Calling all R3v student loan gurus.

[lambo]

I wouldn't say they want to loan you money but they do make bank off of interest so if they think you can re-pay they wanna give it to you. Yes you can file to become financially independent. My friend had to do that because his parents although being separated, combined they made too much money for him to recive aid. Be careful though you'd talk it over with your schools financial aid office

From what I was told it is insanely difficult for someone under the age of 24 to file as independent barring extreme circumstances.

Just a quick piggy back, if you don't mind Joe... Is 30k in private student loans going to be, relatively, simple to pay back if I'm living rent free making approx 60k a year? This is the first time I'll have to take out loans and I'm having some anxiety...

[evandael]

^ yes, that will be incredibly easy.

will you land a $60K job fresh out of school and still want to live with your parents? that's not so easy.

[IronFreak]

^^ Agreed, you'll be ok. Rule of thumb, as long as your debt to income ratio isn't higher you shouldn't have an issue paying the amount in 10 years.....I suggest you do it sooner.

[IronFreak]

OP, do you take out any sub or un-subsidized loans? I didn't come close to qualifying for grants or parental loans....I'm 29. So I went that route.

[lambo]

^ yes, that will be incredibly easy.

will you land a $60K job fresh out of school and still want to live with your parents? that's not so easy.

I hear you there, it's hard even for the summer. But, my chances at this company are extremely high and even if I'm just working as the higher level intern I'll be making close to that with overtime. I just want to get to debt free living ASAP...

[rwh11385]

My FASFA Parent PLUS loan was just denied because my dads credit is too bad.

KU has already granted me the max in other loans/grants, but it obviously isn't enough.

Are there any other loan types anyone has been successful with if you have a parent with poor credit, no other co-signer, and a very limited credit history yourself?

That stinks. Are you sure there are no one else that can co-sign? If so, you could get a private loan. I'd recommend Discover Student Loans. (2% gift at graduation) If you had good credit, it'd be no problem sadly.

Are you sure you can't survive without the loan? Get a job on the side? Work-study program? Scholarships? Sell you car?

More importantly, if you NEED the loan to get by, have you checked if your unsubsidized federal direct loans can be increased?

http://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized

Third-Year and Beyond Undergraduate Annual Loan Limit

Dependent Students (except students whose parents are unable to obtain PLUS Loans): $7,500—No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.

Independent Students (and dependent undergraduate students whose parents are unable to obtain PLUS Loans): $12,500—No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans.

That's $7000 more in potential loans direct to you that may not have been available when you were trying to get the PLUS Loan.

Private student loans are typically MUCH higher % than gov't backed loans.

I wouldn't make any assumptions, it depends on the student and also the current prime rate. Recently, the variable rate private loans have been pretty competitive. Mine are 4% which is better than all unsubsidized loans and lower than all but a couple of years of subsidized loans. Plus, the PLUS loans are 7.9% with a 4% loan origination fee at distribution. Compare that to https://www.discover.com/student-loa...est-rates.html which goes down to Prime +0% (which would be 3.25% currently). And has zero fees IIRC

^ True, although the Gov't back loans are going up too, interest rates on them just doubled.

That's not wholly accurate. The interest rate on a minority of loans for students who get subsidized loans doubled from its temporarily low levels that only existed for a couple of years... but the interest doesn't even build until after graduation anyway, so the actual difference made is minimal. The news media love making a mountain out of an anthill.

You could go with private loans like salliemae but it will be around 9% interest or so.

Holy smokes. Discover doesn't even go that high (right now with the current prime rate). The highest Discover would be right is 8.25% (prime + 5%).

isn't their other options for the FASFA loans? Never herd of the parent one. Just claim independent and I think they give it to you. Then you have a 6 month grace period after you graduate before you have to start paying.

Why did you participate in this thread - did you read the title even? And also, there*, heard*, and no - they don't just "give it to you" unless you're married or of age. My friends who tried to go that route had a lot of paperwork to prove independence.

From what I was told it is insanely difficult for someone under the age of 24 to file as independent barring extreme circumstances.

