FASFA & How much loan money received

[phuong123]

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[Dred Pirate]

I plan to take one semester and borrow ~ $40K. If I see school is harder than I thought and than I can do, I'll drop out immediately with 40k debt.
From P1 of my school, they said no one drops out after finishing 1st year. So if I can stay 'til the end, I'll have about 250K debt. But as I said, I won't spend all the amount I borrowed so I'll have some savings. I've had some savings before I enter school but I won't take it out to spend for school. Instead I borrow max and don't mind loans fee of 4.3% & interest of 6.31%. It was hard for me to borrow in the past bc I worked on & off, so I'll borrow max when I can.
Do you think I'll have trouble working as a pharmacist (if I can graduate) and paying off 200K debt bc the work is not easy?

with this thought you are instantly paying 10% - and you say you are good with money? this is the exact opposite - you think you know what you are doing - biut you will be indebted for the rest of your life

 

[PharmDBro2017]

Go work a month at CVS as a technician/intern and come back and say how fun it is.

It's not as easy as people make it out to be (the career and school). P1 year is the easiest by far, just so you know.

 

[phuong123]

with this thought you are instantly paying 10% - and you say you are good with money? this is the exact opposite - you think you know what you are doing - biut you will be indebted for the rest of your life

10% first year, 6.31% on 2nd year until I get a job. I think I can make 6-7% on the money I keep. Hmm...

From federal repayment estimator, if I have a loan of 250K, 6%, my monthly payment is $1620 for 25 years.
My expectation is working as a pharmacist and pay extra $1620/m, compared to working as a pharm tech $18/h that I'm doing now

 

[phuong123]

Go work a month at CVS as a technician/intern and come back and say how fun it is.

It's not as easy as people make it out to be (the career and school). P1 year is the easiest by far, just so you know.

I'm a pharmacy tech at a CVS. I've been working for 2 years.
I've heard P2 is much harder. I'm worried a lot too. I do want to try 'til I can't do it anymore.

 

[farmdwannab]

Student loans are use it or lose it. No other loan is as generous as a student loans when you have difficulties repaying. A credit card? One missed payment and your credit score takes a hit and then the interest rate is murder.

Just get a credit card with a year or two 0% APR. Then just pay minimum payments until you get the loan. If you dont have enough money for minimum payments take out a $1000 loan.

 

[GONNA%FINISH]

Work 20hrs/week while attending school? To earn $200/week (before tax)? and fail the class that costs ~$40,000-50,000 plus 6.31% of interest?
What kind of "investment" is that?
Btw, I have kid and I'm a mediocre student but quite good with money. So that's what I'm going to do -borrow ~$160K for tuition and ~$90K (max allowed) for living.

Work 20hrs/week while attending school? To earn $200/week (before tax)? and fail the class that costs ~$40,000-50,000 plus 6.31% of interest?
What kind of "investment" is that?
Btw, I have kid and I'm a mediocre student but quite good with money. So that's what I'm going to do -borrow ~$160K for tuition and ~$90K (max allowed) for living.

 

[Apples2Oranges]

The rigor of P1 year depends on the school. For mine, it's a pretty full schedule everyday, but it's just classes and lab. It's not as sporadic as rotations, where you're not sure where you'll be and what times.

I recommend you do work your first year, but if you're uncomfortable, definitely go through your first semester and see how it goes. If you can handle it, definitely apply your second semester for something.

In my first year, I took out my tuition and fees (~23k at UNC) and $1-2k for extra expenses. My parents helped pay for housing and my other family members help me pay for books and other expenses. My scholarship covered about $2k/year (not much, but you take what you can get). And my loans are subsidized by the school, so I didn't have to pay interest while I'm taking classes. The interest can kill you. I do recommend you take about $5k more than your minimum for any emergency expenses, but return the money when you don't use it all. I suggest you do this per year and not let the left over loan from first year sit and accumulate interest to your fourth year. It's not much interest, but I'm tight on my budget so any penny counts.

 

[Apples2Oranges]

I plan to take one semester and borrow ~ $40K. If I see school is harder than I thought and than I can do, I'll drop out immediately with 40k debt.
From P1 of my school, they said no one drops out after finishing 1st year. So if I can stay 'til the end, I'll have about 250K debt. But as I said, I won't spend all the amount I borrowed so I'll have some savings. I've had some savings before I enter school but I won't take it out to spend for school. Instead I borrow max and don't mind loans fee of 4.3% & interest of 6.31%. It was hard for me to borrow in the past bc I worked on & off, so I'll borrow max when I can.
Do you think I'll have trouble working as a pharmacist (if I can graduate) and paying off 200K debt bc the work is not easy?

250k is a lot for anyone. I always tell people that if your loans cost significantly more than the average salary you will make, don't go into it. That's why I think it's crazy for people to go to schools that are $30-50k/yr of just tuition alone for pharmacy school. Realistically, you will make $90-130k as a pharmacist FT. If you want $250k of debt with real prospects, you should've gone into dentistry/medicine to do private practice. If you wanted less debt with decent job payment, should've done nursing/PA. If your total loan is more than $150k for everything in pharmacy, not worth it.

I don't even recommend med school for people who are willing to pay $300-400k just to go into family practice. It will take forever to pay off, regardless of flexibility. You will be indebted to the gov't forever. It will NEVER go away unless you die.

 

[Abby Atwood]

You do have better terms on student loans than credit cards. You might as well, but I find most students who don't prepare for one incident end up in huge trouble.)

Take out what you are sure that you need and keep a couple thousand dollars on hand for emergencies (your current anticipated savings would be fine). If you need more loan money, you can contact the financial aid office and request additional loan disbursement. You only need enough in your rainy day fund to wait for that additional loan disbursement (usually about 2 weeks).