Best private student loan for DS

[tinkerbell615]

I have actually posted this question on some other boards and other areas and have not gotten much response. I thought maybe some of you college students might be able to offer some expertise. It's worth a try anyway!


DH, DS and myself could use some help from any of you out there that might know a little something about private student loans for college.

DS is going into his fourth year of college and still has one year after that. Up to this point he has used his goverment loans to help pay for college with one "teri" private loan and our parent plus loan. He is our first to go to college. DH and I did not go to college so we are learning all of this with DS as he goes along. The problem is... the Stafford loan is not enough to cover the entire cost of a year. Two years ago DS got a private loan and it looks as if the interest rate and interest acrued already are really high. The interest rate is 8.2%. We try to help as much as possible. We help with books, food on campus, car insurance, cell phone etc... but just are not able to pay for his tuition. He has a job but it certainly is not enough to pay for school. We took a parent plus loan last year to help with the balance but it is not feasable this year.

Can anyone tell us what is the best route to go with a private student loan to pay the balance? He is a commuter and is going to graduate with a degree in Special Education. We read and read and read and it all just seems to run together.

Can any of you who have been through this maybe give us some suggestions? We would greatly appreciate it.
__________________

 

[JanB]

I'm not a college student. I'm like you -- a mom of a college student. My son is a rising junior.

It sounds like you are asking about a couple of things. One -- resources for financial assistance (loan, grant, scholarship) to pay for the remainder of your son's education. Two -- a strategy for paying off the loans without being killed by the interest rate. Is that correct?

If your son has not already done so, then the Financial Aid office at his school could be a good source for guidance and advice on other sources of aid. It sounds as though there is a fairly significant gap between the aid (loans) that he has been offered and the amount that you are able to pay. Maybe you & he should put his budget down on paper, show all expected expenses, show all expected income, and show the shortfall. Maybe he could make an appointment with a FinAid counselor to see what sort of advice they can give. It could be helpful if you could find an "expert" to consult with -- to assist you in making sense of all of the information that's out there.

As far as paying off loans -- Doing a student loan consolidation after graduation is a pretty common thing to do. That helps to organize and manage repayment of all of the smaller loans. Some of the providers that I'm listing below will do loan consolidations. Often, a student is not required to begin repayment until 6 months following graduation.

You did not mention anything about scholarships. Since your son is an upperclassman (therefore, he probably will not change majors) -- and since he is going into Education -- and, specifically, since he's going into Special Ed --- don't discount the possibility of his being able to find some scholarship money. It's not necessary for him to be the top student in his class. He might have to spend some time with applications or writing an essay. But he should consider that.

OK -- Here's a list of a bunch of websites that I bookmarked when we were doing the college financial planning. To the best of my knowledge, they are all reputable. Some were recommended by his college -- some by his high school -- some by our local Consumer guru here in Atlanta.

LOANS, GRANTS, ETC:
http://www.loantolearn.com/
https://www.kheaa.com/
(KHEAA is who we chose to use for federal loans. They have been fine.)
http://www.phef.org/
http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/index.jsp

SCHOLARSHIPS:
http://www.all-ink.com/scholarship.aspx
http://scholarships.brokescholar.com/index.cfm?cc=G001&rsi=11
http://www.straightforwardmedia.com/fridell/form.php
http://www.straightforwardmedia.com/education/
http://www.intothebest.com/services/scholarships.jsp
http://www.mamashealth.com/aboutus/scholarship.asp
http://www.papercheck.com/scholarship.asp
http://www.fastweb.com/
http://www.scholarsite.com/

Finally, give thought to local or state organizations that might give loans and/or scholarships. Some faith-based organizations, such as United Methodists, have loans & scholarships. My husband's employer gives scholarships to children of employees. Teacher organizations sometimes have scholarships. Sometimes they will have loans, and you can repay by agreeing to work in a high-need area for a period of time.

He probably is too late to be awarded scholarship money for Fall '07, but if he submits applications now, he could be considered for Spring and for his final year.

I don't know whether this is helpful -- I hope it is. I don't want to contribute to a feeling of being overwhelmed. Sometimes, it's a matter of being able to put your hands on specific resources. I'm hoping that you might find some of that here.

Good luck.

 

[tinkerbell615]

JanB

Thanks so much for all of the information. I am going to start looking into some of these websites and see what I can find.

 

[floaton]

Hi, I am a college student myself and am in much the same situation that you and your son are in. I am a 21 year old male coming up on my forth year of college and already seeing the debt stacking up. Its was funng when I started reading your post I thought this was my own mom, hehe. The suggestions that JanB have compiled sounds exactly what we have been looking towards. Bravo for your help there JanB!

Something that I always am hearing as a student is that Special Education Foundations are always looking for upperclassmen to give scholarship money to. I have also seen a friend that graduated recently that was hired and her employer began paying on her student loans that she had procured. Education majors and especially Special Education majors are highly sought after right now from what I have heard.

Besides that good luck and god speed.

 

[queenarmadillo]

Probably not what you want to hear, but one of the best ways to help your son in the short term till you can secure additional funding would be to look at cutting costs. Is the cellphone essential? The car? Does he eat out a lot? Can the books be obtained second hand? I know that when I was at college people with more "active" social lives than myself easily spent twice as much in a term as I did. If youre paying for these things at 8.5%pa its time to really consider how much they are worth to you.

 

[tinkerbell615]

Hi, I am a college student myself and am in much the same situation that you and your son are in. I am a 21 year old male coming up on my forth year of college and already seeing the debt stacking up. Its was funng when I started reading your post I thought this was my own mom, hehe. The suggestions that JanB have compiled sounds exactly what we have been looking towards. Bravo for your help there JanB!

