I’m a national merit semifinalist and am planning to attend UT Dallas out-of-state next year thru their National Merit Scholars Program (15/16 semis advance to finalist standing so I’m fairly certain at least). I get full tuition/mandatory fees covered + a 4k per semester stipend + 1500 per semester for housing (it costs 7k per year tho so I’m gonna be using part of that stipend to cover the rest of it). I don’t want to be stuck on campus where I heard there isn’t much to do so I want to take out some student loans for a car (used and cheap, ~5k probably).
What are some options for me to do that? Apparently since I have most of my cost of attendance covered I won’t get too much in the way of federal loans, does anybody know any loopholes around that (citing extra costs like textbooks, travel etc)? I’m also open to private loans since I wouldn’t be taking out that much but the problem is as of right now I don’t have any credit and my parents won’t co-sign on a loan, so it may be difficult to get money from salliemae or other lenders.
Pls helpful answers only, no lectures about how I shouldn’t be taking out loans for a car etc.
Thanks
Why not take the DART for a year and save up for a car? UTD has a contract with the local transit and you should easily get around all of Dallas. There are also plenty of jobs on/near campus. Loans from Sallie Mae are sent personally from Satan. My mom is still paying off her nursing school loans from 10+ years ago and probably will until she dies. Not to sound too morbid. Plus, isn’t using that money to buy a car fraud?
Unless you have an offer in hand, you don’t have anything. This is not a guaranteed scholarship for you. You have absolutely no idea as to what the rest of the pool look likes including in-state students that are vying for the same award.
While it is great that you are confident, you need a realistic plan that does not include placing all of your eggs in one basket.
ETA: 15,000/16,000 become finalist. Out of this number only 8000 finalist are awarded scholarships
Check what the COA is for the school and add up the items you listed. If there is a difference, you can take that as a Stafford loan. If you are low income, you could qualify for a Pell grant.
You can also ask the school to increase your COA. I don’t know if they do that for cars, but you can ask. Don’t forget that there are a lot of expenses having a car, no matter how inexpensive the car is - parking, gas, insurance registration, and those are higher in the city). My kids could have a car at college without a car payment, but the other costs are too much for them.
Getting national merit finalist status is pretty much a given once you get semifinalist. 15/16 semifinalists advance to the next stage and according to my GC the ones who don’t either have some bad grades or don’t even bother to fill out the application. Every single person from my school since it opened who’s gotten semifinalist was also named a finalist lol and as far as I understand the application is really a formality for them to check if your grades don’t match up with your PSAT scores. Anyway whether I get it or not is irrelevant for the purpose of the question because even if I go to a different school like my state school my situation with merit aid is gonna be the same.
A $5k car probably isn’t going to be all that reliable. Are you going to have money for unexpected repairs etc.? If not taking out a loan won’t do much. I wouldn’t take out a high interest loan to get a iffy car. Just save up.
As far as I know you can, at minimum, get offered the $5,500 federal loan as a freshman. Though you will have to wait for spring semester to start to get both halves.
IMO if you get a $5k car you should be prepared for $1000 repair bills if you can’t work on cars yourself. At least have $1000 on hand for emergencies. Toyota and Honda are the hands down most reliable. There are forums on the 'net that can show you how to do a lot of simple repairs yourself. If you decide to get a car get some insurance estimates before you make a purchase. Some people your age pay over $200 a month for car insurance. Congratulations on the free ride. (I mean the scholarship, not the car)
I disagree with the person that says you can get all around Dallas by Dart. I live in DFW. You are correct that a car is a must. You can take out the max loans and use it to buy a car. I do agree, however, that repair bills are likely to be very high on a $5k car. Can your parents help you get a car?
OP, please read @sybbie719 post again. Great that you are confident, but she is an experienced counselor. At the risk of sounding like my grandfather, don’t count your chickens …
lots of people telling me whether i SHOULD buy a car with student loans - the question was how to do it. I’m not even sure it’s possible without private loans since my COA would be near zero. Anybody know if the limit for federal student loans is your own personal COA counting scholarships etc (making me ineligible) or if you can take out up to the the schools COA regardless?
My DD is at UT Dallas now as a freshman. She did bring an old family car there and is using it. It is convenient but not necessary. She hangs with a group of about 10 students that only have 2 or 3 cars in the group. Most of their activities are done as a group and she is used to shuttling her friends around. There is the DART system that is free to students and can take you many places in Dallas. UTD provides transportation to many of the local shops. They do have ZIP cars available. There is UBER.
I don’t know if you can take out a student loan and buy a car but I do know you can have fun at UTD and not own a car.
It sounds like you basically know the answer. You need to get the COA to exceed all that money you have gotten. How you go about doing that I do not know.
Congrats on all that money though. There are millions of kids who would love to be in your shoes.
Let me add, another additional expense that we did not anticipate was the first month’s toll bill of $60. My advice, ride with friends and help to cover their expense.
On a sidenote, I know someone IRL who calculated that it was cheaper to Uber back and forth to work rather than own a car (factoring in all the expenses, not just the cost of buying the car).
What do your parents think about you having a car on campus? If they could afford a car and didn’t object to you having one, I don’t know why you’d have to depend on federal student loans to buy one. And if they don’t object but simply can’t afford it, they likely can’t cover the additional ~$200/month (or more) it would add to their insurance.
You could go get a job and buy one next summer, I suppose, but where’s the $300-400/month you’re going to need for insurance, gas, spending money and unexpected repairs going to come from? If your parents can’t/won’t pay, you need to plan on working for ~15 hours (or more) per week during the school year.
If you’re lucky enough to get a full ride, I’d take advantage of it. If you have to spend all your free time working to pay for a car you’re not going to have time to go out with your friends and it will reduce the time you have to network and do internships too. That would be a waste of a great opportunity.