very serious problem that came up.. PLEASE HELP!

Paying for College
1

<p>Okay, so here it is:</p>

<p>When I began applying to colleges, I sat down with both of my parents (they are divorced which made the whole thing kind of tricky) and talked about what was realistic as far as finances and whatnot. BOTH of them told me to go for it, that I would be able to go where I wanted and they would do what was necessary (i.e. loans, etc) to get me where I wanted to go. So, at the end of all this I decided on a private school that I fell in love with. I recieved a $12,000 scholarship plus about 6,000 or so in loans from the school.</p>

<p>All along the way I kept talking to my dad about the expenses, and he kept telling me that it would work out. I did everything that I possibly could to secure money: FAFSA, scholarships, loan counseling, blah blah blah while he kept telling me YES. My mom is okay doing her half of the tuition and won't need any more help. However, this past week my dad has told me that basically it is impossible for him to pay back 40,000 in loans (10,000/year)..I don't know what to do!! I am devestated..if I can't go to this school, my dad is making it sound like I will have to do a JC...GAH its horrible! </p>

<p>So what I proposed was getting a student loan in the amount that would be needed to cover the other half and my dad and I would pay it back somehow together after college (pay interest while in school). What I need to find out though is will I need a cosigner? Because if that's the case my mom doesn't want to cosign (she doesn't trust my dad to come up with the rest of the funds and rightfully so) and my dad has awful credit. Basically I can afford to go to the school for a semester at this point, or one year if I get a loan...Does anyone have any suggestions?? Anything else I can do? Is it realistic for me to think about paying back the majority of the student loans I get? </p>

<p>Thank you so much for any help :)
Kasey</p>

2

<p>For all that trouble why don't you just consider a state school. It seems like your future would be much more certain at a state school and you could avoid all those troubles.</p>

3

<p>I would not count on dad to help you pay it back as he does not seem to be forthcoming on his earlier comments. I think that $40,000 is a lot of money but not unrealistic. You can contact your school and ask them what they would recommend. They could point you to low interest student lenders or possibly other sources.
Then decide if the money is worth it to you.</p>

4

<p>Kasey, what are your options? It's not a good idea to start at a school you know you'll have a hard time affording. If this is a very top school and your ambitions are high paying, it may make sense to borrow a lot of money. If you're planning to be a teacher or nurse, it probably isn't a good idea to be in debt to the extent a $40K school will make you.</p>

5

<p>I'm guessing a Cal state school...? which is fine, but I would have liked to know that those were my options eight months ago.. and can I back out from this school now? It's too late I think to get in anywhere else (I was admitted to many safeties/others)..</p>

6

<p>Yes, you can back out even now, though you'll lose your deposit. The question, though, is whether you can find a cheaper school to apply to now.</p>

<p>Another option would be to take a year off and apply to colleges that you know meet your family's financial limitations. You also could do something like Americorps next school year, which would give you some $ toward college.</p>

7

<p>


This student's question keeps coming up on thread after thread and it NEVER gets answered. By anybody. Ever. It's like the board just refuses to face the question. LOL. </p>

<p>Kids are constantly saying I got in at Georgetown or NYU but I have $30,000 a year in loans. Who loans kids with zero credit or job $30K a year for 4 years (other than the $2625 from Stafford or other well-known loan programs) and can this kid get any of it? If I understand the Q, they want to have an answer to this specific Q: no co-signor or inadequate credit co-signor, big EFC, parents that won't/can't pay , big five figure amount per year after Stafford.</p>

<p>All I've got to help the OP is that I know that a kid can get an additional $4k a year in this situation without co-signors if his parents are rejected from Parent Plus (and if his mom would qualify for a plus loan that probably blows that,too) but that won't get it done of the student needs $20 or $30 or $10k a year in additional loans. Are there lenders or loans or schools that loan their own money to students in these situations? If not, where do these kids get these huge loans that are talked about with some frequency?</p>

8

<p>


</p>

<p>The reason that I am so interested in this is that because of health concerns my earned income could tank or end immediately (actually all of ours could, I guess. Mine just has the potential to be more immediate, but I will most likely live to be a hundred and look back on this strife as foolish). In the event that happened , I want to know the options. (Before someone flames me for not having disability insurance, you can be afflicted by certain things that make you uninsurable at any cost.)</p>

9

<p>Hey Curm,</p>

<p>As I stated previously financial aid for graduate students at Columbia is not the same school meets 100% demonstrated need like it would be for undergrads. </p>

<p>This is the main reason that Makitblue has an aid package that consists of majority loans is because s/he is a graduate student in a masters not Phd. program. </p>

