Credit History?

[Mr hawkings]

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I was just looking through the georgetown Application guide and i just noticed something i had previously missed. Apparently, after you are offered admission, they ask you to send them a recent credit report showing that you dont have "excessive 30 or 60 day delinquencies" etc etc. Anyone else know of any other school that does this? And what does my credit history hae to do with my ability to become a physician. I hope they dont make decisions based on that cos i have some crappy credit.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

I was just looking through the georgetown Application guide and i just noticed something i had previously missed. Apparently, after you are offered admission, they ask you to send them a recent credit report showing that you dont have "excessive 30 or 60 day delinquencies" etc etc. Anyone else know of any other school that does this? And what does my credit history hae to do with my ability to become a physician. I hope they dont make decisions based on that cos i have some crappy credit.

well it has to do with trust to repay loans. People who are delinquent on their accounts could be delinquent in other areas. i never understood how people in this propsperous country could have such poor credit ratings...

 

[Mr hawkings]

well it has to do with trust. People who are delinquent on their accounts could be delinquent in other areas. i neve runderstood how people in this propsperous country could have such poor credit ratings...

Well, i aggree with you, however i am an imigrant who has only been in this country since 1998. The reason i have bad credit is that i paid for 50% of my 4 years of college with credit cards since i only had a partial international scholarship and as a non-citizen, i dont qualify for financial aid. I am now tring to repair my credit but we all know how long that takes. So someone like me on paper, looks like i am some irresonsible brat who splurged thoughout college with money he didnt have. That far from the truth. I am a degree holding alien who makes minimum wage doing manual labor cos i am not yet fully documented. Now i could just go back to my home country and leave my debts behind in america 🙄 but i wont. I'm not THAT shady. I just dont think its fair to group everyone with bad credit into one big "delinquent and irresponible" heap of losers.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Well, i aggree with you, however i am an imigrant who has only been in this country since 1998. The reason i have bad credit is that i paid for 50% of my 4 years of college with credit cards since i only had a partial international scholarship and as a non-citizen, i dont qualify for financial aid. I am now tring to repair my credit but we all know how long that takes. So someone like me on paper, looks like i am some irresonsible brat who splurged thoughout college with money he didnt have. That far from the truth. I am a degree holding alien who makes minimum wage doing manual labor cos i am not yet fully documented. Now i could just go back to my home country and leave my debts behind in america 🙄 but i wont. I'm not THAT shady. I just dont think its fair to group everyone with bad credit into one big "delinquent and irresponible" heap of losers.

sorry, i didn't quite mean it that way. Obviously you don't fit in with the vast majority of Americans. However i will make the comment, hopefully you didn't go to a private school, b/xc that's another thing i can't understand...how people who can't afford it go into debt or expect the gov't to pik up the tab on a private school when there is nothing wrong with the education from a state university.

Why don't you get one of those credit companies to help you set up a schedule to pay off the debt. also that way, if questioned it would show you are making a conscientous effort to pay it off.

 

[Mr hawkings]

sorry, i didn't quite mean it that way. Obviously you don't fit in with the vast majority of Americans. However i will make the comment, hopefully you didn't go to a private school, b/xc that's another thing i can't understand...how people who can't afford it go into debt or expect the gov't to pik up the tab on a private school when there is nothing wrong with the education from a state university.

Why don't you get one of those credit companies to help you set up a schedule to pay off the debt. also that way, if questioned it would show you are making a conscientous effort to pay it off.

University of Arkansas, baby

GO RAZORBACKS, BEAT TEXAS

p.s. thanks for the advice

 

[Jason110]

The credit history is more about whether or not the school can recuperate the financial aid and loans that you take out to finance your education. The credit history would show whether or not they can "trust" you to take care of your finances. I don't think GW wants their students to not be able to pay for their education.

Jason

 

[Mr hawkings]

The credit history is more about whether or not the school can recuperate the financial aid and loans that you take out to finance your education. The credit history would show whether or not they can "trust" you to take care of your finances. I don't think GW wants their students to not be able to pay for their education.

Jason

I guess that kinda makes sense. No med school for me 🙁

 

[JohnnyJ]

G town probably asks for this info because their tuition bills are high and federal aid doesnt cover the full load so youre going to get stuck with private loans which are contingent on your credit worthiness.

Its not that hard to fix your credit reports if its something minor like 30-60 day delinquencies. Just write some letters to the creditor and offer to pay what you owe to get the stuff off your credit reports. If its something more serious like a bankruptcy, court judgements, or chargeoffs then youre in a deep hole.

