IMO you should finish up at UMass and apply to VCU for your masters to join your boyfriend then.
You made a choice to move and give up your instate tuition. You will be making another to borrow thousands and thousands of dollars to finish, because you won’t leave your boyfriend. That, IMO, would be a bad choice.
I think you are double counting your living expenses. Tuition at VCU is about $32k for OOS. COA, which includes living expenses, is about $44k. You would get one private loan that would give you enough to pay for the tuition not covered by the federal $7500 loan, and then leave you enough to rent an apartment and buy some food. Still a bad decision IMO.
You can’t afford to go to school full time. You need to work and earn more. $7.50/hr isn’t going to do it and you need to be making more, working more hours. You’ve made choices that are going to cost you a lot more and take more time but don’t think you can just borrow $45k for this year and at least $25k for another 1/2 year (at a minimum), and then just go one to grad school. Even if all you borrow is this $70k for VCU and what you’ve already borrowed, you’ll owe well over $100k by the time you start paying it back. Stop borrowing now.
@“Erin’s Dad” VCU only offers PHDs for psychology graduate students. I have also moved out of the state to be with my boyfriend. I am not leaving him. I can’t handle being separated from him. It already sucked enough when I was away from him during the fall and getting my life in order to move down to VA.
@4kidsdad That would take so long to save up money. I get that its less debt. But I really don’t want to stop my education at this point…
You can ask about the Parent Plus Loan at the financial aid office but . . . . . if your father does not qualify, which is likely then, you’re stuck. It doesn’t matter that his credit is good now, getting a significant loan will impact his credit next year.
It sounds like $40K per year is the minimum you will need, per year plus rent/utilities x 12 months per year.
That repayment cost will probably run you about $2000 per month, minimum, even while you are in school.
(Don’t plan on filing for bankruptcy later because student loans are never dismissed, ever.) If you were to pass away (God forbid), the loan goes to family members. Oh and I work with a lot of psychologist colleagues who have private practices; it took them years to derive a decent salary. They have a LOT of overhead. I also work with a number of grad psych students, they are so overloaded with loans it’s scary. There are lots of stories on student loan debt with students living with their parents well into their 30’s because they can’t pay back their loans.http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/student-debt-hits-parents-kids-one-two-punch-n438601
Unfortunately, there are a lot of students in your position, with no money, at an OOS school, expecting to recoup everything once they finish their education. It is crazy to start off your life being heavily in debt.
No one is trying to separate you from your boyfriend. They are trying to separate you from the huge debt you seem to want to incur. @twoinanddone, @BelknapPoint and @4kidsdad are all absolutely correct.
I only allowed each of my three kids to take out one loan of $5K. They had to repay it within the year. Each one of them worked the summer to pay it off and they found it really difficult to go to work for 4 months and not have any spending money after all of that time spent working 8 to 10 hours per day at a minimum wage job.
How much have you borrowed so far for fed student loans and private loans?
How much will you be borrowing for junior and senior years?
Your dad is taking on a horrific risk
Why didn’t your BF move to YOUR state?
You’re taking on all the huge debt and risk. He’s getting the cheap instate rates.
You two could break up next year and you’d have all the debt.
If you want to save money, marry the guy…if you’re truly serious. You might immediately get instate rates then.
Logically, if you wont be talked out of VCU for this next year then you need to move forward doing exactly what you’ve done before (all previous years you have had expenses and aid). Add up what you&dad need to contribute out of your COA (figure out if that # included living costs or not), add in any expenses that are missing, and you and dad go attempt to get loans for that much. It’s a terrible idea, but its the only answer you’ll accept.
You say you’re afraid that you can’t borrow enough to cover everything, but being afraid doesn’t change the facts. Calculate the total, and then someone will either loan you enough money or they wont. Go find out. This board can’t predict lenders and cant create alternatives that dont exist. (You’ve been given many great alternatives that do exist.)
