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Mons Hubris posted:How often do the feds reject loan consolidation? I put my application in this weekend and I kind of need to get accepted to take advantage of the 10-year public service forgiveness program. My credit is good, at least. It's just unclear to me what criteria they use. I have honestly never heard of an application being rejected, but unfortunately I also don't work at Direct so I can't say for sure. Student loans aren't based on credit the same way other loans are; Direct will actually consolidated delinquent and even defaulted loans, regardless of a person's credit. MondayHotDog posted:Your payment amounts under IBR get recalculated every year, right? About a month ago I got approved and Nelnet lowered my payments from $200 a month to $122. But on my payment schedule they're showing that my $122 payment is only for months 1 through 12, and then it goes up to $193. IBR is placed for 1 year at a time on an account and re-reviewed every year, so this sounds correct. It will be based on your income as time goes by. If your income rises in the future, it can actually lead to a much higher payment because it's based exclusively on income.
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Mar 1, 2013 13:31
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So, I graduated last May and my loans began entering into repayment late last year. As I am broke and Nelnet and ACS wanted a combined $800 a month I decided to consolidate under the income based plan. No worries on that front, I received all my paperwork and start payments in April. My problem is that ACS has started calling and saying that I'm past due. They claim that I have private loans that don't consolidate. I checked the financial aid website and I don't see any record of them, although I've been told that they might not show up there (?). I've kept okay records of my loans and don't have any statements matching the amounts they claim I owe, even accounting for interest. My sophomore year I received at least one letter a month for nearly a year telling me that my student loans had been sold to a new financial institution, this was during the financial meltdown in 08-09. I now have a fear that I might be paying for the same loan twice due to some sort of clerical error. I've heard that you can ask for debt verification and if they can't provide documentation that the debt is invalid, would this work in my case? I'm not looking to duck what I owe, I'm genuinely worried that I don't owe them this money. Thanks.
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Mar 1, 2013 20:08
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Definitely ask for a copy of the MPN for this private loan. It wouldn't show up in the NSLDS because this only houses federal loans, not private. To see a private loan you can go to annualcreditreport.com and pull your credit for free to find the information. If it's not on your credit report, it shouldn't be at ACS either. Hopefully you can get it sorted out!
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Mar 2, 2013 04:57
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So I'm looking to go into grad school where I will probably accrue between $100k-180k of debt and won't be able to pay it back (because I will be an actor). I went to IBRinfo.com and put in some likely numbers (120k debt, 30-35k per year income) and it says I will "probably" qualify for IBR. If I'm correct with both the loan amount and the annual income, why would I potentially not qualify for the IBR program? Are there other ways to not get hosed by $1000+/month repayments, like RPF or ICR, and would any of these make more sense for someone with an unstable income (depending on how i do I could potentially make $20k doing theatre or $150k by getting a few commercials . . . it's a total crapshoot)?
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Mar 2, 2013 05:52
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OSheaman posted:So I'm looking to go into grad school where I will probably accrue between $100k-180k of debt and won't be able to pay it back (because I will be an actor). I went to IBRinfo.com and put in some likely numbers (120k debt, 30-35k per year income) and it says I will "probably" qualify for IBR. If I'm correct with both the loan amount and the annual income, why would I potentially not qualify for the IBR program? Are there other ways to not get hosed by $1000+/month repayments, like RPF or ICR, and would any of these make more sense for someone with an unstable income (depending on how i do I could potentially make $20k doing theatre or $150k by getting a few commercials . . . it's a total crapshoot)? "Probably qualify" is just to cover their rear end. I put in $500k in loans and $1k in income and it gave me that (.org, not .com by the way). That said, you are setting yourself up for lifetime financial ruin, don't do it! You say directly that you won't feasibly be able to pay back the loans, it's just a bad financial decision all around. Try working with local (and free!) club or groups if you want to improve your acting skills, taking out $100-180k in debt for a university degree will do poo poo for you if you don't have the base talent to be a major blockbuster actor, and even then it's more who you know and/or luck.