Edit: I forgot to add that having bad credit is not some reflection of your moral character that schools would reject you for it. Thats just nonsense. Also, forget about the business that offer to clean up your credit with easy payments. Thats just going to trash up your credit report even more.

 

[vimal98]

Well, i aggree with you, however i am an imigrant who has only been in this country since 1998. The reason i have bad credit is that i paid for 50% of my 4 years of college with credit cards since i only had a partial international scholarship and as a non-citizen, i dont qualify for financial aid. I am now tring to repair my credit but we all know how long that takes. So someone like me on paper, looks like i am some irresonsible brat who splurged thoughout college with money he didnt have. That far from the truth. I am a degree holding alien who makes minimum wage doing manual labor cos i am not yet fully documented. Now i could just go back to my home country and leave my debts behind in america 🙄 but i wont. I'm not THAT shady. I just dont think its fair to group everyone with bad credit into one big "delinquent and irresponible" heap of losers.

Well I am still not sure how it could happen. Even if you paid your tution fees with credit cards, all you have to do is to pay minimum payments of about 10-30 dollars. I think anyone can do that. I am immigrant too and here since 2001 ! I came as an international student and I didn't qualify for loans either. But according to my credit report my credit is in upper 20% of the people !! Yeah i took loan for my car and paid it on time so my credit went up high.

 

[akpete]

Be careful with those debt consolidation companies that you always see advertised for on TV. Sometimes they can scar your credit like a bankrupcy, but maybe not all - I think. Just a warning.

 

[Mr hawkings]

Well I am still not sure how it could happen. Even if you paid your tution fees with credit cards, all you have to do is to pay minimum payments of about 10-30 dollars. I think anyone can do that. I am immigrant too and here since 2001 ! I came as an international student and I didn't qualify for loans either. But according to my credit report my credit is in upper 20% of the people !! Yeah i took loan for my car and paid it on time so my credit went up high.

True, but 10-30 dollars PER CREDITOR. It adds up and becomes hard to keep up. I'm not saying its impossible. Its just that i'm in a unique situation that is not fault of anyones. I'm independent of my parents and have been since way before got to the U.S. so every penny i earned while in college went either into educstional costs or food. Oh, and i'm married 😉 . My wife,s a 3rd year med student so obviously she cant bring home that much.
Anyway, i brought all this bad credit on myself cos i basically ignored the bills for about 5 months last year and havent recovered since. So dont worry, i know whos to blame and i'm not trying to excuse anything. I'm just wondering if it will affect my status as a qualified applicant cos until now, i didnt know it could be an issue with med school.

 

[MsEvolution]

well it has to do with trust. People who are delinquent on their accounts could be delinquent in other areas. i neve runderstood how people in this propsperous country could have such poor credit ratings...

Well, try being in a disabling accident for one. I was in one of those 5 years ago and couldn't go back to work for 8 months. In that time, disability insurance paid only 60% of my wages for 3 or so months. I was forced to sell my condo and move in with relatives. My bills piled up... it took me 1.5 years to get it all back together once I was better... and I found myself working FOUR jobs at one point. I would leave for work before my kids awakened in the morning, and I would be back after they were asleep--I would come home only to sleep about 4-5 hours and shower and change in the morning. Anyone would be wrong to judge me as irresponsible--but from looking at my credit, that's what they might surmise.

It was horrible. So that's one way in which people in this prosperous country can have such poor credit ratings.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Well, try being in a disabling accident for one. I was in one of those 5 years ago and couldn't go back to work for 8 months. In that time, disability insurance paid only 60% of my wages for 3 or so months. I was forced to sell my condo and move in with relatives. My bills piled up... it took me 1.5 years to get it all back together once I was better... and I found myself working FOUR jobs at one point. I would leave for work before my kids awakened in the morning, and I would be back after they were asleep--I would come home only to sleep about 4-5 hours and shower and change in the morning. Anyone would be wrong to judge me as irresponsible--but from looking at my credit, that's what they might surmise.

It was horrible. So that's one way in which people in this prosperous country can have such poor credit ratings.

wow that sucks!! so sorry! what's wrong with this country that it doesn't help people out in situations like this?

 

[tllajd]

I was just looking through the georgetown Application guide and i just noticed something i had previously missed. Apparently, after you are offered admission, they ask you to send them a recent credit report showing that you dont have "excessive 30 or 60 day delinquencies" etc etc. Anyone else know of any other school that does this? And what does my credit history hae to do with my ability to become a physician. I hope they dont make decisions based on that cos i have some crappy credit.

I don't think it has anything to do with your ability to become a physician. I think it's to see what kind of loans you are eligible for. Some banks won't loan to people, even student loans, with a low credit score.

They are trying to get a student's financial aid together.

