Financial Aid - TERRIBLE idea?

cptofthehouse
Fri, 01 May 2009 17:46:48 +0000

Until you complete the FAFSA for which you will need your custodial parent’s financial information (parents if your parent is married). You will then get an EFC (expected family contribution) based on your parents’ and your income and assets for the year ending 12/31 /2008. If the number is low enough, you could qualify for PELL grant money which tops out at about $5K. If your EFC is less than the schools cost of attendance (COA) then you would qualify for subsidized loans. Otherwise, all you are guaranteed is nonsubsidized loans. I don’t remember the limit for students in their last two years of college, but it is not going to be the amounts you are talking about.

Unless your specific college comes up with some money out of its own coffers, or if your state has some loan/grant programs available for which you qualify, it’s going to be tough for you to come up with $15K in money. Even in loans to YOU. Usually after the Stafford limits, the loans either have to be guaranteed by an adult, which seems to me would put your mother on the spot. IF she feels this is not a wise risk for her, she isn’t going to co sign. You realize that by co signing she is putting the loan on her credit record and would have to pay it if you don’t make payment for any reason. Unless you have a decent credit/work/income history, getting this kind of money for a decent interest rate is not going to be easy. This means that your mother or other adult has to get involved.

If you get grants and loans that are YOURS, your mother has no authority to stop the process after she fills out her section of the FAFSA if she is the custodial parent. But if it comes to her having to take out loans or cosigning for yours, that’s a whole other story. It is then very much her business and her concern. If she doesn’t want to do it, she does not have to do so.

Since the field you are entering in the next two years appears to be a decent paying one with jobs available, and you sound like you are well on your way to this goal, taking on $30K in debt to start repaying in two years, though a bit high, is doable on your anticipated salary. Look at the numbers carefully to make your decision. If you have already taken out some loans, you had better look again, and consider the total amount of monthly payments over however many years that you are contracting.