I am sure some of you have been through this so here is my question? I have just received my student loan package from Missouri today. It is up around $51,000. I am going to decline two loan offers to go down to $42,777. I really only need about $36,000 for the first year ($8,500 subsidized and $34,277 unsubsidized). I emailed the financial aid advisor for the school of vet medicine about the situation. There is a system where I could set up a direct deposit with my bank to receive the money from the student loans. I will wait on Monday to hear what she says about the situation. If I am forced to take on the money, is there a way to send the unused sum back to the government or can the financial aid office take care of that?
What should I do with about Student Loans
- Thread starter jaydog12
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I'm not in veterinary school, at least not yet, but I do know the federal student loan games since thats all Ive used to get through undergrad. My advice is to take on whatever they give you. There is always the possibility of them lowering your financial aid because of the lackthereof for that particular year. Whatever you dont use, save perhaps even put as a money marketing account and then once done with school use that unused amount to pay back your loans on the spot. You quarterly get a stub for your federal student loans in regards to your interest, if you by chance want to start paying your interest off use that money to do so. Now as time goes on, if you feel that you are getting far too much or accumulating too much then I would reccomend that you decline. But remember that declining can mean that the following year your tuition could rise whereas financial aid could fall. Its happened to me all throughout my undergrad. So dont always just take what you need. Always take a little bit more just in case, your car decides to die, your computer crashes, your home floods etc. The worst thing in this world is to have to start all the things youve worked for just because you have no accesss to the funds.
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Yeah - Im pretty good at living a fiscally modest lifestyle (already have a cheap apartment, car, laptop, ect). I don't think I will need nearly what I am offered. That said - i've been living these last few years without health insurance and no safety net - so perhaps its time to splurge.
Personally I'm going to keep 7-10K in a high interest (FDIC of course) CD as a safety net, then give back everything else... figure the interest difference between incurred and earned with be worth having a rainy day fund.
Personally I'm going to keep 7-10K in a high interest (FDIC of course) CD as a safety net, then give back everything else... figure the interest difference between incurred and earned with be worth having a rainy day fund.
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The vet school orientations that I went to emphasized that you only need to take as much as you need. My understanding is that at the end of the first few months, if you aren't using what you're given, ask for less. As a vet student, you will always be able to get the "estimated cost of attendance" amount of loans. I would not take out more than you need to take out at once...you will have to pay back interest on that. If you end up in a sticky situation, then you can ask for more of your loan money. I plan on only taking subsidized and unsubsidized stafford loans(trying to avoid grad plus loans). If you go to an online loan calculator and mess around with loan amount/time to pay back loan you will see that those thousands of dollars will really cost you more in the long run. Good luck!
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I have to agree with jglovicz on this. Then again, I have always been fiscally conservative much to the annoyance of my peers. We are debating whether, if I do get offered financial aid, if we will take it at all (the only reason we would is some cash flow/liquidity issues) but I applied anyways. I would be concerned that if I took more than I needed, I wouldn't reserve it very well, and 8.5% isn't cheap (that is equal to the interest percentages on both our house mortgages combined.) Also, unsub loans start accumulating interest from the beginning. So even if you hold it back, it won't cover it and the interest unless you have an investment with much higher returns than I have seen of late!
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I also think that you should only take what you need. It's good to have an emergency fund, but beyond that, it's all money you'll be repaying, plus interest. To the OP, generally a financial aid package should come with an option to decline or reduce the loan amount. Is there something like that on the form where you accept the loan? If not, just talk to your financial aid office and they can reduce it for you (I had to do that for undergrad because they would automatically give me loans and I didn't want them).
Well I have already emailed the financial aid officer for the vet school and hopefully she will respond to me by Monday. I am declining the Federal Plus Loan (really high interest rate) and the vet health loan (another high interest rate). I only need the subsidized and unsubsidized loans. The unsubsidized loans are up around $37,000 automatically. I only need to get $36,000 in loans total this year, so with the $8,500 subsidized loans, I only need an additional $27,500 in unsubsidized. Hopefully, the financial aid officer can reduce the loan amount I really need from $42,777 to $36,000 before I accept the awards.
