Student Loans for Pharmacy School

[Rx Jezter]

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I found out today that the cost of attendance for my first year in pharmacy school is $55,981. I've always been told to prioritize federal student loans and have been offered $33,000 in Unsubsidized Stafford Loans that, according to https://studentaid.ed.gov/types/loa...e-the-interest-rates-of-federal-student-loans will have an interest rate of 6.21% starting this July. The remaining $22,981 I was told to obtain from a Direct Plus Loan through the school as well at 7.21% (according to the same website). Each of these loans will be disbursed twice a year; the first with a 1.072% origination fee deducted at each disbursement and the second with a 4.288% deducted at each disbursement. This seemed like a "meh" deal to me so I applied for a private student loan with Wells Fargo and found out I could get the full $55,981 at 3.25% variable or 6.49% fixed interest and no origination/other fees. I compared the loan caps, repayment terms, etc... for both the private and federal student loans and they seemed more or less the same.

I guess my question is, what's the incentive to borrow from the feds?

 

[type b pharmD]

Best win for fed loans is forgiveness and eligibility to participate in federal repayment programs. Best advantage of private is you can get rid of them through bankruptcy.

I took slightly over $340,000 in federal loans.. in the end I will pay back slightly under $100k in current dollars.

 

[batteen1]

under 100k? Seems low. Is that using the income based repayment plan and the 10-year public service loan forgiveness program? I've decided to go with the government loans, they are easy to work with and have favorable repayment terms.

 

[Judgment Dragon]

Most debtors will not be able to discharge (wipe out) student loan debt in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. However, if you can prove that repaying your student loans would cause an undue hardship to you, you can get rid of your student loans in bankruptcy.

 

[Ihavenomoney]

Most debtors will not be able to discharge (wipe out) student loan debt in Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. However, if you can prove that repaying your student loans would cause an undue hardship to you, you can get rid of your student loans in bankruptcy.

why do you have "pharmacist" as your status?