<p>My parents have never taken out private student loans, and they are being very annoying about them, thinking I should take them out now. It's not whether to have loans or not, we have decided that together. I know I have my bill for tuition in September (for 1st semester), when should I look into them (I probably will very soon), and when do I actually fill them out?</p>
<p>Do your parents know that they have to take them out with you as co-signers? They have to qualify for those loans each year.</p>
<p>Yes, they know this, and I also know that they have a very good credit score. It’s just the timing of these things that I have a question on.</p>
<p>So you have found terms better privately than Parent Plus? I would apply for them now, and take the disbursement when needed. That just seems logical to me.</p>
<p>What about interest though? Would that add up?</p>
<p>Interest doesn’t start until disbursement. You get the loan approved, then tell them when to send the money.</p>
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It is just very hard to take out 80k in loans over four years to afford the schooling. </p>
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<p>You are borrowing too much money. are you going to have to pay all this back? or will your parents pay back most of this?</p>
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<p>Oh no…that is way tooo much debt.</p>
<p><<<<Another choice is Iowa State, 40k cheaper (over 4 years of course) Though, I feel as if I’ll hate my time there, and my first job will (statistically speaking) pay less.
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<p>well you have been very very very poorly advised. your first job would not pay less. If a Silicon Valley company hires a UIUC grad and an Iowa State grad, guess what? that company would pay them both the SAME. </p>
<p>BTW…living in the SV is extremely expensive, so even if you were super lucky to get that 90k job you mentioned right out of college, a HUGE chunk would go for your living expenses…and paying back that debt would be a problem.</p>
<p>contact iowa state and see if you can still go there with that award.</p>
<p>This is something your parents need to be active with. How much do they need to borrow each year? Why are you seeking private loan instead of Parent Plus? Will they qualify for the private loan each year? Have they been pre-approved for that? They had better talk to the bank about that, because it isn’t a given. </p>
<p>You are really full of nerve to say that your parents are being annoying about large loans that they have to take out for you. And you seem to know nothing about it and done nothing about it.</p>
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<p>Are students in any way legally responsible for repayment of a PLUS loan? </p>
<p>No. Students are NOT legally responsible for repaying the Parent Plus Loans. They are in the PARENT name only. </p>
<p>Also, if I’m not mistaken, for the Plus, one needs to apply within 90 days of need for the loan…I think. </p>
<p>Is the $80,000 in private or Plus loans in addition to the student Direct loan? If so, my opinion is this college is too costly for this student.</p>
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Never…</p>
<p>To answer your original question: I would apply sometime in June and have it disbursed in August. It can take a few weeks for the paperwork to be reviewed and finalized. Not having the funds on time can cause unnecessary headaches at the start of the semester. </p>
<p>I’m not sure where mom2collegekids was pulling her replies from, but I"m going to assume they are replies from the OP on another thread(?) and respond to them:</p>
<p>I do agree that $80k, regardless to the answer to thumper1’s question above, is too much. Yes, one school might have “prestige,” which may mean it is recruited more heavily and thus giving you the “statistically higher pay rate” - BUT, that does not need to be the case if you’re willing to work hard to save some money. If you go to a more affordable school and make use of all your resources (internships, networking, career services, research, and whatever else is relevant to your field of study and career goals) then you can achieve the same end as you think you might at the more expensive school. </p>
<p>For perspective: I have $70k in student loan debt (now graduated and consolidated) and I pay close to $600/mo. assuming I pay the minimum due on all loans - sometimes I pay more. Your cost may be much higher depending on your rates (one of my loans is only at 3% fixed interest, and I rarely see that number anymore - I took the loan 6 years ago). If you have the opportunity to cut that monthly payment in half, I highly suggest you do it. That extra few hundred dollars a month will be helpful if you’re looking to relocate for a job, want to vacation, to add to your 401k, pursue hobbies, etc.</p>
<p>Why would you hate your time at the other school? If you start the semester thinking that, then you will fulfill that prophecy. But if you find a few things to focus on that you <em>do</em> like - such as an interesting club, a class you’re looking forward to, a local attraction, etc. - and start the semester with an open mind, you will find that people can adjust to almost anything very quickly. Attitude is the key difference. </p>
<p>Remember that college is typically 4 years - but student loans can last 10-20 years depending on the terms. I would rather dislike school for 4 years than hand over a chunk of my paycheck to loans until I’m 35/40 years old.</p>
<p>An alternative is for you to go to the first school (Iowa State?), do very well there for cheaper, and transfer to UIUC for junior and senior year. Then you’d get the degree from UIUC and the recruitment opportunities.