<p>Your child going to columbia as an undergrad the school would give them a financial aid package that meets 100% of their demonstrated need. If you had a change in circumstance while child is an undergrad you would be able to contact the FA office and they would work with you accordingly.</p>

10

<p>The problem with the situation that OP has stated is that s/he did not break down the whole story.</p>

<p>what we know:</p>

<p>Student recieved a $12,000 scholarship plus about 6,000 or so in loans from the school. Safe to assume that loans are broken out approx $2000 to $2625 (max) is subsidized stafford loan balance perkins loan which would max $4,000.</p>

<p>Student is attending a school where the cost of attendance is $37,000
School states it meets 100% need.</p>

<p>If school met 100% of need by providing $18,000 in a combination of scholarships and loans</p>

<p>Then it is safe to assume that the EFC is $19,000 prorated according to each parent's income because they are divorced.</p>

<p>According to student:</p>

<p>Mom has her share of the EFC.
Dad does not have his share. As a result student must find $10,000 to fill the gap that Dad has left by not having the money. Dad has bad credit so he cannot get a PLUS loan.
Mom is not willing to sign for a loan in order to pay Dad's portion of the college expense (she does not trust dad to repay her)</p>

<p>Reality is even if student gets outside loans, it is only going to reduce his/her self help aid (the $6,000 in loans) and will do nothing toward filling the $10,000 EFC gap. It is also very unlikely that school is going to increase scholarship/grant aid to replace the EFC that dad does not have money to pay.</p>

<p>Student cannot make dad pay monies that he does not have.</p>

<p>Point this student needs to consider:
Stafford Loans allow dependent undergraduates to borrow up to $2,625 their freshman year, $3,500 their sophomore year and $5,500 for each remaining year </p>

<p>At this rate student is going to possibly have a total of $17150 in just subsidized stafford loans.</p>

<p>The amount of Perkins Loan you receive is determined by your school's financial aid office. The program limits are $4,000 per year for undergraduate students . If student is being given the maximum perkins loan each year over the next 4 years as part of their aid package this will total $16,000</p>

<p>Total potential loans (stafford and perkins ) $33,150
Personally I think that this amount of money is too much debt and I would be very uncomfortable to have *my child * carry this kind of debt at 21/ 22 years old.</p>

<p>** this is before we even begin to address Dad's shortfall**</p>

<p>If student has to assume Dad's debt on to of this s/he will graduate with over $70,000 worth of debt ($33,150 + dad's $40,000 short fall if you ended up having to borrow this money also). It could be more if the cost of tuition/fees increase.</p>

<p>Options for student</p>

<p>I will say off the bat I am vehemently against student taking on all of this debt but I am not the student nor his/her parent. I can only hope that they take all of the information that has be given under advisement.</p>

<p>Students whose parents have been turned down for a PLUS loan can borrow an additional unsubsidized $4,000 the first two years and $5,000 the remaining years). <a href="http://www.finaid.org/loans/studentloan.phtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.finaid.org/loans/studentloan.phtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Even if s/he borrows this additional $4,000 for freshman year, student will still short $6,000. If student works like a dog or as Jamie would say "pound the salt" over the summer (2 jobs, overtime, extra shifts, etc) s/he may just be able to raise the $6,000 over the summer.</p>

<p>In the end your debt range from $51,1150 (if you take the additional maximum subsidized loans on top of the ones you will already have) and earn $24,000 over 4 years ($6,000 per year to fill dads shortfall) to a mximum of $73,150 .</p>

<p>finally my recommendation</p>

<p>Is it an option for jm to defer school a year and reapply to colleges where you may have a chance of getting merit aid, the CU. or state U system where the cost would be considerably less?</p>

11

<p>If it's any sort of relief, my situation last year was almost exactly the same, except about forty times more messed up. The differences:</p>

<p>--My parents were going through a long drawn-out divorce process through the courts (started AFTER I applied: I got the same "Go for it!" speech as jm did), so by the time my accept. letters came back, they were still not technically divorced, so I had to apply for aid with my dads income included (my mom doesnt work, and is going back to school).</p>

<p>--Between my moms school costs and $27,000 in legal fees from the divorce, my so-called college fund is completely gone, including the thousands of dollars (roughly 7k) I had put into it working nearly full time during 11th and 12th grade.</p>

<p>--My dad is the VP of a large company, and makes quite a lot of money. Unfortunately, he had also been lying about his income for the last four years. Unfortunately, the way I discovered this was when the FAFSAs I had filled out with my dads info on it were checked and basically thrown back in my face.</p>

<p>--Several schools that I applied to would not even speak to me after the FAFSA issue. It doesn't matter much anyway; whichever version of his income you looked at, there was no way I stood a chance for any aid.</p>

