<p>Hey guys, I am attending Cornell this upcoming fall as a sophmore transfer. I called the office of finiancial aid last week and asked if I would receive any. They said no, wasn’t really expecting any award anyway. However, because my family wants to take out an unsubsidized loan, my mom looked if Cornell offered Fed PLUS loans. For some reason, Cornell offers the alternate William D. Ford unsubsidized loan instead. For some odd reason, the max a sophmore can borrow from this loan program is only $4500, which is not nearly $40,000. Why doesn’t Cornell offer plus and is this just a mistake? Should I just go to a private group and get a an equivalent, although higher interest loan? Any help or input is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I was told they have PLUS…</p>
<p>Cornell does offer a PLUS loan.</p>
<p>From the FA site:</p>
<p>Loan Options</p>
<pre><code>William D. Ford Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans If you don’t qualify for the subsidized Direct Loan, the unsubsidized Direct Loan is available to you. Freshmen are eligible for up to $3,500 a year, sophomores are eligible for up to $4,500, and juniors and seniors are eligible for up to $5,500. The interest rate is fixed at 6.8%. Because the loan is unsubsidized, interest accrues from the time of disbursement, but may be deferred until after the student leaves. Repayment begins six months after the student leaves school.
Loans to parents of Cornell students are available annually in any amount up to the year’s total education costs minus other aid received. The Federal Direct Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) is available through Cornell to parents of dependent students (U.S. citizens or permanent residents). Applications are available on line on the Forms page. Cornell University is a Direct Lending institution. If you decide to apply for a PLUS loan, this must be done through our office. The interest rate is fixed at 7.9%. Repayment begins 60 days after disbursement of the loan.
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<p>The interest rate is 7.9 percent!!! Holy cow.</p>
<p>I hate to tell you what the interest rate is on my student loans. I probably would get lynched. I don’t know if it was because of my good grades or something else, but I got a private loan company to offer me an absolutely fantastic rate. I’m actually making money off of them, it’s that good.</p>
<p>If your family owns a house in an area of the country that isn’t current imploding (e.g. Upstate New York), I would look into a second mortgage. You can probably still get a rate for less than seven percent with good credit.</p>
<p>Haha…my parents refinanced our home before I started college and ended up declaring bankruptcy my sophomore year…and I’m from Upstate NY.</p>
<p>My PLUS loan has an interest rate of 6.8%…not too bad. One of my private loans is going to be the end of me though…</p>
<p>Dew… I hope they made it through before the change in bankruptcy laws. And have you tried [MyRichUncle</a> Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.myrichuncle.com/?]MyRichUncle”>http://www.myrichuncle.com/?) You might be able to consolidate at a lower rate.</p>
<p>I’m obviously not advocating taking on additional debt beyond what you think you may be able to service. And I don’t want to encourage your family to take out more debt if they are already under water on your house.</p>
<p>The good rule of thumb is that you don’t want to take on more debt than your expected salary after graduation.</p>
<p>But yeah, the financial world is imploding</p>
<p>They declared bankruptcy in 2005…when did the laws change?</p>
<p>Our move to New Orleans is really going to help us…they’re getting significant raises and I’m going to make a pretty decent salary. I’m wait until I see what my monthly payments are before I consider consolidation.</p>
<p>They changed in 2005. lol. I think October…back when Republicans controlled everything - and considering they are basically against people, they changed the laws to make filing bankrupty harder, make less debt be dischargeable, and adding a means test - a bunch of useless crap that just makes it even harder and helps people less. Typical Republican crap.</p>