<p>I’m 16, and about to graduate High school. No person in my family has ever graduated before so I’ll be the first one to go off to college. It’s been my dream since I was born to make something of myself in this world, and I’ve decided to major in Biology and go off to med school and branch off into surgery. I hope to be a cardiothoraccic surgeon one day.</p>
<p>However, my family isn’t financially set whatsoever. I wanted to know exactly how to pay for college and medical school. I know my mom could take out student loans for me since I’m not 18, (I know the interest will be crazy since she isn’t good in the credit aspect either, but I don’t care about that. I just want to attend college.) but will student loans pay for college in full? I assume financial aid would help as well, but I just don’t have the finances to pay out of pocket for school. Can somebody please shed a little light to me on this?</p>
<p>Long story short, I’m worried about paying for college. Will/can student loans cover all of my expenses? </p>
<p>I’m stressing out big time over this. I know it’s not good to overload yourself with stress, but I don’t have any help on this from people in my family, etc, so I don’t quite know what to do.</p>
<p>It’s good you thought of this in advance. Students can only borrow the amount provided through Stafford loans - $27K for undergrad. Anything else needs to have a cosigner. If you have great grades and scores you could get some great merit aid. If your family really can’t afford anything for school the least expensive way to start is with a local community college.</p>
<p>If you used loans to cover all of your expenses you would likely be a very unhappy person down the road! College financial aid is comprised of grants, scholarships, loans, and out of pocket payments from the student and/or family. Grants come in the form of federal, state, or institutional (college) grants and do not need to be paid back. Scholarships are generally based on academic merit (SAT/GPA) but can also be based on other things like minority status, financial hardship, community service, etc. The largest scholarships come from colleges themselves. Many HS seniors also apply for scholarships in their local communities although they are usually smaller, one-time payments.</p>
<p>Finaid.org has good information on loans - both student loans and parent loans. You do not have to be 18 to take a federal student loan and no one can take a student loan for you. Parents can take federal Parent Plus loans though the interest rates may be higher than what they can get by shopping around for other lending sources.</p>
<p>You should determine whether you’ll be eligible for federal and state grant aid. You can get an estimated EFC by running your family income/asset info through one of the online calculators (College Board has one on their site). You’ll also want to come up with a list of schools that may offer you good merit aid for your stats and include some schools that you know will be affordable. People here are very good at offering suggestions if you post some details such as your stats, your state of residency, and the type of school you’d like to attend.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Talk to your school counselor or e-mail a financial advisor at a school you’re looking at. If your parents are very new to this as well, you don’t want to end up with private loans with HIGH interest rates. You need to find ones with reasonable rates and terms. This is, of course, after exhausting your merit and need-based scholarships, grants, and Stafford loans.</p>