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Mar 2, 2013 07:07
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I would add: is there any potential of taking a cheaper, similar program? I would highly recommend looking around for one. That's a lot of debt to get into when you know for sure you won't be able to pay it back. It'll loom over you for at least 20 years afterward (assuming you get to use IBR the entire time). I agree with baquerd, experience is more valuable than a degree and volunteering/participating in acting clubs, groups, etc. will probably take you further than such an expensive degree. Tons of actors have degrees in a totally unrelated field after all.
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Mar 2, 2013 12:14
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None of the programs I got accepted into are any cheaper. The money includes living expenses in a major city for 2-3 years as well. I spent 5 years after undergrad working in Chicago as an actor (and paying my bills on the side) and I am confident that this is the right next step for me. I've taken classes in Chicago and they have been helpful but this is a transitional step for me. I'm not just getting into this; I've been working in the city and have been accepted to some of the top programs in the entire country for graduate acting. It's expensive but it's also not a whim . . . I really consider it to be more of an investment in my career. EDIT: Didn't mean to get over-defensive there. I'm simplifying the situation because I'm too lazy to type everything out, but the long and the short of it is that I do have the chance to pay it back (if I get good enough paying work) and if I get a good repayment program I will be able to make the monthly payments and not screw myself and my credit rating. Mostly what I'm interested in is: are there less-than-obvious circumstances by which I would fail to qualify for a program like IBR, and if so what other repayment program would you recommend? OSheaman fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Mar 2, 2013 |
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Mar 2, 2013 14:21
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Eligibility is determined by examining 15% of the difference between 150% of the poverty line and your AGI versus your annual amount due on your loans under a 10 year repayment plan. If the annual amount due is greater than 15% of the difference, you will qualify. So, the only thing that could theoretically happen would be a drastic drop in the definition of the poverty line for your area, and even then you're going to need to be making $90-165k to not qualify. In Chicago, the 2013 poverty line for a single person is $11,490, so 150% is $17,235. The annual payments on $100k are roughly $13,810 ($1151/mo) and for $180k roughly $24,857 ($2071/mo). So, for $100k, you would need to make more than $109,300 to not qualify, and for $180k you would need to make $182,950, assuming 6.8% interest. Edit: on a side note, in order to actually pay down the loan at all you will need to pay over $567/mo for 100k and $1020/mo for 180k, and that's only barely touching the principal. Now, under IBR the government will pick up the difference so that your principal doesn't inflate, but only for the first 3 years. It's fairly likely that your principal will start to inflate after that and you will be paying 15% of your income minus the poverty line for 25 years. Do a long hard look at whether you want to be paying that until you're 50 unless you get really, really lucky. I'm also not sure what would happen if you get a windfall year and fall out of the IBR guidelines and then your income drops back again. Edit 2: Finally, you will need to take out private loans for some of this amount due to federal lending limits. These do not qualify for IBR, and the amount of these loans is not used when determining the annual loan payments to qualify for IBR. I'll say it again: lifetime financial ruin is likely. Potential spouses will run away when they see this, your children will go hungry, and you will get a dog if you don't have one and it will bite you. baquerd fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Mar 2, 2013 |
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Mar 2, 2013 17:09
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OSheaman posted:I really consider it to be more of an investment in my career. OSheaman posted:I will probably accrue between $100k-180k of debt and won't be able to pay it back (because I will be an actor). Isn't this, by definition, a bad investment?
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Mar 2, 2013 21:06
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plester1 posted:Isn't this, by definition, a bad investment? I was being too glib when I said that I wouldn't be able to pay it back. It will be a *challenge* to pay it back, but I believe the challenge to be worth it. baquerd posted:Edit 2: Finally, you will need to take out private loans for some of this amount due to federal lending limits. These do not qualify for IBR, and the amount of these loans is not used when determining the annual loan payments to qualify for IBR. I'll say it again: lifetime financial ruin is likely. Potential spouses will run away when they see this, your children will go hungry, and you will get a dog if you don't have one and it will bite you. Wouldn't Grad PLUS loans fall under the IBR spectrum?
