Loan Information

[RJvet]

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Hello - congrats to everyone who got in this cycle! I am having a hard time understanding the loan process. I will be attending WesternU and the cost of attendance is for the 10 months we are in classes, not a full year. How do most people manage additional bills (the extra two months of rent, car payments, etc)?

I know the cost of attendance is the max we can borrow, but is there a way we can borrow extra money/another loan?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ajs513]

Hello - congrats to everyone who got in this cycle! I am having a hard time understanding the loan process. I will be attending WesternU and the cost of attendance is for the 10 months we are in classes, not a full year. How do most people manage additional bills (the extra two months of rent, car payments, etc)?

I know the cost of attendance is the max we can borrow, but is there a way we can borrow extra money/another loan?

Thanks in advance!

Go to the bottom of my comment for WesternU specific info. FAFSA only allows you to borrow up to the cost of attendance. There are two loans that add up to the cost of attendence. All of that info is in your packet that you got on your interview day. Beyond that you would use private loans I believe. However, cost of addendence is usually inflated. Cost of attendence might say a room and board is $15,000 for 10 months. Sure, if you get a place that’s $1,000 a month per person then that makes sense. But you can typically find somewhere for less than that. Say, $800 per person. With that $15,000, that leaves $5,400 a year for food. That’s $450 a month for food, or around $100 a week. That’s very easy to do. Beyond that, there are miscellaneous fees or book fees. If a school says that books cost $5,000 you can use that to transfer over to cost of living. My school says books should be over $5,000 but current students have spent $80 total on books because they get them from other students, share them, take them out from a library, etc. So whatever extra you have can go toward cost of living.

When I was at Western, they really recommended that you don’t get private loans if you can help it. With government loans you can have income based repayment. If your 20 year repayment period says you owe $2,500 a month, you can get that down to under $1,000 with income based repayment. With many private loans you can do that. If you owe $2,500 a month, that’s that. You pay it or else.

Looking at my booklet from interview day, they allot $17,880 for living expenses. They add $2,794 for transportation. If you don’t get a car you have $20,674 for a year of rent. Even if you do get a car, you have $1,490 a month for living expenses. That’s $1,000 for rent and $490 for food. That should be more than enough. And if it’s not, a small private loan can put you over.

 

[RJvet]

Go to the bottom of my comment for WesternU specific info. FAFSA only allows you to borrow up to the cost of attendance. There are two loans that add up to the cost of attendence. All of that info is in your packet that you got on your interview day. Beyond that you would use private loans I believe. However, cost of addendence is usually inflated. Cost of attendence might say a room and board is $15,000 for 10 months. Sure, if you get a place that’s $1,000 a month per person then that makes sense. But you can typically find somewhere for less than that. Say, $800 per person. With that $15,000, that leaves $5,400 a year for food. That’s $450 a month for food, or around $100 a week. That’s very easy to do. Beyond that, there are miscellaneous fees or book fees. If a school says that books cost $5,000 you can use that to transfer over to cost of living. My school says books should be over $5,000 but current students have spent $80 total on books because they get them from other students, share them, take them out from a library, etc. So whatever extra you have can go toward cost of living.

When I was at Western, they really recommended that you don’t get private loans if you can help it. With government loans you can have income based repayment. If your 20 year repayment period says you owe $2,500 a month, you can get that down to under $1,000 with income based repayment. With many private loans you can do that. If you owe $2,500 a month, that’s that. You pay it or else.

Looking at my booklet from interview day, they allot $17,880 for living expenses. They add $2,794 for transportation. If you don’t get a car you have $20,674 for a year of rent. Even if you do get a car, you have $1,490 a month for living expenses. That’s $1,000 for rent and $490 for food. That should be more than enough. And if it’s not, a small private loan can put you over.

Thank you so much! It definitely sounds like it should be enough, I just don't want to end up in a situation where it may not be and have no idea what to do.

 

[ajs513]

Thank you so much! It definitely sounds like it should be enough, I just don't want to end up in a situation where it may not be and have no idea what to do.

No problem! I did ask some current students while I was there and they got by fine. It did seem like there were some wealthier students who lived in the Daum who didn’t even think about how expensive it was. But most didn’t seem to think that the FAFSA loans wouldn’t be enough.

