<p>When is the best time to start applying for Direct Parent PLUS Loans and Private loans if the Child is going in Fall 2014. After FAFSA or After April 1st week when all schools notify the student of the FA he is going to get and what he or his parents need to come up with $$$.</p>
<p>Are these private loans applied for each School or they can be applied to all the schools.
e.g. If child get accepted in 5 different schools does we need to apply 5 times or just 1 time, reason can the private loan varies depending upon the School name and the amount needed.</p>
<p>We have a Gut feelings we might end up applying for some private loans after all the FA/Scholarship money...</p>
<p>Also how hard is to get a private student Loan (Co-signer), is it like getting a mortgage or a CC or Autoloan or the donors are more lenient with Student Loans as compare to other loans I mention before..</p>
<p>You apply for federal loans by filling out the FAFSA January 1 of every year you will be enrolled starting in Fall of that year.
Do not get a private loan. Instead, go to a cheaper school.</p>
<p>You’ll regret all those loans. Besides, you may qualify for frosh year or soph year, but then not qualify again for junior/senior years. Then what? Student drops out with no degree.</p>
<p>If a parent have a single Family Home which is underwater or NO equity after considering first and second mortgage on the home loan then how DUKE consider that. We have a AGI of 103k before Taxes, but big Debt to payoff mortgage and CC/Auto loans. will Duke consider these when awarding FA on need based and even Merit…</p>
<p>Oh good heavens. You have debt and you want more debt? What’s going on? Are you chasing prestige at the risk of financial health?</p>
<p>Again…what if you qualify for frosh year, but get declined for a later year’s loan request? You’ll have more debt and a child who’ll have to commute to a local state school to complete his degree.</p>
<p>Also how hard is to get a private student Loan (Co-signer), is it like getting a mortgage or a CC or Autoloan or the donors are more lenient with Student Loans as compare to other loans I mention before…</p>
<p>Great…your child will end up with a bunch of debt. </p>
<p>Qualifying is difficult because there’s no collateral (home/car). Each year you get the loan, your credit is further hurt…which is why families find that they can’t qualify again during a later year when they try to borrow again.</p>
<p>I agree with others. If the college is ONLY affordable with huge loans…then really it is unaffordable. You already have a huge amount of debt. Do you really want your child to start his post college life with significant debt? Think twice.</p>
<p>Your kid (or you) is considering some very competitive schools. If he is really a competitive applicant for Harvard and Duke, he could garner significant merit aid elsewhere. Look at the stickie above for merit aid.</p>
<p>Run the net price calculators (unless you are self employed or own rental properties) for a good estimate of what the family will be expected to pay. If it is unaffordable…do NOT lead your high school senior into believing it IS affordable.</p>
<p>is your son still going to be premed? If so, why would you even be considering a bunch of undergrad debt? Med school is very expensive and often requires large debt. </p>
<p>If your son does go to med school, and you’re considering full Stafford loans AND private loans for undergrad, then you could be talking about $300k+ in debt by the time the student graduates from med school. That’s too much…and not necessary.</p>
<p>It isn’t necessary to go to Ivies or Duke-like schools in order to go to med school…not at all.</p>
<p>The interest rates on private school loans is ridiculously high. For example, a $10K loan will end up costing $19K-$24K based on the student & co-signer’s credit rating. That’s just on a $10K private student loan. If you have any blemishes on your credit report within the last 5 years, you will not qualify for Parent Plus loans. </p>
<p>Like Thumper1 and others already stated, look for schools where your student can get merit aid. Most schools outside of the top 40 LACs & Us offer discounts that may be stacked with merit aid. That is where you should spend your time researching. </p>
<p>If your child has the stats, then also have her/him apply to a few top 30 LACs or Us that meet 100% need without a ton of loans in the package. Run the NPCs on these schools to see if you can afford them WITHOUT loans. With a combined income of $103K, your child will qualify for some need based aid. Can you afford the EFC after the need based aid at these schools? </p>
<p>My son recently graduated from St. Olaf. He received $30, 500 a year in merit aid, and graduated with only a $3500 Direct loan ( taken out for a semester abroad) that he already paid in full. He’s gainfully employed with an excellent salary at a company where he interned for two summers. He gained admission to top 20 schools, but he wisely chose to go to the school that gave him the most money because HE did not want to take out almost $30K in Direct student loans. Smart kid! </p>
<p>BUT, if you are already hip deep in debt, I advise you with TLC to have your child look at auto admit schools posted by UCBalumnus further up this thread.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies and suggestions and I will try to response to your questions…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First thing is I am not looking at a huge Private loan, but 3k-5k if needed. We will try to meet rest of the EFC from Work study, personal funds, Stafford Loans, misc…</p></li>
<li><p>I understand the Top 50 Schools and their fees, and rest of the schools. I have done EFC on each of those Schools and know my ball park numbers, Interestingly 2 of the TOP 5 Schools in USA give me the best EFC as compare to some In State Universities and even OS Universities with very generous Grants… I have filled my CSS and send to each School just to make sure they can put forward the best pkg they can, FAFSA will be done by Feb 1st. I fully understand how the Interest rate works on loans and how it add up quickly.