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Can't you adjust the loans yourself on Myzou? All you have to do is click on the loan and then erase what's in there and type in the dollar amount that you want. Take only what you need, like someone else said -if you get into a bad situation it is possible to get more money back. It's very easy to give back the money you haven't used it/dont want it -I just go to the direct loan payment site -set up a direct withdrawal from my checking-and pay back what I dont use every couple of months. Also, you can work through financial aid to "give the money back" but last time I tried this they told me to just pay it back through the direct loan payment site b/c that's essentially what they are doing for me (except I thought if I did it through financial aid there is something about if you give it back before 120 days then you dont get charged interest? Anyways, that's the only reason I was doing it through financial aid). Hope this helps!
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Only take what you need. You have to remember, if you are keeping an extra $10,000 in a bank account that just sits there all semester, you are paying interest on money that you have no need for. It makes no sense. I know that at Iowa (I called and asked) you can always get more money if you find yourself running low... throughout the entire semester. I would assume the rest of the schools are the same way.
Well, I just found out that I can adjust the amount of the loans that I really need. I just had to accept the award and then adjust the unsubsidized amount to what I need, from $43,000 grand to $36,000. Well, the way I see it, less money needed to pay back in the long run!! I am glad now that I do not need to take out unnecessary extra cash.
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By vet health loan, do you mean the Health Professions Loan? I thought that was a good interest rate so I am curious as to what exactly you're referring to....
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you can't send money back to the government unless its in the form of a payment... my advise would be to save what you have left and just decrease the loan you take out next year by the amount you have saved...
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Not entirely true. Sometimes if it's right at the beginning and the school gave you more than you wanted (after they took out their tuition portion) you can have them send it back to the federal government and you won't owe interest. But it has to be done right away and by the school. So essentially not helpful.
Another vote for not taking more than you need given how poorly savings account/CD/money market account interest rates are these days. You'll definitely not be making enough interest to offset the fact that those same dollars are costing you 6.8% interest with Uncle Sam.
For those of you confused about me typing about the vet health loan, I did mean the Health Professions Loan, I was too lazy to check the actually name...sorry. I did take the Health professions Loan due to the cheaper interest rate, subsidized direct loan, and the remainder with unsubsidized loan. There is no way in heck I was going to take the Plus loan (that would be a bit desperate). I would believe that the school would then eventually disperse the money or most likely just use the loan money to cover the tuition at least for the fall semester so far (I could not imagine that money being used for anything else unless I had extra to spare).
I previously found this same interest rate for the Health Professions Loan, and also the total amount you could receive per year, but now I can't find the latter. Does anyone know the limit for the health professions loan per year?
Oregon State sent us out initial aid packages with direct sub/unsub, but won't revise them to include the health professions loans until early august. I'm trying to figure out how much I want to accept in direct unsubsidized.
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I don't think there is a limit for the Health Professions loan. The government sends the school as much as they decide to, and then the financial aid person at your school will disperse the funds as she/he sees fit. I was told that the school itself got about 1/4 of the money for Health Professions loan as they did 2 years ago... so by that alone, you probably won't get much. But it's entirely up to your financial aid person (at least, that's the way I understand it).
To give you an idea, my offer was $500 per year.
To give you an idea, my offer was $500 per year.
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The financial aid advisor at Missouri said that $4500 is the annual max for
the Health Professions loan.
Also, I was told that Missouri's funding was cut for the Perkins loan.
