Federal loans, what??

mom2collegekids
Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:34:23 +0000

*The interest alone the first year of the parent’s $23K plus loan will be more than half of the student’s EFC, which the OP posted on another thread as being $3535. I don’t understand how the parent could even qualify for that loan, much less want to take it on. *

that is always what I find interesting. Often the same low-income family that can’t even really pay their EFC will sign up for loans that will require monthly payments that annually would be much higher than their EFC.

And, these same families never seem to do the math and realize that taking out these big loans is not a one time thing. For 4 straight years they have to re-qualify and borrow more money. Do these people really think they will qualify (and can pay back) $80k+ total in loans?

That said, I do think that the qualifying process for Parent Plus needs to be more stringent so this merry-go-round doesn’t even do a first turn. It’s sad to see such families qualify for year one and then get denied for year two. At that point, the student has to leave the school but the burden of the debt remains.