Is your boyfriend close to graduating? Many couples take turns with education for this very reason. Look into financial counseling as a couple, because if you get married I imagine you’ll be looking at a staggering collective debt. Do you even know your current total?
You know, you see stories all the time about the “massive student debt crisis.” The current issue of Consumer Reports has a big article on it, with profiles of several students who have run up huge student loan debt and are struggling to make the required payments, and putting off doing things that previous generations did at their age (get married, start a family, buy a new car, buy a house and all the stuff to fill it up). Up until now, I’ve read many of these articles thinking, “how could these people put themselves in a situation like this, when I know there are alternatives, although those alternatives may not at the time have been their first choice?”
Well, now I know. It’s either because they didn’t care, or didn’t take the time to understand, what the future financial implications would be of taking on massive student debt, or they just didn’t want to deny themselves something that they felt entitled to. In OP’s case, it’s both of the above.
Question:
OP’s answer:
OP not to be denied:
You want to be with your boyfriend. You want to keep going to school, full time. You only make $7.50/hr and you did not say you are working 40 hours or more per week as you only have $165/ mo for car insurance. As you originally asked, yes, you are screwed but all by your own choices and wants. You are a poor 20 year old but many of us were at one time. We worke i didnt have a car until i was 21 and a college grad. I walked. I worked as much as i could. I went to an instate college when i really didnt want to.
You can’t afford school, but yes if you are determined to continue borrowing you can borrow either through parent plus loans or through a private lender. You can continue to use the bank in Mass if it will approve you. Your COA is $44k, which will be reduced by the $7500 Stafford loan (it’s still a loan) and the bank (or plus) loan will include enough for your apartment , you don’t have to borrow it twice.
Please don’t come back when it is time for grad school and complain that you didn’t realize you had $100,000(yes, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) in undergrad loans for a psych degree. Realize it now. ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.
That’s when you’ll really be screwed.
Exactly^.
No, we are not lecturing; this happens here, all of the time on CC posts. People who take out loans, then don’t realize they come due before graduation. No jobs available other than minimum wage at graduation. This is true at the Ph.D. level as well.
This is a train wreck…and it’s all happening because a student can’t bare to be without her BF who lives in another state.
I know this isn’t the topic, but did he ever live in your state? If not, how did you meet him? Was this an online relationship? The reason I’m asking is because this just seems like a scary situation…and some of it isn’t making sense.
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I moved down here April 2016.
I am considered to be an out of state student.
My boyfriend and I plan on getting an off campus apartment together and would like our student loans to cover the cost.
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Where are you living now? With his parents?
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Below is my Award Overview for the year…
I was awarded 9,500 for the year from the school/fafsa.
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What does that aid consist of?
You already have a good bit of debt from your first couple of college years.
Your BF may think he’s going to work as a waiter while in nursing school, but that will be tough. He’ll have a lot of studying, and once he’s doing Clinicals, that will be 40 hours per week.
You are earning very little, typical of a college kid, and all your money is going towards automobile costs…gas, insurance, etc.
Sorry…add me to the chorus of posters saying…this is not affordable.
You need to make a choice…finish school now…or be with the boyfriend now. You can’t afford to,do both.
I want to add this.
Really…if you are taking out more than the Direct Loan amounts ($27,000 total for,four years) you are taking out too much in loans.
It sounds like you need about $30,000 or more in loans for the next two years. That is in addition to whatever loans you have already taken out (you mention a Citizens Bank loan).
It sounds like you will have a TON of undergrad debt…a ton.
There is also no guarantee that you will revive a fully funded PhD program spot.
Who is laying for your boyfriends education and housing! Why did t he move to MA?
PhD funding is only guaranteed for math/science/engineeeing.
It’s only guaranteed for SOME students…at SOME schools…and then only IF the student is highly sought after, and accepted into the program.
The OP hasn’t even come close to finishing undergrad…and the notion she or he will get a fully funded PhD acceptance is most definitely putting the cart before the horse.