<p>I am in a bit of bind with regard to my summer aid. </p>
<p>I was given a Stafford Loan, which isn't enough to cover my living expenses and medical bills I am paying off. I contacted fin aid to ask about budget increases, but they said they don't do them for summer and that I couldn't take out a student loan either, as some of my Stafford Loan would be taken away if I did. </p>
<p>I was told I need to get a private personal loan, but I have no idea how to go about doing that. I'm not working right now, and I have a hard time believing any lender is going to give me a private personal loan when I have no job and no collateral. </p>
<p>Has anyone successfully gotten a private personal loan for school? Does anyone know where I should start?? I was planning on going to a few banks today, but I figured I would post on CC to see if any of you guys could point me in the right direction.</p>
<p>I totally spent an entire day in the financial aid office regarding loans, which didn’t help much. BUT!</p>
<p>Here’s what they told me:
They have a list of private lenders that would probably be willing to help you, so even though they can’t modify your budget or anything, they can point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>Under normal circumstances, any loan requires collateral or a job, right?
WELL, not student loans. Since you’re (I’m assuming) a full time student, that’s enough to qualify you. And you need good credit. So, even if you don’t have good credit, if you apply with a co-signer (i.e. the parents), you can still get it.</p>
<p>One of the most popular lenders out there for student loans is Sallie Mae:
[Sallie</a> Mae: Private Student Loans, Federal Student Loans, Private College Loans](<a href=“http://www.salliemae.com/]Sallie”>http://www.salliemae.com/)
Try your local banks first, and then Sallie Mae, because the local places would probably give you a more attractive interest rate.</p>
<p>You can only really get extra money in the form of student loans if you have room left in your budget though, like if, for example, your parents were offered a loan for your school but didn’t accept it. That’s the problem that I am having- Cal says I have no unmet need since they covered all my expenses in the budget they came up with for me. In actuality, I’m going to need more money to live on other than what they’ve calculated for room/board/etc. </p>
<p>I was told that if I take out a student loan, the loan money will first go to Cal and they will lessen the amount of other awards given to me to account for the loan, since I <em>technically</em> (according to them) have no unmet need.</p>
<p>That being said, fin aid said my only option was to take out a private personal loan. With a private personal loan, my budget won’t be affected and the loan money will come directly to me. Most banks these days aren’t doing private personal loans because of the credit situation, but credit unions are still offering personal loans with either proof of employment or a cosigner.</p>
<p>I’m sort of in the same situation…
I have about 7k of unmet need and my parents wouldn’t sign the PLUS loan and all that, so luckily I had savings, but if not, the financial aid office would have totally hooked me up with a private lender.</p>