 freshman, $6,500 sophomore, $7,500 junior, $7,500 senior) so if you need more than that you will have to find a co-signer or someone who will take out PLUS loans. Are your parents up for borrowing about 60k so you can attend your dream school? I sure wouldn’t be.</p>
<p>It looks like that public U is your best bet. Even at your dream school there would likely be some things that you couldn’t pursue, so put that issue out of your mind. If you truly dislike the public U that is another story. In that case, take a gap year and work up a new list that includes places that you do like that are affordable.</p>
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<p>No. Furthermore, you don’t even know if your parents will qualify for those loans. You cannot take out nearly that much in loans so it will be your parents either taking them out or cosigning. That is a very heavy burden and not worth it.</p>
<p>This is something you need to discuss with your parents as they are the ones that will be on the hook for the loan even if you take one out since you will certainly need a guarantor. Such loans, effectively have two people on the hook and even if one of you dies, the other is still stuck. If you can’t pay, your parents will be hit up. </p>
<p>But it is a family decision. We gave our son a figure in terms of what we were willing to pay, and that included what we were willing to borrow to come up with that amount per year. So no loans or cosigning of loans. The rest would have to come from his savings, earnings and his own loans which would be limited to the Staffords. I’d explain that to him, if he had come to me and wanted me to co sign some loans.</p>