^This

[Thizzelle]

^ you're a douche.
I got same loan and claimed independent. I didn't have to fill out a shit load of paper work. this was 7 years ago

[Q5Quint]

I ended up with about half 2.8% subsidized and half 5% unsubsidized sallie mae loans. Graduated in 2008 and still have about 12k left.

My advice: Dont get a loan. Make SURE to talk to your schools financial and admissions people so they do not think you are dropping out and you have to re-apply. Take a semester and work part time while take one or two classes. Try and work part time as an internship for whatevertheheck you are trying to do. You will get way more experience that way and be a much better hire than a kid with no work experience.

You can go to trade shows and get in super cheap/free if you are a 'student'. In the big-boy world that $800 admissions ticket will be hard to swallow after graduation and you are no longer 'a student'. You are still showing up with copies of your resume looking for future jobs, one is just a year early and much cheaper than the other.

I wish I had done this instead of blowing up 25k of loan debt that costs 250-350 per month... especially when I made almost the same amount of money before I even went to school.

Make sure to talk to admissions and the loan people and work out a deal. It makes the school look bad when you drop out.

[rwh11385]

^ you're a douche.
I got same loan and claimed independent. I didn't have to fill out a shit load of paper work. this was 7 years ago

You got what same loan? The Federal Parent PLUS loan that Joe G was talking about that you never heard of?

How old are you now? How old were you 7 years ago? Was it 24?

Because I know when my friends filled for independent status, they had to prove financial division from their parents as well as being limited in the amount of days they could be back home (they wanted to see the student not move back during breaks).

And yet... you say you lived at home during school, so kind of hard to believe you were independent:

this is also my situation but i did find a job in my career feild after i was a shofer driver for a week, so now debt is going down. Also went to junior college and did all my GE and a few classes for my major, all for free because of scholorship and living at home.

Hmmmmm.

[fanboi]

Heres my latest experience with student loans, if it helps anyone. But first keep in mind classic R3v people, this is MY experience and only mine. I live in AZ so it may be different other places. Also I am going to community college because my damn GPA isnt good enough (yet) for Northern Arizona University.

My birthdate is 09/19/1989. Currently I am 23 years old but because my birthday is in september and I will be 24 by the end of the year i got to file as an independant. Another thing is my EFC, its only 02425. That means I qualify for the pell grant and because I am only taking 6 Credit hours this semester I can take half the pell grant. More than enough to cover my tuition and books. This is at 81.00 per credit hour. Even if I took the full 12 credits I could take the entire pell grant and still be covered for tuition and books.

This may help some of you and may not. Just my RECENT experience with financial aid. I have had to learn a lot about it because i have taken lots of classes in the past and now getting back to it.

[Thizzelle]

Yes I got federal student loan not the parent one. If you read I said "Also went to junior college and did all my GE and a few classes for my major, all for free because of scholarship and living at home." you can't get a BS in junior college so obviously I would have moved on. Do I need to explain ever little tid bit? Also first post doesn't say he is living with parents.

[Thizzelle]

also have claimed independence on other things while living at home. I would always ask when filling out paper work for government stuff, they would just say "do you pay for your own stuff?" I'd say yes, so they would tell me to claim independent because my parents didn't pay for any of my stuff except for food and housing when growing up. Not my fault if they are giving me false info, I'm asking the people who work there and do the paper work, I would hope they know what they are talking about.

[rwh11385]

also have claimed independence on other things while living at home. I would always ask when filling out paper work for government stuff, they would just say "do you pay for your own stuff?" I'd say yes, so they would tell me to claim independent because my parents didn't pay for any of my stuff except for food and housing when growing up. Not my fault if they are giving me false info, I'm asking the people who work there and do the paper work, I would hope they know what they are talking about.

Oh, so you scamming the system is habit? Might not want to recommend other people put down false information though... regardless of if you got away with it. More importantly, being ignorant of the law is not a defense for breaking it.

Unless you are Dave Chappelle's friend Chip.

[evandael]

i didn't know i couldn't do that, (college financial aid) officer.

[Thizzelle]

be sad then, how is that scamming if I asked what to do? I asked government working people, who do the paper work and that's what they told me, so fuck off. Obviously it's allowed