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Mar 2, 2013 22:15
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OSheaman posted:Wouldn't Grad PLUS loans fall under the IBR spectrum? As long as they're made to you directly and not to your parents. They have an interest rate of 7.9% and a whopping 4% origination fee. All of your unsubsidized direct and direct PLUS loans will begin accruing interest right after they are disbursed. I did find out that if you are in IBR and then have a windfall year, you can't be kicked out of the program and your payments are capped at the 10 year standard payment monthly amounts. Just realize it is overwhelmingly likely you will be paying 15% of your income minus the poverty line for 25 years. To realistically pay the entire loan back before that time you're going to need to be making six figures for decades on end, because unless you happen to land that amount within the first three years right out of school, the interest is going to absolutely kill you. Maybe I'm wrong and you're a brilliant actor that somehow just needs a masters degree to make it big. To me, that proposition sounds ridiculous, but I'm not experienced in your field and maybe the connections that I know are so vitally important in your industry can be made there.
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Mar 3, 2013 19:48
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I came on here to ask about IBR, but I see that's already been done. What about the Pay as you go program. What is the difference between that and IBR, aside from the lower monthly payment? In theory they seem the same to me. Is Pay As You Go a monthly thing? Why wouldn't I do Pay as you Go? Also, to you, OSheaman, I don't know your situation, or the reasons why you think going to acting school for 100+ grand is a good idea, but I can at least tell you that from my experience in film school, there are two things absolutely crucial to the industry and you can get them without going to school for it: (1) talent, and (2) connections. Talent is something you can't really get, but are born with. This also factors into your appearance. If you don't have a marketable look, you'll need to be really funny, or you'll need to have some raw emotional power that you can convey convincingly. Talent is not a guarantee, however. Even if you're great, you are not guaranteed a job. Finally, the drawback of talent is that there are a lot of people who have it enough to do any given part. Connections is probably the most important thing you can have in the industry. This is why you see people with no talent in movies, and why one talented individual gets chosen over the 100 other talented individuals. School is one outlet to give you connections, but understand that it's a 100k investment to get connections. Anything else you learn there you could learn by just doing acting gigs. I would recommend seriously looking at whether you believe you will get 100k worth of connections out of your school.
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Mar 3, 2013 21:52
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I'm graduating medical school this year and we just got our exit counseling but I'm still confused about some details. First off, I'm $205K in debt, the breakdown is: Direct Stafford Unsubsidized $113,390 Direct Stafford Subsidized $17,000 Direct Plus Graduate $34,450 Stafford Unsubsidized $32,000 Stafford Subsidized $8,500 (All serviced through FedLoan) I want to start paying this off immediately after the grace period without going into forbearance. I need a good strategy to make it work since I will be making ~50K per year in residency. When the counselor was presenting to us, she mentioned a new payment plan called "Pay As You Earn" which appealed to me, but she said that it was only for Direct Loans so I would have to consolidate my Grad Plus loans so that I could qualify. So would that mean I have to consolidate all my loans that I listed above? One of the qualifications for PAYE is having a partial financial hardship (Would I qualify since my loans>income?) Plus, there is a 20 year forgiveness plan. Would I have to stay under "Pay as you Earn" repayment option this whole time? If I switch to Standard repayment when I start making more money, would the forgiveness plan apply to me? Thanks for this thread. This is a very confusing process. I appreciate it!
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Mar 3, 2013 22:08
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baquerd posted:Just realize it is overwhelmingly likely you will be paying 15% of your income minus the poverty line for 25 years. To realistically pay the entire loan back before that time you're going to need to be making six figures for decades on end, because unless you happen to land that amount within the first three years right out of school, the interest is going to absolutely kill you. And your spouse's income if you ever get married! 
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Mar 3, 2013 22:11
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Tyro posted:And your spouse's income if you ever get married! Filing separately in that case would be a very good idea. That said, unless you or your spouse attribute some special spiritual or emotional equity to marriage, the only marriages that make sense involve kids or equal partnerships where you believe in your partner's ability to secure financial gains despite short term losses. Marriage with regard to finances is a business decision at its heart, anything else you make of it the government really doesn't give a poo poo about.