 

[ANSohschm]

Hello - congrats to everyone who got in this cycle! I am having a hard time understanding the loan process. I will be attending WesternU and the cost of attendance is for the 10 months we are in classes, not a full year. How do most people manage additional bills (the extra two months of rent, car payments, etc)?

I know the cost of attendance is the max we can borrow, but is there a way we can borrow extra money/another loan?

Thanks in advance!

Pending your credit history and/or parents ability to co-sign, I’m sure you could take out a tremendous amount of private loans.

But please don’t.

Budget your money, live small in school, and spend less than your school gives you for living expenses. Work over summer if you can. Do not fall trap to “they give me $12,000 for the year to spend on housing, so my target is $1,000 per month.” Try to do better than that. I know it’s hard given COL in some places.

Or another poster has mentioned $100 per week for food. There is no reason why you can’t that to $200-300 per month even with going out a few times. Small changes add up over 4 years of school, and the interest you will pay on all of that will also be grow.

Live blow your means, budget, and you will have no problem making that loan money stretching over the summer months.

 

[ajs513]

Pending your credit history and/or parents ability to co-sign, I’m sure you could take out a tremendous amount of private loans.

But please don’t.

Budget your money, live small in school, and spend less than your school gives you for living expenses. Work over summer if you can. Do not fall trap to “they give me $12,000 for the year to spend on housing, so my target is $1,000 per month.” Try to do better than that. I know it’s hard given COL in some places.

Or another poster has mentioned $100 per week for food. There is no reason why you can’t that to $200-300 per month even with going out a few times. Small changes add up over 4 years of school, and the interest you will pay on all of that will also be grow.

Live blow your means, budget, and you will have no problem making that loan money stretching over the summer months.

Just to add to this, my comment was more giving you the reasonable limits of what their cost of living allows. $100 a week for food can be a lot, especially if you know how to cook. Lots of chicken, ground beef, pasta, etc. can get you down to $50 a week no problem. There are tons of Reddit threads that teach you all about how to eat frugally. Do not go in with the expectation that you need to spend all of your loan money or that you have to even get close. If you can split an apartment with, say, 3 other people and spend $600 a month then do that. I know Pomona is a very high COL area since it’s basically in LA. But do some research. Develop a realistic budget. Find out what $50 a week buys you in Pomona and try to live off of that amount of food while you’re still at home. Try your best to keep your expenses down. I don’t have vet school living experience yet, but I do have poor-in-a-big-expensive-city experience. It’s doable if you make it doable.

 

[prevetkid]

Go to the bottom of my comment for WesternU specific info. FAFSA only allows you to borrow up to the cost of attendance. There are two loans that add up to the cost of attendence. All of that info is in your packet that you got on your interview day. Beyond that you would use private loans I believe. However, cost of addendence is usually inflated. Cost of attendence might say a room and board is $15,000 for 10 months. Sure, if you get a place that’s $1,000 a month per person then that makes sense. But you can typically find somewhere for less than that. Say, $800 per person. With that $15,000, that leaves $5,400 a year for food. That’s $450 a month for food, or around $100 a week. That’s very easy to do. Beyond that, there are miscellaneous fees or book fees. If a school says that books cost $5,000 you can use that to transfer over to cost of living. My school says books should be over $5,000 but current students have spent $80 total on books because they get them from other students, share them, take them out from a library, etc. So whatever extra you have can go toward cost of living.

When I was at Western, they really recommended that you don’t get private loans if you can help it. With government loans you can have income based repayment. If your 20 year repayment period says you owe $2,500 a month, you can get that down to under $1,000 with income based repayment. With many private loans you can do that. If you owe $2,500 a month, that’s that. You pay it or else.

Looking at my booklet from interview day, they allot $17,880 for living expenses. They add $2,794 for transportation. If you don’t get a car you have $20,674 for a year of rent. Even if you do get a car, you have $1,490 a month for living expenses. That’s $1,000 for rent and $490 for food. That should be more than enough. And if it’s not, a small private loan can put you over.

this was super helpful actually!