Student Loans - Bad or Good Idea?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>I recently got accepted by the University of Victoria in BC, Canada. I am a transfer student from a community college in WA and decided to attend UVic for the last two years of my degree. I am planning on going to a Canadian Law School afterwards.</p>

<p>I would have to pay about $22.000 - $24.000/yr (that includes everything) and that’s why my parents wanted me to look into the student loans options. This is what my university says about what options I have: [United</a> States Student Loans](<a href=“Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management - University of Victoria”>Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management - University of Victoria)</p>

<p>Now, I don’t know anything about student loans at all but I always thought that it was a bad idea to consider student loans because some of my cousins are still having to pay off some of their loans. </p>

<p>I think you probably have a lot more experience with student loans and student debt and I can’t really ask my parents because they did not go to a university in the US (or Canada, for that matter). </p>

<p>Anyways - should I consider student loans? And if yes, what kind of student loan should I apply for?</p>

2

<p>A limited amount of student loans is OK. But you definitely need to limit them. All the more so if you are planning to go on to professional school which will be very expensive.</p>

<p>For federal student loans, the amounts are very limited anyway. For a dependent junior or senior the maximum Stafford loan is $7500 a year. Anything over that would either have to be a parent PLUS loan which is a parent loan. Otherwise you would be looking at private loans which would have to either be in your parents manes, or would have to be cosigned by them.</p>