My parents paid for my first 2 years of education at a private university and now they’ve decided to stop paying for everything besides my off campus rent.
I am working this summer so I can take care of food, utilities, stuff I’ll need. BUT… a girl can’t just find 80,000 dollars lying around for school.
I am majoring in mechanical engineering and going to a pretty highly ranked school (Rice) so I’m hoping I can get a job to pay those debts.
I can’t get any financial aid (besides stafford) because of my parents’ income.
Any suggestions for private loans?
What was the reason for their stopping paying your tuition? Can you make amends to them?
There is no way for you to get that money otherwise.
“To get my skin in the game” they do this for all of my siblings.
Will they cosign college loans with you?
Otherwise…there is NO away you can cover the tuition cost by yourself at Rice.
Agreed…is there a reason they are no longer paying?
Your parents know that there is no legal way for you to get the tuition money. How did your siblings manage to finish college?
They will cosign for me on private loans.
Well, you have your answer.
They cosigned for private loans but they leave it up to us to find the right ones. I have an older sibling who was in the same situation, she’s a nurse, got a job right away and is paying of the loans but can still afford a roof over her head, food, and has disposable income.
I am asking for good suggestions for private loans.
https://financialaid.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=56
http://www.elmselect.com/?schoolid=186#/results
If you need this for the fall, you should consider calling Rice’s FA office on Monday and ask for advice.
And calling your siblings and find out what they did - they should be paying their private loans off now…
Private loan sources are not a secret. Sallie Mae, Discover, Wells Fargo. Sometimes local banks offer them. Where did your siblings go?
Another option is to take a semester off and do a co-op. It will stretch out your graduation date, but you’d make a lot of money as a junior/senior in engineering.
I know Private loans are not secret. I was simply looking for some advice on specific ones that were better than others. I can do my own research. Just thought I could get some good insight on here.
This would be my concern…your parents will need to be qualified cosigners. It sounds like they have consigned a LOT of other student loans. Will they be able to cosign more?
I have one sibling out of college and she is paying them off fine. My parents make a good living
Transfer to a commutable affordable in state school and pay your way through. Live at home.
I would talk to Rice about a coop option…see if that is a possibility. It would extend your schooling because you would work a term…go to school a term…repeat until graduation…but it could reduce your debt.
Have you talked to your sister, who’s already been to this rodeo with your parents? As rhandco suggests, I would start there. Your sister has been there, done that, in what sounds like exactly the same situation that you now find yourself in.
I don’t think you’ll get a lot of suggestions for ‘good’ private loans here on CC because most of us (parents) do not think taking $80k for 2 years of tuition is a good idea. My kids knew it wasn’t a possibility, so picked other schools from the start.
You are a full pay student at Rice. Your parents agreed to pay $80k for the the first two years and nothing (but living expenses, which is actually quite generous) for the last two. I wouldn’t have agreed to this plan for my kids so it is hard to point you in a good direction, except the co-op one. It’s too much money for any kid, even an engineer, to borrow, and it is too much for me to co-sign.
Private loans have different qualifications and interest rates for every student, so while people on CC can tell you where they found good terms, yours might be different. You’ll just have to search with your own situation.
Is your low GPA part of the problem? I wouldn’t pay for my kid in an expensive OOS uni for a 2.5 GPA in eng either. Did you all have a come to jesus meeting when this kind of GPA problem started? Would your local 4 year accept a 2.5 GPA rising junior transfer? Throwing money at Rice and not being successful is a bad recipe.
Did they tell you before you applied to colleges, or did they tell you just now that they would stop paying?
Or was their financial support conditioned on earning a GPA higher than the 2.5 you mentioned in another thread? If so, were you informed of that when you applied to colleges, or just now?
Is there an in-state public with your major and low tuition (within what you could cover with a federal direct loan and a few thousand dollars of work earnings) that will admit you as a transfer with a 2.5 GPA?