Ugh! Paying for College

[Meg]

When all is said and done, I'm still $2000 short for my spring tuition. I just gave them nearly $700 today out of about $860 (leaving me $160 to cover rent, eek! Off to the bank to hit my emergency fund again).

I've been trying to find some private loans that don't require a cosigner (I don't have one - my credit is better than my options, and my credit isn't stellar) and so far, I've been turned down by 4 out of the 5 I've applied for (nothing so far on MyRichUncle.com).

Ugh. Paying for college sucks.

[Lucas]

Start a business?

[rene_stpierre]

I agree. Start an on-line business ... with your Blog.

Find creative ways to make money from it. Get more AdSense, promote it everywhere you can think of (FaceBook, Digg, etc) and most importantly, ensure you have very valuable content. Find successful Bloggers and learn from them.

Good Luck!
René

[Michelle]

or do what I did: move to Switzerland where tuition amounts to about $500 a semester and the education is great.

[Leki]

Originally Posted by Michelle

or do what I did: move to Switzerland where tuition amounts to about $500 a semester and the education is great.

If you can do this one. I have three friends right now in Switzerland working on their Ph.D. and Master. It is lot lot cheaper and the education is very good.

[jdub]

meg, i think you are in the same shoes as a lot of other people. i am a lot more short that that!

[mustard76]

Originally Posted by Meg

I've been trying to find some private loans

Have you tried prosper.com?

Personal & Small Business Loans. Prosper.com - the P2P Lending Marketplace - Prosper


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[1000feet]

A lot of people here will recommend blogging and it's true that it's easy to start a blog with ads - but it takes a while before you can expect a reliable income out of it.

In this case the easiest answer would be to find a student loan and keep working at a regular job (or find one if necessary). Lots of very successful people have had to start this way - you might not like it but if that's what it takes to improve your skills to the point you want you might have to just go with it.

College can be a good time to start a business because many people keep their expenses low so the cost of failure is low as well, but it might not make you money immediately. If you have some special skills or knowledge you can try to profit from them (if they don't require direct physical work you can do them over the internet), but again you can't count on that until you've spent some time establishing yourself. There's simply no easy answer.

[mustard76]

You could start a blog and write about your current financial problems. Then, write about everything you learn about personal finance as you make progress. People love to follow a blog with a good story behind it.

BUT, don't expect to make money any time soon. It could be a year before you have enough traffic.

[Meg]

That's actually what I'm doing right now - putting the personal back into a personal finance blog. If you've noticed my signature, it focuses on jobs, saving money, making money [online?], college/scholarships - just about anything regarding money that I'm going through right now, haha.

[Andreas]

Excellent!

Just remember to stay focused on providing value, and not simply making money. I just stumbled upon a really fantastic thread from back in July about someone who was having trouble making money. Steve chimed in with his thoughts and gave some fantastic free advice.

I highly recommend you read that thread.
Best of luck!

[Meg]

OMG OMG OMG OMG. Today I got an email from MyRichUncle (one of the companies I applied to for a private loan) saying that I've been approved (provided that I send in my transcripts and course schedules, promisory note, and photocopy of my driver's license)!!!

No cosigner, all the other companies denied me. MyRichUncle, thankfully, does loans based on merit too. My credit isn't terrible, I just don't have enough, but my grades are awesome! And they accepted me! And I don't have to worry about my books either.

This is a godsend for me! I'm actually on the verge of tears.

[elisabeth]

That's so cool, Meg! Congratulations!

BTW, I was just reading your thread and couldn't help wondering if you've applied for a Stafford Loan. Just about every student is eligible for it as long as they are U.S. citizens. Just talk to your friendly financial aid office.

And they have GREAT conditions, very low interest rates. The only condition is that you must be enrolled at least half-time for a partial loan or full-time for a full loan, but that doesn't seem to be an issue for you.

So you might want to investigate that for future semesters. Yeah, I know, student loan debt isn't perfect, but consider it an investment, and at interest rates and repayment conditions that are FAR more favorable than you could find just about anywhere else.

Elsewhere I wrote something about the challenges of foreign students, and the part that's the hardest is that they don't have access to those kinds of student loans. I know about them because I went back to graduate school for round two AFTER I became a U.S. Citizen. Those Stafford loans were a god-sent (long story).

Oh, and credit worthiness has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nor do you need cosigners. It's pretty amazing actually.

Good luck!

[Meg]

I already have a Stafford loan (the maximum dollar amount too), a Pell Grant, a Federal SEOG, a NC Legislative Grant (all NC residents who go to an NC school gets this grant), and a $600 work study. I was $2600 shy of a full-ride for the semester. I paid $150 advanced tuition to register for classes (let them know that I was attending), and then when I did my payment plan, I paid my first month payment $571 (including the $50 payment plan fee). So I was still $2000 short after its all said and done, and needed to make monthly payments of $521.

I only make $8/hr right now (new job), plus my work-study. I live off-campus by myself in a one-bedroom apartment, and with everything budgeted out, I was going to be seriously struggling. I hadn't budgeted out food or gas either, and I was still short.

But I'm so glad I got this loan. I'll be getting a refund of about $1000 because I've already paid, and that can help with books (luckily, only one of my classes requires books).

I used to have a Presidential scholarship for $6500 a year from the school, but when I left, I apparently forfeited it. I think its ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ because I still meet the renewability requirements, but they won't give it back. I also had a Coca-Cola First Generation scholarship for $5000 a year, renewable, that I apparently forfeited when I left school too. Since that is an outside scholarship, I don't know if I had to be consecutively enrolled in school because I never applied for it; it was just awarded to me based on recommendation from the school. But I've checked the Presidential requirements with a fine-toothed combed, and it doesn't say I have to be consecutively enrolled to renew it.

$11,500 my school took from me. I'm so lucky I don't live on campus anymore; I wouldn't have been able to afford it!

[Andreas]

Sounds like you feel a bit betrayed. You may want to seek legal counsel...

In any case, your university sounds quite expensive. Which one are you attending?

[Madison DuPaix]

Hi Meg!! I found these forums through you! Glad that you were approved with the loan. Keep at it