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Mar 3, 2013 23:28
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Pandybear posted:I'm graduating medical school this year and we just got our exit counseling but I'm still confused about some details. The "Pay As You Earn" program has similar qualifications as the IBR program, and does include the PLUS loans if they are made to you personally and not your parents. It does not include your Stafford loans in the repayment plan, but does include them under the annual loan payments due. Under this program, you will pay the lesser of 10% of (income - poverty line), or the monthly payment on your loans under a 10 year repayment and a 20 year forgiveness if all payments are made. It is in this sense entirely preferable to the IBR repayment plan if you don't have the Stafford loans. quote:When the counselor was presenting to us, she mentioned a new payment plan called "Pay As You Earn" which appealed to me, but she said that it was only for Direct Loans so I would have to consolidate my Grad Plus loans so that I could qualify. So would that mean I have to consolidate all my loans that I listed above? http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/pay-as-you-earn says otherwise, unless your PLUS loans were made to your parents. quote:One of the qualifications for PAYE is having a partial financial hardship (Would I qualify since my loans>income?) Unequivocally yes. You need to be making roughly $208k/year given your current debt to not qualify. quote:Plus, there is a 20 year forgiveness plan. Would I have to stay under "Pay as you Earn" repayment option this whole time? If I switch to Standard repayment when I start making more money, would the forgiveness plan apply to me? You will remain under the PAYE plan once you are in it, without exception unless you voluntarily switch to a standard repayment plan. If you switch, the forgiveness plan will no longer apply to you.
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Mar 3, 2013 23:58
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Once I send in the paperwork and have my lender transferred ill be off rehabilitation and able to pay off one loan in full.  One down, two to go. Now to decide if its worth it to pay off the other two super aggressively or try for rehabilitation on the other two for maximum credit repair. Thoughts?
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Mar 6, 2013 22:08
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Congrats! Here's to getting them paid off ASAP! I have heard that for credit reporting, it's better to go through rehabilitation. However, I've heard that from guarantors, who want you to go through rehabilitation. It would be best to call them directly and ask. Either way the reporting stays on your credit, however one reflects that you went through rehab and the other doesn't. I am honestly not sure if one is better than the other.
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Mar 8, 2013 02:34
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Decided to pop in to this thread and add some input. For those who don't know, I work for a student loan servicer. Also, I comment on this, but if your loans get transferred from Direct Loans or ACS and you have auto debit set up, CANCEL IT ONCE YOUR LOAN IS TRANSFERRED. They have been pulling payments still and it is a pain in the rear end to get money back from them.SaltLick posted:Once I send in the paperwork and have my lender transferred ill be off rehabilitation and able to pay off one loan in full. REHABILITATE YOUR LOANS, DO IT. If you just pay off your loans, you will still have a default mark for 7 years on your credit which is a killer. Pandybear posted:I'm graduating medical school this year and we just got our exit counseling but I'm still confused about some details. The big prequalifier that no one knows about with PAYE is that you have to not have any loans that were disbursed prior to 2008, and have had loans that were disbursed after 2011. If you qualify for PAYE, your servicer should automatically put you into PAYE as it in the plan that is in your best interests. Sexy Flanders posted:So, I graduated last May and my loans began entering into repayment late last year. As I am broke and Nelnet and ACS wanted a combined $800 a month I decided to consolidate under the income based plan. No worries on that front, I received all my paperwork and start payments in April. My problem is that ACS has started calling and saying that I'm past due. They claim that I have private loans that don't consolidate. I checked the financial aid website and I don't see any record of them, although I've been told that they might not show up there (?). I've kept okay records of my loans and don't have any statements matching the amounts they claim I owe, even accounting for interest. My sophomore year I received at least one letter a month for nearly a year telling me that my student loans had been sold to a new financial institution, this was during the financial meltdown in 08-09. I now have a fear that I might be paying for the same loan twice due to some sort of clerical error. I've heard that you can ask for debt verification and if they can't provide documentation that the debt is invalid, would this work in my case? I'm not looking to duck what I owe, I'm genuinely worried that I don't owe them this money. Thanks. Check NSLDS and then call Nelnet. ACS has been having... issues with transfers and still thinking that you owe a balance to them and then pulling automatic debit payments for loans that they do not have. When your loans get transferred, call your old servicer and cancel your auto debit especially if your loans are at Direct Loans or ACS, I am serious. In either case though, loans can duplicate sometimes, but it is something that can be fixed. I know this, because I've fixed issues like this. Binary posted:I consolidated some loans from Sallie Mae to Nelnet a while back. After the loans transferred over I had an overpay to Sallie Mae that sat on the account for about two months, then they claim that it went to Nelnet. I want to confirm this balance transfer myself, but Nelnet's online payment history does not show information like this and their online email support has not been very helpful. The responses I get seem to range between me needing to contact Sallie Mae (I already have, they said it's been transferred) to apparently not really reading my question. Anyone have to deal with this before? Would calling them be any more helpful? With over payments, you need to allow 60-90 days for the payments to be transferred. That being said, trust me when I say that it will not show up on the website. Call in and ask if there's anything on your account that reflects an SDC overpayment.
