<p>Try CampusDoor.com</p>
<p>They approved me and now I can attend NYU. I am so excited. I know, I'll be in debt but for me, it's worth it. </p>
<p>Also, on the same topic, does anyone have any experience with CampusDoor? I researched their terms, etc and I liked everything I read. Plus, they have been very helpful but I was wondering if anyone had any other experience.</p>
<p>Ashley, make sure to have some adults with loan or banking experience read the loan documents before you sign them. When one bank does something most do not, they usually exact a big price. Maybe considerably higher interest? Have you calculated what your monthly payment will be following graduation and compared that number to an expected monthly salary? I know a lot of young people find that what seems worth it now translates into making it very difficult to live decently following college.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. I have read through and while the interest rate is higher than some (7%), it is managable. </p>
<p>I know it may be a burden on me in the future but this is what I want and if I can find some way to finance it, I am prepared to do it.</p>
<p>loan shark loan shark</p>
<p>hungry hungry loan shark</p>
<p>loan shark loan shark</p>
<p>eat 'em up</p>
<p>yum!</p>
<p>Ashley, I went to that site, and 7% is NOT the interest rate -- that is the loan FEE. The interest rate is prime + 1% - meaning it is a variable rate that can go up as rates go up. Here is info taken directly from the web site:
[quote]
Loan Fees The Campus Door undergraduate loan fee is 7 percent. This fee is deducted directly from the approved loan amount prior to disbursement. Note: The fee may be added to the total loan amount, if preferred, so that the disbursement amount equals the total loan amount approved.</p>
<p>Interest Rate The interest rate charged on a Campus Door loan is the Prime Rate + 1 percent.</p>
<p>Rate Adjustment The Campus Door interest rate is variable and is adjusted quarterly from the date of disbursement until the loan is paid in full.</p>
<p>Repayment Deferment Undergraduate loans may be deferred for 12 months after graduation or 6 months after the student is no longer enrolled on at least a half-time basis. Interest continues to accrue during this period.
[/quote]
Here is what this means. Let's say that you borrow $20,000. You pay an immediate 7% fee - which is $1400, added to your loan. Now you owe $21,400. Even though payment is deferred, you are being charged interest on the full amount. Your interest is prime rate + 1% -- since the prime rate is currently 8%, that means interest starts at 9%. (See <a href="http://www.wsjprimerate.us/wall_street_journal_prime_rate_history.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.wsjprimerate.us/wall_street_journal_prime_rate_history.htm</a> for a quick overview of prime rate--you'll notice that it keeps on going up, so you can expect your student loan to do the same). </p>
<p>The interest during the first quarter on your loan is 9%- that means the first month with an outstanding balance of $21,400 you will accrue about $161 in interest charges [(21 400 * .09) / 12 = 160.5] Since payment is deferred, that $161 gets added to your loan. The next month, the interest is charged on both the principal and accrued interest -- so the charge is more like $162. </p>
<p>Please: do not sign any loan papers without having a knowledgeable adult go over these with you and explain what you are signing. </p>
<p>I know that you really want to attend NYU, but if this is your first year and you have to borrow most of the costs of attendance, this is going to destroy you. The only saving grace is that CampusDoor won't lend you more than $120,000 -- so that is the maximum you can end up owing. But you are going to end up paying 3 or more times as much as you borrow in combined payments and finance chargees, and you will be paying off the loan for a long time to come. This is financial suicide.</p>
<p>Thank you. </p>
<p>I understand that borrowing this much is never advised. However, I know that I will be able to pay them off in the future based on my degree. I know most will discourage such borrowing but I there is nothing I want more than to attend nyu. And next year, when I can get a lower interest rate and my credit it built up a little more, I will go with a different lender. </p>
<p>The lowest interest rate I've seen for student loans has been 6.75-7% so while 9% is a good amount more but it isn't, for me, worth giving up the only thing I have ever wanted. </p>
<p>I'm also not borrowing COA. I'm borrowing 20,000. It will be 80,000 when I graduate.</p>