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Another question about loans...please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that we are only offered financial aid during the school year (and have to fend for ourselves during the summer). My original plan was to take less money than was offered in my financial package (I was planning on pretty much taking out the cost of tuition/student fees)...since I don't know what I will be doing the next summer, do I take out more money during the year and put it away for the summer? I find it likely that I will work in a lab and try to make $ in the summer...but there is/will be a time where I will likely be doing unpaid extern/internships during the summer. Has anyone else thought about this? What are your thoughts?
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That is correct. You will receive two financial aid distributions for whatever you accept (one for fall and another one for spring), so you need to take out enough loans to cover your summer expenses and then be able to budget the money that you take out so it lasts the entire year.
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I can only speak to the Stafford Unsubsidized loans, but you can take up to the full amount and return it within 120 days (any or all of the amount) each semester - and you are charged no interest. And, this is done by a check you can send to DSC yourself.
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OK, I couldn't help but smile at the numbers above and thought I'd offer a little perspective. If nothing else it should make you feel beeter about your situation.
Michigan is one of the more "costly" schools for OOS, and many of us OOSers will be approx. $250,000 in the hole all said and done. To me, its all worth it, but it is a hell of a sticker shock...
Michigan is one of the more "costly" schools for OOS, and many of us OOSers will be approx. $250,000 in the hole all said and done. To me, its all worth it, but it is a hell of a sticker shock...
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my friends dont like the way i think....
but i would accept the max, and save it. my friend was like "but i'd be earning interest on the money i'm not using"
BUT...think of "what if"
what if the
animals get sick, my car breaks down, i need to make repairs on the car/house. my parents get sick and i have to travel to see them, i want to stay at school for the summer and pay rent during that time, i find awesome books that will help me study, i want a new laptop.
anyway, those are the things i think about. and i also think about the payments that i'll have when i graduate, but i know that i need to be comfortable while in school. i dont want to have stress(vet school is enough stress). after graduation...im sure i'll be stressed. LOL.
but i would accept the max, and save it. my friend was like "but i'd be earning interest on the money i'm not using"
BUT...think of "what if"
what if the
animals get sick, my car breaks down, i need to make repairs on the car/house. my parents get sick and i have to travel to see them, i want to stay at school for the summer and pay rent during that time, i find awesome books that will help me study, i want a new laptop.
anyway, those are the things i think about. and i also think about the payments that i'll have when i graduate, but i know that i need to be comfortable while in school. i dont want to have stress(vet school is enough stress). after graduation...im sure i'll be stressed. LOL.
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ckgilabert, I'm not sure about your school, but I ran into a similar question for our financial aid adviser. My husband finished the first semester of his MBA last month and wasn't able to get a paid internship this summer, so we want to borrow the minimum amount of money possible but still have some available if something happens to our emergency fund (which should be mandatory for EVERYONE...start small with getting $500-1000 in, then build up to 3-6 months of living expenses). The emergency fund is for the "what ifs" so you don't need to use your credit card, etc. That way, your money is working for you.
Our financial aid adviser told us that we could accept a smaller amount and then if we needed more, we could still get more out within a few week's time. Jaydog12, I hope that helps, but double check with the financial aid adviser to be sure (it used to be one person, but it's switched very recently, so I can't tell you who at the moment). They're usually pretty helpful though. Mizzou's vet school also has a little $500 (or thereabouts, never had to use it yet thankfully!) emergency loan. Just FYI. Good luck!
Our financial aid adviser told us that we could accept a smaller amount and then if we needed more, we could still get more out within a few week's time. Jaydog12, I hope that helps, but double check with the financial aid adviser to be sure (it used to be one person, but it's switched very recently, so I can't tell you who at the moment). They're usually pretty helpful though. Mizzou's vet school also has a little $500 (or thereabouts, never had to use it yet thankfully!) emergency loan. Just FYI. Good luck!
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Yes, be sure to take out enough for the summer. And don't count on getting a great paying job over the summer, lots of jobs/externships for vet students just give you a small living stipend. I was nearly out of money by the beginning of june because I did not think of this while taking out loans last summer.
