Student Loans?

I am curently a sophomore in college, going to be a junior in fall, and I have been debating on whether or not I should stay on campus so I can focus more on my graduate studies. My scholarship covers tuition .... but not housing, so I'd have to take out a student loan in order to do so. Has anyone who has taken out a student loan, had problems paying it after college? Are the payments reasonable? A few of my older coworkers and professors have told me that paying off student loans is a nightmare....is this neccessarily true?

Student Loans?
Things to remember when borrowing.


Never ever ever ever take out private student loan. Federal loans only.


Never borrow your first two years of under grad.


Never borrow more than you would expect to earn your first year after graduating with your degree. Example: graduating with a 180K in student loan debt is okay if you are now a plastic surgeon, bad if you are now a kinder-garden teacher.





Consolidation is not nec a good thing. If your loans are all federal, consolidation will actually cost you more in the long run. Folks complain about more than one payment, but I had 8 or 9 loans when I graduated and I only made one payment. The bank automatically distributed my payment appropriately to the different loans. Plus consolidating erases all the federal benefits of taking out federal loans in the first place, like mandatory deferment and forgiveness programs.





good rule of thumb when borrowing is roughly 10%. Borrow 5K and your payments will be 50 dollars a month. Borrow 10,000 and your payments will be 100 dollars a month.


Good luck.
Reply:http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/1...


If this is true I am announcing at the next accounting society meeting."lets all go to FL and start at 70k a year" I know a few 4.0s who have interned with delloite who would love to steal ur mom's job! Report It

Reply:I have taken out student loans for college and I'm currently paying them back now. I had them all consolidated so I would only have one monthly payment. The payments are very reasonable.





You can read about student loans here:


http://www.studentfinancedomain.com/stud...





The best type of loan to get is a federal perkins loan:


http://www.studentfinancedomain.com/stud...





And about student loan consolidation here:


http://www.studentfinancedomain.com/stud...
Reply:It would depend on what you are studying so you can have a good job when you graduate.





I have to take out student loans for living expenses as well, but I'm not too worried based on my career field.





Hopefully you chose a field that offers a decent salary.
Reply:Come on your an accounting major! have u even taken an intro accounting class yet? Don't take out over 20k in loans that is all I can say. Here is some logic for u maybe u haven't taken that yet either.





1. If you want to live comfortably then y ou need lots of disposable income


2. if u want to have lots of disposable income then u can't have a huge student loan repayment and a low salary


3. Either u get a high salary or a low student loan if u want to live comfortably





Ur an accounting major! Most accounting majors even at big 4 firms start at around 40k a year





Assuming u take home around 2500 of that a month after taxes here r ur living circumstances





$40,000/yr = $3333.33/mo before taxes.


Assuptions:


State income tax is 6%


401K contribution is zero.





$2483/mo after tax income








120 Groceries ($4/day)


(You can cut this in half, if you switch from balony sandwiches to beans %26amp; rice)


$0 Restaurants.


(You won't be seeing the inside of a restaurant unless you have a second job there. McDonalds's and Taco Bell count as restaurants here, especially if one combo meal blows the whole day's food budget.)





HOUSING:


$500 Rent (the cheapest apartment you can suffer though)


$9 Renter's Insurance (Mine is $100/yr, yours may be different. But I know it's coming due in 11 months, so in the budget it goes.)





UTILITIES:


$90 Electric bill


$40 Gas bill


$30 Water bill


$100 Cable/Internet/Phone (bundled) bill


$55 Cell Phone





TRANSPORTATION:


$-0- Car Payment (if you have one, you need to sell the car like yesterday.)


$100 Car replacement (a $6000 car once every five years)


$120 Gasoline (half a tank a week)


$11 oil change ($29.99 + tax once per 3 months)


$90 Car repairs (something's going to break. Be ready.)


$60 Insurance ($360 / 6 months)


$6 Annual registration





OTHER ESSENTIALS:


$250 Savings


$20 Clothes


$20 Toiletries (soap, shampoo, etc.)


$10 Hair cut ($19.99, once per 2-3 months)


$10 Doctor's visits





if u end up over 50k in debt u will live very cheaply and uncomfortable for 10 years.





;) I am an accounting major 2 I have the luxury of having a huge college and trust fund though so i don't need to worry about loans. I did this post pretty fast so u might want to do the calculations urself but most of them I am sure r correct off the top of my head!