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Mar 8, 2013 04:22
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I have some Direct Loans from a while ago that I consolidated at a fixed 2.75% I am now looking at some grad school opportunities but do not want to tamper with that very favorable interest rate on the old loans. If I take any other loans out that end up being part of the federal programs will I be able to keep that old loan discrete (and keep its low interest)?
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Mar 8, 2013 04:56
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FRINGE posted:I have some Direct Loans from a while ago that I consolidated at a fixed 2.75% I am now looking at some grad school opportunities but do not want to tamper with that very favorable interest rate on the old loans. Yep, you can still keep the old loans and interest rate, no problem.
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Mar 8, 2013 05:16
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Turns out my other two loans were private by SM so no rehabilitation for me. Ah well. There are two offers that I'm being given by the collection agency(Integrity Financial).First is an offer of having my interest bumped down to essential 0% which for a loan sitting at 10% is pretty enticing. The other offer is a lump settlement of 12,000 of the loans total of 17,000. What are the chances of being able to maybe bump that lower and/or fight for a pay for delete. If I can haggle to 50% settlement that'd be peachy keen. Is pay for delete even possible since they aren't "technically" government student loan?
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Mar 8, 2013 05:29
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SaltLick posted:Turns out my other two loans were private by SM so no rehabilitation for me. Ah well. There are two offers that I'm being given by the collection agency(Integrity Financial).First is an offer of having my interest bumped down to essential 0% which for a loan sitting at 10% is pretty enticing. The other offer is a lump settlement of 12,000 of the loans total of 17,000. You can go far far far less than 50%. Here's the formula to use: Ignore all interest and fees. Subtract the amount you have paid so far from the initial amount borrowed. Offer about 30% of that and be willing to go up to 50%. It will be in lump settlement, and do not simply sign the paperwork, it's full of loopholes. By the time it gets to someone willing to bargain and make a settlement, they just want to get you off their books. You can add your own clause for what amounts to a pay for delete and then challenge the reporting using that document. Poof, they're gone like they never existed. If for whatever reason SLM still stands behind them, they are in violation of the agreement and you need to ensure that there are very heavy penalties for them. My method was treble the settlement amount, plus legal fees, plus actual damages if they violated. In trade, my penalty would have been forfeiting the settlement and reinstating the full amount. Oh, and if you get a good deal, some rear end in a top hat down the line WILL try to get you to commit a technical violation. Never deal with them on anything ever again following settlement. You will want it signed by an authority figure at SLM and notarized. And that's a thing that you hang onto forever. If you have evidence regarding any illegal poo poo they have done or threats they have made over the years, this is where that leverage comes into play. For every easy $1000 victory, feel free to knock off another $500. Because this is the only chance you get. Anything you sign will waive your rights to sue, so here's where you get your money's worth.
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Mar 8, 2013 06:54
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So, I was in a rough spot financially out of school ($7000 AGI-kind-of-rough), so I signed up for IBR because $60,000 in loans came to about $700/month for me. As soon as I did this (qualified for $0 payments - i realize the downsides to this, trust me), I finally got a job where I now will be making $55,000 a year. What's to stop me from using this one year to make aggressive payments specifically to the highest interest unsubsidized loans while the government pays the interest on the subsidized ones, until they recalculate my income and figure out that this no longer applies to me (but at that point I'll be able to afford it)?
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Mar 8, 2013 15:50
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toxicsunset posted:So, I was in a rough spot financially out of school ($7000 AGI-kind-of-rough), so I signed up for IBR because $60,000 in loans came to about $700/month for me. As soon as I did this (qualified for $0 payments - i realize the downsides to this, trust me), I finally got a job where I now will be making $55,000 a year. Absolutely nothing, do it! In $0 IBR payments, the government will pay the interest on your subsidized loans no matter how much you pay.