That supposes that you know what classes UIUC students take during these years for their majors and get top grades at Iowa State for those. I’m not sure why you’d hate Iowa State and love UIUC: they’re very similar in terms of environment (midwestern state flagship, large schools, good D1 sports, etc). UIUC’s students are better on average, but if you’re in the Honors College at Iowa State, really you may even come out ahead for these first two years.
It also means you have to be sure about your path because you’ll be leaving your friends after 2 years, you won’t be able to go abroad, and you’ll ahve to stay at the top of your class in every single class you take.</p>
<p>Thank you very much @NovaLynnx for answering my original question.</p>
<p>As for the other points, let me explain.</p>
<p>1) The 80k of loans is a bit of an overstatement, I’m just trying to be on the safe side
2) The 80k might be even more of an overstatement if I choose to graduate early ( I have a years worth of credits)
3) I could always live with my parents for a year after I graduate college and work to pay off debts (or even before, if I choose to do this as a co-op)
4) My parents have more money if needed, however I do not want them using it
5) It’s incredibly hard to transfer into CS at Illinois, they have a very high number of transfer applicants</p>
<p>It’s hard to explain because you guys are not in my shoes.</p>
<p>I thank you guys for your concern on this topic, I really do, but I’ve made up my mind on this.
(and stop creeping on my older posts!!)</p>
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(and stop creeping on my older posts!!)
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<p>we can do whatever we want with your older posts…we can read them, copy/paste them, refer to them…we can do whatever we want with them.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids and thats 100% correct, I really don’t want to argue about that</p>
<p>Anyways, the post below somewhat explains my situation through another student’s decision to come to uiuc</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.re.dd.it.com/r/UIUC/comments/r43w4/so_how_are_you_all_paying_for_this/”>http://www.re.dd.it.com/r/UIUC/comments/r43w4/so_how_are_you_all_paying_for_this/</a>
…^…^…just remove the periods</p>
<p>Of course it’ll be biased, so don’t worry, I took that into account</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I perused that thread and those were mostly the opinions of freshmen and sophomores. One of the people who said that they felt the debt was “worth it” had $120,000 in debt and was just graduating. He hadn’t begun to repay those loans. Since it’s four years later, I wonder how he feels about it now. I didn’t see a single person on there who was actually graduated, working, and repaying huge debt.</p>
<p>It’s not as if you are choosing between a large public university and a small regional college - you are choosing between two state flagships. Why do you feel like you would hate Iowa State? Other than location, large public universities are actually pretty similar to one another (or at least, they are more similar to each other than they are different).</p>
<p>You say that you can live at home for a year after you graduate and work to pay off debts, but I don’t think you understand how difficult that debt is going to be. Assuming standard loan terms, $80K in debt will require a monthly payment of $920. Let’s say that after college you make a salary of $60,000 - which is higher than the average for computer science majors ($50,000, for recent college grads). After taxes, your take-home pay will probably be around $4,000 a month. That means that your student loans will be about 25% of your take-home pay. But even if you live at home for a year to pay down loans…your monthly payments still won’t go down. If you move out the next year, they’ll still be $920/month. They’ll be $920/month for 10 years. That is a huge chunk of change.</p>
<p>We might not be in your exact predicament, but everyone here is familiar with how money works. We don’t have to be faced with the exact same decision to realize that this is a poor choice. (In fact, you’re making an assumption - I was faced with a relatively similar decision myself in HS. I chose the full ride and never looked back.)</p>
<p>"“didn’t see a single person on there who was actually graduated, working, and repaying huge debt.”"</p>
<p>Juillet makes the very best point. Who cares what a bunch of young folks who aren’t yet paying back those huge loans think about their borrowing decisions. Ask them again when they have been paying for a couple of years and they are upset that their colleagues who don’t have those big loans are buying homes, and aren’t struggling with those strangling loans. </p>