<p>I've thought about this a lot. I have gone back and fourth and back and fourth and when it comes down to it, I have worked my entire life for this. Next year, I'll apply for loans with a lower interest rate. I am also paying for the loan while I am in school because I recieve s.s money from my father who passed away. I know many people who have taken out loans for college and I know some regret it but most I have talked to, don't. </p>
<p>Plus, the state school (OSU) would require me to take out about the same amount with all expenses (20,000) because thanks to s.s. money that is used to take care of me (my mom makes hardly anything) I get close to no fin. aid.</p>
<p>
[quote]
However, I know that I will be able to pay them off in the future based on my degree.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I constantly shake my head when young person makes this statement because it is so far from the truth.l</p>
<p>At best case, even if you only owed 80,000 (which would just be the principal not any interest that would be accruing over the next 4 years) at the current rate of 9% it is going to cost you $1013.41 cents a month (minimum) for the next 10 years to pay off this debt. This does not count other loans in your noame (stafford, perkins, etc).</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am also paying for the loan while I am in school because I recieve s.s money from my father who passed away.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I hope that you understand that once you turn 18 your mother will no longer be collecting s.s. benefits for you. If you are counting this money as a source of income, you will not have it long.</p>
<p>Momwaitngfornew has an excellent scenario which should be required reading.</p>
<p>
[quote]
First, debt: you say that you will live at home, make $30-50,000 and have that loan paid off in no time. Both of you think that's not a horrible amount of debt.</p>
<p>Let's assume you get a job at $40,000, right in the middle of Lecorbeau's projections. (This is a more likely salary for an econ major than one in creative writing.) </p>
<p>Have you accounted for taxes, health care benefits, social security? You'll probably end up taking home $25,000 after all that. Still sounds like a lot of money? You'll need transportation to and from work. That'll take a chunk. Meals while you are at work. Clothes. Do you have any idea how much a suit costs? And if you're in business, you have to look good, so, while you don't have to buy an Armani suit, you can't expect to make a good impression in a polyester one picked up from TJMaxx. </p>
<p>Just one suit won't do, either. You'll be at work five days a week. Do you expect to do anything beside work? Eat out with friends? Take vacations? Lastly, would your parents really put up with you and pay all your expenses without charging rent when you're 25-30? 35? If you're really frugal and don't worry about saving for retirement and your own kids' college education (or for the possibility that you'll be laid off), then you might have $10,000 - 15,000 a year to use to repay loans. Oh, one more thing: interest. Even as you start to pay off the loans, they will be increasing in amount every month because of interest. Have you done the calculations?</p>
<p>Remember, you'll probably want to get married and have a family by the time you're in your early thirties, maybe sooner. How can you save for your children's education if you can't pay off your own?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Unless you are coming out of Stern, you are not going to make a lot of money once you complete your degree (approx. 40-45K). My many years working in HR at a major corportation, I am still trying to figure out where young college students think at what company they think they are going to make all of this money, especially with little or no real work experience.</p>
<p>MAstudent wrote:</p>
<p>*Im graduated from a private college almost 3 years ago now. This place was my dream school and despite my parents warnings about the costs, I decided to enroll anyways. </p>
<p>I figured that while the costs were high (35k+), I would graduate with a well known degree from a well known college and that would get me a high paying job. 6 months after graduation I got my first student loan bill and it was scary! While most students attain an average of 20k in loans, I had racked up over 80K in 4 years. My FA package was small, college costs were high, and my parents could afford the difference. Today my total costs are well over 130K including interest. I wish I had gone to a cheaper, perhaps not first choice college...this way today my standard of living would be better.</p>
<p>Right now I struggle between working full-time, going to grad school (for free becuase my employer fronts the bill), and figuring out to afford $500+ a month in loan bills atop of my other basic living bills.
