Student Loans

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I would like some other students to help me figure out what is going on with the student loans. I went to fin aid today and they were not too helpful. This is my current situation. I have been a full time Mom forever, never went to college, had a job or any job skills. Cant make a living but I have 4 children to support, and husband does not make enough to cover all the bills. (divorced but get hardly any child support, and have never had a nicklel from any socialist program out there) I have good credit and have been using that too skate by the last 2 years, and infact had to use it to pay for my nursing program until I could get my loan. So far to date I have 1 subsidized loan out for 1100. Big deal right? So, I apply for a loan for 2500 to get me thru this semester of nursing school and I only get approved for half of it. Why am I only getting 1200 in student loans for this semester? That makes a grand total of 2500 since I started pre-req's. That doesnt come close to covering my expenses and I have no income of my own. I thought that I could borrow the money to go to Nursing school. How is everyone else paying for this, because 1200 does not begin to cover my first semester of nursing school. Help me understand this.

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I am not sure where you go or what kind of loan you are applying for, but sometimes you are approved for less if you are taking less credits. My nursing program was only considered 7-10 credits a semester (who knows why, since we had class more than that), and I was approved for less because it wasn't "full time." This was at community college. When I got my B.A. at WSU I never got approved for enough through FAFSA so I had to take out private loans.

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I don't have an answer for you, but I agree that the financial aid people are not helpful at all!! I hope it gets sorted out for you.

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Thanks, I need to go back over there and ask them to investigate this for me. Wouldnt you think they would loan money to a Nursing student? Its not like I am not going to be able to pay it back later.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

Thats something weird going on..Is it just for teh spring/summer semester because that semester usually is very limited. I also heard that Synder passed something that cut back on student aid but I haven't looked into it so I may be completely wrong. Anyhow theres something strange there cause I got more then that when I attended your school part-time??? I get a lot more aid at my school so I'm not sure what to tell u, but just keep bugging the f/a department there.

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Seems like you should get more. You are struggling and trying to help your family, at very lest you should get some lones. Most of the single mothers in my class were going to school for free, and getting paid to do so! Have you checked into scholarships and grants?

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hey anne, summer semester is really hard to get fin aid. i got next to nothing also for the summer. you should be able to apply for pell grants, if its not to late. i also agree that fin aid at HL is pretty much useless. good luck to you

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Thanks for responses everyone. The loan was not for summer, it was for the Winter semester, I just applied for it before the cutoff in the mid of March but that should not have been an issue in amount of loan approved. I already got denied for any type of scholorship and grants I applied for. I just got my rejection letter for the nursing student scholorships. I think my marital status is part of my problem. There is no way I can seize my husbands paycheck from him and use it to pay for my school , even if he made a million dollars, I do not have the authority to take his paycheck so I would still be totally dependant on him to give me the money.

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Thanks for responses everyone. The loan was not for summer, it was for the Winter semester, I just applied for it before the cutoff in the mid of March but that should not have been an issue in amount of loan approved. I already got denied for any type of scholorship and grants I applied for. I just got my rejection letter for the nursing student scholorships. I think my marital status is part of my problem. There is no way I can seize my husbands paycheck from him and use it to pay for my school , even if he made a million dollars, I do not have the authority to take his paycheck so I would still be totally dependant on him to give me the money.

That happened to me with my parent's income. Until I turned 25 I had to use their income on my FAFSA even though they never paid a CENT for school. There was no way around it unless I had a child or was in the military or something. Complete crap, I'm sorry :(

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Specializes in Surgery, ER.

Not sure where you are going to school... or how many credits you are taking... but guaranteed student loans are available for up to 12,500 per year. This is spread out and based on how many credits you take by semester. It is renewable every academic calendar year, starting in the August/ Sept timeframe.

Unfortunately, it is for school credit only... so if you are going to a community college, at $60 a credit hour, you might only get $900 for 15 credit hours, per semester. Obviously, if you are at a University, you would get more. If you are looking for money to cover living expenses then you need to look at a separate private loan

Hope this helped clarify things... good luck ;-)

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