 

[cooldreams]

quick question here... if you are not documented enough to get a job using your degree, then how did you get enough credit on your credit cards to be able to pay for college, and how did you even get any credit cards at all?

also, so you are saying that many times international college students rack up loans in the usa to pay for college, then leave the usa and are totally free of loans?? 😱

 

[Psycho Doctor]

quick question here... if you are not documented enough to get a job using your degree, then how did you get enough credit on your credit cards to be able to pay for college, and how did you even get any credit cards at all?

also, so you are saying that many times international college students rack up loans in the usa to pay for college, then leave the usa and are totally free of loans?? 😱

there are some banks who solicit college students to give them a card, knowing full well they can't pay them off b/c they make big bucks when they default on loans.

 

[Mr hawkings]

quick question here... if you are not documented enough to get a job using your degree, then how did you get enough credit on your credit cards to be able to pay for college, and how did you even get any credit cards at all?

also, so you are saying that many times international college students rack up loans in the usa to pay for college, then leave the usa and are totally free of loans?? 😱

I believe psycho doc anwered ur first question. You know that question on the credit card apps asking if you are a citizen? they never follow up on it regardless of what you say.

For your second question, usually banks will require an international student to have an american co-signer for school loans regardless of credit to make sure this doesnt happen. This is not true for credit cards, so its easier to skip out on those. It also depends of where ur from. If ur from a 3rd wolr country like me, u dont have a whole lot to back to so u'd rather stay here and pay off ur debts than go back into poverty. If ur from Europe, then ... see ya.
It doesnt happen a whole lot but it happens enough that the companies know about it, yet like psycho doc said, they dont really care cos they get their money back one way or another even if its not from the person they lent it to.

 

[vimal98]

I believe psycho doc anwered ur first question. You know that question on the credit card apps asking if you are a citizen? they never follow up on it regardless of what you say.

For your second question, usually banks will require an international student to have an american co-signer for school loans regardless of credit to make sure this doesnt happen. This is not true for credit cards, so its easier to skip out on those. It also depends of where ur from. If ur from a 3rd wolr country like me, u dont have a whole lot to back to so u'd rather stay here and pay off ur debts than go back into poverty. If ur from Europe, then ... see ya.
It doesnt happen a whole lot but it happens enough that the companies know about it, yet like psycho doc said, they dont really care cos they get their money back one way or another even if its not from the person they lent it to.

That is so true that almost all banks and loan companies require co-signer for a loan. Same with me, when I took car, my friend who is permanent resident, cosigned my loan. But well that wasn't big amount so he didn't mind. But for Medical schools !! I don't think I can even ask him to co-sign my loan. Moreover my parents are in india and I didn't expect even penny since I came to US in 2001.

But yeah for your information, Access group doesn't require any co-signer if you meet their minimum credit criteria. If you have credit card account for more than three years and you have minimum credit score then they will give you loan without co-signer even if you are an international student and doesn't have co-signer. Actually that's why I maintained my credit at any cost to meet these criteria.

 

[vimal98]

And Yeah, for getting credit card, all you need is social security number. I had first credit card within two weeks I came to US from Amex (student credit card). Thanks to the American express that gave me credit card without any credit history and I build up my good credit only in three years.

 

[lorelei]

Do med schools let international students finance their education with loans? I know many schools (Hopkins, Columbia) require international students to have the full cost of tuition+expenses for 4 years in an escrow account in order to matriculate. Probably in order to avoid situations like this.

At any rate, I believe that international students are ineligible for federal loans; they can only get private ones. OP, have you looked into whether you'll be able to get loans for med school given your credit history? It would suck to get in and then find out you can't pay for it.

 

[vimal98]

Do med schools let international students finance their education with loans? I know many schools (Hopkins, Columbia) require international students to have the full cost of tuition+expenses for 4 years in an escrow account in order to matriculate. Probably in order to avoid situations like this.

At any rate, I believe that international students are ineligible for federal loans; they can only get private ones. OP, have you looked into whether you'll be able to get loans for med school given your credit history? It would suck to get in and then find out you can't pay for it.

That's true, you have to check if you qualify for loan based on your own credit if you don't have co signer. That's why i called Access group and confirmed that they give loans to international students without co-signer. Yeap, international students are ineligible for federal loans so they have to depend on private loans. Yeah some schools require international students to have the full cost of tution for 4 years. But not all of them. Actually only few of schools have this requirement.

 

[Mr hawkings]

That's true, you have to check if you qualify for loan based on your own credit if you don't have co signer. That's why i called Access group and confirmed that they give loans to international students without co-signer. Yeap, international students are ineligible for federal loans so they have to depend on private loans. Yeah some schools require international students to have the full cost of tution for 4 years. But not all of them. Actually only few of schools have this requirement.