Remember that having that much finanical burden at 22,23 or 24 years old is too much. You will never be able to get back on your feet.*
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2211241#post2211241%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2211241#post2211241</a></p>
<p>My s.s money will be with me until I'm 24 or out of school. I plan to go into law so while I understand that is another loan for school, it also pays very well.</p>
<p>I will tell you the same thing I told my own D who is a rising junior attending an Ivy who also wants to go into law.</p>
<p>Entry-level salaries for lawyers vary widely. Projected average annual starting salaries for first-year law associates at small firms (up to 10 attorneys) range from $41,750 to $64,500, according to a 2005 report from Robert Half International Inc., a staffing firm based in Menlo Park, Calif. Individuals at small/midsize firms (10 to 35 attorneys) are projected to earn average annual starting salaries ranging from $47,500 to $67,000. At midsize firms (35 to 75 attorneys), they are expected to range from $61,500 to $85,750, and at large firms (more than 75 attorneys), they're from $86,500 to $114,500. </p>
<p>Also from Robert Half's 2005 report, first-year associates working as in-house counsels at corporations are projected to earn average annual starting salaries ranging from $50,000 to $76,750. At corporations, junior paralegals with two to three years' experience are projected to earn between $34,000 and $42,250, and case clerks with up to two years' experience are projected to earn between $27,250 and $33,250.</p>
<p>Weekly salaries for first-year summer law associates in 2005 range between $480 and $2,500, reports the National Association for Law Placement, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Weekly pay for second-year summer law associates ranges between $520 and $2,500 and for third-year summer law associates between $6000 and $2,500. NALP reports that the annual base salary for first-year associates in law firms of all sizes ranges from $40,000 to $130,000.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind starting salaries are going to be contigent upon where you went to school, how you did in that school, type of firm and what part of the country you are in. while NYU has a top notch law school, like other colleges, it does not take an overwhelming number of students from its undergrad program.</p>
<p>Since most of the FA at law schools is in the form of loans (with the exception of those who want to work for public service then you must make under 50K for approx. 10 years in order to have loan forgiveness) </p>
<p>Using this mind set, I explained to my D it was in her best interest to graduate with the least amount of debt possible (as my financial help ends at undergrad)</p>
<p>You are talking about taking on another $120k of debt on top your your undergrad debt and having over 200K of debt by the time you are 25.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My s.s money will be with me until I'm 24 or out of school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would obtain this statement in writing from the social security administration. They state:</p>
<p>Who can get childs benefits?</p>
<p>Your child can get benefits if he or she is your biological child, adopted child or dependent stepchild. (In some cases, your child also could be eligible for benefits on his or her grandparents earnings.)</p>
<p>To get benefits, a child must have:
A parent(s) who is disabled or retired and entitled to Social Security benefits; or
A parent who died after having worked long enough in a job where he or she paid Social Security taxes.</p>
<p>The child also must be:
Unmarried;
Younger than 18;
18-19 years old and a full-time student (no higher than grade 12); or
18 or older and disabled. (The disability
must have started before age 22.)</p>
<p>Benefits stop when your child reaches age
18 unless your child is a student or disabled.</p>
<p>Ashley, it won't be $80,000 when you graduate. Factoring in the 7% loan fee and assuming that the prime rate remains constant at 9%, then I have figured that at the end of 4 years you will owe about $30,600 on the first $20K you borrow.</p>
<p>So at the end of 4 years, assuming you borrow the same amount each year, you will owe almost $108,000.That's assuming that interest rates remain constant - it is far more likelly that they will go up. Campusdoor allows you to pay that off over 20 years - so you can expect a loan payment of $972 a month. I doubt that Campusdoor will allow you to defer payment for law school, either -- so basically you aren't going to be able to afford to go to law school. </p>
<p>Your credit will NOT improve enough to allow a better credit rate the following year, because one aspect of a credit rating is your debt to income ratio. Basically, if you have too much debt in relation to income, you won't qualify for loans:
<a href="http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debtratio.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debtratio.html</a></p>
<p>I know how desperately you probably want to attend NYU, but the reality is that NYU is notoriously bad for financial aid, and they are going to give you less (not more) money in future years. My daughter was accepted to NYU with grossly inadequate financial aid, and she turned them down. </p>
<p>You simply cannot afford to take on that sort of debt.</p>
<p>sad :( sorry hun!</p>
<p>I'll admit, I am just learning about the loss of s.s. This is a complete turn around and has caused me so much worry in the past night. I am now at a point where i don't have an option other than to take out loans for school. I posted this at the NYU forum but here it is: </p>