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Mar 8, 2013 19:07
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Effexxor posted:Absolutely nothing, do it! In $0 IBR payments, the government will pay the interest on your subsidized loans no matter how much you pay. This is what I thought, but it felt like gaming the system somehow. I realize my circumstances are extraordinarily unusual though so hey.
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Mar 8, 2013 19:24
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toxicsunset posted:This is what I thought, but it felt like gaming the system somehow. I realize my circumstances are extraordinarily unusual though so hey. Gaming systems as hard and and often as possible is how people get rich.
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Mar 8, 2013 19:42
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Starting to wish I stumbled across this thread earlier  A little back story here. I have about 33.5k in both subsidized and unsubsidized direct loans as well as some $2500 in interest that I defaulted on. Part of that is I'm a giant idiot and didn't fully explore my options. The other part is that I couldn't pay for my final semester of classes for almost a whole year and so had extreme difficulty landing a job without a complete transcript. A very kind friend eventually loaned me the $8000 I needed and I got a good job within two months of that. The very first thing I did was aggressively pay back my friend even though we signed a two year repayment agreement (it wrecked me pretty bad to take so much from a friend and he's in grad school). Unfortunately, my loans assumed I graduated when I was done with classes and not when I actually received my degree and well I didn't pay too much attention to my grace period because I had no money to start with, so yeah, huge mistake. I've already contacted the DoE and reached repayment terms, I owe $375 a month and I made my first payment yesterday to start the rehabilitation process. So far my plan is to pay at least $400 a month, but I went for a lower monthly term that I could fall back on for emergencies. Now this is where I can use some advice and guidance. 1) In four months I will be moving out of my dad's apartment to live with a friend. Currently my only monthly expense is gas and whatever extras I want or need so I can easily make double payments or up to $1000 a month on my loans. The rest I don't spend will go towards my savings. As far as I know this will not speed up the rehab process, but it will pay my loans off faster and might look nicer to the DoE, I guess? However! I only have $2000 in savings and could optionally use the extra income for the next four months to expand on my fall-back savings up to ~15-20% of my yearly income. So, should I aggressively pay on my loans now even if it's only four months? Or use this time to build up a better savings? For what it's worth, I have a stable job (so does my future roommate) and can maintain $400 monthly payments when I move out. 2) What options can I explore now or once my loans are rehabilitated? Currently, I have several smaller loans split up to about 11k in subsidized and 22k in unsubsidized. Off head, it's in 2k, 4k, 5k, 5k, 7k, and 7k chunks or the whereabouts. Should I consolidate these? Is that possible to do during the rehab process? Alternatively, should I target the lowest/highest loans first while making minimum payments for interest on the others? Again, I'm not sure if that's possible during the rehab process since the myeddebt website showed it as a lump sum.
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Mar 9, 2013 02:18
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This is a pre-sob sob story, so I'm really just looking for an opinion or outlook rather than hard and fast answers I have about $6500 in federal student loans from the disaster that was Virginia Tech from 2002-2004. I went into default on those for a long time because I was poor as a miser's ghost, but in 2010 I finally started paying them back, got the amount down to where it is now, and went back to school lucky me. Now I've graduated from my 2-year school and am trying to transfer to a 4-year school. The only one I've been accepted to as of now is Columbia University, which is great and all but carries a significant price tag: $60k a year for 2 1/2 - 3 years, of which the school will cover about $10k and federal loans will take care of ~$12k. After some other garbage I'll need around $35k /year in private, scary-stranger-on-the-street loans, because I have no personal wealth. Like zero, seriously. I know nothing (and no one I know knows anything) about private student loans, so I guess I'm just asking for whatever you got. Do I have a chance of any banking institution in the US forking over fistfuls of dollars with fishhooks embedded inside them? I have a few people who would cosign with me (elderly relatives, friends who make a meager amount of money a year), but I don't know if that will make any difference. I've applied to other schools around my area, but most are either private or public but out-of-state, so my yearly loan amount might go down by 10k at most (or maybe nothing if they don't offer a similar scholarship amount). Does a bank care about an additional 10k/year? I'm so scared and lost!
