I'm going to a different school starting fall and it costs more than the one I've been going to the past 2 years so I filed financial aid, but it won't cover the whole amount. I need to pull out a student loan but what everyone has been telling me to do because I'll be going to school 40 hours a week and won't be able to work as much is to make the loan amount bigger so I have enough to live off of the next 18 months till I finish school.

Basically I'm a noob, never pulled out a student loan. What do I gotta watch for, how do I pull out a bigger amount.

any help is greatly appreciated.

 

I have one from Citibank. Just make sure you have a co-signer with good credit, that way you'll have a lower interest.

 

I was wondering this too since I would be going to school full time at CSUF and wouldn't be working. Not sure how you would go about getting a larger amount. I think depending on your credit bracket you're given a certain amount, but if you request more loan money obviously the APR will be higher.

Is there no one at your current school or new school who can help you?

 

Yes sir, usually wells fargo is good with interest rates. BUt like ricexizgood or w/e said, get a good co-signer. And for your question about how much to take out. If you take out more than you need...tahts that much more u gotta pay back with interest. On the other hand, it relieves you from having to work so much and therefore getting better grades and getting a better job in the future.

Good luck.

 

I'm going to meet with my student aid person next Thursday. I'm gonna talk to her about it I guess and see what she says. I'll keep you posted chelsDS.

Basically I have to find out what financial aid will cover, subtract that from 25k and then find out how much money I'll need for the duration of the school.

So I can go directly to a bank and tell them I need a student loan?

 

Most schools can help you with getting financial aid. When I went to DeVry, the Financial Aid Department offered me all kinds of assistance to get student loans and grants.

This doesn't work for everyone, but my recommendation is to take some time off from school and work until you can afford all of your remaining tuition. I did a one-year stint at community college, then I took two years off to work a full-time job with lots of overtime, filling my savings account with every penny I could find. Once I was confident I had a nice chunk of money behind me, I went to university for a couple of years and funded the endeavour solely with cash and credit cards. Most importantly, I graduated with zero debt. A lot of people graduate with so much student loan debt that they are stuck paying it off for many years to come.

Whatever you do, I don't recommend working and going to school at the same time. Even if you are a good multitasker, you should definitely be focusing 100% of your effort on school right now, because it will definitely pay off in the future. Don't try to juggle work and school, because your grades will suffer and you will pay for that in your future career. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA for my B.S. and now I am a Systems Analyst for Boeing.

 

My JC is pretty crap-tastic with helping students find out information about student aid whether its FAFSA or bank loans. I would LOVE to work full time and sock away all the money I make for college, but frankly I can't do that. :?

rr: Please do update me on what you're told about this I've changed my mind to go to Cal Poly Pomona now and in order to go to that school I'd need to move out lol. So thats even more expenses on my plate than going to CSUF. Going to try and see if I can get something useful out of my own Financial Aid people at my JC. :?

 

^ Get as many units out of your JC as you possibly can. You're probably doing that already, but not everyone does. The general ed classes at a JC/CC are just as good as university classes, and they count just the same when you transfer the units over. For me, it was a case of paying $20/unit at my community college or ~$500/unit at my university, so I stayed at college for as long as possible until they kicked me out. You can usually do about 70 units of your 4-year degree at a college before you have to transfer out.

 

Oh yea I'm definitely sticking with my JC to complete my GE and lower division classes. Why pay an outrageous amount at a four year when you can get them done at a JC for much less? Then again I've screwed around for the past 5 years since graduating HS and I have 74ish units completed with my last GE class ending this week. Going to stick around to fall at my JC then transfer out to a 4 year in spring 09.

rawr!

 

Hmm, well I am currently paying off my student loans now-- but I went to USC for all 4 years so I had to take out a buttload of loans--

Basically, I had a co-borrower (my mom) and she has good credit,-- so I was able to take out substantially large loans each year. I took the amount of tuition + room and board and subtracted the amount of financial aid and grants I got—the leftover is how much of a loan I requested to take out and I always got it without a problem. If I had rounded up a bit, Bank of America would just adjust it to the exact amount needed.


With that said, I went through Bank of America but Bank of America sold my loans to AES (American Education Services). So each month, my payments do not go to B of A, but rather to AES.

I took out a smaller loan as well at a really low fixed interest rate (It was part of the financial aid from USC) through Sallie Mae as well, and I actually do make the payments for that loan to Sallie Mae directly.

Also—the interest rate when I first took out my first loan for school was like 4% but by the time I graduated the interest rate had climbed to 7.9%!!!!!!!!! So, with that said, each payment I make a month……..well let’s just say that 75% of it goes to interest alone and only 25% (if even) goes to the balance of the loan

I'll be paying off loans for like 10-15 years...a long 10-15 years (Oh geez I'll be like 32-37 when I'm done! AHHHH!)...unless I magically come across some big money...which I doubt will happen

 

Yea that is one thing that is really bad about student loans, no matter how much you take out, the interest acrued will always kick you in the **** when you get out of college. It's sickening in a way that they take advantage of you when you need the funds to go to school :?

Eh, I'll have to go in to debt for Pomona anyways.. haha

 

^ Yeahhh, I just refuse to look at remaining balance-- I'll look again in like 5 years to see what happened hahahaa

And even then I'll probably still be like "What the hell!??!?!?! I've been paying 5 years and I only knocked off like $500 off the balance!?!? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

haha

 

IntegreS, you work at Scion/Toyota, right? Is that the building right next to the 405 freeway?

 

Yep! That's the one-- 190th and Western Ave!

 

Nice, I drive by there every day.

 

my student loands were through nelnet