<p>The thing is... I can't even afford to attend cc without loans. I cannot live at home anymore because my mom is moving into a two bedroom because we cannot afford the house w/o s.s and I will not have a place to live. My job does not bring in enough to live on my own so I have to go somewhere I can live on campus because otherwise I don't know what I will do. A c.c. will allow me no place to live. My s.s money is going to be dropped next month so I can't afford any school without loans b/c my fafsa included the money I got from s.s last year (about 16,000) and now I can't put any money to school. I need loans. My state school would require me to take out 20,000 as well because my efc was SO much higher last year. I got 1,000 from the school. I'm in a rut. I have no good options as of now. Next year, my EFC will be much lower (maybe zero) and I should get grants. I really don't want to take a year off for sanity sake. I have dealt with these problems all my life and living here and just working is something I couldn't handle at this point in my life. I have a much longer history of family problems I couldn't begin to explain. I need the normal college experience. I know I should not take out these loans. I understand. But right now, I have no other options that I believe I can handle.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I got 1,000 from the school. I'm in a rut. I have no good options as of now. Next year, my EFC will be much lower (maybe zero) and I should get grants.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Ashley,</p>
<p>I have read some of your other posting and my advice would be to either take a gap year and reapply. If you are looking to finance your entire education using loans, you will not be in a postion to attend law school becasue you will be carrying too much debt.</p>
<p>I have worked with NYU for a lot of years (as my company pays a lot of tuition remission to them) and I am currently a grad student there. I can tell you first hand, they have a take no prisioner approach when it comes down to money. For undergrads, if your bill is not paid with in 2 business days they will drop your registration. When it comes to scholarships, if you fo not fulfill their requirements, you lose the money.</p>
<p>If you feel that you have no other options but to attend NYU this year, I would suggest doing the best you can there and then applying for a transfer to a school that offers wonderful need based FA. With your mother's income dropping to 24K you would be in a postition to get some really great FA. If you really want to stay in NYC, I would recommend transferring to Barnard. I would also look into casting a wide net so that you can compare packages.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. I have recently started to mingle with the idea of attending NYU, doing well and transfering out. I hate this because if I had planned on this earlier I could have attended a different school. BUT I did not and I must come to terms with that. I know deep down that the loans are a bad idea. But I also know how bad I want to go and leave. I may regret the loans years from now but I also may regret it if I do not choose to go. </p>
<p>A gap year wouldn't not be feared if it did not mean staying at home and working. I cannot handle that. If I could travel and work, I would take the year in an instant. However, money does not allow for this. </p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for your help.</p>
<p>Ashley, see if you can defer matriculation for a year. Since you have already been accepted and have already sent in your deposit, they might allow you to start next year instead, after you have had a chance to work full-time. Many colleges will allow this since they will just take a student off the waitlist for this year. It is essential that you explain your financial hardship as well as convey your passion to attend NYU.</p>
<p>Then . . . you get a full-time job and apply to a few other colleges of similar caliber but which are better known for giving FA. You will be able to make a more informed decision next spring. Maybe you'll end up at NYU after all, but maybe the money you earn this next year will take some of the edge off. (Make sure you save, save, save!) You'll also have a more realistic idea of what it would be like to pay over $900 a month to a lender.</p>
<p>As for your EFC, you should have written a letter to your colleges explaining your extenuating circumstances. I know PROFILE has an explanation box right on the form. </p>
<p>I really hate NYU. You aren't the first student to fall in love with the idea of attending NYU, only to discover that they offer woefully inadequate FA.</p>
<p>Ashley
They gave you a loan without a cosigner or did you have credit to go by</p>
<p>ashley -- </p>
<p>Just some warning stories, I know you have heard this before -- but please don't borrow that much money!</p>
<p>First, my sister-in-law has a law degree and passed the bar. Difficult time finding a job, now working as an auditor. several sporadic bouts of unemployment. A law degree does not guarantee a job -- much less a well paying one. </p>
<p>My husband did just what you are talking about -- borrowed lots of money. with all the interest upon interest, he still has significant debt 20 years later (this story can be repeated by many).</p>
<p>you would be surprised at how this affects you. He has been turned down for jobs because of the amount of money he owes (it shows on credit checks -- which are done for jobs all the time). Although we do not have "bad credit" we do have difficulty getting loans because of so much debt -- so no new cars for us, we have to pay for them in cash. We also don't have a house -- we rent. With so much debt, we can't get a mortgage loan.</p>
<p>This decision will impact your entire life -- and it won't end up being the life you wanted and there won't be anything you can do about it.</p>
<p>student loans are exempt from bankruptcy protection -- so you are stuck until you die. If you get married, those student loans are a huge weight on your marriage and will cause lots of problems (I know from experience)</p>
<p>Think hard and chose a reasonable, mature course of action.</p>
<p>Boy do I agree with you -if it means you need to get a loan to get an education then use a federal loan ( Stafford, PLUS, GradPLus and Consolidation loan).</p>
<p>The new GradPlus is new for people who are trying to get professional degrees - it is the same as the parent PLUS loan only the student can now apply on their own. You can borrow up to the amount the school will certify you need - there is a credit check but they are only looking for any 90-day past dues on your credit history. This is a federal loan so no cosigner required - not extra fees and you can probably find a lender out there who offers extra benefits like interest rate reducation, rebate on origination fees - stuff like that. </p>
<p>Also if you have a bunch of federal education loans get an education consolidation loan - these loans will lock down your interest rate, they will give you up to 30 years to pay them back depending on the amount of your loans and there are different kinds of repayment schedules that can help you buy some extra time in managing your loans.</p>