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Mar 24, 2013 11:05
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I will let the real pros handle this, but, you had better be really loving sure that an undergrad degree is worth it for $60,000 a year. You better be paying for Colombia rich-man networking, because the actual education is not likely to be worth literally double what the other schools offer... Crunch out your monthly payments on that 180,000 after that undergrad degree and see how you feel. 180,000 should see you through med school, law school, or a phd.
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Mar 24, 2013 11:37
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If you're as poor as you say you are, you need to nag Columbia much, much harder for free money. They have it, they're probably just playing chicken to see if you'll pony up first. I'm at a similarly expensive school but only have subsidized Federal loans.(e: meaning the rest is aid, not private loans) It took dozens of trips to the financial aid office... E: I can't promise this will work if you don't have a track record of being awesome, though. I have some classmates who ended up in the $50-70k(+?) debt scenario. If you're in NYC, don't disregard CUNY. Hunter is infinitely cheaper. ALSO, If you're looking at Columbia's "night school" (can't remember the name now, but it's a separate program for non-traditional students), find out whether or not your degree will be the same as "regular" students and if the networking opportunities are the same. The students at my university's night school don't get nearly the same opportunities as the regular students, and their degree specifies that they attended the night school. Man, I keep rereading your post and finding more things to worry about-- you say the school will cover $10k and loans will cover $10k. If you're really a non-trad (24+) student with little to no income or assets, you should be getting at least $10k in Federal/state aid. Are you mistaking Pell Grants, FSEOG, state grants for institutional aid(i.e., aid from Columbia itself)? Because it's a real bad sign if Columbia is not offering you ANY aid from its own coffers. Is $60k just tuition, or tuition + living expenses? You don't need to live in a Columbia dorm, there are much cheaper places to live in NYC. hitension fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 13:18
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EQFiddleCastrol posted:I know nothing (and no one I know knows anything) about private student loans, so I guess I'm just asking for whatever you got. Do I have a chance of any banking institution in the US forking over fistfuls of dollars with fishhooks embedded inside them? I have a few people who would cosign with me (elderly relatives, friends who make a meager amount of money a year), but I don't know if that will make any difference. I've applied to other schools around my area, but most are either private or public but out-of-state, so my yearly loan amount might go down by 10k at most (or maybe nothing if they don't offer a similar scholarship amount). Does a bank care about an additional 10k/year? I'm so scared and lost! If you weren't able to handle a low amount of federal loans then you should avoid private loans like the plague. With federal loans, you can at least put them in IBR to avoid default. Private loans do not have any safety mechanisms and are just as non-dischargeable as federal loans. Ask yourself, how will your life as a poor person be any different with a $60k Columbia undergraduate degree? Do you have connections to adequate employment? Are you good friends with rich students who can set you up with networking opportunities? I'm not saying that to be smarmy since I'm from a poor family and made the mistake of going to a private graduate school, but it's something that you seriously need to consider. Go to a cheaper in-state school if possible.
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Mar 24, 2013 14:46
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EQFiddleCastrol posted:This is a pre-sob sob story, so I'm really just looking for an opinion or outlook rather than hard and fast answers Either get them to shell out more, or look elsewhere for a school that's not going to ruin your life. Basically no undergrad degree is worth $180k unless it's some magical field that has a guaranteed high-paying job at the end of the rainbow.
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Mar 24, 2013 17:04
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I just realized I missed this year's FAFSA deadline by a good month. Next year, I'll be in the terminal year of my graduate program at the U of Washington. Aside from federal aid, what are my options to pay for this last year?