One thing I did learn from your replies is that loan need to be applied every yr so thats very important info and weigh in heavily if I decided to go that route…</p></li>
<li><p>Son already got admitted in 3 Schools ( Top 85 ranking ) with very generous grants and even starting as a 3rd or 4th semester Sophomore. They are his safety Schools. 1 is IS and 2 are OS.</p></li>
<li><p>I have a School (Top 175) 50 miles from my home where Son can easily get FULL RIDE so that option will stay till May 1st. </p></li>
<li><p>If I have a choice between School A (top 10) and School B (top 100) and the EFC difference is <3K I will choose School A, no brainer here. But If the difference is >3-4K then School B might be a better choice. </p></li>
<li><p>Son does has a PASSION to go to top 50 School since he put lot of effort to get the perfect scores and stay #1 in school. He dont even knows that college football is played on Saturday and NFL on Sunday. And Crimson Tide is the best college football team ever played… but thats him and his passion is some other places… So for 3-4k xtra per yr I will give him what he dreamed of…</p></li>
<li><p>I can retire next year, and have enough $$$ from Pension lump sump and 401K to payoff my house, CC and sons Full tuition if worst come to worst. I can still get another job as good as I have now but that be the last option, I am too lazy now to change my 25 yr old Employer. I think I still have 15 yrs left in me to keep working.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes Son still want to go pre-med and then to med school, thats his another passion. And we all know it comes with a big price Tag especially the Med School. Hope by then Housing improves and have some equity in my home, I did saw a 20% rise since last year which brings me almost 20% in green. Or I can always Cash in my pension as a last option…
My Future is my Children’s Education not a pension fund or Govt funding and thats where I am putting my Eggs… My parents did the same thing for me…</p></li>
</ul>
<p>He dont even knows that college football is played on Saturday and NFL on Sunday. And Crimson Tide is the best college football team ever played.</p>
<p>lol…I dont think my older son knew this either before he went to Bama. his high school didnt’ even have a football team, so football was very foreign to him when he arrived at Bama. But, he’s a big fan now. lol</p>
<p>My younger son was a dyed-in-the-wool Laker fan (cuz we’re Calif natives). But, he’s also Crimson now. ;)</p>
<p>Just curious…in your last post you say “I have a college”, “I will pick”. I would strongly urge you to have your SON be the chooser. Certainly you can give him your financial limits, and geographic limits if there are any…but if you permit him to apply to a college, and he gets accepted to a number that all meet your financial criteria…PLEASE…let your son choose.</p>
<p>The comments should read…“he has seen a college close to home where he can get a full ride”, and “He will pick between”. </p>
<p>Yes, you can be part of helping him…but HE is going to college…not you. Please don’t lose sight of that.</p>
<p>To apply for a PLUS loan you need to wait until your S decides on a school. The school must certify that you need the funds. You apply online. The authorization is only good for 60 days so you can’t really apply until mid July, depending on when his school starts. My D’s school said I could apply earlier if I wanted to see if I would get approved, but I would have to apply again within the 60 day window. I waited as I was sure my credit was good and did not want the earlier application to effect my credit score. </p>
<p>FYI you can apply for the max you think you will need up to the COA minus other aid, then have the school return leftover funds to the Feds. My D got an unexpected scholarship so I am returning about half of what I originally asked for.</p>
<p>@thumper1 -
I never meant to say “I” will choose the college, I am just giving him options from High reach, med reach, and safety schools but he has to agree first before we even send the app. It will be his decision in the End, and if we cant afford it we will tell him very bluntly that we cant support him with that kind of $$$, and he understand our financial situation very well. He may be the smartest kid in the school but he below average as a street kid, so we just guiding him since we gone through the college stuff many many years back.
Every yr I spend 1 week with ~25 Interns at my work place, they come from Ivies and schools I haven’t heard before, last 8-10 yrs are pretty bad as far as Interns getting a Job at least at my workplace. Most of the jobs are moved out to offshore Countries and not much left here… So i want to make sure he don’t end up with a degree which will be worth a piece of paper…</p>
<p>I was doing more research and found this about PLUS Loans.</p>
<p>Satisfactory credit history (income to debt ratio is not considered) . very interesting !!!
If parents are not eligible for a PLUS loan, the student, may apply for an additional unsubsidized Direct Loan</p>
<p>For Direct Loan:
Loan may be subsidized or unsubsidized, depending on students financial need?</p>
<p>what that means about subsidized or unsubsidized, what factors they look at to give subsidized. i know it has annual limits too…</p>
<p>Parents beware of the Parent Plus loan. I ran across an article that talked about a student not being able to pay back over $100,000 in student loans that she acquired (without even obtaining a degree, she dropped out) so the court ordered her parents and grandparents to pay back the loan since they co-signed on it. Do you really want to be responsible for all of that debt?</p>
<p>shanice112, the action on the loan in the article is not unusual. Every co-signer is responsible. It’s one reason private student loans are a bad idea. The other loan you mention – the Parent PLUS Loan – is a federal loan taken out by parents, not students, and is a good thing.</p>
<p>For post #18, that is not a parent plus loan, it is a private student loan with the student and the parent co-signing it.</p>
<p>Thus, the parent is on hook to pay the private student loan, and ALL student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Parent plus loan is only in parent’s name, the signing parent is solely responsible for that loan. Again, parent plus loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.</p>
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