Student loan question
Started by Gina Lawson
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Nope, you can borrow up to the entire cost of attendance as set by your school, and it can all be in federal loans! You'll be approved for likely a mixture of Direct and Grad PLUS loans. If you need more money than that to subsist during school (for example, if you're a single parent with dependents) you may need to take out private loans, which I think (?) might be income-based, but that's a relatively rare situation.
When you say "cost of attendance" do you mean when they send us estimates for the cost of living, transportation, etc? Or do you mean just tuition? Just clarifying because I was under the impression I could take out a little more than just tuition for help with bills during school. Also, when do they usually pay those loans out? For undergrad I remember watching my bank account for the deposit for what felt like an eternity
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Cost of attendance (COA) includes money for tuition and living expenses - you can borrow less if you have savings or another source of income, but I would say most students end up taking out the full COA. It's meant to sustain you for the whole year without any extra income, but you CAN work or use savings or get money from family or a spouse if you want to take out less in loans!
When is loan money usually given out, is it during the summer or when classes usually begin? I will need to use loan money to pay for rent, so I am also wondering how the loan money is deposited and if I'll have it early enough for the 1st month or not. Thanks in advance.
Usually the first week of classes or so, in my experience. I definitely never got any money before classes actually started.
Just went back and looked, looks like my loans were disbursed about mid-August and showed up in my direct deposit account a few days later, just before classes started. You'll be unlikely to have them early enough to use for your move-in fees of first/last/security, so I would look into alternative ways of financing that with the ability to pay it off with your loans. I worked full time for the 3 months before starting school & used that to finance my moving costs & move-in deposit.
