Undergraduate > Graduate Loans

cptofthehouse
Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:09:15 +0000

Also, never mind the caps so much as what YOU are going to be able to pay. I know kids who are in it for over $80K and I really don’t see how they are going to be able to pay that without a lot of hardship maybe for the rest of their lives. H and I had combined professional/ug loans of about $50K at lower interest rates than what are given now back in the early 80’s and we were not free of those things until our child was in middle school. Right in the nick of time as we had a medical crisis about then, and needed every penny. It greatly compromised our abilities to buy a house, car, pay for private schools since those loans needed to be paid, month in and month out. This was with H making a high income since he got an MBA from a top business school with his loans that made a big difference in his market value.

Swimcatsmom, Kelsmom, I remember posting that a dependent student could accumulate close to $60k in Staffords if the parents are turned down by PLUS. Is that incorrect? Are dependent undergrads indeed limited to tat $31K figure?

Mind you, those are Stafford loans only. Some kids have loans that the college extended to them, regular loans with family cosigning, Perkins Loans, and some states offer loans as well.