Something that I always am hearing as a student is that Special Education Foundations are always looking for upperclassmen to give scholarship money to. I have also seen a friend that graduated recently that was hired and her employer began paying on her student loans that she had procured. Education majors and especially Special Education majors are highly sought after right now from what I have heard.

Besides that good luck and god speed.

Good Luck to you also. I will be watching these boards pretty regularly, so if you find some neat new way to help with the additional costs, please post them.

Thanks!

 

[tinkerbell615]

Probably not what you want to hear, but one of the best ways to help your son in the short term till you can secure additional funding would be to look at cutting costs. Is the cellphone essential? The car? Does he eat out a lot? Can the books be obtained second hand? I know that when I was at college people with more "active" social lives than myself easily spent twice as much in a term as I did. If youre paying for these things at 8.5%pa its time to really consider how much they are worth to you.

DS is a commuter so he does not live on campus which does help quite a bit. He drives a 94 Corolla so there is not really an expense other than normal upkeep with the car and insurance. We always get used books also when available. He really does try to cut corners as much as possible.

 

[JanB]

Hi, I am a college student myself and am in much the same situation that you and your son are in. I am a 21 year old male coming up on my forth year of college and already seeing the debt stacking up. Its was funng when I started reading your post I thought this was my own mom, hehe. The suggestions that JanB have compiled sounds exactly what we have been looking towards. Bravo for your help there JanB!

Something that I always am hearing as a student is that Special Education Foundations are always looking for upperclassmen to give scholarship money to. I have also seen a friend that graduated recently that was hired and her employer began paying on her student loans that she had procured. Education majors and especially Special Education majors are highly sought after right now from what I have heard.

Besides that good luck and god speed.

Which reminds me that possibly it would be a good idea for your son to make an appointment with his Education advisor (or someone else in the Department/School) to see whether there are resources that they know about. These are the people in the Education "world" -- they probably have the best resources and some of the more extensive networks of Education Professionals in your area. They know who regularly hires their graduates -- they probably know about professional organizations that offer financial assistance -- they probably know about employers such as the one that FLOATON mentioned.

College/University staff has all sorts of knowledge and resources. But they don't send out that information unsolicited. They expect their students to seek out whatever information they need.

Also, it's possible that your School/College of Education offers its own internal scholarships. Whatever your son needs to do to apply, he should do so.

Oh, and your son (and you, too FLOATON), should probably take the time to regularly study all of the bulletin boards that are in the classroom buildings. Sure, you'll find people looking for a roommate. But you may also run across opportunities to help to pay for school.

You can probably tell that I'm a huge believer in seeking out the people who have expertise in helping to solve a problem. If you feel like you are spinning your wheels while trying to solve a problem -- then find someone to ask for help!

Good luck to both of you.

 

[erikjohnnn]

I have actually posted this question on some other boards and other areas and have not gotten much response. I thought maybe some of you college students might be able to offer some expertise. It's worth a try anyway!


DH, DS and myself could use some help from any of you out there that might know a little something about private student loans for college.

DS is going into his fourth year of college and still has one year after that. Up to this point he has used his goverment loans to help pay for college with one "teri" private loan and our parent plus loan. He is our first to go to college. DH and I did not go to college so we are learning all of this with DS as he goes along. The problem is... the Stafford loan is not enough to cover the entire cost of a year. Two years ago DS got a private loan and it looks as if the interest rate and interest acrued already are really high. The interest rate is 8.2%. We try to help as much as possible. We help with books, food on campus, car insurance, cell phone etc... but just are not able to pay for his tuition. He has a job but it certainly is not enough to pay for school. We took a parent plus loan last year to help with the balance but it is not feasable this year.

Can anyone tell us what is the best route to go with a private student loan to pay the balance? He is a commuter and is going to graduate with a degree in Special Education. We read and read and read and it all just seems to run together.

Can any of you who have been through this maybe give us some suggestions? We would greatly appreciate it.
__________________

If you're looking for a private student loan, I hear Think Student Loans are good. Fair rates and good people to work with.

 

[floaton]

One morsel of information that I supply is definitely take out SUBSIDIZED LOANS if you quality for them. These loans do not accrue interest until 6 months after your son graduates (and or stops attending school on a full time basis, also 6 months past that time). These help keep down unnecessary loan bloating. It's not much, but I know this is something that people can easily overlook and can save you a chunk of money down the road.

Good luck, being a recent college graduate I have first hand experience with the monthly bludgeoning that occurs to my bank account from student loan debt.

 

[i3reakMeAgain]

I was in the opposite situation. When I first started school, my parents were till together and I received NO financial aid, not even stafford loans. I took out all private loans my first three years of college- what ever you do, please do NOT go through Sallie Mae. Let me tell you my story with them now that I've been done with school for a year-

When I first went in repayment in December, I was not in the financial position to pay them back. Every lender I have to pay back willingly worked with me to defer my payments for 6 months to a year, depending on the lender. Sallie Mae wanted $50 per loan (so $100) just to put in an application for them to look over my info and consider whether or not the loans could be deferred for three months. I was making $100/week at that point. They wanted me to pay them because I couldn't afford to pay my loans? It made no sense, and they reduced me to tears numerous times. I 'worked out' a new repayment schedule with them. For the first two years, I'm paying them $185/month, which is interest ONLY, and then for 13 years after that, my payment will balloon up to $370/month. Again, this is just ONE of multiple loans I have to pay back. I am luckily in a position where I can afford the interest only payment on top of my other loans (I still have one deferred) and bills now. I have no idea what will happen though after the initial two years is up.

Just because of how awful and unwilling they are to work with you when needed, I urge you to stay far away and take money out elsewhere if you can.