From my understanding, most schools require international students to have proof of ability to pay for the first year in full.

 

[vimal98]

From my understanding, most schools require international students to have proof of ability to pay for the first year in full.

Not before you get admission. After you get admission anyway you will need your fees for first year. So after admission, you can try for loan and then you can pay your fees with loan. Actually when I called access group, they asked me if I want to apply for a loan, but I said no, I will try after admission.

 

[skiz knot]

Well I am still not sure how it could happen. Even if you paid your tution fees with credit cards, all you have to do is to pay minimum payments of about 10-30 dollars. I think anyone can do that. I am immigrant too and here since 2001 ! I came as an international student and I didn't qualify for loans either. But according to my credit report my credit is in upper 20% of the people !! Yeah i took loan for my car and paid it on time so my credit went up high.

You don't know very much about credit cards do you? If you charge 30k+ on your credit card, your minimum payment would be substantially higher than 10-30 dollars!

 

[vimal98]

You don't know very much about credit cards do you? If you charge 30k+ on your credit card, your minimum payment would be substantially higher than 10-30 dollars!

I don't think any credit card company will give credit line of 30,000 to international students or anyone unless you have good credit history of 10 years or more. I haven't seen more than 6000-8000 dollars credit line for students.

 

[SailCrazy]

I don't think any credit card company will give credit line of 30,000 to international students or anyone unless you have good credit history of 10 years or more. I haven't seen more than 6000-8000 dollars credit line for students.

Minimum payment is usually around 2-2.5% of your balance. If you have $8k on a card, that comes in at $160 - $200 per card! (Not close to the $10-$30 that vimal98 originally claimed.)

A few other credit thoughts:

The OP mentioned that they wanted the report to see if there were too many 30 or 60 day lates. (Not to see if you had a large amount of debt.) If you're at least making the minimum payments on your credit cards on time, then you should be ok.

STAY AWAY from debt consolidation or credit repayment companies. At a minimum, they hurt your credit report without much debt relief. At worst, they hammer your credit rating while stealing from you!

By the way, unlike many who may be offering their *cough*out of their #ss*cough* uneducated credit counseling opinions or student credit observations, I actually ran a branch of a mortgage company for some time. I'm not saying that my opinions are 100% correct (in fact I know they're not,) but I can tell you that some of the comments here are at least 95% wrong!

 

[Tiki]

sorry, i didn't quite mean it that way. Obviously you don't fit in with the vast majority of Americans. However i will make the comment, hopefully you didn't go to a private school, b/xc that's another thing i can't understand...how people who can't afford it go into debt or expect the gov't to pik up the tab on a private school when there is nothing wrong with the education from a state university.

I love when people who haven't been in a situation talk about things they don't understand. I'm considered poor, my parents didn't pay one dime of my college education. I payed it all. And I went to a private school over a state school.

Why? Because the private school ended up being considerably cheaper after financial aid and scholarships. I couldn't have afforded the state school, because it would have cost me more than student loans would have given me. I would have loved to have gone to my state school if I could have afforded it. It had a much better name than my undergrad private school, and it definitely would have made it easier to get into medical school.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

I love when people who haven't been in a situation talk about things they don't understand. I'm considered poor, my parents didn't pay one dime of my college education. I payed it all. And I went to a private school over a state school.

Why? Because the private school ended up being considerably cheaper after financial aid and scholarships. I couldn't have afforded the state school, because it would have cost me more than student loans would have given me. I would have loved to have gone to my state school if I could have afforded it. It had a much better name than my undergrad private school, and it definitely would have made it easier to get into medical school.

My apologies; I know in many situations that is true...I know someone attending Harvard this yeat and it is costing him $250 for the fuirst semester and his state school wouldn't give him anything. congrats on your scholarships!! 👍 Obviously i was making an unfair generalization. I jus tknow too many peole who go to a private school b/c they think it ha smore prestige and then either expects the gov't to pay or has terrible debt. Sorry if my post seemed offensive.

 

[Tiki]

My apologies; I know in many situations that is true...I know someone attending Harvard this yeat and it is costing him $250 for the fuirst semester and his state school wouldn't give him anything. congrats on your scholarships!! 👍 Obviously i was making an unfair generalization. I jus tknow too many peole who go to a private school b/c they think it ha smore prestige and then either expects the gov't to pay or has terrible debt. Sorry if my post seemed offensive.

Its cool. No offense taken. I'm just a little stressed over my anatomy exam. I didn't mean to jump on you. 🙂