<p>--My dad left the family. Legally, he is required to pay $10,000 per year for college, but that is IT. I have to phone-terrorize him to get him to pay even that, but 1 yr into school it's still Ok.</p>

<p>--Ok, so I could go to a different school for a yr... but I was worried I'd be stuck there forever. The very selective schools I applied to said I would have to reapply to get in, and I was convinced that I would not get in if I reapplied because I was suddenly failing math class due to a teacher who had worse senioritis than I did, paired with my own dyslexia which was getting even worse due to the stress. I started writing all of the answers, stats, charts, and graphs correctly but entirely backwards, for which she refused to give me any credit. No matter how many times I (or the principal, or anyone for that matter) explained it to her, she'd just say "It doesnt matter! Who cares about grades when you're a senior?!" </p>

<p>Also, emboldened by my senior status... and always being one to stand up for what i believe in... my AP US teacher (the only black teacher in the whole school) was fired by the head of the department because she gave a snobby girl whose mother bailed out $12,000 on SAT tutors, desperately trying to force her into the "smart asian girl" stereotype and thus creating a total monster, a C in the class. Being her partner for the semester, I can attest to the fact that she not ONCE handed in her homework, but according to her the teacher "lost" it. </p>

<p>The firing infuriated me, but what was even worse was that the pompous head of the apartment took over, and proceeded to conduct every class by talking about how wonderful he himself was and how someone just ought to write a book about him. He was also, incidentally, the man behind the firing. I was also, incidentally, spending 8 hours staking out the principals office to get my teacher back. He backed me into a corner once and threatened that I would be "better off" were I to stop, I said "Thanks for your concern, but I will not," so he proceeded to give me a 75 on every single thing I turned in without reading any of it. NOT to go into that further and write the longest post ever, I'll just conclude that I had not-entirely-irrational reasons for worrying about my grades when reapplying to ivies, etc. </p>

<p>--ALSO, the two easier schools I did apply to, as well as several others, I was just then finding out, had never recieved my applications. My HS had a policy where they would not send your transcript to a school unless you let THEM review and send your application (this was a public high school. I know its weird) and they apparently managed to lose my apps to Binghamton, Pratt, and Stonybrook, as well as CMU and Vassar.</p>

<p>-- I also applied to The U. of Austin, TX, which I could have gotten money from except that they were convinced that the school sent them a "forged transcript" for some reason. 3 more transcripts were sent back, all marked "forged." I eventually decided I did not want to live in TX even more than I wanted to go to college.</p>

<p>So... That was where I was this time last year, pulling my hair out of my head, quite literally. Having spent most of my HS career staying up all night studying for APs, taking complicated tests in subjects that I had absolutely no interest in, doing all sorts of ex. curricular programs, etc, all for THAT moment, I was a complete mess. I finally concluded that I had worked so hard that I WOULD go to a competetive school for the other students that would be there, that it was what I absolutely had to do. I knew that if I stayed home, I'd get a job and just end up working, either get promoted or emotionally attached, and never go to college. I was so afraid of that that I planned to either go to England to work, or go to Carleton, where my friend went to a yr before me, and work as a waitress in an on-campus coffee shop where the school might charitably allow me to take some classes for free. Looking back, this may have been the most depressing option of all.</p>

<p>Anyway, ALL that I wanted to say by going into alll of this, is that you are definitely NOT ALONE. All across the country, students have situations like ours, and you can make it. While it is highly impractical to get all of the loans, etc, it seems like your father may help you more than mine did, and even without him it definitely CAN be possible. Still, apply for any scholarships that you can. Every little bit helps.</p>

<p>Oh, and to conclude my story, what the heck I am doing now and why the hell I'm at CMU, well... Basically, while all of the other schools answered my questions with something along the lines of "Thats nice. Go cry about it. NEXT--!" CMU admissions and financial aid people were uniquely nice, kind, and compassionate. Not only did they let me reapply in the middle of June, but they also let me fill out a separate FAFSA w/o my dads income on it (thank god the application got messed up, so they never saw the ruined FAFSA) for consideration, and when I still couldnt afford the school with all of the considerations they had made, they actually just gave me more money. I mean, I was crying on the phone with these people (I repeat: emotional disaster) but somehow everything worked out... or will work out, Ok, IS IN THE PROCESS of working out, somehow.</p>

<p>If you cant go to school, the England idea really wasnt bad. British Pounds to Dollars is a great exchange if you can manage to make any money, and if you need a school thats really considerate with financial aid, try CMU-- I have several friends with very similar stories.</p>

<p>-Danielle</p>

<p>PS: Good luck, and please take care of yourself. This will only make you stronger.</p>