The doleful tale of me and my loan

[cheyne stokes]

Hello,

First, I hope everyone's had a lovely day.

I wanted to write about the stupid situation I'm in concerning alternative loans in hope that this may prevent someone else from getting into similarly stupid situations.

My nursing program begins in a few weeks. I have a Perkins loan that will cover part of my tuition, so after doing research, reading about the experiences with alternative loans on this website, and consulting with school friends, I applied for Sallie Mae's Tuition Answer Loan for the remainder of tuition for this year, plus a modest amount to help with living expenses, since I will be working very part-time when classes begin. I received a letter that I was approved for this loan with a good interest rate about three weeks ago. Then comes today, when I get another letter from Sallie Mae saying that they are sending me a check for ¼ of the amount I applied for. What?!

So I called them to ask why they aren't giving me the full amount I applied for. The customer service rep didn't have the info to help me so offered to put me on hold to talk to a supervisor. Ten minutes later the line goes dead. Called back, explained my situation again, was put on hold again. After another long wait the rep came back on the phone and said her supervisor told her this: the school I am attending is a technical college, which they consider a community college, for which tuition is "like $1,000 a year," so they decided I didn't need much more than that. I said, what if my tuition is like, 7 times that a year? I explained that the amount they were sending me doesn't come close to the amount I need to cover tuition, books, fees, and uniforms, and I didn't even get into what I needed for living expenses. She said I could fax in additional tuition documents but that would delay them disbursing any loan amount so I asked why they didn't request this information to begin with and blah blah blah...

I will admit that I am naïve about the loan process, so maybe I should have anticipated that this could have happened. Still, I am befuddled that they are deciding what they think I need based on what seems like a random assumption rather than my credit/income history (which is good and the rep said had nothing to do with their decision), or the factual tuition payment my school is expecting from me. I don't have the time to wait for them to perhaps decide that yes, I really do need the amount of money I applied for in the original loan so I have now applied for the remainder of the money from another lending institution but I am bracing for another fiasco.

Thanks for reading. If anyone has ever been in a situation like this and has any advice it would be much appreciated.

[VRGirl]

Wow, sorry to hear that happened to you. I was just contemplating applying for that same loan, so maybe I will look elsewhere. Thanks for the heads up.

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Try Chela or Bank of America. They don't care about what your tuition is, you just get the amount you ask for.

[cheyne stokes]

Yes, Bank of America is where I just applied for my new last-minute-scramble loan. The guy I talked to there was great, very patient and helpful.

If anyone happens to read this that has a loan from BOA, how long did it take for your check to arrive?

[AggieNurse99, BSN, RN]

don't go with 'alternate' loans until you have exhausted all sources. here are some gov't websites:

www.students.gov

http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/dsa/resources.htm

student assistance programs

scholarships and loans

• scholarships for disadvantaged students
  
• loans for disadvantaged students
  
• health professions student loans
  
• primary care loans
  
• nursing student loans
  
• nursing scholarship
  
• national health service corps
  
• links to other resources

loan repayment programs that repay eligible student loans in exchange for service

• faculty loan repayment
  
• nursing education loan repayment
  
• national health service corps

health education assistance loan program

[HisDaughterJeanne]

i went through citibank...it was a breeze!

[WDWpixieRN, RN]

Oh, jeepers....my funds from this same Sallie Mae loan are supposed to be dispersed on 8/1. I'm going to be so upset if they try a similar trick!! I'll just refund (pay if off) and go elsewhere if they try this.

Thanks for the info!!

[JaxiaKiley]

That is the problem with loans that care about how much tuition is...it is not that simple!