How are you "paying" for school???

MaraG. · Sep 4, 2005

Hi All,

Not sure how we are going to pull this one off. The way student loans work here is the government bases what they will loan you on what they think the average couple should be spending on living expenses. For a couple in my city they figure that you should spend a MAX of $900/mo on rent/utilities. You can't rent a 1 bedroom apartment for less than $900/month here! We own a house and the $900 does not even cover our mortgage. Plus all of the other expenses that come along with owning a house. (house insurance, mortgage insurance, broken fence, water bill etc) Any how!! The government gave me enough to cover a portion of my tuition and books for this semister. They expect my husband to come up with the rest! If I work or if he makes more money than we claimed we are in default of the loan and we have to pay it back ASAP! So we took out a line of credit against our house...eek! We don't quailify for any grants because our government took them away for the average student and my husband makes $1500.00 too much a year! I have applied for many scholarships but have not heard back. So to answer the question, I am not sure if we can pay for my education.

But no stress!! I am sure it will all work out in the end.

curlyfries · Sep 5, 2005

There are private loans that you can apply to. Do a search for private student loans and compare all of them. They have similar pay back program as federal student loans. You can borrow up to 50K a year towards your education and have up to 30 years to pay it back 6 months after graduation.

When it comes to financial aid packet, federal student loans you are eligible up to $10,500 a year as an independent undergraduate student. For graduate students they're eligible up to $18,500 a year towards their education. Most likely you'll have unsub loan meaning you'd pay the interest on the loan. Max. total for borrowing for undergrad is $46k. The school you attending used the standard COA (cost of attending) for most independent students. Finanical aid will ask of their students to provide documentations to increase the COA number, such as in your case.

Most of the scholarships for nursing program are administered by the financial aid office. Usually scholarships are given to second year nursing students but there are some first year nursing scholarship as well. As I tell everyone stay on top of the financial aid situation! Email, call and write to financial aid office and reply asap if they request any information from you.

Hope this helps!

Tommy

Hi All,
Not sure how we are going to pull this one off. The way student loans work here is the government bases what they will loan you on what they think the average couple should be spending on living expenses. For a couple in my city they figure that you should spend a MAX of $900/mo on rent/utilities. You can't rent a 1 bedroom apartment for less than $900/month here! We own a house and the $900 does not even cover our mortgage. Plus all of the other expenses that come along with owning a house. (house insurance, mortgage insurance, broken fence, water bill etc) Any how!! The government gave me enough to cover a portion of my tuition and books for this semister. They expect my husband to come up with the rest! If I work or if he makes more money than we claimed we are in default of the loan and we have to pay it back ASAP! So we took out a line of credit against our house...eek! We don't quailify for any grants because our government took them away for the average student and my husband makes $1500.00 too much a year! I have applied for many scholarships but have not heard back. So to answer the question, I am not sure if we can pay for my education.
But no stress!! I am sure it will all work out in the end.

MaraG. · Sep 5, 2005

Thanks for the suggestions. I spoke with the BCSL department where I live and there is no way they can do anymore for me. If you exceed the moderate standard of living they have set out they don't care. Sell your house and rent. If you make more than X amount of dollars in a year to bad there is no way you will quailify for low income scholarships and forget grants because the government has done away with all of them unless you meet very specific criteria. (ie disabled, have kids etc)

I spoke with my financial advisor at the bank and she felt that having a private student loan would not work for us as well as a line of credit. She gave us a good deal, but it is scarey to borrow against your house!

I can apply for another student loan in a few months. By that time we will have hardly any money so maybe we will get more of a student loan and be eligiable for a grant or scholarship or two. My program is only 55 weeks so I can't apply for the second year scholarships. They way I see it is if we scrap by now we will have less to pay back later. :rolleyes: