If You Went Have Your Undergrad Degree, Please Read This Thread

[the_rev]

If you have obtained your college degree, I have a financial question for you.

I was talking with a mother of a high school senior today at the Cathedral and we were talking about taking out loans to pay for college, and such, and how we really would like to have some information from someone who has gone through college.

Basically our quesiton is how much did you have to take out in federal loans, ie Staffard, Perkins, etc. and how much did you take out in private loans. Since that is kind of personal, you can give a rough estimate, and could you indiciate if it was a private or public university.

Finally, how much do you have to pay altogether each month for your loans, and what is the length of your loans.

Thanks,

Edward

[MIKolbe]

i paid for 2/3 of my college. i went to a state school, so not uber expensive (CSUF).. no loans, no grants, just work 30-40 hrs per week as well as a full load at school. Parents paid for other 1/3.

[Totus Tuus]

Get grants!


And scholarships!

Edited April 8, 2007 by Totus Tuus

[Proud2BCatholic139]

Florida is dirt cheap with school once you gain residency. I'm going to be working 40 hours a week, plus going to school full time. Look into moving to Florida. I'm going for education, and there are great education schools down there.

[Proud2BCatholic139]

If you are out of state, the CC tuition is just the same as Minnesota tution. Out of state is generally expensive. Once you gain residency, cut the cost by 2/3's for tuition.

[hoosieranna]

I have ~$17,000 in Stafford loans. It's a combo of subsidized and unsubsidized. I received $3,000 in loans from the school. I went to a private school with a sticker price of about $34,000/year. I got scholarships and grants. I wholeheartedly suggest this student look into outside and institutional scholarships. FastWeb (fastweb.com) is an online scholarship search engine. It's free. My loans are currently deferred because I'm in grad school.

Edited April 9, 2007 by Nadezhda

[clg01]

Nadezhda is right... Fastweb is an awesome site to start with. I only would suggest that, if the student does decide to take out loan money, try to get it all through one bank and pay the interest fees on time and continuously. If you let the interest add up on those loans, they can really tack on a much higher total price due back.

[the_rev]

I have used Fastweb and continue to do so, and I have applied for 20+ scholarships, I have won one, because it was an academic competition and only three people (including me) showed up.

I applied for the general local scholarsips which was done with a general application form, a committee then determines eligibility of those who have applied. I hope to receive one of the bigger scholarships which is renewable, but I place it in God's hands.

I'm going to be a seminarian, so I hope the generosity that I have hear people have, will be extended towards me. I have the intent that any money I receive as a gift, half will be used for personal expense and half for education expense. We will see how that works out.

[the_rev]

[quote]try to get it all through one bank and pay the interest fees on time and continuously. If you let the interest add up on those loans, they can really tack on a much higher total price due back.[/quote]

My first year alone, I'm going to have to take out probably a loan for anywhere from 10,000-14,000 in addition to the stafford and perkins. My mother has horrible credit and the PLUS loan probably will be declined. I'm told though that if that happens, the college will give me an additional 4,000 dollars in a stafford loan.

If someone could explain all this loan stuff to me I'd appreciate it. Like for my stafford and perkins, does the school decide where the loan is taken out, and as I look at the PLUS application, we are suppose to choose a lender from the recommended lender list. I'm just a tad confused about everything.

[Sojourner]

1) if you need help understanding the loan information, you need to talk to your school's financial aid counselor. They are going to be much more knowledgeable than any of us are.

2) for what it's worth, I got awesome financial aid in undergrad (private school). I had several merit scholarships, and I was the oldest of five children and my dad was out of work when I started school, so I got lots of need-based aid too. I didn't have to think about taking out loans until second semester of my junior year. I ended up taking out less than $10K total. Payments were less than $100/month.

[hoosieranna]

[quote name='Terra Firma' post='1235670' date='Apr 8 2007, 09:53 PM']1) if you need help understanding the loan information, you need to talk to your school's financial aid counselor. They are going to be much more knowledgeable than any of us are.

2) for what it's worth, I got awesome financial aid in undergrad (private school). I had several merit scholarships, and I was the oldest of five children and my dad was out of work when I started school, so I got lots of need-based aid too. I didn't have to think about taking out loans until second semester of my junior year. I ended up taking out less than $10K total. Payments were less than $100/month.[/quote]

What she said! Talk to the school's fin. aid office. They will be able to tell you specifics, which will do you more good than anything else.

[jkaands]

[quote name='the_rev' post='1235232' date='Apr 8 2007, 05:11 PM']If you have obtained your college degree, I have a financial question for you.

I was talking with a mother of a high school senior today at the Cathedral and we were talking about taking out loans to pay for college, and such, and how we really would like to have some information from someone who has gone through college.

Basically our quesiton is how much did you have to take out in federal loans, ie Staffard, Perkins, etc. and how much did you take out in private loans. Since that is kind of personal, you can give a rough estimate, and could you indiciate if it was a private or public university.

Finally, how much do you have to pay altogether each month for your loans, and what is the length of your loans.

Thanks,

Edward[/quote]

Do everything you can to go to a state university, community or state college and remain in state. This will save you thousands of dollars. I believe you live in Wisconsin, where they have a large and excellent university system. This probably includes community colleges and local branches of the flagship land grant university (in Madison), and branches of the state university. For example, in Iowa, there's State Univ of Iowa at Iowa City and Iowa State univ. at Ames. SUI has many branches and there's lots of community colleges and the Univ of Northern Iowa, all subsidized by the state of Iowa.

if you go out of state, obtain residency in that state ASAP. This, however, is often difficult; states deliberately make it so, so as to not be too easy to get residency and obtain in-state tuition if you're not going to remain there.

Usually states require that you work there for a time;get a driver's license; pay state taxes on the income you earned in that state; and live there for a minimum period, usually at least one full school year. Each state varies; go to the state website or the University site and search for how to acquire residency and qualify for in-state tuition.

This year's crop of college applicants was the most competitive ever, which is going to trickle down to state universities, which have become quite competitive in recent years. But getting an in-state education is going to save you buckets of money.

I gather that you want to enter a seminary; I don't know anything about their tuitions or availability for grants and loans.

good luck.

[-I---Love]

I don't agree about state schools being necessarily cheaper. I am a senior at a private Catholic college and it was MUCH cheaper for me to go here than any public university. That is because many small private schools give loads of scholarships and grants for being even an average student. So it really depends on your specific case. If I went to PSU for instance I would only have got 1,000 grant per year.

My schools tuition, room and board = approx. 30,000. I have taken out Perkins and Stafford Loans each year (every new year you are offered a higher amount to take) as well as one smaller bank loan one year. My parents paid for a few thousand my first two years, and I paid for a bunch last year from money I had saved working.

Basically I'll have a good bit of loans I have to pay, but I need to have a college degree, so that's that.

There is a fund (I can't remember but can look if necessary) that gives scholarships to some students who enter seminary...if u r in that situation.

[the_rev]

Let me tell you I'm not choosing to go out of state, in order to follow the will of God, and the will of the Bishop I am studying out of state at a Private Catholic University that has a seminary on the grounds of the campus. (University of St. Thomas, St. John Vianney College Seminary)

[SJRod55]

Some of my Albanian students are planning to study in the US and some in Canada, you cannot even begin to imagine their fees and the formalities they go through. What did surprise me however was how many scholarships are available to international students and how many never get awarded due to no applications! The whole scholarship, award, grant system is a complex one and I agree with the person above it is vital to check with your finance officer and counselors.

God bless you in your studies