Any suggestions for loans?

4EVERresearchin
Tue, 06 May 2008 12:34:23 +0000

Make sure you go directly to the lenders’ websites for the latest origination fees and interest rates. Carefully compare origination fees, interest rates, whether interest rates are subsidized, and dates repayments begin. (I’m getting my grad school loan from a recommended nonprofit that charges zero fees and subsidizes Stafford loans 1% at repayment. Maybe there’s a nonprofit in New York that does something similar.) Use an online calculator to figure out your repayment obligations while she’s in school and after she graduates. Assuming she goes full-time and graduates May 2012, some repayments (home-related loans, maybe PLUS loans, etc.) kick in immediately or within two months. Others will kick in around November of 2012 (6 months after graduation for Stafford), and others around February 2013 (9 months after graduation for Perkins). Especially notice how those payments will differ based on her consumer and housing choices now. The difference between a 9,030 dorm and a 12,850 residence hall adds up to 15,280 over four years plus interest until paid back. Dining costs between the two options may not differ much if your daughter is like mine and is too busy to cook as much as she would like. U-Hall has a kitchen and the most desirable location for our daughter (Tisch/Stella Adler), but she thinks she will be just as happy in a dorm. Either is fine, but in 2013 she would rather have money to pay for her first apartment rather than help us pay back a loan for a residence hall that’s history. Housing choice and summer work are helping us keep loans to a bare minimum, and we only expect her to pitch in a small amount toward loan repayment to have some skin in the game. (Did I just use a sports metaphor? Wow. Having a daughter at a performing arts school has meant never having to listen to sports metaphors, so where did that come from!?)
Make sure your daughter remembers to carry at least 16 points per semester to retain her scholarships.
I found it very helpful to jot down a timeline of all this coming and going of money. Double check me on any details you find useful because we’re all just moving through this anaconda of a learning curve together. Thanks everyone for the helpful advice I’ve gotten on this site over the past two years. Hope this helps.