I am amazed at people who borrow extravagant amounts for bachelor degrees but I am even more amazed at people who borrow for the weddings.
This is horrible! We were actually just looking at NJLoans. The interest rates were higher than many bank loans, even with high credit! Luckily, my dad has a state job, and will borrow money from a savings plan.
My best friend will need $120,000 (just for undergrad), and will use private loans…I’m praying for her! @MYOS1634
@newjerseygirl98 oh God, sounds like a horrible deal. Which school?
University of Hartford…absolutely not worth $120,000. @LBad96
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My best friend will need $120,000 (just for undergrad), and will use private loans <<<
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So risky!
Will she be required to pay them back? Or her parents?
Does she have any idea how much those nasty payments will be?
@newjerseygirl98 dear God, it’s worse than I thought. If she has any common sense, she’s leaving after the first year, LATEST.
I assume her parents & stepparent will help, although they’re lower-middle class. She plans on getting a master’s, then attending med school…I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s featured in a similar article! @mom2collegekids
Not only is this a horrible idea, it’s very likely that her “lower middle class” parents will not be approved at some point…and then what???
Have her parents been approved for this year?
Why would she think that someone who wants to go to med school should have that much debt (plus the debt from masters)???
totally insane.
Please encourage her to post here.
That’s what I told her! She said her father (a retired police officer) will “help” (meaning co-sign). I don’t think they’ve applied yet, but I dread to think which “bank” offers $120,000 to the unemployed.
She wants to be a psychologist, and said she’ll need a masters, doctorate, and med school? I think she’s confusing a doctorate & med school, or maybe she means a psychiatrist? Either way, her plan is nuts. @mom2collegekids
Can you help her ?
She’ll need a degree in psychology with a strong biology and statistics background. (a minor in statistics or biology is strongly recommended ). Then a degree in clinical psychology, which is as expensive and difficult to get into as Med school.
(note that some employers won’t hire people who have high debt, typically defined as 80k+)
I’m guessing she didn’t get into tcnj which is the best school for this (and cheaper).
Can she take a gap year?
Or attend a lower prices school for 2 years then transferbro tcnj?
This university is SO not worth it. It’s at the same level academically as Montclair, at best.
Her parents will NOT be approved for 4 years *and she’'ll end up with nothing - just debt.
If she really wants to take that much debt she should decrease the risks by going to a cheaper school for the first two years, then transferring to the best school she can get into (tcnj would be the best but at least with 2 years of loans she’d get the prestigious degree and lower the risks of not being approved for loans.)
- you have to requalify each year and the debt you took for the first year counts against you for the second year, the debt taken year 1+2 counts against getting approved for the 3rd year… Typically by the third year if your income hasn’t drastically increased you’re not approved. The law was tightened in 2011 due to the credit crunch so whatever her parents may have known no longer applies.
So glad to hear your dad won’t borrow from this plan. The fixed rate sounds okay but the predatory practices are just not right for a State program.
Some of the practices described are just not right - not talking about expecting the loan to be paid back, which is “normal” obviously, but not having any exceptions, no conditions that make it close to a public service in the way federal loans are: it’s a STATE loan, ie., not supposed to be a typical bank loan but one insured by the state, and shouldn’t be trying to please the hedge funds and groups, but serve the public from New Jersey by being backed by the Stat of New Jersey. (And when you see the information NJ puts out, that’s what they give the impression they are). It’s as if Sallie Mae tried to pretend they are Stafford. Add to this the fact most NJ public universities are exceedingly expensive, so the loans are de facto a way for the state to exonerate themselves from public university costs that are often unaffordable for most residents - sure, our public universities for which you’ve paid taxes, are unaffordable for your children, but look we’ve established these loans.
Have the nj HESSAA loans changed drastically while I wasn’t paying attention in the last 10 years?
Our son attended two of those too expensive (even in 2004-2009) nj publics, TCNJ and Rutgers.
We paid w 529 savings, his 18k in Staffords, current income and 15k in a njclass loan. Maybe 6% interest, payment auto deducted from my checking monthly. It was fine. Of course, it WASN’T 100k+.
Would NEVER have signed on for that whatever, whoever the lender.
^ now, you have a variety of rates, and the conditions they present as 'best’really aren’t.
A state isn’t the federal government. States can’t play with the federal interest rate, make up losses with a change in the budget. If the private lending rate is 6%, the state’s rate is going to be that too since that’s what it costs the state to borrow the money. The state has bond payments it needs to cover. A state lending program IS run like a bank, a business. Texas might be subsidizing their student loan ptogram, but most states can’t afford to.
If a private bank gives better terms in NJ, the borrowers should take advantage of that option. It’s likely that if the NJ state program has higher rates, the borrowers with better credit ratings are using banks and those who can’t qualify for a bank loan are using the state program. Since the NJ program has no cap, maybe some borrowers have maxed out the private loans and now are turning to the NJ program; those would be high risk borrowers too. There may be terms that make the NJ program more attractive than the banks - ease of application, repayment plans, guaranteed consolidation. Lots of reasons to use the NJ program.
It may be that this NJ program is not that good, but it is better than nothing, which is what most states offer.
@MYOS1634 I don’t think she applied anywhere in-state. Her GPA was just a 2.9, so I doubt she would’ve gotten into TCNJ. She would’ve gotten into Montclair, for much cheaper; it’s too bad!
I doubt she’d decide to take a gap year a month before we’re due to start. I doubt her family will be approved for these loans, so hopefully she’ll make a smart decision before it’s too late. 
On this, we’ll have to agree to disagree. Just read the thread from NewJerseyGirl:
Uh, no. Absent the state program which enables massive debt in exchange for a sleep-away college, that 2.9 GPA could easily be attending a community college really cheap.
I disagree. The way these loans are set up is unhelpful in the extreme.
If this student couldn’t get plus loans, she’d have no loans, and no loans is better than impossible amounts of debt that will cripple her ability to find a job (due to credit check by employers) and to qualify for a car loan if she needs a car to go to any job she’ll find. It means having to live with her parents with her fiance because she won’t qualify for a mortgage and may not make enough to pay both rent and loan payments. It means any significant other may think twice before marrying such a loan for which they’ll become responsible. It’s terrifying that a teenager would do this because her parents haven’t been to college, hear about huge loans all the time and may think that’s just the way it is for everyone. In other words, it’s taking advantage of the most vulnerable people, for whom going to college means the most. This student would be better off without those loans.
Exactly. Two years at a community college isn’t more than $15,000 in NJ. @bluebayou
Her stepdad actually went to college, & he’s a high school teacher. He did most of the college process for her. You would think he would realize this is an awful idea! @MYOS1634
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It may be that this NJ program is not that good, but it is better than nothing, which is what most states offer.
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No, it’s not. And other states are, thankfully, smart enough not to offer these loans
the whole college process can be a very emotional process, especially the financial aspect of it. It is so emotional, that logic often goes out the window and that’s aided by easily obtained crazy loans. If the loans weren’t available, emotions would die down and people would be forced to figure things out using affordable methods.
I tranferred out of University of Hartford last year. I wish I would have read more of the reviews of University of Hartford before I decided to go there. My high school grades and test scores weren’t the best, but I had other better choices I wish I would have made.
Going 120,000 in debt to go to University of Hartford is really crazy. That’s a lot of debt to go to any school (even a top school) but for Hartford, it’s hard to believe anyone would do that.