<p>The young folks who think these loans will be worth it are being influenced by the excitement of getting what they want. Once school is over, the glow is long-gone, and the depressing payments coming every 30 days becomes depressing.</p>
<p>I dont think you realize that employers wont give a rat’s patootie whether you graduated from UIUC or Iowa St (which has VERY respected engg). An employer is NOT going to pay the UIUC grad more money, nor is he/she going to say, "I’m picking this guy cuz he went to UIUC instead of this other guy who went to ISU. And, i have no idea why there has been this hinting that ISU wouldn’t have excellent recruiting.</p>
<p>employers hire the person, not the USNews ranking.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if you live at home for a year, most, if not all of what you’re paying will go toward interest and will not even budge your principal amount unless you are throwing every dollar you make at it (and who wants to do that when you’re hoping to move out, need a more reliable car, work clothes, “fun” money, etc.?). While there are many repayment options for many loan types - income-based, graduated, fixed, etc. - changing your plan to lower monthly costs means that you will pay back much, much more than you borrowed. I did not actually borrow $70k in student loans - but the interest on private loans will accrue during your time in school, during any deferment periods, and during repayment time. That 80k can easily turn into 100k, 120k, or more depending on how you approach repayment. And some private loans will extend to 15 or 20 years, as mine did (especially when I consolidated - they didn’t even offer a 10-year option at my credit union), which will further increase cost over time.</p>
<p>Now, that being said I am going to play devil’s advocate for a moment.</p>
<p>I will say that it is not all doom and gloom if you are responsible - despite my loans, I actually have quite a bit more going for me than my peers without loans with the same background. The loans were a hot fire under my butt to work harder and get a better job than was expected given my major. I have a nice apartment, a nice car, nice clothes, a 401k plan, and I honestly don’t have any interest in buying a home in the next 5 years. BUT, you need to acknowledge both cases. Many students with large loans DO suffer in comparison to their peers because of their expectations. The job market is becoming more of a lottery than anything. Sometimes it’s just luck and good timing, and that can be a big gamble to take with $80k+. Even in a field like CS.</p>
<p>I will also say you should consider what you will want in life after graduating. The debt does not depress me as much as others might think - I had no interest in marrying young, buying a home young, and I’m not sure I will ever want children (at least in the next 5-10 years). So for me, I was able to still accomplish quite a bit with the debt I have. And if I were to choose to have a roommate, I would be saving a considerable amount more per month, but I prefer privacy and independence. BUT - what do YOU want? Do you want to settle down shortly after graduating? Are you okay with having to live with roommates so you can pay off higher debt? Do you want to own a home or have children (who are expensive!) before you’re ~35 (assuming a 10 year loan)?</p>
<p>I will also state that recruiters can most certainly be biased if they attended a certain school, or had successful hires from a certain school. They are people just like anyone else, with their own stereotypes and prejudices. One bad hire from a school can in fact turn a recruiter off of other graduates from that school unless they are truly spectacular fits. I see it quite frequently. Especially if you are in fact dealing with true head hunters and not an HR rep employed by the company itself. BUT - do you truly know the reputation for recruiting at both schools? Do you know the placement rates and starting salaries for students in your major at both schools? There may in fact be nominal differences. </p>
<p>Please don’t read my post and think, “Aha! It worked for her!” …because I’m a bit different from the average mid-twenty-something. I’m career driven with no goals to start a family or own a home in the next 5-10 years. I do not mean to glorify my story or say that I am the outlier that proves everyone wrong - I am trying to show you what life can be like with that much debt. If I DID want to get married, own a home, and start a family, I would be in sad shape. So consider your own personal goals outside of your career and see what kind of life you want post-grad. And consider that those goals can change, especially if you end up meeting someone and want to start a life together. But chances are, regardless of your personal goals, you will want more money freed up than what you have going to a loan. </p>