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Mar 24, 2013 17:33
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Wow guys, thanks for all the responses! I'll see if I can fill in some holes. Firstly I completely forgot about Pell grant money. That would turn each yearly private loan to something like $30k. Not a big change, but every little bit I guess... Secondly, I was accepted to the School of General Studies, which is for non-traditional students (like hitension mentioned). They make a strong point of repeating that it's the same degree from the same faculty with the same blah blah whatevers, it's just the way you enter the school that's different (different applicant pool and some other stuff). Because I'm coming in through the School of General Studies and not Columbia College I get boned on money. CC essentially pays for 100% of tuition for students who can't afford it. GS is waaaaaaaay less important to the school and so their scholarships are merit-based, not need-based. It starts at 10k when I enter. I don't know what the upper limit on it is (edit: I checked and the max seems to be 18k). Thirdly, I'm aiming for a research and teaching position at a university. I know that the market right now isn't too hot, which is one of the only reasons I would consider such an exorbitantly expensive school. A B.A. from Columbia would mean an easier time getting into a good M.D. or Ph.D. program (with more grant money hopefully), which means a way better chance of actually getting a job in this niche field. Finally, I didn't get accepted anywhere else. I should say that I applied to only two schools last summer, University of Maryland (College Park) and Columbia. Only got into Columbia. Deferred for a semester to soak up some more scholarship money at the community college I'm attending and give me some time to prepare. Applied to a bunch of different schools, but most are either almost as expensive (Georgetown, UVA and William and Mary out-of-state) or spell doom for my career (I'm not teaching anywhere with a B.A. from University of Maryland Baltimore County). I really hosed up at Tech, my GPA from there is like a 1.31 or something, when I was a Computer Science major. Since I went back to school in 2011 my GPA has remained at 4.0 and I've gotten awards from departments and conferences and poo poo, but Columbia was the only school (so far) who didn't just look at my cum gpa and say "ehhhhhh no thanks." That puts me in a weird position where a public school that gets tons of applications may not have the time to look past my gpa, where private schools might. Pretty sucky. End Note: The reason I defaulted on my loans for so long is stupid family bullshit. Once I stopped getting jerked around and got even a minimum wage job, I started making payments easily. It's really too bad, since if I had been able to work that whole time I would have the thing paid off by now. Yes that number contains room and board (dorms, no meal plans obviously). I don't know squat about NYC housing so I'm in the wind for that, but a dorm for $600 a month doesn't seem that bad to me. Like I said though, totally clueless! EQFiddleCastrol fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 20:33
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A general reminder that schools make money on debt in more than one way. I had this saved from an old D+D thread. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/credit-card-contracts-show-how-colleges-can-profit-from-student-debt/24609 quote:Credit-Card Contracts Show How Colleges Can Profit From Student Debt
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Mar 25, 2013 00:55
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Holy cow, Master Stur, I'm so sorry! I honestly thought I'd answered your question. Please don't hesitate to PM me if there's a delay! Anyway, for your questions: I recommend consolidation when the following will help - a lower payment and a fixed interest rate, and/or having one servicer (when you have multiple servicers). If you can afford payments without consoidation, it's generally best to just leave them be uness you're looking to fix an interest rate. As for rehab, the DoE honestly won't care how much you pay, they just care that you do. What they like is for the loans to be paid off, so if you can pay them off sooner, that's best for everyone. Also, Direct used to be able to consolidate loans even during rehab, so if you want to go that route you can check them out and see if that's still a service they offer! EQFiddleCastrol, do not garner that much financial aid without seriously putting some thought into it. First of all, the default on your credit report will likely prevent you from taking out private loans regardless, but much more importantly that is way, way too much money and I beg of you not to do it if you can help it. Take a year off if you need to, find a job related to what you want to do (internship or straight job), work it and gain the experience. Anything but taking on that much debt. Leon Sumbitches, are you talking about the 12-13 or the 13-14 FAFSA? The 13-14 is still wide open, so you can still apply.
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Mar 25, 2013 01:37
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Wiggy Marie posted:Holy cow, Master Stur, I'm so sorry! I honestly thought I'd answered your question. Please don't hesitate to PM me if there's a delay! Oh! I saw a Feb. 28 deadline on some departmental paperwork, so I assumed I had missed it.
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Mar 25, 2013 04:14
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Most schools have a "priority" FAFSA deadline, which means they'll prioritize FAFSAs received before that date, but otherwise you should be fine!
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Mar 26, 2013 00:46
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I posted earlier regarding medical school loans. My servicer is fed loan and they denied my request for Pay As You Earn because "Your Federal Family Education Loan Program loans are not eligible for PAYE." I understand I'm supposed to have direct loans... So is there anyway I can change these loans? If so, how? Thanks!
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Mar 28, 2013 20:30
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